Lui Yongheng
Home of the greatest and most complete library in the world, the city inside of the devouring jungle, sits in eternal twilight. The canopy of the jungle blocks out enough sun light that a vampire can be active at all hours. The predators that give the jungle it's name roam outside of the city walls a constant threat to any who wander from the safety of the one path the city guard provides.
Demographics
40 % elvish
50 % human
10% other
Government
The city is ruled by the eternal council and also guarded by its members. The eternal council is a group of nine vampires. While 3% of the cities population is actually vampires they keep very strict controls over their undead. The council spends a large amount of time with their living descendants and only those with living family can sit on the council. Breaks from ruling are common with another ancient vampire taking the leaving vampires place. Only those who remain faithful to the idea that they are there to protect their living family and safe guard the people and territory are allowed to continue to exist. The undead who become more and more ruthless and turn away from putting the people of the city first are destroyed by the other vampires. Otherwise the city state runs much like a compassionate oligarchy.
The living make up the clerks and bureaucrats that run the daily affairs. However vampires are difficult to lie to and so corruption is easy to root out. The vampire leaders are also in charge of law enforcement and patrol the jungle the city is built inside of to keep those who would threaten their lands out. While the living have a role in the military the vampires are the major force behind it.
The council makes the laws and handles the affairs of the city state. Each member of the council has a particular area of expertise where they can be appealed to specifically. If the single council member's decision is considered unfair by the applicant they can petition to be heard before the entire council. If the problem is broad in manner or need the whole council hears it.
Below the council is a set of four vampires who mostly just go about looking in on the details among the clerks who read and move the paperwork and appointments about. Also the captain of the city guard (vampire) lands in the second tier of command unless the city is under attack or at war in which case, the captain of the guard is temporarily granted supreme control of the city.
Below the council and captain of the guard there is a hierarchy of living and undead who fall into command by virtue of their rank in the city bureaucracy or guard. Once any emergency is over that calls for a promotion to a higher rank any living members of the council are offered the chance to become a vampire or to step down. The same goes for the captain of the guard and other positions of importance. The experience that a vampire can bring with them and the strength of the undead are seen as far to great an asset to have a living person in those positions.
Defences
Lui Yongheng, like most cities has walls to keep out any invader that may blunder passed the jungle to try for the city itself. There is a single safe path to the city through the jungle maintained by careful patrols, it is also watched carefully and anyone on this path will be known and reported long before they get close to Lui Yongheng. The jungle itself is highly dangerous and is the main reason for most of the guard who patrol to be vampires as death can occur just from wandering into the wrong area. This is the main reason for the one safe path to be very wandering as it weaves around the natural wells of negative plane energy.
Infrastructure
All of the roads are paved with hard clay rather than cobble with proper gutters and drains. The streets are lit with natural gas.
The sewer
there is a functioning sewer treatment with a set of chambers that are used by the city in rotation. These chambers are slowly filled and then the waste is shunted to the next chamber. Once the first chamber is full it is alchemically treated and various creatures are placed within, this causes rapid decomposition. The gasses that vent from this are captured in a hood that directs it to a set of pipes that travel all over the city. The outlets are used to light the streets of the city and a few homes when someone wanted to pay extra for the privileged. Once the chamber is fully decomposed the creatures are retrieved or not as the city stock requires and then the last of the gas is used to set the compost alight. after it has been burned at a low temperature the remains are removed and then used to fertilize the crops in the hanging gardens throughout the city.The Paper Mill
The leaves of the jungle and the wide variety of plants make for excellent paper and ink both. As the tomes of the library age the tireless vampire librarians scribe copies, ensuring that not a single volume is lost. This requires a steady supply of paper and ink all produced by a single mill that runs around the clock. Citizens run it with occasional vampire inspection. There is a great water wheel that is used both for the pressing of pulp and the grinding of herbs and insects to produce ink. While there is occasional vellum produced it usually comes from the skin of criminals and invaders of the jungle.Tourism
Lui Yongheng is home to the greatest library in the world... the one issue is that access to the books is paid in blood to the vampire librarians. Among scholars the library is rumored but outside of the learned it's not well known. Most scholars know that wide spread knowledge of the vampire library would only lead to an attack on the city and not only would many lives be lost... Most likely many of the books would be destroyed as well.
Architecture
The buildings are built along the manner of goblin cities with buildings branching off of the giant trees many even use the thicker lower branches not just as avenues to connect areas but as support to 'hang' buildings from rather than requiring all of the weight to be supported from below. The multilevel city was built specifically for medium sized creatures making smaller and larger species uncomfortable in most places. Over time the city has moved very firmly away from the elven architecture of the founders. These days it looks more like a gothic rendition of tree dwelling halflings mixed with a bit of goblin. Most of the city has inherited the elvish love for detail and beauty coupled with a pragmatism of how to build around and among the trees. Steepled rooves, flying buttresses, floating stairs, vaulted ceilings, and statuary are everywhere in the city. They both shelter and help the vampire protectors of the city move about and make the connections between different levels of the city simpler to build.
Alternative Name(s)
Forbidden City AKA Green Rumor
Type
City
Population
8,214
Inhabitant Demonym
Shi'ya (shEE-yeh)
Location under
Owning Organization
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