Doskvol
The game takes place in the cold, foggy city of Doskvol (aka Duskwall or “the Dusk”). It’s industrial in its development. Imagine a world like ours during the second industrial revolution of the 1870s—there are trains, steam-boats, printing presses, simple electrical technology, carriages, and the black smog of chimney smoke everywhere. Doskvol is something like a mashup of Venice, London, and Prague. It’s crowded with row-houses, twisting streets, and criss-crossed with hundreds of little waterways and bridges.
The city is also a fantasy. The world is in perpetual darkness and haunted by ghosts—a result of the cataclysm that shattered the sun and broke the Gates of Death a thousand years ago. The cities of the empire are each encircled by crackling lightning towers to keep out the vengeful spirits and twisted horrors of the deathlands. To power these massive barriers, the titanic metal ships of the leviathan hunters are sent out from Doskvol to extract electroplasmic blood from massive demonic terrors upon the ink-dark Void Sea.
You’re in a haunted Victorian-era city trapped inside a wall of lightning powered by demon blood. [1]: 1
Doskvol is a city of crime, top to bottom. Every faction preys on others to survive. Alliances are fleeting, vendettas are bloody. [1]: 44
Horses are very rare in Doskvol— most carriages in the city use the large Akerosian goats as their draft animal. [1]: 95
In Doskvol, common parlance calls anything supernatural or disturbing a “devil.” Ghosts, demons, witches, sorcerers, and the summoned horrors of ancient rituals are all devils. “Take the devil’s bargain,” people say, when they know something is too good to be true. [1]: 210
The Dark Jewel of Akoros
The city of Doskvol was established over 1000 years ago as a coal mining settlement on the cold north coast of Akoros. It has withstood the breaking of the world, an attack by a titanic leviathan, massive fires, a plague, a civil war, and legions of angry ghosts. It is a community of survivors.
The city is densely packed inside the ring of immense lightning towers that protect it from the murderous ghosts of the blighted deathlands beyond. Every square foot is covered in human construction of some kind—piled one atop another with looming towers, sprawling manors, and stacked row houses; dissected by canals and narrow twisting alleys; connected by a spiderweb of roads, bridges, and elevated walkways.
Doskvol is one of the most important cities in the Imperium, since it is from its port that the metal steamships of the leviathan hunters are launched. The hunters brave the far northern reaches of the Void Sea, far out of sight of land, to grapple with titanic demons of the depths and extract their precious immortal blood—the substance refined into electroplasm, the power source of civilization.
All powerful noble families operate hunter ships, each commanded by the scion of their line—and it is by their fortunes at sea and the bounties of blood they capture that the fortunes of the empire wax and wane. The savvy and the ruthless of Doskvol do well to position themselves to profit from this crucial enterprise upon which so many depend—either as an ally or servant of the aristocracy, or by preying upon the corrupted rich and privileged elite. [1]: 237
Like every old city, this one has collected many names, from the original form, Doskvol, to the Imperial nautical designation, North Hook, to the modern Akorosian slang, Duskwall. All the names are used interchangeably by citizens, depending on their background and preference. Scoundrels of the underworld sometimes refer to their shadowy corners of the city as “the Dusk.” [1]: 239
Doskvol, like all the great cities of the Imperium, operates massive generators around the clock, to produce the power needed for lightning barriers as well as the thousands of electroplasmic lights that illuminate the public thoroughfares. Wealthy citizens operate their own generators and electric lights, but most people make do with simple candles and lanterns in their homes and shops. The smoke from generators, lanterns, torches, chimneys, and cook-fires chokes the air and covers the city in ash and soot. [1]: 240
Doskvol is cold, rainy, and windy on most days. Its citizens bundle up in heavy coats, scarves, gloves, and hats (convenient attire for a scoundrel who needs to conceal the tools of their trade). Just after dawn and again at twilight, the city is usually blanketed in a thick fog that obscures street lights and ruins visibility in the darkness. Many people habitually take a break during these times, staying indoors with a cup of tea to wait out the “blind hour.” [1]: 245
[1] Harper, J., Acimovic, S., Nitter, S., Arden, V., Figueroa, D., Green, D., Nittner, D., & Shields, A. (2017). Blades in the Dark (v8.2). Evil Hat Productions.
The city is also a fantasy. The world is in perpetual darkness and haunted by ghosts—a result of the cataclysm that shattered the sun and broke the Gates of Death a thousand years ago. The cities of the empire are each encircled by crackling lightning towers to keep out the vengeful spirits and twisted horrors of the deathlands. To power these massive barriers, the titanic metal ships of the leviathan hunters are sent out from Doskvol to extract electroplasmic blood from massive demonic terrors upon the ink-dark Void Sea.
You’re in a haunted Victorian-era city trapped inside a wall of lightning powered by demon blood. [1]: 1
Doskvol is a city of crime, top to bottom. Every faction preys on others to survive. Alliances are fleeting, vendettas are bloody. [1]: 44
Horses are very rare in Doskvol— most carriages in the city use the large Akerosian goats as their draft animal. [1]: 95
In Doskvol, common parlance calls anything supernatural or disturbing a “devil.” Ghosts, demons, witches, sorcerers, and the summoned horrors of ancient rituals are all devils. “Take the devil’s bargain,” people say, when they know something is too good to be true. [1]: 210
The Dark Jewel of Akoros
The city of Doskvol was established over 1000 years ago as a coal mining settlement on the cold north coast of Akoros. It has withstood the breaking of the world, an attack by a titanic leviathan, massive fires, a plague, a civil war, and legions of angry ghosts. It is a community of survivors.
The city is densely packed inside the ring of immense lightning towers that protect it from the murderous ghosts of the blighted deathlands beyond. Every square foot is covered in human construction of some kind—piled one atop another with looming towers, sprawling manors, and stacked row houses; dissected by canals and narrow twisting alleys; connected by a spiderweb of roads, bridges, and elevated walkways.
Doskvol is one of the most important cities in the Imperium, since it is from its port that the metal steamships of the leviathan hunters are launched. The hunters brave the far northern reaches of the Void Sea, far out of sight of land, to grapple with titanic demons of the depths and extract their precious immortal blood—the substance refined into electroplasm, the power source of civilization.
All powerful noble families operate hunter ships, each commanded by the scion of their line—and it is by their fortunes at sea and the bounties of blood they capture that the fortunes of the empire wax and wane. The savvy and the ruthless of Doskvol do well to position themselves to profit from this crucial enterprise upon which so many depend—either as an ally or servant of the aristocracy, or by preying upon the corrupted rich and privileged elite. [1]: 237
Like every old city, this one has collected many names, from the original form, Doskvol, to the Imperial nautical designation, North Hook, to the modern Akorosian slang, Duskwall. All the names are used interchangeably by citizens, depending on their background and preference. Scoundrels of the underworld sometimes refer to their shadowy corners of the city as “the Dusk.” [1]: 239
Doskvol, like all the great cities of the Imperium, operates massive generators around the clock, to produce the power needed for lightning barriers as well as the thousands of electroplasmic lights that illuminate the public thoroughfares. Wealthy citizens operate their own generators and electric lights, but most people make do with simple candles and lanterns in their homes and shops. The smoke from generators, lanterns, torches, chimneys, and cook-fires chokes the air and covers the city in ash and soot. [1]: 240
Doskvol is cold, rainy, and windy on most days. Its citizens bundle up in heavy coats, scarves, gloves, and hats (convenient attire for a scoundrel who needs to conceal the tools of their trade). Just after dawn and again at twilight, the city is usually blanketed in a thick fog that obscures street lights and ruins visibility in the darkness. Many people habitually take a break during these times, staying indoors with a cup of tea to wait out the “blind hour.” [1]: 245
Region
AkorosConnected Cities
[1] Harper, J., Acimovic, S., Nitter, S., Arden, V., Figueroa, D., Green, D., Nittner, D., & Shields, A. (2017). Blades in the Dark (v8.2). Evil Hat Productions.
Type
City
Related Reports (Primary)
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