Overview
The Jade Ring of Novus is the level of the city most associated with nature and verant life within the city. It is massive sublevel, cavernlike level lit by a complex network of mirrors and magically crafted crystals that emit daylight. This artificial light and the complex network of sublevel tubing, ductwork, and pipes that create an irrigation network are what make this level into the agricultural marvel that it is. All crops are grown on this level with expansive fields that grow grain, vegetables, and fruits, as well as verdant meadows ideal for animal husbandry.
The Jade Ring is the breadbasket of Novus, but it is largely so without explaination. Deerai Collective scientists have determined that the soil should have long depleted itself, however arcane engines underneath this level seemed to have a way of replenishing and accelerating the growth of plants grown on the level. The arcane engines are a level of technology that perplexes and eludes the best minds of the city.
The faithful believe that the engines are icons of Ezrithel, mysteriously and unkowningly blessing and providing for the people of Novus by inspiring nature to provide food for the people of Novus. If it is truly an act of god that makes this so, then Ezrithel is a fickle god. Not every season has been bountiful. To this end, nature clerics and druids carefully attend to and preserve the Jade Ring, cultivating the crops to grow bountifully from the Wellspring while providing a well kept and beautiful slice of nature for the citizens of the Jade Ring. There are many parks, reflecting pools, and forests within the Jade Ring that provide a welcome escape from the stone and steel construction of Novus.
At the heart of the Jade Ring lies the Verdant Sanctum, a naturally constructed temple made of living plants and trees where Ezrithel and Naltyr's faithful pay homage to their respectivel gods.
The inhabitants of the Jade Ring are simple folk, many of which with an innate tie to nature. Halflings, gnomes, and elves are the primary demographic within the Jade Ring, most being agricultural workers in the complex industrial agriculture of the Ring.
The Jade Ring is a microcosm of the rulership structure within Novus. While Novus is run by the
Brass Ring of Novus, there is a council-like leadership structure underneath the Bearer of the Brass Ring of Agriculture (currently
Irika Leafhome) which reports on the ongoing health of their agricultural zone. The foremost concern of this body is the continued production and postive yield of crops, though this body is also tasked with representing the concerns of the workers who toil here.
All infrastructure in the Jade Ring is devoted to the farming industry, with roads designed with farming equipment in mind first and foremost. There are few settlements that house permant residents on the Jade Ring. Land is needed for farming, not to be taken up by houses and structures. There are a few communities that house workers, but most workers travel to their shifts in the fields via the train or the collumn lifts. What few settlments and outposts there are on this level are not connected and serviced by roads, but rather by air skiffs, that quickly traverse the ring to deliver equipments, supplies, and ferry workers to their various agricultural zones. There is a complex network of irrigation & machinery beneath the surface of the Jade Ring.
The Jade Ring is divided into districts much like the other rings of Novus. However, these districts are broken up based upon the agricultural zone they contain. These districts are:
- Grain
- Aquaculture
- Forestry
- Orchards
- Poultry
- Animal Husbandry
- Sugar
- Vegetation
The Jade Ring is a beacon of nature, the only such place that many will ever see if their lifetime. As such, there are many botanical gardens, natural vistas and natural retreats that many seeking an escape from the endless stone and steel of Novus crave. Many choose to visit the Jade Ring to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of life elsewhere in the city. Some are shocked to find that the same spirit of hurry prevades life in the Jade Ring as well -- and that the nautre they seek to connect with the a carefully cultivated, decidedly un-wild space. Relgious tourism is also considered to be highly important to the Jade Ring as the Verdant Sanctum draws many who are curious about Ezrithel.
The Jade Rings is largely a cavern, carved out of stone and supported with a network of girders and steel support collumns. Great effort has gone into making these collumns feel invisible, however the structure is all necessary to support the cavernous chamber. Mirrors and daylight crystal are hung from these support beams. The exterior radius of the ring is outfitted with massive turbines that draw in air from outside of the city to simulate breeze and provide fresh air. All these qualities do their best to make the chamber feel less like a giant bunker, yet there is no escaping that that is precisely what the Jade Ring is.
The earth of the Jade Ring has been carved and molded to suit the needs of the various crops within. Open pastures for livestock, rolling plains for grain, and well irrigated plots for growing fruits and vegetables. The Everfell River cuts through the Jade Ring, collecting at Cornucopia Lake in the Vegetation Zone. Both bodies of water are engineering marvels within Novus, using a complex network of ducts, drains, and pumps to cycle water from one end of the "river" and backg to the beginning again. This river is a central component in the irrigation systems within Jade Ring and also powers a number of mills and hydro-electric stations along the way. These are the only such bodies of water within all of Novus.
The Jade Ring's climate is quite variable, depending upon the needs of what is growing in any given zone. For the most part, the Jade Ring's air feels laden with moisture and somewhat balmy. Massive fans and turbines situated at various points through out the ring simulate the forces of wind, capable of blowing light breezes to storm-force gales. Consistence is key for the climate of the Jade Ring, which seems to simulate regularity and equilibrium at all times.
