Asanatown

N bubble-city Population 5,292 (83% Lashunta, 5% Human, 4% Android, 3% Ysoki, 2% Half-Elf, 3% other) Government elected council Qualities academic, devout, insular, paramilitary Maximum Item Level 20th

Demographics

Culture in Asanatown has been shaped by more than 20 years of psychic noise. Every lashunta in the Archipelago has been subjected to unspoken but keenly felt warnings that something awful is about to happen. The result is a culture with a siege mentality. People here are cynical. Outsiders typically have to prove they’re not a threat. Ordinary citizens vacillate between sullen silence and passionate outbursts. Everyone assumes the worst outcome in any enterprise.
Few children reside in Asanatown. Those who do grow up here find the stresses contribute to a bias toward korasha genetics. This kind of pressure is very unusual for the otherwise enlightened lashuntas, and it’s one of the most telling examples of the degree to which this psychic stress has distorted Asanatown’s culture.
Meetings take place regularly in Horizon House, in closed form between only members of the council and in open form with council members’ various constituents. Korasha lashuntas, who are traditionally considered to be better suited to military conflict, dominate Asanatown’s council positions. This majority maintains a strong conservative stance, calling upon their fellow lashuntas to preserve a traditional way of life that values courage, honor, and physical prowess. Intellectual and artistic pursuits, as well as integration with other species, are often sidelined as luxuries Asanatown cannot afford.
Because of these factors, visitors to Asanatown may find themselves surprised by the city’s atmosphere. Much of the technology favors telepathic operation, leaving non-telepaths at a disadvantage in some cases. Streets are thick with dour locals, many clad in all-black clothing or military gear—or both. Some carry holographic signs proclaiming different ways the world might end, such as the sun becoming a nova or imploding into a black hole, the domes of the Burning Archipelago collapsing, or the Swarm returning in an invasion to consume all life. Street-corner debates are common, and brawls and similar disturbances are not unheard of.

Defences

CONFLICTS AND THREATS Asanatown is a settlement poised on the brink of conflict—not just with outsiders, but also with itself. The leadership of Asanatown is precarious. While the community has an elected representative to the Archipelago Senate, which governs the entire Burning Archipelago, the military culture of Asanatown has been conditioned by 20 years of psychic dread into preparations for war against an unknown threat. Gathering such a tremendous stockpile of armaments has made it difficult to keep these weapons from being used. It’s only a matter of time before one of Asanatown’s militias, many of which are led by retired veterans and trained combatants, rises up and seizes control of the bubble-city from the elected council. These militias’ moral righteousness and tacit support from civic leaders, often including General Kam, make them very hard to reason with. Such warriors aren’t motivated by anything as reprehensible as greed or lust for power: they honestly believe the entire Archipelago is in critical danger and someone has to do something about it. They might even be right.
Until such an uprising takes place, Asanatown’s militias maintain tight secrecy, and they’re willing to strike back at anyone who threatens that confidentiality. Asanatown is a proverbial hornet’s nest, and anyone who pokes it is going to get stung. Several organizations have tried to investigate, infiltrate, or set up shop in Asanatown, only to face harm resulting from a variety of reasons, ranging from mysterious accidents to violent raids. A radical paramilitary force known by its membership as the Sunrise Collective often claims responsibility for these acts.
Considerable tension exists even within the more peaceful aspects of Asanatown’s society. Worship of Mataras has taken on a strident tone at odds with Sarenrae’s traditional worship. This difference threatens a schism among those in the Burning Archipelago who revere Sarenrae. Many of the Burning Mother’s worshipers have also turned to Pharasma in their pessimism, changing their sun worship or separating from it altogether.

Industry & Trade

The lashuntas of Asanatown are suspicious and introverted. They’re much more likely to hoard what they have than seek trade with outsiders. Nevertheless, some local industry exists. If the residents of Asanatown are ever able to look outward again, they could offer much to the Burning Archipelago.
In Asanatown, it’s relatively easy to locate military equipment, trained soldiers, and residents that have combat experience. Lashunta soldiers, in particular, are unique due to their integration of telepathy into the facets of military life, including training, daily operations, intelligence analysis, and logistics. Veterans residing in Asanatown often find themselves caught in mysterious plots and paranoia regarding outsiders, so their military expertise is exported only in small amounts and for mercenary missions near the sun. Those seeking psychic warriors for covert missions within the Pact Worlds, military hardware designed for use by telepaths, or the expertise of a retired lashunta colonel must come to Asanatown and arrange a meeting in the Seeker Shelter, the Last Laugh, or one of the settlement’s other dark corners. However, if the lashuntas’ strange psychic affliction ended, thousands of veteran lashunta warriors could have the opportunity to serve as defense professionals all over the Pact Worlds. The Stewards would celebrate such a change in attitude, but for now, anyone who wants to hire mercenaries from Asanatown must travel to the city prepared for a tense negotiation.
Despite their introverted stance, lashuntas have built only a little of Asanatown and Clearlight. It’s often forgotten, but the entire Archipelago was constructed by mysterious engineers who came and left, perhaps millennia ago. For lashuntas, who are accustomed to the verdant lands and aggressive life forms of Castrovel, Asanatown can feel cold. As a response, it is custom here to keep “jungle boxes”—enclosed terrariums housing plants and animals from Castrovel—adjoining homes and other buildings. Asanatown has plenty of space and ample water, and so many of these jungle boxes are full-size greenhouses. A few are expansive parks, especially in Clearlight. These arrangements can require considerable upkeep and care, but few lashuntas complain about tending their colorful plants or caring for familiar Castrovelian creatures, especially telepathic companions such as Shotalashus. Indeed, green spaces of Asanatown have become a valuable source of food, pharmaceuticals, and raw materials that would otherwise be quite rare in the Burning Archipelago. A craftsperson seeking Jabaskian lumber or an herbalist in need of fungus from the Ikal Expanse just might be able to find it here and avoid expensive transport from Castrovel.

History

On the grand scale of The Pact Worlds, where history goes back thousands of years before The Gap, Asanatown and the Burning Archipelago are new settlements, only two or three generations old. While the Archipelago’s founding is the result of exploration and, some say, a divine miracle, Asanatown’s unique character as a lashunta enclave is the product of two intersecting factors: social unrest caused by psychic signals from within the sun, and a wave of veterans seeking purpose after the end of the lashunta-formian wars.
In the early decades after the Archipelago was founded, lashuntas were scarce in the community. Those who did make the trek to the sun came to help establish centers of higher learning in Stellacuna. Although it would surprise many students and visitors now, Solar University once counted many distinguished lashuntas among its faculty—before Shirren diplomats negotiated an end to the long conflict with the Formian, before the coming of The Swarm, and before the university riots.
The peace treaty with the formians was signed in 287 ag, and in the years after, thousands of lashunta soldiers were released from duty. Countless veterans traded that confrontation for the Silent War, but others sought to use the technical and physical skills they had developed in service for a civilian purpose on the frontier, and no frontier was more dangerous than the edge of The Sun.
Devotion to Sarenrae is strong among military personnel, and these lashunta veterans were no exception. Therefore, numerous people among these new arrivals to the Archipelago were followers of Mataras, the Burning Mother. This community of ex-soldiers found a spokesperson in retired General Malonio Kam (LN male korasha lashunta soldier), whose taciturn and practical leadership made him a counterpoint to the more cerebral leaders of lashunta society in Stellacuna.
Lashunta faculty, students, and veterans were friendly rivals in the Archipelago for years, until a wave of mass anxiety and panic took hold among them in 296 ag. Virtually overnight, lashuntas from different backgrounds and diverse upbringings came together out of fear over some unnameable threat only they could sense. Putting aside their jobs and pastimes, the lashuntas reached out to the other citizens of the Archipelago, warning them of coming disaster. Unfortunately, to many of these residents these warnings sounded incomprehensible and unlikely, and were largely disbelieved.
Whatever the lashuntas were feeling was telepathic in nature, but even the brightest minds could not determine its cause, and other telepathic species, such as shirrens, remained unaffected. The more passionate and outspoken the lashuntas became, the more unreasonable they appeared, and the less willing anyone was to listen. Finally, in 299 ag, anxiety, frustration, and telepathic instability erupted into a series of riots on the campus of Solar University. There were no fatalities, but several people were seriously injured. Popular opinion turned against the Archipelago’s lashuntas.
During this time, little urban growth and development had occurred within the bubble that would become Asanatown. Several corporations had weak claims and conflicting interests in the bubble, and no linecrawler had yet been built into it, though explorers had mapped out the area’s massive dome and the monolithic structures it towered over. As time wore on, lashuntas of the Burning Archipelago developed a paranoid siege mentality. General Kam led them to begin the work, through influence and actual labor, to establish a lashunta enclave. The Archipelago Senate supported this plan, since by then lashuntas had come to be seen as disruptive troublemakers. Castrovel’s government settled some of the competing corporate claims on the empty bubble-city by offering lucrative contracts back on the lashunta home world, but it was the influence of the church of Sarenrae that proved decisive. General Kam welcomed the assistance of a handpicked disciple of the Burning Mother, Ada Belel (LG female damaya lashunta mystic), and a charge to consecrate a new church to Sarenrae in the lashunta enclave. He helped found the secular government facility in Clearlight, centered on Horizon House, a preexisting Archipelago structure the lashuntas co-opted for their purposes. (The name Clearlight derived from General Kam’s childhood home and Horizon House was named after that town’s council building on Castrovel.) With all these forces paving the way, many of the Burning Archipelago’s lashuntas quit their jobs in other bubbles, packed up their belongings, and migrated to what soon became known as Asanatown.
It has been fewer than 20 years since Asanatown’s founding, and although General Kam has, despite his widespread popularity, largely retired from public life, Ada Belel remains the high priestess of the Church of the Burning Mother. Academics, scientists, soldiers, and others continue to visit Asanatown and its subsidiary bubble, Clearlight, but most choose only to visit rather than emigrate, as the psychic weight of living in the Archipelago is too overpowering. Other species are allowed into Asanatown provided they have business there, but the lashuntas welcome few who wish to reside within the settlement unless they have lashunta sponsors. Most visitors find themselves eager to leave anyway, perceiving the lashuntas here to be bellicose, grim, insular, pessimistic, and suspicious. These observations are fair, though, rooted in the mysterious psychic stress that could disappear as quickly as it came.

Tourism

The following areas of interest can be found in Asanatown.
Bulwarks Plaza: A public space, Bulwarks Plaza is very green but has few trees. Canals filled with cool, clear water break it into islands like its namesake on Castrovel. At any given hour, dozens of lashuntas can be found relaxing from their work, exercising, or gathering for events or to listen to speakers. Bulwarks Plaza has become an arena for sharing apocalyptic fears. Citizens offer passersby hand-printed leaflets of warning, while others hold holographic signs aloft that proclaim “The End is Nigh” in rainbow colors with illustrative animations. The most notorious rabble-rouser here is Jenaelyn (CN female korasha lashunta mystic), who never leaves the park, even to sleep, having only a blanket and a plastic box for a home. Jenaelyn’s zealous haranguing of all who come within earshot has won her a few enemies, but her compassion and willingness to put others ahead of her own comfort has won her far more friends. More than once, a gang of malcontents has attacked the street preacher, however, and it seems someone wants to get rid of her.
Center for Eschatological Research: Known colloquially as the Eschatologium or CER, this institute of higher learning proves that even when their society is under enormous strain, the lashuntas can’t resist building a school. Founded by former faculty from Solar University, the CER is devoted to the study of deep future, entropy, and the end of the universe. It is located in the depths of Asanatown, in a network of spacious halls and tunnels crafted by the species that created the bubble-cities. Aware that few lashuntas willingly endure life in the Archipelago for long, the Eschatologium depends heavily on visiting faculty from Castrovel and other lashunta communities, who stay for a semester or year and then return home, often much worse for wear. A small cadre of tenured faculty, led by distinguished professor Vanya Blekona (NE female damaya lashunta technomancer), works full time on a secret research project devoted not to studying or predicting the end of the universe, but rather finding a way to make it happen. Blekona is convinced that if the universe is going to end in a cruel and drawn-out way that involves the suffering of trillions, the only ethical solution is to end it early in a quick and painless fashion. As a result, Blekona devotes herself to finding a way to make that happen.
Checkpoint Laubu: A police post typical of Asanatown, Laubu Station temporarily becomes Checkpoint Laubu during the events of “Fire Starters.” Situated on a major thoroughfare, the station provides police easy access to other parts of the city and citizens easy access to the police. Normally, Chief Shavri Maneon (LN female korasha lashunta soldier) runs the station, which is named after Laubu Mesa on Castrovel. Chief Maneon has ties to and beliefs sympathetic with the Sunrise Collective.
Church of the Burning Mother: Founded in the first few weeks of the lashunta migration into Asanatown, the Burning Mother’s church occupies the top floors of a massive structure. It is presided over by Ada Belel, whose interpretation of Mataras’s will has become increasingly energetic, outspoken, and critical as she has aged. Much of the lashunta population attends Belel’s weekly sermons, and she reminds them in eloquent but certain terms that each of them is going to come face to face with Sarenrae sooner rather than later. Belel exhorts the people of her congregation to look inward and examine themselves, while also putting their beliefs into practice in day-to-day life. Recently, operatives from the Radiant Cathedral have been eavesdropping on Belel’s services and investigating her activities. Belel hasn’t done anything illegal, but the leaders of Sarenrae’s mainstream faith are concerned about the possibility of a schism. When the warriors who make up parts of her congregation find out about this covert investigation, it’s unlikely to have good or peaceful results.
Convent of the Eternal Sun: Within Clearlight, before Asanatown was officially founded, a solarian named Aluru (LG female Kasatha solarian) started a cosmonastery she called the Convent of the Eternal Sun. Aluru broke with traditional observations of the Cycle and led her followers here from the Idari. Her teachings forsake graviton revelations in favor of dedication to photon revelations and the sun. Her pupils, who go out into the world with the title of “conventurers,” accept this one-sided stance and make it a symbol of their dedication. However, some students gossip that Aluru has a brother who has founded a rival cosmonastery in the depths of the void. The rumors say this rival school orbits a black hole and its students master only the most powerful graviton revelations.
Over the years, the Convent of the Eternal Sun has drawn adherents from many species. It is among the largest enclaves of non-lashuntas under Asanatown’s auspices. The current head instructor, Bryce Patton (LG female human solarian), is the first non-kasatha to rise to that esteemed position. Bryce and Aluru are concerned about whether and how peace can continue within Asanatown, but the solarians try to keep a low profile given the city’s political climate.
Crematorium: Funeral services in Asanatown have been centralized in the Crematorium—a facility in Asanatown’s lower tiers—for 2 decades. When the staff recently knocked down a wall as part of an expansion effort, they discovered a tiny but ornate shrine to Pharasma. The tenor of the facility changed. The Crematorium and its attached shrine have become a center of worship for a growing congregation of lashuntas clad in black garments who have turned away from Mataras. The constant weight of psychic doom that burdens all lashuntas in Asanatown has convinced many that fate and death are inescapable, and only Pharasma—who sees and knows the future of all living beings—can truly protect them.
Ada Belel has noticed more of her parishioners absent every week as Pharasma’s temple becomes more crowded. The priestess has discerned still others among her flock who have taken to revering Pharasma and Sarenrae in tandem, focusing on Pharasma’s fate aspect alongside the redemption and light Sarenrae offers. Ada knows about the Crematorium but considers it to be no threat to her or those who find comfort there.
Horizon House: The government center of Asanatown, Horizon House stands amid a wide green space in Clearlight. Elected officials meet here, town-hall style, to decide matters for Asanatown. Citizens can easily meet with their representatives here, as well. Horizon House is further detailed in this volume’s adventure.
Last Laugh: Every evening the Last Laugh, a small nightspot, is packed with patrons, mostly in part due to the performances of Chaz Bilgart (N male Reptoid envoy). Chaz was assigned to infiltrate the Burning Archipelago, but having become enamored of comedy, he instead found he simply wanted to make people laugh. He adopted the identity of a lashunta comedian and went on tour, claiming an uncorrectable birth defect that left him with stunted antennas and no telepathy. He uses this appearance to explain his lack of psychic power and as part of his act, which focuses on dark, cynical humor. Until he came to Asanatown, Chaz had thought he just wasn’t funny enough. However, his arsenal of gallows humor was exactly what the lashuntas of Asanatown wanted, and he was an instant hit. After a long stint of successful shows, the Last Laugh signed Chaz to a long-term contract. His reptoid masters demand regular reports, and while he’s been able to satisfy them by concocting various rumors and stories of his own imagination, he’s afraid one of his deceptions may be detected. Either his grim fans could realize he’s a shapechanging alien from the Vast, or his reptoid masters might recognize he has been shirking his duties and send assassins to kill him. Chaz remains loyal to the reptoid cause in that he’s unwilling to divulge what he knows, but he no longer wants anything to do with those machinations.
Outer Lodge: Positioned near the entrance to Dawnshore, this boarding house is maintained by an android couple, Roz (NG agender android operative) and Gil (LN agender android envoy), who cater to non-lashunta visitors. The androids have lived and worked together so long that they complete each other’s sentences. Numerous Asanatown councilors distrust Roz and Gil, and the androids know the Lodge is under constant surveillance. However, individuals with business in Asanatown, people who want to come and go without drawing too much attention, and those who refuse to be dissuaded by Asanatown’s reputation, find the Outer Lodge to be the safest and most secure facility in the bubble-city. Asanatown’s council taxes the business heavily for providing services to outsiders, so it’s not cheap to stay here. However, Roz is an excellent chef who specializes in fusion cuisine and Gil mixes a mean cocktail, so guests seldom leave unsatisfied.
Psolarium: A few years after Asanatown was founded, a research team from Qabarat arrived, led by the charismatic and driven genius Tefya Flocana (N female damaya lashunta mechanic). Tefya, one of the foremost experts in telepathy and psychic powers in the Pact Worlds, has theorized that it might be possible to use solar radiation as a carrier wave for telepathic signals. Early experiments bore out her theory, and moving the project to the sun was the next logical step. She and her team commandeered part of the enormous dome that envelops Asanatown and turned the structure into a massive experimental apparatus. If she’s right, a single individual with telepathy could broadcast her thoughts at the speed of light to anywhere Mataras is visible. But Tefya has too easily disregarded the military and sinister applications of such technology, which could also allow a single individual with the ability to influence minds to extend that effect over vast distances. Some of her lab assistants and technicians have tried to point out the dangers inherent in her research, but after they did so, Tefya dismissed the most vocal researchers to return back to Castrovel, while the others have been cowed to silence.
Seeker Shelter: Known to most of its lashunta patrons simply as “the Shelter,” Seeker Shelter is a lashunta-only cantina catering to the military community of Asanatown. Virtually everyone who works here, from the grizzled bartender and owner “Onesie” Lalloo (N female korasha lashunta soldier) to the three-piece band and the wait staff, are veterans with long careers of conflict throughout the Pact Worlds. Onesie, who earned her nickname after losing an antenna to the Swarm, chooses to wear her scar as a badge of honor rather than receiving a prosthesis. She knows mercenaries and arms dealers cut shady deals in the alcoves and booths of the Shelter every night, but she’s loyal to her customers and the lifestyle she once led. General Kam is a regular here. He doesn’t have a reserved seat, but anyone who dares to sit on his favorite stool at the end of the bar is quick to yield it whenever he drops in for a drink.
Steamworks: Asanatown has several beautiful canals crossing its spacious plazas, most fed by the Steamworks, a hydraulic system beneath the surface of Asanatown. The mysterious creators of the bubblecity constructed the facility and the maintenance tunnels that lead here, and even Chief Sahn Vasahn (LN female Verthani technomancer) is not entirely sure how the system works. Steam work is one of the few trades open to non-lashuntas in Asanatown, and Chief Vasahn—herself one of Vercite’s Pure Ones—supervises an eclectic mix of species, most of whom also live in the tunnels and pipes. She even counts a few shirrens among her staff, who have been the target of violence perpetrated by paranoid lashuntas on the upper levels. The families of these shirrens live elsewhere in the Burning Archipelago and might be persuaded to hire investigators to track down the truth about what happened. A few might pay extra for appropriate retaliation.
The Warrens: Here in the so-called Warrens, Asanatown’s military conducts drills and wargames reminiscent of assaults on formian colonies. General Kam constructed this training facility years ago, soon after arriving in the bubble. Soldiers need to train constantly to maintain their skills, but the lashuntas of Asanatown are obsessed with secrecy. Located in the lowest sections of the settlement, this facility is a maze of hot pipes, twisting tunnels, narrow maintenance hatches, and several open rooms. At least once a month, General Kam holds a hunt in the Warrens, in which warriors who train here vie for the right to participate. The general releases an animal of some type—perhaps aggressive, perhaps merely quick and canny—into the tunnels, and the highest performers in the month’s drills are sent to stalk and slay it. Kam spends much of his free time arranging for the secret acquisition and delivery of challenging quarry. He never breaks the law in these pursuits, but he’s an expert in circumventing pesky regulations that might prevent him from importing dangerous or endangered creatures.
Whiskerhouse: The Linecrawler Operators Union maintains Whiskerhouse, a spacious apartment building and mercantile area atop one end of the linecrawler stations on the energy tether heading from Clearlight toward one of Corona’s sub-bubbles. Bey Whiskerhouse (CN male ysoki mechanic), an elected union representative, runs the facility and the attached linecrawler station. Bey helped construct the linecrawlers that connect Asanatown to its neighbors, and whenever anything goes wrong with them, he or his team are the ones to call. The ysoki is valuable enough to Asanatown’s councilors and well known enough among locals that he has been allowed to stay in Asanatown along with anyone he sanctions.
A few months ago, on a whim, Bey bugged the local linecrawlers with advanced and nearly invisible surveillance devices. When he’s bored, he likes to snoop. So far, this spying has gone unnoticed, and Bey has yet to overhear anything significant or dangerous. However, it’s only a matter of time before he accidentally learns something he shouldn’t know, and trouble is likely to follow. In the meantime, Bey opens Whiskerhouse to traders from Corona who are eager to buy and sell with the lashuntas, but who don’t want to venture far into Asanatown. As a result, Bey has an eclectic collection of technological, hybrid, and magical gear stowed away in the nooks and crannies of the house that he is willing to sell for the right price.

Founding Date

299 ag

Type

Large city

Location under

The Sun