Surlalsahu (/surlals'ahu/)
Surlalsahu, also known as the Floating City, is a mid-sized but well-known city on Niskhisima. As suggested by its name, the city's key characteristic is the fact that it floats, drifting over the wide open oceans of its home planet.
Specialized as a trade- and port-city, Surlalsahu slowly travels the world's oceans, carried by the currents. Every so often they stop, settling down near the coast so others may dock for trading, or over resource-rich stretches of ocean, where they can gather materials. Though Surlalsahu can maintain its population moderately well on its own, carrying farms and livestock, and being able to gather minerals and ores from the floor of the ocean, they rely on contact with other niskhi cities to provide what they cannot gather or grow themselves.
Magic is certainly a contributing factor in how they manage to keep their entire city afloat, as well as well-supplied (or as well as they can). Built almost entirely out of metal, they mostly drift on the currents, or put down anchors to settle down (temporarily). Minerals and ores are mined from the bottom of the ocean via an artistic combination of invention and magic, and food can be grown in greenhouses, where the climate is more stable than out in the open. They even keep livestock, carefully fenced in, lest they fall into the ocean.
Demographics
Like most cities on Niskhisima, Surlalsahu's population consists almost entirely of niskhi. Finding its origin on an island, they have their own ethnicity and culture, and rarely let outsiders settle in permanently.
History
Long before it was known as Surlalsahu, the city was actually a port city on an island. As the water begun rising, so did the buildings of the inhabitants, until no land was left, just the high-stilted houses. But the water continued to rise... or, perhaps, the land continued to lower. Either way, the people of the stilted city had two options: try to boat away to elsewhere, or make their city float, so it would stay above the water. As you likely can assume, they chose the latter, and created Surlalsahu.
At the start, the city of Surlalsahu was moored, set to remain in the place where it begun. But eventually it was set loose, so its people could find more plentiful resources elsewhere (and escape bad weather), drifting over the vast ocean.
No longer are they just a port city, but now Surlalsahu is the ship that travels over the water, gathering resources and interacting with other cities. They can't come in too close, but then, the city still has its harbors, open for traders and merchants to come. For those living on land, crossing the (relatively) small distance to the floating city is easier than crossing the entire ocean.
Comments