Palimpsest
The sinking city of Palimpsest is an enormous walled citadel, towering up into the sky like a colossal Tower of Babel. Situated directly under the highest star of Salsabil, as far as any of its inhabitants know, Palimpsest is the only non-ruined settlement anywhere in the Screaming Desert, a ghoul-infested wasteland of rolling sand dunes and barren rock outcrops stretching in every direction as far as the people of Palimpsest have ever been able to explore.
The most notable feature of the city is that it sinks. Whether a simple consequence of its own weight being too much for the unstable sands of the desert, or the results of some ancient magic, or even – as a few pessimistic individuals suggest – an effect of the sins of the city’s inhabitants gradually dragging them closer to the Opposite Sky, whatever the cause, the city of Palimpsest sinks into the ground an inch or two per day.
To combat this, the city’s authorities are constantly building upwards – the walls stacked higher and higher to keep their ramparts out of reach of the Ghouls below, and the towers within ever stretching towards the sky as their inhabitants periodically move and resettle upwards in response to homes and streets below being swallowed up by the ground.
Meanwhile, a little lower down, as demand increases for space at higher levels, new buildings and gardens and walkways and connecting bridges are squeezed in wherever there’s room between the towers, gradually merging into fully covered streets, which sooner or later are inevitably vacated to be repurposed as basements and cellars, then as sewers and maintenance tunnels, then as forgotten catacombs, then finally abandoned by the surface-dwelling species entirely and populated by more insular and secretive subterranean species with designs of their own.
Whatever the reason for the city's descent, as the city sinks below the sands of the Screaming Desert, the inhabitants of the city build upwards, climbing ever higher towards the stars.
Defences
The city is protected from the Ghouls by the staggeringly thick stone Wall that fully encloses the city itself, and by the various automated munitions built into the Wall and powered by clockwork and gears and elementals bound by magic, and by the regular patrols of similarly bound elementals and genies enslaved by the city’s ruling classes.
Districts
The districts of Palimpsest are situated one on top of the next, with the more affluent districts located higher up the city, and the poorer districts at ground level and below. The districts are described here highest to lowest.
The Amira's Court (Royalty)
Right at the top of the city is the Amira's court. The Amira literally rules over Palimpsest from a distance. She has never been seen, but her agents sometimes venture into the lower districts to carry out her vision for the city.The Honourable Company
Offices.Noble District
Right at the top of the Noble District lies the Stargazer Observatory, from which the stars of the night sky can be tracked and studied. Below this are the massive estates of the other fifteen noble families. At the centre of the noble district is the Second Court - a den of intrigue, espionage and politics.Wall Battlements
The huge city wall, overseen by the Mason Family, is being built as the city sinks. Its battlements, which are guarded by huge mechanical golems, are situated just below the Noble District.Socialite District
Occupying the same level as the Academic District. Some of the mansions and villas of the extremely richest commoners are pressed up against the Noble District, while the homes of the less affluent rich commoners spread out below the Academic District.Academic District
The rich educated elite class of commoners reside in the Academic District. It is also the home to the students and professors of the city's two universities, as well as libraries, museums and other educational outlets.Mercantile District
The merchants and vendors of the city.Plebian District
The regular commoners of Palimpsest live at or just below ground level, in a regular state of unrest as they abandon their sinking homes to push further upward. The streets are dusted in a layer of sand from the surrounding desert, and it is sometimes described as part of the "Undercity" - the parts of the city that have sunk below the sands.Catacombs
The catacombs are the home of the Gnolls.Dwarven Settlements
The Dwarven Settlements are the home of many of the Dwarves. They form a natural protective barrier between the Catacombs of the Gnolls higher up, and the Warren and Nests of the Gnolls' would-be prey below.Bunbun Warren
The Bunbun live in the layer known as the Warren. It is something of an agrarian anomaly, with the Bramble Church providing enough magical daylight and water to maintain a plot of berries and other plants, known as the Tangle.Kobold Nests
The Kobold Nests are where most Kobolds make their homes.Drow Settlements
The Wild Elves who chose to stay in their homes rather than rising against the city's fall became the Drow. Their settlements are located a layer higher than the Caverns of the Mongrelfolk.Mongrelfolk Caverns
The shunned and detested Mongrelfolk have been forced downwards by the rest of the city into the caverns. Who knows what horrors they encounter down there. Nobody (or, at least, almost nobody) at surface level has any real idea how old the city is or how far down it goes. Urban Spelunking is a huge part of archaeology in Palimpsest, with any journey downwards through the abandoned parts of the city providing a cross-section of the civilisation’s forgotten history, as if the entire thing were one vast ice core.Maps
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Palimpsest