N'Qaal - the Striding City

One of the famous Striding Cities, N’Qaal is originally from the continent of Iq’Ranin, now swallowed by the Unmaking Tide. It resembles a single, great fortress of concentric pentagonal walls rising up through a half-dozen tiers to a single spiralling tower. The walls and structures are all polished, cured wood, in deep reds and golds that catch the sunlight and blaze like a beacon during the day. The interior streets and homes are flush with verdant life interwoven with the foundations of the city itself. On windy days, trails of flower petals cascade from the city in billowing clouds, and the scent of exotic ripening fruits washes over the land for kilometres around. And in strange contrast to this beauty, the outer walls ripple with massive thorny protrusions and strange weaponry, bespeaking a city always ready for war and accustomed to violence.   Because in truth N’qaal is a mobile fortress. A colossal network of immense roots, corded into eight spider-like limbs, lift the city above the ground and allow it to move, striding across the landscape according to the will of its rulers. N’qaal is populated by Drow, and ruled by a druidic circle of immense power. Using ancient, carefully guarded rituals, the Circle of Twlight animated this city many centuries ago, suffusing it with the nature magics the likes of which have never been replicated in modern eras.
The underside of the city resembles a titanic cluster of spider eggs, silken spheres connected by an intricate web of threads as wide as roads, all swaying slight as the city moves. These represent the undercity, where many of the Driders make their homes. It is not clear whether the Driders were created as a deliberate application of transformative magic, or if they were the result of accidents by Drow druids. Either way, they have evolved into a separate species, occupying a unique caste within the city’s social structure. Driders are typically artists, or warrior-priests. While the full-blooded Drow typically focus on the druidic arts, Driders are often who see to the spiritual needs of their people or wield the power of their deities into battle.
Before the Unmaking Tide, the continent of Iq’Ranin had many such Striding Cities, each rule by a different druidic circle, and all of them perpetually at war. There has rarely been any animosity in their conflict, but the Striding Cities have always fought one another as a matter of tradition and philosophy. Different elven races have historically formed the majority of these populations, though in more recent times many of the cities have allowed outsiders entry to learn their ways. Now, the Drow city of N’qaal is the only one that remains. Where the others fell to the Unmaking Tide, it fled across the shallow seas to the continent of Tashyn. Bafflingly to outsiders, the Drow people seem to deeply mourn the loss of the elven peoples in Iq’Ranin, as well as the other Striding Cities. Although all were pertually in conflict, there was sincere respect, even love between the clans. Their beliefs systems are complex and difficult to understand, but warfare for them was not an attempt to eliminate enemies. Rather, it was almost an artform, a clash of ideas and bodies, making both nations stronger through the shedding of blood and the exchanging of scars. Thus, the Drow have sworn terrible vengeance against the denizens of the Far Realm, those that corrupted and destroyed their honoured enemies.
Although not equipped to serve as a Gate-City, N’qaal has nonetheless aligned itself with the Coalition of Nations. Honouring their vow of vengeance, the Drow and Driders serve as watchers at the rim. The Striding City patrols the shores of Tashyn, walking the line of Viren Pylons. Their fierce warriors, potent magics help keep back the swarms of aberrations that occasionally strike at the Pylons or slip through to menace the land beyond.