Ossilyatai

“The way I see it, people want to gamble, drink, and fuck, and if they get where they’re going while they do it—well, that’s just an added bonus.”

— Kasaki, publican

In the past, traversing the Radiant Waste was an extremely arduous undertaking. The crossing took weeks, and even the least contaminated routes could cause serious health issues. Those travelers who went it alone were almost all lost to the wilderness, and those who paid for passage with wasteland caravans were often as not robbed and left for dead by their guides. Most aethernauts would probably have been more than happy to give this blasted, carcinogenic expanse of cracked earth a wide berth—had it not been one of only two links between the hemispheres of the Aether.
These days, there is a far safer and more comfortable way to cross the Waste: hitching a ride with Ossilyatai. Also called Waste-Walker, Ossilyatai is a walking city, a geomantic colossus which allows for the safe traversal and transport of goods across the Radiant Waste. Originally a Yao city, the steady stream of revenue from Ossilyatai’s passengers allowed its people to break free of Yaocapact’s control and declare independence.
Ossilyatai, in defiance of the strict, collectivistic culture of its mother city, holds as its highest ideals the freedom and pleasure of the individual. These days, the city is a popular haunt for all manner of gamblers, roisterers, and thrill-seekers. A criminal syndicate runs the city in all but name, and what few laws Ossilyatai has are barely enforced.

Waste-Walker: The Early Years!

Ossilyatai was designed by a team of Yao stoneworkers and Oroscan engineers. Its individual parts were built in Iacathra and Yaocapact, then ferried across the Aether to be put together on-site in the Radiant Waste. From the day of its inauguration, Ossilyatai was hailed as a triumph of engineering; even accounting for the accidents and malfunctions of its early years, the survival rate of travelers in the Waste was way up.
It quickly became important not only as a mode of conveyance, but as a hub for trade. At first, most of the money from this trade went to Yaocapact, but eventually, dissenting voices began to question this. Why should the people who risked their own safety to keep Ossilyatai running pay most of their earnings in taxes? Why should the rich aristocrats of Yaocapact get richer off their labor?
Before long, Ossilyatai’s independence was a fact. This process of liberation was almost completely bloodless; although relations between Ossilyatai and Yaocapact were very strained for a while, the mere thought of the logistical nightmare of warfare in the Radiant Waste deterred Yaocapact from any attempt at military reprisal. In any case, Ossilyatai is far more valuable to Yaoacapact as an ally than as an enemy, and relations between the two cities have been steadily thawing since.

A City on the Move

Ossilyatai is a strange blend of mechanical parts and animate stone, a construct the size of a small city, with a kettle-shaped body supported on four spidery legs. The legs connect to the body via an intricate suspension system which all but guarantees stability; the engineers of Ossilyatai like to boast that if you drink a cup of tea while the city climbs a mountain, you won’t spill a drop.
The city, which circumnavigates the Radiant Waste along a set path from which it very rarely deviates, is magically warded against the splinter’s poison. The original wards, which could be somewhat unpredictable, have been shored up and improved over time; these days, even the open air of the upper deck is safe to breathe, and the rates of birth defects and infant mortality in Ossilyatai are lower than ever.
Trade is vital for Ossilyatai’s survival, as it is not capable of producing nearly enough food to feed its inhabitants. The city pays for food and other needful wares with tourism money and with valuable materials extracted from the wasteland. The most daring of Ossilyatai’s inhabitants are its miners and scavengers, who leave the safety of the city to ply their trade in the poisoned sands below.

Hedonism and Roguery

Ossilyatai is a young city, and its independence is younger still. It has no language of its own, and its population consists mainly of the descendants of Yao citizens, although there are people in the city from countless other ethnic backgrounds.
Ossilyatai’s burgeoning population lives within a very small area, and as a result, Ossilyatai has become very crowded. Space is precious. This is reflected in the unique mixture of styles that makes up the city’s architecture: the gothic bombast of Yaocapact, partitioned into makeshift tenements and honeycombed with cramped access tunnels.
Ossilyatai welcomes a steady stream of tourists and travelers, and the laxity of its laws and its willingness to take in outsiders means that it is often a place where people wash up who have burned their bridges elsewhere. Everywhere in the city, hedonism and roguery are in ready supply. The uppermost levels, where most of the city’s passengers spend their time, have something of a casino feel, like a cruise ship in international waters. The locals live in the city’s cramped and smoky lower levels, which can be very dangerous to outsiders.

Rising Tensions

The highest political post in Ossilyatai is that of high overseer. Prior to Ossilyatai’s independence, the high overseer served by royal appointment, and their authority was absolute. Now, they are the city’s ruler only in name; it’s an open secret that the office of high overseer is too tied up in the interests of organized crime to have any real power.
More or less since Ossilyatai declared indepence, its real rulers have been the crime syndicate known as the Idle Hands. Though they have encouraged and profited off the city’s vice, the Hands have also kept the city running, after a fashion. It may be a filthy, overcrowded place, but at least the money is still flowing.
Recently, however, there has been an upset in the city’s power balance. Historically, an average of only around a third of the population has participated in the annual elections to fill the high overseer’s post; in the most recent election, almost two-thirds of Ossilyatai’s people voted. The reason for this is the newly elected high overseer, Hallinoct Toren, who has galvanized the people with his campaign promises of cleaning up the city and cracking down on organized crime.
Since his election, High Overseer Toren has been doing just that. He has also survived two separate assassination attempts. Tensions between the Hands and the new high overseer’s law-enforcement taskforce are rising, and even Toren’s staunchest supporters are starting to fear the possibility of an all-out war.

OSSILYATAI

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Head of state: High Overseer Hallinoct Toren
Languages: Yao, Aetheric
Currency: Ossilian kanak