A new year, a new summary

Races:

Goblins: Clever engineers that threw off the shackles of the evil god that created them and now enforce their goodness through temperance leagues and other clubs and societies.

Orcs: Gentle seafaring folk who live aboard their greatships and rarely venture onto dry land

Halflings: Live communally in small villages in the homeland, but more conventionally in the city, the home hearths of Astre owe their current form in the city to the Halflings.

Dwarves: If not a dead race, then certainly dying. No child has been born in the mountainholmes for more than a century and the remaining Dwarves spend their time in a stupor, unwilling to do much besides eat and sleep.

Humans: Come from many of the worlds connected to the City, but mostly from the many shattered kingdoms of the old empires of Tikreti.

Kobolds: Recently civilized tribes from the swamps, they appear more and more often in the city as traders of fish, fowl and other products of the swamps.

Worlds Beyond Portals:

Benoch: The area around the portal is low lying hills populated mainly by Halflings. Large river near the portal makes it a huge trade route to the many kingdoms that formed from the fallen Tikreti empire.

Orlock: The source of the Aqueduct, the goblins beyond the underground exit to the portal are proficient engineers, building dams and canals above and below ground.

Copia: Portal exit is to a vast swamp populated by Kobolds and much worse. A massive project to build a causeway across the swamp is nearing completion, will enable much better trade with the dwarves of the mountainholmes beyond the swamp.

Ilum: Leads to a floating pontoon that orc ships occasionally dock at. The nearest land is more than a week's voyage from the portal.

Interesting Sites:

The Palace of Justice: Next to the Night Palace, Court cases in Nocte are known for their entertainment value, creative punishment, and mad Judges.

The Pits: Home to the poorest and most desperate of Nocte's peoples, the pits burrow deep below the city into the rock.

The Night Palace: The palace of the Duke of Nocte, although the Duke himself hasn't been seen in many years, is known for lavish balls and its intricate gothic architecture.

The Home Hearths: Each morning, all the citizens of Nocte eat breakfast in one of the almost 50 hearths, tended to by the Priests of Anwyn. The elite of the city do most of their business deals in the hearths.

Walker's Square: The largest open public space in the city sits next to the Palaces of Justice and is the site of all executions in the city.

The Anchor: In several Nocte neighborhoods, massive chains, with links the size of a horse, can be seen randomly piercing walls and spanning streets. These chains hold up parts of Nocte that jut out over the edge and have allowed people to build wider and higher than would otherwise be possible. Most of the chains originate from the Anchor.

The Aqueduct: The City's only water source stems from the underground canals beyond the Orlock Portal and is so important it has an entire legion of guards to protect it.

The Honourable Society of Tallow Chandlers

The Honourable Society of Tallow Chandlers, or the Lighters as they are colloquially known are amongst the most powerful in the city. Formed from a collection of merchants around the year 120, they created the guild in order to lobby the Duke of the time for public lighting in the city. Up until that point, the exteriors of buildings were not lit, nor were the streets of the city. Most people carried torches or lamps to get around and for those who didn’t, ropes were installed as guides.

The Tallow Chandlers were successful and they split the new responsibility of lighting the public spaces of the city amongst themselves. As oil lamps became more popular and the tallow chandlers diversified, they gained the name Lighters.

Between the years 130 and 156, the Tallow Chandlers used the threat of withdrawing light many times to extort greater and greater sums of money from the city. Things came to a head in 155 when the Duchess Ketta began hiring rival lamplighters at a much lower cost. Conflict broke out and the rival lamplighters engaged in skirmishes across the city. Entire districts were left in the dark for days at a time and people began to carry personal torches again, as they did before the public lighting of 120. The Tallow Chandlers Guildmaster at the time, a halfling woman named Berrin paid a huge sum of money to assassinate Ketta, hoping her son would be more easily manipulable. She was wrong, the son Gerard was insane and ordered Berrin and the other senior Lighters to be imprisoned. The trial that followed was, experts agree, one of the most entertaining in the history of the city. Wild accusations were thrown, endless parades of witnesses questioned and three judges assassinated. Finally they were declared guilty and burned alive in their own lamp oil. The Lighters were broken, or so they thought, but Duke quickly lost interest in the issue and over the next few decades, the Chandlers were able to regain the influence they lost

Over 800 people are currently employed to keep the lamps of Nocte lit. Although it is not a highly paid position, the lamplighters are a respected profession and often receive a drink on the house at any tavern they wish to frequent.

The Guilden:

Pavian Morell - The head of the guild, a balding sycophant who has retained his position for over ten years by ingratiating himself not only with powerful Chandlers Guild figures but other Guildmasters as well. His wife, naturally, is the strategic mind of the pair. Irina is responsible for negotiating a new, lucrative contract with the city. A growing proportion of guild members are getting sick of Pavian and want Irina to take over instead. She is not opposed to the idea but he is. If it ever came to a vote, Pavian has been stockpiling cash, thugs and mercinaries to make the political conflict much more literal than usual.

Vannis - A almost inhumanly thin man sporting a comically large black beard. Children say he is more hair than man. Vannis is responsible for apportioning the contracts of the guild out to its various members. This position is the most powerful in the guild because he can deny families of their income, or unusually bless them with additional contracts. To date he has been scrupulous in his fairness but that will change soon. He has accrued a large gambling debt to Iryllia Revear and she has begun to call in favours.

Kyle Arran - Descended from one of the original founders of the guild and won’t let you forget it. The Arrans are one of the most respected (or at least, oldest) families in the city and one of its most arrogant. Blond haired, blue eyed they put a lot of stock in breeding and are often heard abhorring the state of the city. In recent years this attitude is getting less and less welcome amongst the becoming affluent non-human races of the city. The Arrans are spending more and more time in the country but Kyle Arran prefers to stay in the city. He is famous for his (human only) parties that overflow with excess. Last month, one of his soirées turned into a debaucherous looting expedition after running out of pheasant pate.

Some Lamplighters:

Narell “Leggy” Martock - A seven and a half foot giant, leggy is forced to walk with a stoop most of the time. He can however, light the high lamps on the main roads without a ladder.

Semtin - Known as the clumsiest woman in the city, she is famous for setting herself on fire on no less than five occasions. People in the street give her a wide birth and laugh openly at her. Semtin has almost had enough of the abuse, for some time now she has been plotting her revenge. Not so coincidentally, supplies of oil have started to go missing from the Chandler’s Store.

Ginna - A plump and jolly woman, she delights in handing out cheap candles to the children who follow her on her route. Occasionally she manages to lure one of them back to her room but only for the company, the children are unharmed.

Havin - An sandy haired, broad chested, honest looking man that is nothing of the kind. He makes a significant income on the side by threatening to burn down peoples shops unless they pay protection money. Although he has never followed through on his threats he is quick to take credit for the occasional small fire the breaks out in the city.

The Reformation of the Orlick Goblins of Atmos

So legend goes, the Goblin race was born of a contradiction. Graak forged the Goblins from fire and darkness, law and chaos, a cacophony of screams and absolute silence.  

The goblins grew quickly, not only numerically but technologically. The human tribes that occupied the coastal regions of the island of Atmos co-existed peacefully with the goblins initially, until the expansion of both cultures began to cause tension. Both cultures traded with the orcs that sailed the great oceans. The Orlick Empire, as the goblins styled their disparate holdings, grew rich and decadent based on the commands Graak issued his spawn: Build empires, accumulate wealth and power, enslave and exploit the weak.

Despite calling themselves an empire, the Orlick goblins were anything but. With no central government, ruler or bureaucracy even calling it a kingdom would be a stretch. This changed as conflict erupted with the humans downriver. On the island, huge amounts of rain fall on the western mountains, but very little on the side of the island that is habitable. Both the goblins and humans depended on the rivers and lakes that flow from the western mountains to the ocean so when the goblins began to dam the rivers, war erupted soon after. This created a problem for the Orlick goblins as their human foes were vastly more organised despite being technologically inferior. An accord was reached whereby each landed goblin would provide troops and supplies to the newly formed army. Until the Reformation, this military structure was as much government and bureaucracy as the goblins would need at a national level.   

A decade after contact with Nocte, an aristocrat named Klaas took the typical cruelty of the Atmos goblins a step too far. His slaves which numbered in the thousands by and large worked in despicable conditions in the coal mines of Gildenof. Goblin and human slaves permanently shackled together worked 18 hour days without break, slaves were expected to eat, drink and crap on the go. If a slave collapsed or died they weren't removed until sleep time. This changed when a friend of Klass visited the mines and was horrified by what he saw. The friend, Unger, did own slaves and no one could have accused him of kindness toward them, but it is certainly true that something changed in him when Unger visited the Gildenof mines.

Since almost the beginning of time, there had been 'defective' goblins who rejected Graak and his cruelty, small cells of resistance occasionally sprung up but amounted to nothing. Unger became one of these defectives when he visited the mine and saw the atrocities his friend committed upon his slaves. Returning home, Unger sold his slaves and assets. With the proceeds he began a campaign with the stated aim of freeing the goblins from the hatred and cruelty that bound them. Unger's earliest attempts were met with ridicule, then mounting derision as people realised he was serious. Despite several early assassination attempts Unger's movement spread openly. Goblin society, despite its political and social machinations, did not really know what to do with a movement so ideologically different from mainstream society and lacked the governmental structures to deal with it. In a society with few laws but a massive bureaucracy, a strong military but one entirely engaged in the constant warring with the Arant humans downriver, the Goblin Temperance League (as they became to be known) was able to grow relatively unchecked. Early growth was driven mainly by Edda, a rich merchant who had quietly been building her own network of goblins that sympathized with Unger’s cause. She built her business as a trader in seeds and dyes her fortune came from her second concern, the largest network of messengers in Orlick. These messengers allowed her to deliver the revolutionary message across the empire and also hinder the communications of her rivals such as the priesthood.

The Priests of Graak, did see the threat of the Goblin Temperance League but the many factions were too fragmented and unwilling to join forces. Their communications and attempts at organisation had previously not come to much and with Edda’s runner network able to disrupt their attempts at organisation, each faction was simply too small to pose a threat to the League. Still, many key figures were assassinated by the priesthood. Unger survived many attempts however, and his followers built his image to that of a saviour of the entire goblin race.

In the end, it was Klass, Ungers' friend who made the movements victory assured. He made a martyr of Ungers by personally striking him down while Ungers was giving a speech on morality to over ten thousand goblins. The news spread like lightning. Assassination was not uncommon in goblin society but Unger was different. His death sparked a violent uprising of millions of slaves and free goblins that gradually overthrew the priests of Graak, powerful opposing goblins and what little there was of the military left in the empire. The buildup of mostly non-violent speeches, influence building and moralising happened quickly, over the space of five years the goblin society transitioned from one that had no comprehension of morality, to one where such a discussion was possible. The violence triggered by Unger’s death would last for over a decade. During this period tens of thousands of goblins fled through the portal to the world beyond and many even settled in Nocte. The Reformation, bloody though it was remained committed to basic freedoms and rights for all goblins, basing many of their new ideas on the orcs they traded with and the humans they met through the portal. The orcs democratically elected a captain and leader of their ships so the goblins modelled their own new government after the orcish custom.

Although the early democratic experiments of the goblins were wildly inequitable, despotic at times and at best chaotic, it had its own influence on the city. The refugees that settled in the city quickly became foundational members of the blossoming guilds of the city. Many of the rituals and organizational structures of today’s guilds have their origin in these early Orlicken experiments in democracy.

A goblin today will speak of a new age of goblin enlightenment. The goblin race has transcended its origins as the spawn of an evil deity. Of course, centuries of cultural conditioning are difficult to overcome, many underground cults still exist that worship Graak and his servants. The city its self is not a utopia. Massive cruelty, inequality and poverty exist, but at least the goblins believe that all is not right and strive to improve the world around them.

Small Gods

As the meeting point for numerous cultures and even worlds, the religions present in the city are as numerous as the rats that infest it. Ancient religions mix with spontaneously erupting cults and everything in between. 

Irati - A swamp deity of fertility, she has over a thousand mortal sons and daughters who make up her clergy. By her word, she protects her family from harm and spurns outsiders. Irati's protection is real and powerful, as such, her children are in huge demand for marriage or even casual couplings as the Irati’s protection would be extended over any progeny of the relationship.

Urugu - Lives amongst reed beds, he is the maker of papyrus for the book of records and although he doesn't have direct worshippers, Urugu is venerated along with the Keeper of the Book of Records as the provider of materials.

Keeper of the Book of Records – Has never had a proper name, and her small cult claims that it would be unwise to try to name her. Oddly enough the Keeper and Urugu are originally from different pantheons, Urugu being a Kobold swamp deity and the Keeper, a Dwarven ancestor spirit.

Castor - A deity unique to the city, Castor is principally a repeller of mould and fungi. No construction is done in the city without a prayer to Castor. He only has one priest however, a dwarven woman named Gloran. Oddly enough, for a cleric of a fungicidal deity, she grows mushrooms in a set of rooms she keeps moist for the purpose. When asked about this dichotomy she merely smiled and says "know your enemy".

Arxan - A demon god that was originally subservient to Graak but since the reformation has been mostly worshipped in secret in his own right. Several different cults of Arxan exist in the city with wildly differing beliefs, here is a selection of some:

1.       When a believer dies, they must be boiled and consumed. Everything but the spleen must be eaten.

2.       Power is born in the suffering of others. If you can make another suffer without consequence to yourself, that is power and those with power are most respected by Arxan

3.       To bring wealth to your children, insert coins under the skin. Old, rich goblins can get quite chunky.

4.       Those with power have a duty to exploit those without.

5.       Power is useless if not used, own slaves, demonstrate your dominance of them publicly.

6.       Power can be transferred from one to another by means of the former inflicting pain on the latter.

Chrisa - About 300 people follow Chrisa, a goddess of infinite kindness and wisdom. She promises those who follow and serve in her interests will be taken from this world to a better place of light, clean air and abundance. Indeed, under the leadership of Groot (a charismatic young elvish woman), a number of people have managed to leave the world behind and transcend. At least, that's what Groot claims and no one can prove her wrong.

Some things about Orcs

The Orcs of the great oceans of Atmos:

• are a seafaring race, they ply the seas in great generation ships, touching land less than once a year.
• have skin like seals (although green), it is slightly oily to the touch and covered in a fine layer of hair.
• do not experience curglaff (the shock felt on plunging into cold water).
• smell of brine and fermented fish.
• diet consists mostly of fish and seaweed, although orcish fish sauce is highly prized in Nocte.
• most never set foot on land and only a tiny percentage venture farther than a few miles from the sea.
• will always have upon their person a small phial of salt water.
• give birth to live young. A mother can control the length of the pregnancy from four to eleven months. A four month orc baby is very immature but an eleven month old will be crawling within a week or two.
• dissolve quickly in their own acids juices upon death, leaving behind a lot less bones than expected and a small brownish pearl that, when ground, forms a heady intoxicant.
• have personal gods. Each family has a god that protects them, must be sacrificed to etc. Some of the gods have become popular since the families came to the city and are worshiped by thousands. Public shrines are not unusual, even if no one outside the family worships the god, they still want everyone to know about them.
• never anthropomorphize things, they would never say the "the ocean is a cruel mistress" or even "that cloud looks like your mother".
• have no ocean, land or animal gods as the orcs believe themselves to have souls and no one else. Animals are free to be slaughtered and fish to be caught. The ocean is not personified either. It is just the world, random, capricious, sometimes calm, sometimes angry (although an orc would never ascribe orcish emotions to the ocean, they would use kalmeren and bous respectively).
• never speak their own language on land, it being sacred of the sea.
• always refer to themselves as aboard a ship, even when on land.
• when on land, visit a bathhouse daily at a minimum.
• cherish fresh water. Although not sacred, wasting fresh water is a moderate crime.
• that live in cities are lonely folk, usually apart from their families, that like to join communities of like-minded individuals such as guilds.

The Halflings of Blonks

Blonks is one of the many Dukedoms formed in the Sutland after the fall of the Tikreti Empire. On its collapse, over 300 years ago, Blonks was formed from one of the Duchies of the Empire.

 
300 years ago, the relatively unmolested halflings of Blonks were conquered by the Tikreti Empire. Empyric practices at the time were to appoint a local related to the previous system to govern and so a halfling was appointed the first Duke of Blonks. Under the duke, three barons were each appointed a portion of the dukedom. A century later the empire falls but the Duchies under it remain. The former empire splits into thousands of independent realms, some fell to conquerors, others saw sense to ally with their neighbors to form new kingdoms. The disparate groups of the Barden plains and Stallem hill valleys that form the Sutland mostly remained small and independent.

 
Life ruled by nobles never really suited the halfling way of life, theirs being a much more equitable and equal society than existed in most other places in the empire. For this reason, the dukes and barons that rule are mostly ignored by the majority of halflings. Their tithes are small and the barons know not to push too hard, else they find themselves completely ostracised from Blonkian society. This society is almost entirely made up of small hamlets and villages, consisting of very few large (albeit low ceilinged) communal living huts surrounding a Home Hearth of Anwyn. All food preparation and consumption is done within the Home Hearth, as well as being the common gathering place and workspace for the village. The huts surrounding the home hearths are also communal space, up to twenty people will live in a hut that has no internal walls or separations of any kind.

 
Halflings are not private people at all, their communal living prevents it, to extremes that other cultures may be shocked by. A Blonkian will happily defecate in front of people, as well as fornicate. Although halflings are mainly monogamous, the participants, nor or any onlookers would feel slightly uncomfortable engaging in sex in a communal sleeping area. Pre-marital sex is not uncommon, the older folk just smile at the youths and their emotions, knowing that soon they will be adults and ready for marriage. Children are brought up communally and although a child will know who their parents are, no particular affection or attachment is normal in Blonkian society.

 
A typical village will be surrounded by many wind chimes and other noise making paraphernalia. Loud instruments and many bodies close together keep away Malkalin, the dark stalker. A god of darkness that takes lone halflings at night, Malkalin also has influence in The city in Darkness. Halflings in the city do not live communally and there is some debate as to whether this has drawn Malkalin to the city.

 
The head of the village is a member of a mystery cult of Yashan. Although they still live communally, only the heads of villages and their eventual replacement are indoctrinated into the Yashani (as they are known). The followers of Yashan meet secretly every full moon to discuss leadership, perform protective rituals over the villages of Blonks and make the sacrifices Yashan demands for his protection. At every meeting, an animal born since the last full moon is sacrificed.

The Home Hearths of Astre

One of my favourite books of the early D&D 3e era was The Book of the Righteous by Aaron Loeb. The Home Hearths of Anwyn was my favourite church, I loved how integrated it was into the society. It seemed like a church with a real purpose, something useful for people to believe in and be a part of. My equivalent god, Astre, is directly influenced by Anwyn but both fortunately and unfortunately, my memory is terrible and I haven't read the book in over 10 years. It is packed in storage somewhere literally half a world away but in a way that's a good thing. It will force me to be less plagaristic and more creative. I also have to point out the fantastic coincidence that astre means hearth in old french. I swear I made the word up, but I will forgive the reader for not believing me.

Astre is not an interventionist god, she never dabbles in mortal affairs, even to protect her church and most devout followers. Prayers to her go unanswered, her priests claim no influence over her, nor that they can even send or receive communicatons with her. Yet, Astre is the most widely worshipped god on both the rock and her original world, Benoch. 

The reason for this is simple, the church of Astre, the Home Hearths, is not only the largest charitable organisation in the worlds, but also the largest individual provider of sustenance to the people that live in communities with a Hearthen presence. Although the nature of the Hearths differ wildly across the different cultures Astre is worshipped, Blonks (the region directly beyond the Benoch portal) provided the basic template for the city church, although the dwellers on the rock take it to great extremes. In the small villages of Benoch that fall under the influence of Astre, the centre of the village is usually dominated by a plain hall large enough to seat the entire village. Kitchens and ovens line the walls of the hall and all bread is baked therin. Although in the villages most homes have cooking facilities, the first meal of the day is always had at the Hearths. Villagers will bring their dough, made the night before and set out to rise, to the ovens of the Home Hearths. While it is baking they socialise and have their first meal of the day provided by the hearths. Usually a porridge with fresh bread, a little honey and some fruit. Once the bread is baked (and some of it consumed), the villagers will begin their days work. 

In Blonks, the communal nature of the halfling inhabitants (more on that next week) makes the Hearths even more dominant. The only building in the village with cooking facilities is the Home Hearths and all meals and most social activities take place within.

In the City in Darkness, the Home Hearths are still a large part in the day of it's inhabitants. The first meal of the day is always had at the Home Hearths.

Breakfast is usually made up of porridge, bread and unique to the city, jellied eels. Rich and poor alike will attend one of the many Home Hearths scattered around the city. As there is no specific rich district in the city, each Home Hearth will play host to people of all social classes. The nobility, merchants, workers, paupers and even priests of other gods attend the Hearths every morning. The poor attend out of necessity, the rich out of obligation. Neglecting the Hearths is sure social suicide for even nobles with their own cooks and kitchens. Meals are served from 5 bells in the morning, to mid-morning (9am), the earlier you attend the more pious you are. Workers will typically stay only a short time before hurrying to work, but for merchants and nobles, the mornings are spent talking business, doing deals and socialising. 

Attending a beautiful Home Hearth gives its patrons prestige and so the patronage of artists, architects and artisans is common. Sculpture, and other works of art are especially prized and popular artists are in constant demand. This beautification is not just a competition between different Hearths and families, there is a genuine belief that exulting Astre in this way will bring her closer to them and, despite all evidence to the contrary, make her look more favourably upon the members of the Hearth.

The priests of Astre do not make showy use of miracles, divinations or other such divine powers, nor do they claim to have any special connection wih Astre. They focus instead on providing nourishment for the vast majority of the population of the city. The food provided is donated and not all by the rich, most attendees of the Hearths will, a few times a month, purchase a sack of flour or oats to bring to the hearths. Only the truly destitute are excused from the shaming that comes with being miserly and uncharitable. 

Although the Hearths at first glance seem to be an equitable paradise, not all is as equal as

it seems. The rich, especially patrons of the Hearth are treated favourably; they never wait for food and are served the best whitest loaves, the youngest, most tender morsels of eel as well as fruit, something normal city dwellers cannot usually afford. That said, the daily meeting of all cultures, races, religions and classes is the major reason the city has so little racial tension. Any city of Nocte's size and cultural diversity would expect serious problems but thanks to the mixing influence of the church of Astre, the Home Hearths, these problems are minor.