Famine
Famine is currently the second largest city in the In-Between, and the most civilized and wealthy.
Construction
Many of the cities more prominent, important, or long lived buildings are made or reinforced with bilestone.Gaining Entry
Getting whitelisted into the city allows someone to freely cross it's magical barrier whenever they like. This is not easily accomplished, as the city requires a show of great talent, a gift of great value, or a favor of significant magnitude. Those who can show they would be a great boon to the city, simply by being part of it are offered entry rather swiftly, as are those who can provide some object with a large amount of magical power to the city. Occasionally the city will offer certain prospective citizens a quest as payment for entry. These are almost always very risky, and carry significant chances of injury, capture, or death.The Great Barrier
A major feature of Famine is it's protective barrier. It's a nigh indestructible magical barrier around the city that prevents entry by anyone not whitelisted by the spells current controller, which is always the current ruler. The barrier can not be expanded without a significant and persistent source of magical power, which severely limits the growth of the city. This is one of the main factors in its intensely selective immigration policy. Any magical item of sufficient power given to the city is integrated with its network of magic, effectively destroying the item and turning it into a power source. The more powerful the object the more the barrier expands. However, given the nature of the expansion of a sphere's volume versus it's surface area, as the barrier expands it takes more and more power to cause the same amount of expansion. There is currently a team of mages working to refine the shape of the barrier into that of a cylinder of consistent height, which may help mitigate this in the future.Expansion
Generally speaking Venerated citizens have first rights to purchase any new land expansion within the barrier. This doesn't stop the fact that those who live on the edges usually have already built things in this space by the time that the space has grown large enough to warrant formal sale. Sometimes the new space is granted to particularly impressive newly Venerated citizens without any sale.Demographics
Incredibly diverse, but all highly capable in some fashion
Government
Famine is ultimately a dictatorship, though it has a tradition of benevolence. The leader is appointed as a successor by the current leader. However there is a mechanism by which the population can oust the current leader. By having twelve or more Venerated citizens "cast doubt" on the leader, all citizens can vote on a new leader. Once chosen the leader can not be challenged for at least 100 rumbles. During this time they have absolute, risk-free power. Any given Venerated citizen can only ever do this once, and if a new leader is not selected, as in the existing leader was rechosen, they are often stripped of their Veneration. As a result, this is only ever done in dire situations, and has only successfully been done once.
Defences
The Great Barrier, as well as the Guardians. No other major defensive infrastructure has been deemed needed.
Industry & Trade
Trade with Feast happens regularly, and is one of the main ways the city acquires goods. Given the desire to get into the city permanently, many merchants will give the city first pick of goods.
Infrastructure
The city is generally a well built collection of buildings, though these have been haphazardly built with no overall planning. Structures are constantly being built on top of each other to make more space for incoming population, leading to winding pathways and streets.
History
Officially founded when Tihana Daylight erected the Great Barrier in 120 during the first Culling.
Tourism
The city does not allow tourists except is special circumstances, such as trying to convince a particularly skilled person to join the city, as this would constitute a potential security breach.
Natural Resources
There are no naturally occurring resources within the Great Barrier, and so the city is forced to rely on trade, mostly with Feast.
Founding Date
120
Type
City
Population
1500
Inhabitant Demonym
Faminite
Location under
Included Locations
Owner/Ruler
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
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