Erras Das, the Walking City (Air-Us Dahs)

The city of Erras Das has no set location. Back in the days when the planet had months long days and nights, it was impractical for large cities to exist, at least in any sort of stable way. While terraforming the planet, the Atlanteans decided upon a plan, and with the help of the native Thora, they gathered enough materials to build several walking cities. Only one of significant size exists in its original state today, the walking city of Erras Das.

The vibrations from the steps can be felt from miles away and were you not aware of what was happening, you may fear that you were caught in the approaching tide of a stampede or marching army. However, once you saw the city, you would understand immediately what it was, even if you didn’t understand how. The amber colored wall that surrounds the city hides all but only the tallest buildings in the city. The only visible entrance being a single gate within these walls, which is kept closed the majority of the time.
While building the city, many prototypes were built, but they continually ran into errors of legs breaking, the vibration being too intense, or too much power being consumed. Eventually, a solution was found. Erras Das rests upon hundreds, if not thousands, of golden legs that “walk” in waves. A series of platforms and tunnels exist above the legs to maintain and replace them as they wear out or break, a process which happens often enough, but rarely interrupts the movement of the city, thanks to the sheer volume of legs present.
Though in the past, the city used its movements to keep from overheating or freezing during the long days and nights, it found a new use for them in a post-Tower of Souls world. Not only would the city not be stuck in one location, which could possibly lead to drought or blizzard, but it would constantly be on the move, making evasion from Ra and his forces much easier. Even if the location of the city was discovered, Ra’s forces wouldn’t be able to make it in time to save the scouting party, and by the time they arrived, Erras Das would be gone.
Inside the walls, Erras Das follows the typical architectural trends that one would find in most Atlantean cities. The city mostly falls into concentric circles, with the outermost buildings being reserved for defenses and barracks and the innermost buildings being used for their labs or the assembly. In the middle rings you will find both merchant and residential buildings. Despite how it may look on the outside, any first time visitor to Erras Das will easily be able to navigate the city space.

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Inhabitants
Despite being the largest city on all of Venus, Erras Das does not get many visitors, mainly due to its ever changing location. As such the population is fairly static. The majority of the population of Erras Das is the native Thora, with the rest of it’s demographics evenly split between Human, Xyel-ya, and Mehune. Given the wide range in which the city travels, it's not unheard of for them to pick up other peoples and species from their own planet, as well as lost travelers who have found themselves on Venus from both Earth and Mars.
When the city was constructed, the Thora and the Atlanteans jointly helped build the city, but with the Atlanteans gone, the Thora have taken to living in and ruling the city in their place. As the millennia have passed, they have truly formed Erras Das into a city of their own. Their technology, while amongst the most advanced on Venus (aside from Ra’s creations of course), still pales in comparison to some of the wonders built by the Atlanteans during the creation of the city. So while many citizens of the city spend their days developing new technologies, a large number of residents have decided to pursue and advance more artistic pursuits, feeling that they should continue to forge their own society and leave the past to the past.
Living primarily in a societal bubble, many residents will go their entire lives without leaving the city. They will be born, live, marry, have children and die without having seen past the tall, bronze walls encasing the city. This leads many of the residents, while aware of the situation in the larger world, to not take it as seriously as perhaps they should. While it is true that there are occasional small scale skirmishes, their own defenses, the cities’ guards as well as the technological defenses of Erras Das, do largely protect them. The leaders in The Assembly, however, do take the threat of the outside world as seriously as they should, knowing that if Ra were to corner their city with a significant enough force, their city could fall to the same fate as Maksur Das.
Unfortunately, another consequence of many of the residents of Erras Das living completely within the city their entire lives is social stratification. While it is true that all residents of the city are free to pursue whatever roles they may like in the city, and the residents would echo this same sentiment, very rarely does anyone move up in their social standing in the city if they weren’t already born there. While it is true that some great artists and scientists can come from the citizens in the outer rings, many more will have the same social standing their entire lives. However, surprisingly, there is no great social unrest about this fact. Whether Erras Das is content with this current arrangement or if the idea of breaking societal barriers is so foreign to them that it hasn’t truly occurred to them, can’t be fully determined.

Type

Large city

Character Knowledge

• Characters just now arriving on Venus - While this place is unmistakably alien, at the same time it doesn’t feel dissimilar to some of the larger cities you’ve been to before.

• Characters not from Venus, who have spent some time there - This place is perhaps one of, if not the, safest places on all of Venus. While not exactly thriving, Erras Das is certainly surviving..

• Characters from Venus - Erras Das is one of the few places on Venus where you can live a life without worrying about where your next meal is coming from. That said, unless you’ve been there before yourself, you aren’t likely to ever meet anyone that lives there. You’d probably like to check it out, if you can actually find it.

• Characters from Venus who live or have lived in Erras Das - You know everything described above. The city appears to be an open book. While you trust your neighbors and coworkers, you always have this nagging feeling in the back of your mind that some people here aren’t exactly what they present.