City of Hortictine

a tertiary laboratory of the Empire of the Minds, built to carry out various projects involving biological creatures. Things like engineering new lifeforms, studying the biological processes of already extant life, and other things which weren't considered a high priority. After after the fall of the empire, the supplementary lab was taken over and settled by people who don't understand the technology within. Though at first frightened away by the macabre display of brains in test tubes and malformed creatures, they eventually lived inside of it since it offered relative safety and a secure position. The lab could have been on a ship or flying city, or it could have been built on a pillar to make study easier. Regardless of whether or not it fell onto a pillar or was built on one, it became a briefly thriving city on the pillar. The people inside developed a strange culture, but remained friendly and open to trade. They became convinced that the building was inhabited by divine spirits, or was divine itself, and at some point, one of their number figured out how to turn on the power, though it didn't stay on for long. Some within this society saw this as a temporary awakening of a new god, so there was a race to find anything that could be used to keep the power on. I don't know the precise details of technology in your setting, so this is going to remain vague, but at some point they turn the power back on again. A period of 'generator worship' grips the society, and soon someone else figures out how to use some of the machinery. At some point, this person comes across a way to create 'life', though the fruits of that labor are comatose bodies, since the new natives don't know what they're doing. The laboratory civilization doesn't continue on its path for very long. Fuel sources for the generators are at an all-time low, and the society, though rich, is not numerous enough to outright conquer other lands for fuel that's probably not even there anymore. A new caste of priests create comatose bodies in an attempt to give their god a mortal avatar, and the 'generator priests' are in opposition to this and view it as blasphemy. Some fear that their god is going to die.
-ExaltedBattlefields

Government

Hortictine is primarily ruled over Theocratic Technocracy, who use their expertise in technology in order to communicate with the God Engine, believed to be an advanced intelligence that the Empire of Minds were creating in order to replace The Mad God. There are four major parties that have control over the city. The main factions are the Generator Priests, who have recently split into the two parties of the Continuation Sect and the Rebirth Sect after failing to come into agreements the specialized fuel that powers the God Egnine becoming increasingly scarcer. The two other parties are the Trading Guild, also known as the Traders, and the Scientist Guild, also known as the heretic scientists or the Realists who represent a small group of scientists who take a more pragmatic view on The God Egine opposed to the zealot scientists of the Generator Priests. Each Party has the same number of seats on the City Conical, a group of highly qualified individuals who interpret the messages supposedly from the Generator God and create laws based on teachings and the needs of the city.

Alternative Name(s)

City Of The Generator God

Type

Large city

Inhabitant Demonym

Hoctin

Owning Organization

Ipstoratic League