Sylvania
From A Players Primer to the Outlands (2e)
THE TOWN: Travelers who get the yawn from more peaceful spots like Ecstasy will find this burg a little more bone-rattling. It may not have a huge population for a gate-town, but Sylvania's known as a nonstop party. The natives revel night and day in a constant beat of drums and drinking songs, Olympian dirges and elven ballads, and the hoarse shouts of petitioners, planars, and primes. Here, sensual delights swirl and blend, and a cutter'd swear she could taste the drumbeats or see the meaty smell of cooking flesh.
It's easy for a berk to get lost here, especially if she's been bubbing it up at a tavern or three. Sylvania's shaped like a rough circle, but the whole town's full of curved, winding streets that meet and cross at odd angles. (Some say the builders must've hoisted a few too many themselves.)
Buildings in Sylvania are just as barmy, a hodge-podge of stones and styles. Lots of them are shaped like animals, ships, or human faces, and some of 'em even move. Cogs and waterwheels turn, whole buildings revolve in place, and houses sometimes fold in on themselves, creating brand-new structures.
For travellers who like their flora large, Sylvania's got some of the wildest greens in the Land: huge plants and trees that swallow up entire blocks. Elves like to make their homes in the shadows and branches.
THE GATE: Sylvania is surrounded by woods, and somewhere in those woods is the Gate to Arborea. 'Course, the gate's invisible, and it floats randomly around the forest like a bubber's tipsy walk. To find the gate, all a berk has to do is get lost in the woods (easy for some, harder for others). Then, while poking around for a way out, she always seems to pass into Arborea. Travelers using this gate should be careful, though — it doesn't always drop a body where she wants to go.
LOCAL SITES: The most prominent place in Sylvania is the Sensate Embassy (which is said to be just a bureaucratic outpost for a larger palace on Arborea). Travelers should stop in and catch a gander at the architecture. The building's a great hollow pyramid made of petrified wood, with quarters and offices suspended from the sloping walls. The open central area beneath is used for combat and (of course) revelry.
Not too far from the embassy, two large temples loom, one devoted to the Greek pantheon and the other to the great elven powers. The Greek temple is an acropolis on a low plateau, with supporting columns in the shape of female warriors (and look out, berk, because they animate to protect the city). The elven temple's carved from within a huge, living banyan tree, with small buildings erupting from the upper branches.
Sylvania's got more than its share of bars and taverns, but visitors shouldn't miss an inn called the Dipping Dragon. Its upper floors, shaped like a dragon, are mounted on a pivot. They tilt forward and back, allowing the dragon to "drink" from a nearby pool.
CURRENT CHANT: Take care not to get caught between the petitioners of Olympus (the Greeks) and Arvandor (the elves). They favour bloody street battles as a means of proving the superiority of their gods.
Demographics
THE POPULACE: The natives are evenly split among humans, elves, and bariaur races. Folks here tend to be a boisterous bunch, and each group loves to drive the others to ever-wilder states of excess.
Government
THE HOI POLLOI: The town's run by eternal beings known as the Seven Spiritors. Not quite undead, not quite petitioners, and not quite gods, these high-ups rule through bodies they possess (it works a lot like a magic jar). They usually take new bodies every few decades, and most folks who get possessed are volunteers. But mind that word most, berk - violent troublemakers have sometimes been known to come down with sudden attitude changes.
The Seven are known by titles that reflect their natures: Thought (currently in a female bariaur's form), Knowledge (a human male), Action (a halfling female), Passion (an elf male), Reflection (a male bariaur), Pain (a human male), and Rest (a human female). They've got no permanent home in Sylvania, and visitors can usually find them wandering around inside its borders.
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