The Crimson King
Return to the Earth.
The 757th Hierarchical City is the lowest out of all others, physically and spiritually, and is constructed more vertically than the average city, allowing it to reach deep down into the depths of the cave it was constructed in, districts often directly beneath one another. Cities are separated by the Grand Elevator, a massive clockwork construction. Traveling upon it is treated the same as traveling to another country, each city requiring a passport to enter. Residents are often members of a large family that has never left the city since the Revolution, possessing no blood relatives that reside in the cities above. The sky seen above the city is false, a magitek apparatus that creates the illusion that filtered light is passing through the cave ceiling; it works in tandem with the Kaien Weather Array, another magitek construction that periodically adjusts the vacant heat of the moisture in the air to create the illusion of a meteorological cycle, though it rains a little more often than it probably should and the feeling of a warm day is entirely simulated. Transportation can be fickle, as the railroad’s rates vary drastically depending on where you wish to go with seemingly no rhyme or reason and private vehicles are often too expensive for the average citizen, though most have little reason to not just walk everywhere they go.
Illegal dealings happen on the surface, unlike any other city in the Empire and are monopolized by the city’s many crime families. These families have a stranglehold on the city, their mere presence often inspiring awe and terror. Their foothold on the city is more or less for show, a means to procure funds to further their true purpose. They’re custodians.
Deep beneath the city lies vacant negative energy, in it’s nature dense and heavy, which gives way to Absence, the essence of darkness. From there, chaos springs. Spirits of the departed are made unable to pass on, and creatures not of this world emerge, preying on humans with high spiritual energy. They can take innumerable forms. One of the crime families’ most important jobs is to eliminate powerful aberrations before they get too ahead of themselves.
Ghosts are a common sight, often going about their business as if they were alive, the city paying them no real mind unless they have something to offer. They forfeit their material possessions to work off the debts they had in life in order to live peacefully in undeath. They often cut ties with their families after their death, to become vagrants who roam the city endlessly in search of it’s many vices. Many are consumed by sin, difficult to converse with, though some still have a semblance of humanity, and may seek help from a family if they get in too deep.
Magic is more or less considered to be a weapon that must be treated with care, exceptionally dangerous in the wrong hands, thus arms dealer often trade grimoires alongside firearms powered by steam. Drugs can be strange, as there are many, mostly harmless, but just as capable of being dangerous. Some experimentals incorporate spells to enhance their effects, though worth a lot of money.
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