Utomo, the Hunter's Home
Hunters... Or hunted?
Utomo is a fortress-town that watch the cavernous domain where the battle between Sheoin and the Lost Lands is the most fierce. Utomo has already been forced to move once as the frost spreads further into their lands and strangles all life from it, now centered around a massive column in one of the largest caverns. Life here is hard and often short, but no easy life ever brought glory.
Geography
Nestled around the base of a column in one of the great caves of Sheoin, Utomo sprawls around and up across the stone. Tunnels burrow through the column into cramped rooms and up to reach elevated platforms. Most living quarters are housed outside the column itself, in stone shacks built up against it. Rooms inside the column are reserved for storage, war rooms and nobles. The proximity to the Lost mean the temperature is near freezing and only the deepest rooms inside the columns are spared.
by Guild Wars 2
Beyond the column, the ground is uneven. It cracks into deep fissures or closes into ice-coated caverns not far from the Home. The road towards the rest of Sheoin pass through several large open caverns, connected by a maze of tunnels.
Most of those remain unexplored save for the occasional patrol to see that the spreading corruption has not reached them.
Alone Against The Tide
Life is not meant to be easy. No blade was ever sharpened by rest.
The Hunter's Home is at the front of a war for the very land. Cold-spreading monsters blight the lands beyond like cancers, turning all into ice and darkness. It is a struggle that humanity in Sheoin Region have been fighting for generations but it is only recently that they have realized that they are losing.
There is an air of doom about Utomo and of desperation. Slayers, cultists and scholars trudge to Utomo to fight doom or embrace it. It is a town at war, far from the rest of Dhanû's holdings. Some embrace the challenge - the greater the threat, the greater the glory - while others are broken by it. Drugs and alcohol are common escapes.
by Diana Franco
Culture
The social mores that connect much of Dhanû are still in place in Utomo, but they are dissolving. Peasants and warriors mingle here in ways unthinkable in the city. If there was ever a sign of how truly desperate the situation in Utomo is, the nobles of Dhanû point to this more than anything else. There are even rumors that some are allowing commoners to don the mask of warriors and take part in the hunt, something that would see them slain on the spot elsewhere.
Inside the Hive-Tree by Vance Kovacs
While the Fortress-Garden of Dhanû feed much of the region, Utomo is too far away and too isolated to be easily supplied. While water is relatively ready, hunger is not uncommon. The only source of food for the hunters there are the prey they fell.
Generations of eating nothing but the flesh of monsters have begin to take its toll. There are whispers of teeth turning to wicked fangs, of children born with claws. Of men becoming as monsters.
Government
If he would like to issue an order, let him come here and do it.
While Utomo is in name the property of the Exarch of Dhanû, it is in reality ruled by the Imaður who live there. They cooperate to keep Utomo in order across several clans, an almost unheard of situation in Dhanû's history. It is a streak of independence that is only barely tolerated by the powers back in the city-state. Other fear the long time among monsters have somehow tainted the citizens of Utomo, that they will turn against their masters.
The hierarchy in Utomo is informal. Age and experience is the first things looked to when decisions need to be made, with the Imaður reluctant to stray proven solutions. Enforcement of order and law is similarly haphazard and often lethal. Some are sent back home to Dhanû when they are too important to slay or punish. The shame of such exile carry significant loss of face and station in the city, even if no punishment is levied.
Industry
The Hunter's Home only has one export: corpses. Monsters slain are sent to Izhaso and butchered, chitin turned to armor and fangs into swords. Imaður are frequent visitors to the forge-city and bring their kills with them as often as they can. Supplies are provided by the clans with troops stationed in Utomo, but it is never enough. Theft and outright banditry is becoming increasingly common by clan-warriors there.
by François Launet
Rumors persist that even those who fall are used in ghoulish desperation. Whispers of cannibal cults and cold-hearted hunters that use still-living humans as bait for their traps are growing in volume.
The few merchants who make the dangerous journey to Utomo are usually forced by order or obligation. The tunnels are difficult to travel and roaming monsters from the Lost are becoming more frequent, but the supplies they bring are vital. Little is made in Utomo save for rudimentary replacements, usually forged from slain monsters.
The dead are sent to Fortress-Garden and fed to the soil. The skulls sent to their clan for the Shikei, though some request that they be kept in Utomo instead - guarding it in death as they did in life.
The Sheoin Region Deep inside the world, the Sheoin Region is part of the Inner Shell. Here, the land is at war with itself as competing eco-systems warp and mutate the very stone in their battle for supremacy. Utomo stand at the front of this savage war, its hunters tasked with stemming the tide. Read More About Sheoin Region
by ArtDeepMind
Dhanû
One of the great city-states of the Inner Shell, Dhanû is home to fierce warriors and skilled poets. Their homeland is harsh and weakness fatal, but the Dhanûian take pride in their ability to endure what would break lesser. Consummate raiders and pirates, when they cannot make all they need on their own, they have no qualms about taking it from others. Read More About DhanûDhanû society is held together by a complicated web of obligation and expectation. This sort of social currency is eased in Utomo in ways that would be scandalous within Dhanû proper. It is only because of its critical importance that clan-noble chose to turn a blind eye to any indiscretions made by their warriors when serving in the Hunter's Home.
The Imaður
The Slayers of Dhanû are professional monster-hunters and rangers. It is more a title and occupation than organization, but Imaður from different clans see each other as equals. Veterans of countless hunts and expeditions into the Lost, Imaður are honored within Dhanû for their skill and knowledge of the unknown lands. They are given considerable leeway in their actions, trusted to do what is best. Slayers consider Utomo to be something of a proving grounds for potential recruits. They often send prospects to be stationed here and see if they can endure it. Read More About The Imaður
by Shao Zhijiao
That was a really interesting and creepy article. I guess the main thing I would have liked to learn is about the city's history, particularly about when they had to move locations: how did they find a new column? how long did it all take? how many people perished in the meantime? Other things that peeked my interest are the size of the column and the city, how many people live there overall, as well as what kind of drugs do people take (are they imported along with other provisions, or perhaps they've started consuming some vile part from a monster?) Overall though, that was a really complete article. I was not particularly keen on the "Read More About" sentences, which do not have links. I guess they are placeholders, like the images, but it does set up the reader for something that it is not delivered afterwards.
Yes, they are links to draft - unfortunately, World Anvil doesn't show them as links until the corresponding article is set as published... But the author, they show up as valid links, making them easy to miss. :(
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.