Arna (Are-nuh)
Behold the blessed valley, the metropole, the Body of the Goddess Suwota. She is the city. She hears all, she feels all movement within her halls. Her sap is the water of the river that flows to power factories and wash bodies; her stems hold up impossible towers. This is the largest city in the world spatially and population-wise - it takes up all of the Southern Sacred Valley of the Empire of Runeva, or all of it depending on definitions. As the heart of the sacred valley, it is blessed by Halcyon - the soil is ridiculously arable and fertile.
Mountains like fangs rise over the massive valley of Arna. Blackened water rushes through the vast city; if you could see it from a bird's eye view through the mirrored river of smog above, you'd see shining geometric patterns of polluted water moving through the intricate network of canals that unites the city. Arna is a strange mixture of urban and agricultural; the space and enchanted soil are ruthlessly maximized. Residential towers containing hundreds of families rise as high as the mountains, which are themselves covered in terrace farms and houses. Raised fields with buildings underneath and field-towers that corkscrew into the sky to maximize agricultural space are unique to Arna: the blessing of the Goddess allows for what would typically require ridiculous amounts of fertilizer. Some areas are more industrial, some areas are more residential or commercial, but fields here and there are basically constant.
Every building in Arna is connected, every field and every mine. Suwota's body moves through these like conduits moving electricity. The scent of her sacred flowers fills the air everywhere, a sweet scent that drowns out the smog and the sewers. Her will is inescapable. Though she cannot focus on all things at once, her loyal bureaucracy hunts everywhere for deviance.
This is the police state. Everything is determined by blood status; everything is surveilled. Status is a ticket to less abuse, but it attracts more watchful eyes from above. There is no privacy and no escape from judgment. This is the cosmic order of the Goddess, brutal and unyielding and manipulative.
Demographics
Over 12 million humanoids live in Arna, making it the largest and most densely populated city on the planet. 45% are Dryads 30% are Humans, 23% are Half-Dryads, and 2% are Other species.
Greater Arna contains over well over 20,000,000 people
Government
Arna is the capital of the Empire of Runeva and is run by the upper crust of the imperial government. The city is mostly directly run by the Goddess Suwota, but not without the help of a vast bureaucracy.
The Three Bureaucracies - War, Civil, and Church - run most of the day-to-day business of the city. The civil and church organization divide the city into Wards: 23 sub-cities that represent the 23 component cities of the lower valley. The civil leaders of the wards are the Ward Directors, while the Church leaders of the Wards are the Lord Overseers. The military does have ward-level leadership, the Garrison Captains, but is more centralized under the General of the Interior. The Church's Valley-level leader is the Lord Interpreter.
To clarify who does what: the Civil administration manages building projects, industrial coordination, and taxation - it is the Government(tm). The military manages normal police and plays a major role in industrial coordination. The Church manages the courts and social status.
At the very top, Suwota has stationed three Thorns/Avatars to manage the bureaucracies of Arna.
Parallel to the main bureaucracies are the secret governments: the Lianas (international spy network) and the Eyes (the secret police). The Lianas are mostly outward-facing, but the Eyes are very much involved in policing and espionage within the city. While the Lianas are led by the Thorn Purifying Warmth, the Eyes are led by the secretive and anonymous council known as the Chamber of Judgment.
Defences
Arna is a difficult place to besiege; it is basically a self-propelled country protected by large mountains. Most of its exits are hives of military activity; each of the great gates is a massive military installation (though some are bigger than others). The gates used to control population movement also work well as defenses.
Arda's defenses are strong and well-maintained; the city has been attacked a number of times of the last handful of centuries, and the Goddess seems to believe that an attack on the sacred city by an overwhelming force is inevitable.
Industry & Trade
What isn't built or traded in Arna? The city devours raw resources and churns out manufactured products, but also does its best to grow and mine what it can at home. Factories produce textiles, smelt steel, bake pottery, assemble ships, and assemble furniture. Massive rice paddies and maize fields grow massive bushels of food. Bamboo forests are grown and destroyed for paper and building materials. The mountains are devoured for ore and stone.
Luxury goods are attracted to the abundant wealth of the city as well. Even though the Empire is under global embargo, smugglers do their best to sell silk, spices, and novelties at high prices.
Subterranean mines are worked by a small fleet of Empty constructs known as The Tethered, who have been made part of Suwota's body. Rumors has it that there is an automated construct factory deep underground, but that may have just been an ambition that was thwarted by paladins of Agamine the Lost.
Work here is largely stratified along caste lines: a pureblood dryad and a halfblood human have wildly different job opportunities in Arna. Much work is also done by prison gangs: minor infractions are often punished with work sentences, and prison labor is a go-to source of free and cheap labor. Slaves taken from the empire's conquests are also diverted here, but typically remain state slaves rather than being distributed among households.
Infrastructure
The first thing that one might find astonishing about Arna is the city's immaculate water control system. The Mura river, which runs through Arna's heart, is carefully controlled by the city's infrastructure and is sometimes even broken down entirely into canals and artificial capillaries before it is reformed back into an actual river. The sewer system collects rainwater and snowmelt to efficiently funnel water into backup reserves that are kept underground and pumped up into the city when necessary. Water is even siphoned off from neighboring regions. In the face of growing water demands, Suwota has invested in magical water purification for sewage and wastewater in recent years, and has subsidized research and investment into nonmagical means.
Districts
Arna is a massive city, population-wise and land-wise. It covers over a hundred miles of river and 12 million people, and it broken into 23 wards, or official municipal districts. Each of these 23 wards represents one of the original Runevan cities that were assimilated into Arna by Suwota - and each is a veritable city unto itself. Each ward contains more people than a typical major city on another continent, and each ward has its own component districts, so if I were to list them all here it would be an incomprehensible and mind-numbing experience.
That said, grouping the wards together into city regions does help in navigating the city - some sections are more industrial, agricultural, or commercial on the whole than others. This isn't to say that a region of the city is just that thing - while the Neck is the most industrial region of Arna, it is hardly just industrial, and industry can be found in all the other regions as well.
Nama Harbor is the region that greets newcomers. It is densely packed, highly commercial, and extremely socially stratified. Given that this is where most newcomers will visit, it will receive much more detail than the other wards. It is worth noting that this is the most polluted district of Arna - the river water is so polluted that it is poison, and the smoky air of the Neck is driven this way to blanket the harbor in smog.
Brighttown, Lavender Town, Hookport, Alls-Home, Northbank, Southbank, and Redroots are the seven districts of Nama harbor where foreigners and those lesser citizens denied Sacred Visas by the empire can visit. This is the only ward where an outsider can walk across most of it without breaking any laws.
Brighttown, connected to the Buttercup Gate, is known for its yellow stone and paint; it is also known for its large military base on its outskirts. This is a mixture of commerce and military training; many high-ranking Runevan officers own property here, and soldiers recruited from the Sacred Valley often train here. Patriotism is high in this district, and off-duty soldiers can be found here in droves - be wary of insulting the military in any bars around town. It can be a rough town, where violence is brandished more openly than usual. As they say, buttercups may look cheery but they are poisonous.
Sky's Landing is a restricted residential and small-artisan district, with paperwork required to enter for outsiders to the sacred valley. This can be avoided by a savvy operators, as Sky's Landing is surrounded on all sides by foreign districts and is not very efficiently controlled. The fear of foreign pollution instills a strict hierarchical culture in this district, and the Church is a local political powerhouse. Sky's Landing connects the city to Sky-6, the settled mountainous sector where many prisms are housed and where much stone and ore is mined. Many of Sky's Landing who are not artisans are miners or otherwise involved in Sky-6. This is not a rich district by any means, and runs from impoverished to lower middle class.
Lavender Town, connected to the Lavender Gate, receives land trade coming in along the Northern coast. Most trade goes inland through Zirikev or uses boats, so Lavender town is a little less hectic nowadays than it once was. It still has the great monuments of an old trade hub, though, including the memorial tower of an ancient Runevan monarch. The Exorcist's Guild of Runeva is based out of that tower, and with them they bring a large number of adventuring types. The area has been associated with ghosts and foreigners ever since the ancient Invasion of Giants, which ruled Runeva from a now-destroyed castle in this part of town, and whose ancient king lingered as a ghost for centuries. Despite these spooky vibes, Lavender town is known as a vibrant trade center, banking center, and foodie corner.
Hookport is a massively popular port and residential area. It has a reputation as being the most wild and free place in Arna, where you can buy anything. Organized crime has even set up shop, oblivious to the fact that the Goddess and her Eyes are just as watchful here as anywhere - Hookport's relaxed rules make it a perfect trap for fools who think they might conspire against Her. A large underground complex, the Vigilant's Den, serves as the covert intelligence bureau here - and is manned entirely by cats. The Eyes gather their blackmail and build their profiles, but avoid making arrests unless it is dire. For everyone else, this is just a slightly anarchic freeport of raunchy sailors, merchants, and foreigners hornswoggling about on the doormat of the Heavenly city.
All's-Home began as the ambassadorial sector and the headquarters of the Lianas (the Imperial spy network), and this is what it remains. This is home to the sole selkie outpost of Arna, as well as the official embassies to Runeva's tributaries. A more controlled flow of goods and travelers moves through the port, making it a higher-class alternative to Hookport. It is also dominated by the Lianas, like their own tiny kingdom: they have a massive training center, fleet dock, and library here. It is no longer the Headquarters (that has been moved to a safer location deeper in the city), but it is a massive operating center. This might be seen as the formal greeting atrium for foreign powers or foreign elites who Suwota would like to court; it is also the cultural processing center of sorts, where outsiders are drained of linguistic and cultural knowledge to be processed and repackaged for the spy network.
The Northbank district is the pilgrim's port, the grand bazaar of Runeva. It is built into a series of shop-and-market rings of varying social levels and general price levels. Chapels, shrines, and pilgrim's housing stand in the center of these rings, allowing zealous Ekazans of questionable status to commune with the Goddess while adding to the city's greatness.
Mother's Hill is a restricted residential and legal ward. It is the home of the elites of the Nama ward - the Ward Directors of the bureaucracy, the Overseer of the Church, and the other high-caste bigwhigs. This is a fancy area, heavily policed and full of riches. Outsiders are strictly forbidden, but the wealthy here are also fond of exploiting outside labor - making Mother's Hill the number one place to get a Visa if you are willing to submit to a political patron.
The Southbank is the massive industrial port, a mixture of massive smelters, water-wheel driven weaving houses, water mills, warehouses, and dockyards. The docks here are less publicly commercial and more oriented around mass movement of products to and from the great city. Slums of exploited workers are here as well.
Redroots is the official naval port of Arna, a grand drydock protected by great fortifications. It also contains the Bloodroot gate - the Southern land gate - and the fertilizer processing center for island guano deposits, so it is a smelly and sharp place all around. Rows and rows of gates and fortifications make it clear that invaders would perish here, and surveillance here is performative and extreme. Those outside of the government are meant to feel very uncomfortable here.
So that is one ward out of 23. From here on out, it is by region.
The Neck, West of the Harbor, is a grouping of four large wards. This is the industrial heart of Arna, a complex nest of waterlocked canals and factories. The river line on the map fails to represent the reservoirs, dams, and canals that are used by the Goddess to divert the river wherever it is needed - expertly moving it like blood through the metropolitan industry before returning the wastewater back together for removal at the Harbor. The water is returned at a large reservoir named Mura's Return in the Nyapwa Ward, which is surrounded by fortifications. The Mura's Return district is a sharp stop in the industry and agriculture, all walls and soldiers and eyes. Mura's Return is the wall where the Neck ends and the Harbor begins, and is a massive filter for moving goods and people - sneaking past this point is nearly impossible, so your paperwork better be good. Visitors coming through typically move through the Larkspur Gate, the largest of Arna's Entry-Gates. The Larkspur Gate monitors both river traffic and land traffic moving in from the Harbor into the sacred valley. The Larkspur Gate is infamous for its grisly display of imperial power: mummified corpses of spies and traitors incorporated into the gates (many hanging from vines), covered in flowers of the Goddess that are colored to look like eyes of judgment.
The Neck includes a fair amount of prism traffic, as it is economically intertwined with the large Sky-1 District to the West.The fringes of the Neck, near Sky-1, also include the Rootwarrens. The Rootwarrens are a subterranean mining and housing area that is largely controlled by the government. Given the number of Empty Constructs here, if there were an automated construct building facility in Arna, it would be here - the tunnels go deep and the security is tight. Other rumors for what is down here include a secret facility for breeding specialized mining prisms, a secret weapons testing facility, and an underground detention center.
The Celestial Valley is the heart of imperial power and the model of Suwota's ideal society. It is less grimy than the Neck and preserves enough of the Mura River to be impressive and respectable. There are definitely significant portions of grime and poverty in the Celestial Valley, but the glamor of peak Runeva is more visible and prominent here. The Celestial Valley is the most populous part of Arna, with settlement extending upwards into massive residential towers and downwards into the Earth.
The worse parts of the central valley tend to be the Claimed Lands: former hills or mountainous regions that have been cannibalized to provide stone and additional land. The Claimed lands tend to be around the edges of the valley and in ridges moving towards the interior; once upon a time, hills and mountains carved up the valley into a labyrinth.
The most prestigious - and dangerous - part of Arna is the Kenta Ward, which is where Suwota's sacred body is kept. Kenta is the most heavily policed and surveilled city-area in the world, and it has been largely consumed by Runeva's government.
Those seeking history and knowledge would do well to visit the Southern Winya Ward. While much of the Winya Ward is low-income agriculture and industry in the Northern claims, the Southern districts include the ancient capital of Runeva. The old monarchical palaces have been transformed into libraries and government offices, but the old temples remain quite holy within the Church and are a favorite among the upper clergy.
Three massive trading gates sit on either side of the Celestial Valley: the Sunflower Gate in the North connected to the Kesherm ward, the Poppy Gate in the Southeast connected to the Gameti ward, and the Azalea Gate in the South connected to the Beneva ward. The Sunflower gate and the Azalea gate are the main inland trade gates, with the clearest connections to Arna's heart.
Latep City is a rockier, less productive, less policed, and more isolated version of Arna in the Northern part of the Sacred Valley. It is much more populated by prisms and half-prisms, and eventually connects to the Ankata metropole complex: a huge subterranean network of settlements used as underground factories and labor camps.
The Skies are the settled mountains, a network of prism-holds and terrace-cities held aloft by Suwota's body. The Skies are a constellation of towns, mines, forts, and residential complexes - you might consider them to be mining suburbs in a way. Each sub-settlement within a Sky has its own local flavor and there are too many to be listed here, but if the Skies as a whole were to be described:
The Nama Ward
Nama Harbor is the region that greets newcomers. It is densely packed, highly commercial, and extremely socially stratified. Given that this is where most newcomers will visit, it will receive much more detail than the other wards. It is worth noting that this is the most polluted district of Arna - the river water is so polluted that it is poison, and the smoky air of the Neck is driven this way to blanket the harbor in smog.
Brighttown, Lavender Town, Hookport, Alls-Home, Northbank, Southbank, and Redroots are the seven districts of Nama harbor where foreigners and those lesser citizens denied Sacred Visas by the empire can visit. This is the only ward where an outsider can walk across most of it without breaking any laws.
Brighttown, connected to the Buttercup Gate, is known for its yellow stone and paint; it is also known for its large military base on its outskirts. This is a mixture of commerce and military training; many high-ranking Runevan officers own property here, and soldiers recruited from the Sacred Valley often train here. Patriotism is high in this district, and off-duty soldiers can be found here in droves - be wary of insulting the military in any bars around town. It can be a rough town, where violence is brandished more openly than usual. As they say, buttercups may look cheery but they are poisonous.
Sky's Landing is a restricted residential and small-artisan district, with paperwork required to enter for outsiders to the sacred valley. This can be avoided by a savvy operators, as Sky's Landing is surrounded on all sides by foreign districts and is not very efficiently controlled. The fear of foreign pollution instills a strict hierarchical culture in this district, and the Church is a local political powerhouse. Sky's Landing connects the city to Sky-6, the settled mountainous sector where many prisms are housed and where much stone and ore is mined. Many of Sky's Landing who are not artisans are miners or otherwise involved in Sky-6. This is not a rich district by any means, and runs from impoverished to lower middle class.
Lavender Town, connected to the Lavender Gate, receives land trade coming in along the Northern coast. Most trade goes inland through Zirikev or uses boats, so Lavender town is a little less hectic nowadays than it once was. It still has the great monuments of an old trade hub, though, including the memorial tower of an ancient Runevan monarch. The Exorcist's Guild of Runeva is based out of that tower, and with them they bring a large number of adventuring types. The area has been associated with ghosts and foreigners ever since the ancient Invasion of Giants, which ruled Runeva from a now-destroyed castle in this part of town, and whose ancient king lingered as a ghost for centuries. Despite these spooky vibes, Lavender town is known as a vibrant trade center, banking center, and foodie corner.
Hookport is a massively popular port and residential area. It has a reputation as being the most wild and free place in Arna, where you can buy anything. Organized crime has even set up shop, oblivious to the fact that the Goddess and her Eyes are just as watchful here as anywhere - Hookport's relaxed rules make it a perfect trap for fools who think they might conspire against Her. A large underground complex, the Vigilant's Den, serves as the covert intelligence bureau here - and is manned entirely by cats. The Eyes gather their blackmail and build their profiles, but avoid making arrests unless it is dire. For everyone else, this is just a slightly anarchic freeport of raunchy sailors, merchants, and foreigners hornswoggling about on the doormat of the Heavenly city.
All's-Home began as the ambassadorial sector and the headquarters of the Lianas (the Imperial spy network), and this is what it remains. This is home to the sole selkie outpost of Arna, as well as the official embassies to Runeva's tributaries. A more controlled flow of goods and travelers moves through the port, making it a higher-class alternative to Hookport. It is also dominated by the Lianas, like their own tiny kingdom: they have a massive training center, fleet dock, and library here. It is no longer the Headquarters (that has been moved to a safer location deeper in the city), but it is a massive operating center. This might be seen as the formal greeting atrium for foreign powers or foreign elites who Suwota would like to court; it is also the cultural processing center of sorts, where outsiders are drained of linguistic and cultural knowledge to be processed and repackaged for the spy network.
The Northbank district is the pilgrim's port, the grand bazaar of Runeva. It is built into a series of shop-and-market rings of varying social levels and general price levels. Chapels, shrines, and pilgrim's housing stand in the center of these rings, allowing zealous Ekazans of questionable status to commune with the Goddess while adding to the city's greatness.
Mother's Hill is a restricted residential and legal ward. It is the home of the elites of the Nama ward - the Ward Directors of the bureaucracy, the Overseer of the Church, and the other high-caste bigwhigs. This is a fancy area, heavily policed and full of riches. Outsiders are strictly forbidden, but the wealthy here are also fond of exploiting outside labor - making Mother's Hill the number one place to get a Visa if you are willing to submit to a political patron.
The Southbank is the massive industrial port, a mixture of massive smelters, water-wheel driven weaving houses, water mills, warehouses, and dockyards. The docks here are less publicly commercial and more oriented around mass movement of products to and from the great city. Slums of exploited workers are here as well.
Redroots is the official naval port of Arna, a grand drydock protected by great fortifications. It also contains the Bloodroot gate - the Southern land gate - and the fertilizer processing center for island guano deposits, so it is a smelly and sharp place all around. Rows and rows of gates and fortifications make it clear that invaders would perish here, and surveillance here is performative and extreme. Those outside of the government are meant to feel very uncomfortable here.
The Grand Metropolis
- The Sunflower Gate connects to the Northern inland trade, and is known as the largest and friendliest of Arna's inland Gates. This is a traditional site for Runeva's military parades, and is a monumental location meant to showcase Runeva's true power for visitors. Magically enthralled and blessed Dire Hounds, known as the Heavenhounds, are encased in the architecture of the gate and can be awoken and unleashed by Suwota on troublemakers at a moment's notice.
- The Azalea Gate is the primary Southern trade route connecting Lomata to the Sacred Government. If the Sunflower Gate is raw size and power, the Azalea gate is formal magnificence. The Gate has a reputation for formality and etiquette and is considered the Cultured gate - in ancient times, this was tightly held by the nobility, and a kind of inherited romance has followed to modern times. Elevated cafes perched on the mountains overlook the gate traffic and are incredibly stylish, and a number of high-status cats have manors here. Despite all this finery, the Azalea Gate is still well fortified and dangerous, so be careful.
- The Poppy Gate is the smallest and least policed of the three Celestial Valley gates, but it is still a place of surveillance and major population movement so don't expect to waltz in easily. The fact that this is the easiest entry point to the valley is also well known to Suwota, whose spies are thoroughly embedded in the major smuggling rings and keep a close eye on who and what enters "without Her knowing".
Metropolitan Fringes
- Sky-1 is industry-oriented and the most intensely settled, including a number of residential complexes for people who work or trade in the Neck. Sky-1 is the model of a Sky District; it is entirely infested with the Goddess' body, and the city goes from the highest peaks to the roots of the mountains deep within the Earth.
- Sky-2 is more traditional and prism-led, with ancient prism bloodlines dominating local administrations. They tend to focus on agriculture and household manufacture.
- Sky-3 is more commercial, with trading centers connecting the Poppy Gate and the Azalea Gate. Many cats live here and lead the local administration. A lot of smugglers, spies, and merchants.
- Sky-4 is more agricultural, with terrace farms and goat farming dominating
- Sky-5 is more military-oriented
- Sky-6 is a mix of agriculture and mining. It is the home of eccentrics, and is undergoing a culture war between those who want to iron out the quirks and those who want to preserve Sky-6's uniqueness
- Sky-7 is an isolated area known for its relative coldness to the rest of the city. Majority mining and majority-prism, Sky-7 loves Suwota but hates everyone else who lives in Arna. Given its total isolation, a number of elites have made getaway vacation bunkers here, which the locals hate
- Sky-8 is the least controlled of the main sectors, and is a cultural mishmash of Zirikev, Latep, and Arna. Anyone actually serious about doing sedition would smuggle through Sky-8, and a few foreign paladins have hidden bunkers just beyond Suwota's vision here
Guilds and Factions
The Traditionalist Purebloods: The hyper-conservative and reactionary oldguard, typically either Purebloods or Halfbloods (though also including some ambitious and conservative Warm and Cold bloods), who gather around the old aristocracy. Highly nostalgic and brutally violent towards perceived threats to the social order, the Traditionalists tend to be centered around wealthy families and individuals but work together as a broader faction when the need arises. Traditionalists tend to cluster around the Celestial Valley, the Upper Narrows, and elite districts. The traditionalist Purebloods are big in the Civil Administration and also the Church. Traditionalist-aligned gangs do exist and rally around xenophobia to punish the target of the day.
The Rationalist Purebloods: No less loyal and certainly still fascistic, the rationalists are elitists who want change and transformation - for the glory of the empire and the conquest of the foreign. Rationalists like new fashions, foreign luxuries, "reason and logic", technology, and perfectly assimilated and subordinate foreigners. This faction tends to rally around sympathetic elites and institutions, and can range from slightly-subversive hipsters to bloodthirsty technocrats. The military is currently flirting with the rationalists, and they have made some progress within the Church. The Towers, the Neck, and the Harbor tend to lean rationalist in their elites. Former low-blooded halfbloods or purebloods tend to gravitate to the Rationalists, who they see as more accepting and open-minded.
The Smugglers: Smugglers are important for the day-to-day happiness of many Arnans, as they help bring in foreign luxuries from beyond the Empire. These smugglers understand their importance, and use it to both build their influence and open operations within Arna. Suwota largely tolerates their antics as long as they don't try too hard to evade her Eye's surveillance. The Arnan elites, however, despise the Smugglers for introducing foreign influence and 'blending the races'.
The Artisan Blocks: Guilds and unions are banned here, but artisans do still work together in large commercial blocks led by Civil administration officials or military production coordinators. These blocks seek to get better pricing, compete with each other, and help set the pace of daily life.
The Cat Clans: Cat clans that are loyal to Suwota are supported by the imperial state. Many cat clans hunt pests freely and live in state-protected dens as long as they report any seditious activity to the Eyes - and skilled clan cats often join the Eyes and send money back to their clans for collective purchases.
The Neighborhood Gangs: Gangs of rowdy young adults and teens do exist, despite state conditioning. Many of these double as sports teams or are connected to specific temples, prisons, or military regiments. Some associate with one political faction or another; some are just rowdy. Too rowdy, and a police sweep will begin mass imprisoning the neighborhood's lower-status children - most are bent towards the will of the state rather than against it. Some rare groups do actually rebel, though! These punk groups are most ineffectual, but some strive to actually make a difference.
Points of interest
As the largest city in the world, you can probably find anything here.
The Celestial Palace: A massive governmental complex that houses Suwota's original body, an enormous tower of stone, glass, metal, and vines. At the top, massive flowers look down over the city, and the eyes of judgment are painted and sculpted across the tower. The actual palace itself is a labyrinth; some say that the layout shifts on Suwota's whims, while others say that it is just purposefully built to confuse intruders. The top of the palace pierces the sky and is taller than even the mountains. Somewhere within its depths is the original tower that Suwota was placed on, her Celestial throne forever preserved and protected by this outer shell.
New Model Square: A marketplace in the celestial valley, New Model Square is the premier shopping center of Arna. It is basically an elite shopping mall, where the accumulated wealth of the Runevan elites can compete for the limited supply of exotic goods, art pieces, and novelties. Lush gardens surround the market square, fancy restaurants offer a massive selection of possible foods, and various amusements can be found at the fairgrounds.
The Champion's Arena and the Hookport Arena: The Champion's Arena in the Celestial Valley is the largest and most glamorous sporting arena in Runeva. It is used for team sports (such as rugby and soccer) as well as equestrian sports (such as polo and racing). The Hookport Arena, in the libertarian Hookport district of Nama harbor, is for the less legitimate sports: this is where the bloodsports happen.
There are also many botanical gardens, zoos, libraries, colleges, archives, museums, cathedrals, and general amusements throughout Arna.
Architecture
Arnan architecture, also known as Runevan classical, is fond of tall buildings with hanging vines, terraces, and pointed domes. The city contains many variations on this, depending on who it was built for and what era it was built - little damage has been done to Arna since the 1000s ME, so many era of style now comingle in eternal preservation.
It has been said that Arnan buildings are always built to resemble the spire-like mountain speaks that surround the sacred valley: the nearby mountains are unusually steep and pointed, like great teeth made of stone. While old Arnan architecture also quite liked zigurrats and pyramid-shaped buildings, more modern architecture is all about the tower. Residential complexes tend to be towers, shops often stack into towers, and any monumental building needs verticality. The fact that the building is absorbed into the body of the Goddess as it is built helps with this; as the stone and wood becomes immune to nonmagical damage, it can support weights that would normally be unworkable. This allows for enormous verticality and for buildings that would ordinarily be impossible (such as enormously top-heavy buildings that stretch like trees overhead).
Stone and concrete are still used for many buildings, but cheaper structures just use Suwota-infused bamboo and adobe.
Geography
Arna is a mega-city, which extends over much of the Southern Grand Runevan river valley. Arna is also an extremely long city, extended almost two hundred miles along the Mura River.
Founding Date
-700
Type
Metropolis
Population
12,000,000; 20,000,000 greater metroplex
Inhabitant Demonym
Arnian
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
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