The Thaumacracy City-State
Between borders and nations, the brilliant alabaster spires of the Thaumacracy city-state stand tall as a physical reminder of magic’s power and authority over the world.
The white walls of the city mean different things to different people. For those fortunate or talented enough to find a place within them, the walls mean home and signal comfort. The giant magelight hung over the city is more revered by the Thaumacracy’s people than the world’s own natural sun.
The people of other countries forcibly brought under the Thaumacracy’s rule look at the city-state with utter contempt. They see it as a grand facade; an icon of a massive hypocrisy used by mages to cover up their flaws and failures and falsely present themselves as defenders of peace and unity.
Government
The Thaumacracy is ruled by the mages, particularly those of the Council.
History
The Thaumacracy city-state is the beating heart of the Thaumacracy organization. It was built first and foremost for the safety and prosperity of all mages, a safe haven in a world where they are otherwise unnatural phenomena. Over the decades since its creation, though, the city-state has developed into a country unto itself, and now the city’s prosaic population far outnumbers the starlit.
Now, the city operates as a bastion of civilization, the capital of the Thaumacracy government, and the headquarters of its organization.
The city has never stopped growing and evolving. In its earliest days, the settlement was small, but increasing population and influence have driven it upward and outward. Nothing is ever demolished, but rather adapted and expanded. The various walls that served as the outer boundaries of the city’s younger incarnations now function as common areas between the districts, operating as aqueducts and marvelous vertical marketplaces.
Architecture
The Thaumacracy’s buildings are tall and tightly-packed, built from solid bricks of white stone and held together with a magic-infused mortar that makes the structures resistant to damage and weathering. It is surrounded by a thick wall dotted with watchtowers, though these exist more to make the city appear more powerful and imposing than as an actual defensive measure.
Ornamentation is not uncommon, but it is a common belief that any and all exterior decoration should also serve an explicit purpose. Colorful tapestries emblazoned with business emblems stand out against the neutral colors of the establishments themselves to draw in business, and families adorn their houses with their crests to announce to all that their bloodline has found prestige within the Thaumacracy. Plant life is relegated to official parks and recreational areas, and is rarely seen as simple beautification around houses.
Geography
The Thaumacracy sits in the middle of a vast grassland, surrounded on all sides by miles of lush green prairie. It is virtually impossible to approach the city without being noticed from one of the watchtowers, with the exception of potential use of magic to generate cover or camoflage. The city is not far from the meeting of two rivers before they merge and empty into the sea, but it is unknown if the Thaumacracy draws its water from these rivers or some other source.
As it has developed, the city’s shape has conformed to the geography around it. At first, the walls were set up in simple ring patterns around the Thaumacracy’s central hub, but now the city-state twists and turns around surrounding hills, even doubling back and connecting to itself, forming distinct districts with solid walls between them, which has led to some curious works of architecture and engineering to allow for easier movement between them.
Natural Resources
The city thrives purely because of its abundance of magic-sensitive leaders. Any other civilization that might try to settle in the same region would find it next to impossible to find enough resources to sustain itself for more than a year or two, but the Thaumacracy is able to combine its vast established territory with its control over the world’s magic to bring in and maintain more than enough materials to allow for its continued prosperity.
Type
Metropolis
Population
8.5 million
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
Related Professions
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