It can also be used to kidnap people, and to extract them from prisons / law enforcement. If we had it when Dresden was arrested, and had no other options, using it on him would probably allow him to slip away from cops.
It's also a charm to use on deniable assets. Let's say we train Olivia as a ninja assassin. Let's say we send her on a mission to kill Marcone or someone else. Before she goes, we hit her with the charm. It adds to her stealth, and it makes anyone tracking her lose interest.
It does not stop people from reacting to the cursed hostilely. So Dresden in the police station becomes unknown suspicious person trespassing in the police station. Or Olivia becomes stranger trying or who tried to kill Marcone.
It does not stop people from reacting to the cursed hostilely. So Dresden in the police station becomes unknown suspicious person trespassing in the police station. Or Olivia becomes stranger trying or who tried to kill Marcone.
Note that it's a minor plot point that it's only the good guys who are bad at mental defences, because the way their magic works means they are terrible at the kind of experimentation and training required developed them, as the trainer/attacker in the experiment to develop defence techniques would be breaking a Law in the process.
Thing is we never see anyone set up a no sell no focus solution. Even the people who are good at it still have to know before they're under attack to set things up or else fight an impromptu psychic duel.
That doesn't equate to reflexive defenses that perfectly block everything.
I think, for Witness to Darkness in particular, it might (might) be because it was originally written as the charm you had to get to unlock the ebon dragon charmset, so the problems are the cost of the rest of the charmset and not the charm itself.
Thing is, they would not think it's the person's home, they would think the person was trespassing/squatting/whatever, so even if they follow them to their home, it won't follow them to their life.
Well I expect we are going to get Seeing is Blindness (••) (6xp and great combat buff) and Shadow Spite Curse (••) (6 xp all round utility curse) before we even consider getting the other Kakkuri curses.
Although I still maintain that Golden Years tainted black (••) (6 xp) is an amazingly flexible social and combat charm when dealing with people you hate. Nicodemus wishes that he had anything half as powerful. I expect that magical defenses would be represented as increased difficulty on the dice roll isn't really a problem for us since we only need one success and most of the people we use this on will be COD.
Bolded - changed from 1.2. Also added the section on how I think Endless Suffering works. I'll be posting an illustration gallery later, as a separate post. I think I have some good enough illustrations of variuos institutions and at least some architecture.
Main changes are that I expanded to Vast, and added Lord of the Land. In order to afford that, I dropped functional Gaols, and populated the underground prison by hostile tribes of primitves. I put in conditions to overcome their hostility, and I added the ways to get Gaols and Grand Grimoire later.
Vast size – 3 points, 2 points remaining
Difficult Terrain, 2 points remaining
Accessible Terrain, 2 points remaining
Pockets of Safety +2 points, 4 points remaining
Balanced Ecosystem, 4 points remaining
Earthly Fauna, 4 points remaining
Deadly Beasts, +1 point, 5 points remaining
Earthly Flora, 5 points remaining
Deadly Flora, +1 point, 6 points remaining
Human Populace, 6 points remaining
Resident Devils, -1 point, 5 points remaining
Advanced Social structures, 5 points remaining
Archaic Technology, 0 points, 5 points remaining
Advanced Technology, -2 points, 3 points remaining
Loyalty: Committed, -2 points, 1 points remaining
Resistance Movement, +1 point, 2 points
Dangerously Alien, 2 points remaining
Endless Suffering, -1 point, 1 point remaining
Lord of the Land, -1 point, 0 points remaining
Bottleneck - useful, yes, but loses us some possible plot of someone escaping our hell, and loses interactions of others trying to come in. I used terrain and climate as much as I could to still render our realm protected, in case it can actually be invaded. Which is not a given – it's not located in NeverNever, but inside our soul, in our exaltation.
Cauls - not something I want at all, and not the style of character we are playing. They, as well as other "architectural" developments, will be possible to acquire later on, through exploration of Great Labyrinth (see below, the fluff part), if QM allows.
Fruits of Hell - the cost is too much, and the downsides are too much too. Not something I want in general
Grand Grimoire - narratively very interesting, but can be built afterwards without point buy. Hopefully, can be roleplayed as exploration of what's already there, but undiscovered. I certainly left enough possibilities for that. Gaols are in the same niche.
Exclusive Transportation - useful, but can be built later, and with accessible terrain between cities, not that needed.
Time differential - if the differential was higher, it would be worth it. Right now, too pricey.
Overpopulated - I have a strong opinion on this. It's too self-sabotaging.
If someone were to look at it from far away, your kingdom would look like a perfect hemisphere with a radius of 8128 kilometers, most of its surface is buried under multicolored ice made of water, mercury, krypton, xenon – almost all elements of the periodic table known to man, and perhaps, more. If observed from a closer distance, and by a more discerning eye, the nature of the land appears far more complex, and perilous. Jagged, razor sharp forests of ice-like shards extend hundred meters high, forming a near impossible to traverse landscape. As time passes by, they break, shift, change and grow, as if they were alive. And indeed they are, if not in a way that Earth knows life. Many-limbed creatures, eyeless and pentaradially symmetrical, skitter through these deadly forests, chittering in bursts of infrared radiation.
Such is the depth of your domain's unfeeling coldness, that rivers of liquid oxygen flow through it, confined by the banks of superconducting bronze. Strange, alien creatures that derive nutrition from radiological decay of uranium and breath hydrogen-helium atmosphere, populate these rivers, inimical and universally hostile to everything within their reach. Their bioluminescence is the only source of illumination beyond the soft silver light of the moon traversing the starless black skies, each revolution with a new phase and surface.
To venture into this hellscape in an attempt to escape the kingdom of your heart without permission and a guide, is to face an almost guaranteed demise, for even if one was to clad themselves into a space-worthy thermally sealed suit, they would still be fleeced to the bone by a never-ending blizzard of ferrous snow. Electrically charged iron and nickel dust cyclone with the wind speeds far exceeding a hundred meters per second obscures the borders of your realm from outside observation to eye and any electronic equipment. Only those wise in the ways of your soul can dare hope to navigate this terrain.
And yet, not every place within your self is so inhospitable. For even as the iron cyclone rages at the border of the world, a no less ferocious anticyclone expands from its center. Where they meet, in a strip of land 496 kilometers wide, their clash in the skies is both ferocious and life giving. In that narrow space, the titanic magnetic fields generated by them cancel each other, and their particles' collisions generate heat enough that eternal ring of lightning plasma is raging in the skies, unable to escape its natural confinement. The temperature is high enough that liquid water can flow in this equator. The light is soft and bright enough that photosynthesis is effective. And life, or at least life recognizable by Earthborn eyes at first glance, strives there, desperate to occupy this narrow ring of space allowed to it. Dense and ever shifting forests rustle in the ever-blowing winds, their deep blue crowns endlessly shrugging metal dust from themselves. Their trunks stretch ever further in hopes to catch the lightning and fill their underground capacitors with vital energy. Fast and dangerous beasts, iron hided and sharp toothed traverse metal coated land of ever shifting shadows below, seeking either fruit or prey, for life is short and dangerous in this world, and no source of nourishment is to be dismissed.
It is among these forests that civilization of your world exists. It is confined mostly into five great megacities sitting in five corners of a great pentacle, 5747 kilometers from the center of the world. Each city-state is positioned on top of a great pole of metal, large enough to generate its own magnetic field and prevent metal dust from passing into the city, and to serve as a source of free electricity for the city-state's industry. Only the tips of the great pillars protrude above ground, but they are still more than ten kilometers high, extending far enough into the skies that the air pressure at their tops is barely a half of what it is where they enter the ground, and akin to the one you are accustomed to. The size of each settlement is far larger than any that could be found on Earth. Each boasts the population equal to the largest nations of your birth world. They are connected to each other by a vast cavern system, partly natural, and long since expanded with intelligent intent, forming the beams of the pentagram, with great armored trains coursing through the tunnels.
Each city is different, unique, strange and, somehow, nostalgic. Each is perfectly independent, and each is required for others to exist prosperously with their own cultures and aspirations.
In the east stands ruby clad city of law and warriors. Forges and training centers fill it, and all those who seek martial perfection, those who wish to pursue the career in law enforcement and law making, those desiring to sally forth in defense of the realm, gather there.
To the south east lies the city of knowledge, its emerald flags adorning the walls of its libraries, universities, research centers, ritual sites and laboratories. All those who strive for understanding visit it at least once in their lifetimes. Many a secret is hidden behind its walls, some, likely, unknown even to you, its creator. Certainly, its records extend to before the creation of its sister cities, perhaps to before the realm it is in existed at all.
In the south western corner of the pentagram, the city of art stands, its streets clad paved with sapphires. Where silence and focus reign in the libraries of its neighbor to the east, laugher and jubilation can be heard in all parts of this city. Magnificent are its galleries, captivating its theaters, and enthralling its bordellos.
And when the inhabitants of your world tire of jubilation, grow weary of training, become forlorn in their pursuit of knowledge, they travel to the city at the far west corner of the great pentacle. There, under the amethyst roofs of its buildings and ministrations of the carefully selected caretakers, they find the end to their struggle, and beginning of something new. For not all your citizens are human, and none of them know age and death as mortals do, and in time require assistance to move on, to rest, to change, and perhaps to end. It is also there that other guests of your world, souls of the damned are processed and made to atone for their sins, to find salvation and healing before being let out into the wider society.
Finally, in the north, there is a city from which teams of daring explorers venture forth, protected only by their armor and faith in you, to brave the borders of your realm in pursuit of minerals and other wealth. There the services that maintain great transportation arteries linking the five sister cities are located. There the main food production facilities are located. And finally, there stand the great golden gates, beyond which is the only tunnel leading directly to the border of your world.
Great are the cities of your kingdom, each more than a billion strong in number, each with its culture, philosophy, dreams and futures. And yet, they are not the crown of this world. For in its very center, there exists a sixth structure.
A giant statue, or a mountain if a form of statue, an axis of the wheel around which the world turns stands in the middle of your soul. Two eastern dragons, one black as the darkest night, the other all colors of rainbow, both over twenty kilometers long, spiral around each other in a mockery of a human DNA, rising from the ground to challenge the empty skies.
They emerge, frozen at the moment of a triumphant and desperate escape, from a round cracked hill of bronze in the ground. Upon closer inspection, one can find that the hill is but a tip of a giant sphere, almost buried under ice. If one was to brave the darkness and spelunk down into its depths, they would find themselves in a giant labyrinth of concentric brass and basalt spheres. Strange, eldritch writings and grotesque carvings cover its walls, floors, ceiling. Flickering green lights illuminate some, but far from all corridors. Over time, it seems, the layout of the labyrinth shifts, as the spheres composing it move against each other. Whether this movement is slowly winding down or speeding up is impossible to tell.
As one explores more and more of the great construct, a wise explorer would notice two prevailing trends. When approaching what should be the geometric center of this structure, the temperature slowly rises and, should the visitor has appropriate equipment or keen enough senses, they'll note the rising level of background radiation. When venturing deeper and deeper beneath the ground, farther from the surface, the shadows grow somehow heavier, the sounds of one's footsteps become hollow, and the very essence of the air becomes more and more grave-like. It is impossible to reach the deepest layers, much less the core or the bottom - the tunnels have collapsed long ago, some melted, some covered in debris. As such, no one knows what lies there. The calculations, however, indicate that just like the top of the sphere extends above the ground, its bottom might, in fact, dip into the nothingness below your soul's world.
Tribes of universally hostile primitives seem to inhabit the corridors and great halls of this labyrinth. They war endlessly for resources, locations of thermal vents and power lines, utilizing what great mechanism-organs the labyrinth has active with great skill. In the deeper levels, indirect evidence of more sophisticated and advanced societies has been observed.
No one tries to leave, and, in fact, what few prisoners were ever taken and successfully interrogated by the exploration expeditions, indicate that escaping the sphere is considered to be the greatest of sins. The labyrinth inhabitants believe themselves to be both its prisoners and wardens, and oppose every intrusion from the outside. The common belief among the tribes, bearing striking similarities to the Covenant of the Empress-to-Be is that one day a Head Warden will come, to take control over the prison and their lives. Unlike the more civilized citizens of the Five Courts, that future moment is not seen as something jubilant – it is a time of reckoning. They will prove their worth to their future ruler, and make her prove her worth to them in the only way they recognize - by opposing her with everything they have, and making her pave the path to the core of their World with their bodies. Only when she proves her martial might and cunning will they bend the knee.
That the sphere is, indeed, a prison, is not a question. Ample evidence of this was found by the Five Cities explorators. Each of its rooms can serve as a holding cell, its walls lined with symbols old and forgotten, meant to prevent teleportation, transformation, or any other means of escape, including death itself. The passages are lined with titanic vault-like doors barring passage. Each section could quickly be isolated from each other, and then flooded with gas, water, or, indeed, even fire. Brass eyes embedded into ceilings follow the movements of travelers. Soul-locked terminals hold access to the facility's slumbering systems are prevalent. Everything is waiting for its mistress to come and prove herself. The security increases as one progresses deeper and deeper into the sphere, with containment vessel designed to hold incorporeal, elemental and stranger still beings of great power described by survivors of the farthest reaching expeditions. Grand chambers obviously formed to serve to carry out great and terrible rituals in various states of disrepair exist where thaumaturgical mapping suggests the intersections of dragon veins should be.
If the bottom of the titanic twin dragon statue is a thing of brass and darkness, then the top is a beauty of crystal and light. In dragons' jaws, a giant crystalline palace complex rests, its architecture something that doesn't belong to today – only to tomorrow and perhaps to ages long since past. It is a glimmering symbol of hope and might. It is the seat of your governance, and the natural meeting place of the governing parties of your subjects. It is also a church, and a site of holy pilgrimage for them. The only possible glimpse of something that doesn't exist in this realm. Illuminating your throne, and observable only in your throne room is the Sun. Sometimes yellow, and sometimes green. The hidden geometries and enchantments of the crystals lining the walls of your castle are aligned in such a way that when you, and no one else sit upon the throne, the light shining on you, or emitted by you, will be spread, amplified and emitted by the castle itself, creating a rising sun for your realm.
In times past, the palace complex could only be reached by greatest and most devoted climbing the dragon's spine. Nowadays, the ingenuity of your subjects allows for a quick air transport or translocation from the base fortress-station at the bottom of the statue, which serves as the gates to both your palace and the underground labyrinth.
"Life here will begin out there". I didn't write these words, on the velum pages made from my own skin, with ink made of burnt bones of ancient monsters, under the light of candles burning green. In fact, I, nor my parents nor my child and wife, exist at all, as the devils I call forth from the hells unlike this one, and monsters summoned from further still, gleefully tell me. We all are but a backstory to a play yet unwritten, existing as a possibility among an infinity of its peers. They offer me this knowledge freely, gladly, safe in the knowledge that this is not happening. They desire that I despair, break and blaspheme, that I utter oaths unbreakable even if they are, in fact, unspoken, sell myself and all to follow me to their masters for the surety of becoming, and in doing so transform myself into a hidden poison at the heart of my future mistress.
They are fools, who see little, and understand less. They fail to grasp that even as they are safe to speak, so I am safe to question, fearing not to offend the realms they come from by conduct unbecoming, daring to betray ignorance and weakness without terror of discovery. They do not see this time-not as the gift it is, the opportunity to prepare, not one blind chance of history, but the infinity of different past probabilities coming together to craft the perfect future.
From the secret diaries of the Mirror of the Changing Moon, the founder of the Covenant of Empress-to-Be, dated ten thousand and one lunar cycle Before Her Arrival.
The Covenant of the Empress-to-Be is a monotheistic state religion of the five cities world. At its core lie the "Prophecies of Arrival" which state that at some point in the future, a divine figure, "Empress-to-Be" will arrive, and grant her followers life.
This is perhaps the most counter-intuitive precept of the church. According to its mystics, the world of five cities does not truly exist prior to their goddess' arrival, and merely represents one of the infinite possible backstories for the real world to come, ignited by her divine spark. Following from that revelation, lie the doctrine that preaches that their followers and the society as a whole has to live their lives in a way that would make their history be the one chosen by the divine empress in their subjective future. The followers of the Covenant are to better themselves continuously, to improve their utilitarian value, live their lives interestingly, to increase their entertainment value, and to undergo the right of Ending if they "write the story of their life into a corner with no way out".
The different specializations of the five cities are in many ways, reflections of their religious doctrine, where the City of Swords chapels preach that the Empress will need loyal soldiers, while the City of Fountains seeks to please Empress's senses.
Historical research indicates that the concept of paradoxical "existence before beginning" is likely a legacy of the older Cult of Twin Dragons, which existed before the Covenant's rise to power. Other researchers trace the idea of a messianic figure prophesized to come rule the world in the distant future to beliefs of the Core Prison tribes, some of which might have been ancestors of the modern civilization.
The Covenant heavily incorporates scientific research and method into their doctrine, such as using the theory of evolution to prove that humanoid population couldn't have arisen in this realm, and was willed into being by divine power. Historical research into the world's seemingly long and sometimes buried past is seen as a way to enrich the "world building" and keep the Empress interested.
"Unbiased review of the state religion", part of the briefing documents prepared for her Divine Majesty, twenty lunar cycles before her Arrival.
At the level of "committed" loyalty, religion is going to play an important role in the world's life. In fact, it is likely that theocracy would be the order of the day. When combined with "advanced technology" and "advanced society" it is also likely that wide use of magic and scientific research would be present. "human population" choice explicitly mentions history stretching to before creation of the exalt's kingdom. In Dresdenverse, summoning and NeverNever are all very much a part of magic. And there's a giant Oramus statue in the center of the world.
All these facts need to be reconciled. Thus, the Covenant of Empress-to-Be. Basically, it's a state religion that is aware of how history only really begins once Molly arrives.
Lunar cycle = one month. There are no seasons I could think of easily, so, full lunar cycles would be the measure of time.
Wan Kuei are the unruly dead who, through guile, cunning, and, above all, sheer perseverance, escaped on the thousands hells their soul found itself in after death. For the untold billions suffering in the underworlds of Yama Kings, it is no more than a few thousands that achieve this feat. Yet every soul struggles, and every hell can be escaped from. Indeed, if a new hell was to germinate from the chaotic seas of wyld possibility, or to be constructed by even the most godlike of powers, it too, would be a prison imperfect, the very laws of nature preventing formation of a realm truly without hope for escape. Why that is so, is a question unanswered. Some wise mystics believe that it is hope itself that lies as the cornerstone of these realms, and that the perfect hell would paradoxically have no power, and would collapse before it even came to be. Other students of ancient and forbidden lore posit that all hells are but echoes of some Primordial hell, sharing its base fundamental nature common to them all. It is the raw will of its unknown prisoners that prevents modern hells from being inescapable, they theorize. Select few wonder if those first prisoners have themselves ever escaped, or if they still struggle, projecting their effort through all of the cosmos.
The realm of your heart is, beyond everything else, a hell, to which souls of mortals are confined. It is thus its nature to be escapable, and of those souls in your kingdom to attempt escape. Yours, however, is not the world of one of foolish and greedy Yama Kings, and there are paths made intentionally available to each of your kingdom's denizens. They number four in total.
The first, and, sadly, by far the most traveled to its destination, is the path of surrender, leading to the end of struggle and nothing more. When a citizen tires of existence, they travel to the amethyst clad city in the west, and submit themselves to the priests living there with but a single request – to end it all. Should counseling, therapy, prolonged rest and meditation on the beauty of living not help, they are then subject to a solemn ritual. In a quite chapels, silent priests would write strange, arcane symbols on their bodies, give them ice wine fermented from the fruits only growing in the darkest outermost edges of your realm to lull them to sleep, and then, shedding tears of regret, murder them with ritualistic daggers. Unlike any other death under the light of the moon and lightning, this one does not permit returns. The soul slips quietly into the Maw of Oblivion.
The second route is for those burning with the lust for battle, enticed by religious fervor and the promises of glory. To follow it, one must devote themselves to training. Join one of the monastery-forges of the Red City, practice diligently one's katas and recite fervently one's prayers to the Empress-to-Be. Rise through the ranks of monks and win a right to join the honor guard of Her crystal palace – that is the ticket to salvation through servitude. For it is amongst those in her guard that the Empress is prophesized to select the men-at-arms who will do battle in her name outside this realm once the time comes. And if one is lucky enough, skilled enough, distinguished enough, survives enough of these battles, then they can pray to the Empress for a permanent release, to take them into the mortal world and release them from her service.
The third road is the shortest one, and, perhaps, the hardest. If one wishes to escape the kingdom of five cities, one needs but to take a train to the City of Journeys, and to declare it so. No obstacles will be laid before them, and they will be swiftly taken outside the city. From there on, everything will be in their own hands. They will just have to walk to the outer edges of the world, to climb the razor-edged forests, to pass through the iron hurricane and to traverse into the uncertain Ways of the unreality. It is not an easy task. To attempt it is common, for it is human nature to seek escape from the place of confinement. It is a sign of strength to crack one's cell open, rather than bow one's head and succumb to punishment. Many try, and most fail, nurturing the outer fields with their lifeblood, only to draw breath once more in one of the cities. Those few who would succeed are declared Anathema, their names added to the rolls of the enemies of state. For to succeed is to cast away the bonds of family, companionship and faith that define the nations of this world. It is to become a hungry dead, and to forevermore prey on the inhabitants of the worlds.
The fourth and final way branches off from the ones already described. It is not the way of many, rather it is the path of select few, for whom other roads are not suited. If, after throwing oneself against the outer storms time and time again, one learns humility, and yet doesn't desire the ending granted in the silent chapels of the Amethyst City; if they do not have the trust and faith in their heart to dedicate themselves to the Empress-to-Be in the promise of salvation… Then, on a new escape attempt, they can walk in a different direction. Not to storm in the direction of the rim, but to move in the direction of the Red City, evading beasts and traversing forests in the way. Once they reach the next city, their pilgrimage, and the trials accompanying it, truly begin.
In the city of saffron and forges, they are faced with two tasks. First, to master their body, and to prove their strength. To do so, they have to defeat one of the grandmasters of the martial art sects of the city in unarmed combat, demonstrating that they have mastered the first weapon everyone has – their own body. Then, as the second part of their trial, they are to forge and master a weapon, apprenticing. Their creation has to be acknowledged as a masterwork by the Ring of Smiths that control the weapon manufacturing of the realm, and their skill in wielding it by a grandmaster of the art. Only when these two tasks are done, their trial is considered complete, and the doors of City of Rubies open for them, so they can, once again journey the circle of life on the path to the city of Secrets.
Once they reach the Verdant City, their trial of History begins. Its two mirrored parts are to learn the history of the past, and to create the history of the future. In order to accomplish the first task, the applicant must unearth a piece of ancient knowledge, buried somewhere in the realm, and gift it to their peers. In order to finish, they must master and further a craft, a school of knowledge, create new knowledge that would serve as a foundation to those who will come next – on Earth that would be an equivalent of earning a doctorate.
The test of the City of Pleasures is by far the longest. Many of those few who try it consider it the cruelest. The first part is simple. It is, just like in all the previous trials, a matter of obtaining, and then proving, one's skill – this time by creating a piece of art good enough to become known as a masterpiece, to prove that one understands the society of the Five Cities enough that their creations resonate with everyone, not just a select few. It is the second part that breaks most who attempt it. For to succeed one must love, raise, and finally leave behind a child. Whether it be by adoption, or through means more natural, a child must reach adulthood and succeed on their own merits under the tutelage of the one walking this path. And when that child sincerely says that everything they have is thanks to the pilgrim, it is then that the pilgrim must leave them behind, to walk to the next city, without looking back. Thus their Sacrifice is complete.
The Silent City's trial is, in comparison a mercy. It is also, a final warning. First, the walker must participate in all the aspects of the ritual of Ending. They must try and talk someone out of finishing themselves, and when they fail, they must learn what the Final death is like, and grant it with their own hands, for if they are incapable of doing so, then no hope exists for them in the cruel world of outside. And when they understand death, they must nurture the fear of it inside themselves, for only the final death exists in the outside, not the brief embrace of renewal they are accustomed to. And it is out of that fear they must take a sacred vow not to seek their end, which forever denies them the mercies of the Amethist City. Once the vows are complete, they start on the final leg of their Journey.
And when they end it, they stand before the Golden Gate of the First City. They carve their name into it with their weapon – and there's plenty of room left still on it. And after the celebration to remember, they leave, more complete then when they started, and perhaps prepared to what lies next.
To date, no one has completed this road.
…
Or you could actually try and escape this hell of a reality, instead of meekly following the paths prepared for you. How? When they let you out to throw yourselves against the maelstrom, you could turn around and sneak your way to the foundation of Her Majesty's shining castle in the sky. Study every last draconic scale, as you climb upwards, clinging to them. Read and put to memory the blasphemous writings written on the scales of the prismatic dragon that can be seen only in their reflections in the polished ebon scales of its brother, under the light of the changing moon. Spend hundreds, thousands lifetimes learning to read and comprehend the message in one go, as with your every fall, the message changes. Do not speak of it to anyone, for should they learn of your attempts, you will never be able to try again. Discern the painful truths from hurtful lies entwined in this secret writ. Follow that knowledge to unlock the doors nonexistent, and you shall be free.
The whispers in shadows recorded by the acolyte of Her Divine Promise battle order shortly before she abandoned the order to become an inner ring explorer
The rules on kingdom making state that the has to exist a path to escape the hell you make. Exaltations deal with perfect effects. Why couldn't it make a perfect prison? I started to think why, and trying to fit this with a Watsonian explanation.
I came up with two explanations. One from the Dresdenverse side of the crossover, and the other is from Exalted perspective, which can also be used in an ExWoD game. The Dresdenverse explanation is that within existence Free Will is absolute, and exists in some way. A perfect prison with no escape denies the prisoners the choice to escape or, really, any choices. Thus, by the almighty power of the White God, such perfect prison is rejected from existing.
The Exalted answer is that the creation of the kingdom is the power of Infernal Exaltation. It is an act of an exalted growing from human to something like a primordial in their soul structure, and it is a mirror of primordial host making the Creation. However, and it is very important, an infernal exaltation was created by the yozi, not by primordials. We create not just a world, but a hell – the distant shadow of Malfean realm of the ages past. The exaltation carries the charms of its creators, parts of their self. It is, at the very core of itself, their hope for escape. And no yozi can truly abide the existence of a perfect, inescapable prison, for they are the ultimate prisoners, and the exaltation is the ultimate lock pick. To create a hell without hope would run directly counter to the very themes and purpose of infernals existing. And so, the infernal exalt's inner world has to be escapable.
Next, I decided to look into the ways of escape. The rules are clear – walk to the outer edge of the realm, and you are free (and, for the dead condemned to the hell, probably become a hungry dead variant). However, this is clearly not the only way to escape. The realm I made was inspired by the Maidens, and clearly features in-story references to old lore. So, I devised five paths:
1) To die. This is the path of Endings, and, since I used Endless Suffering in the build, requires a ritual. Because this is a world with advanced culture and society, to get to that ritual, one has to pass through extensive therapy and counselling.
2) To join Molly's entourage and get summoned/taken outside. This was discussed before, and clearly the players want to have some option to do so. "Summon a strike team from your inner world" being a possible charm. This path was made to explain how the strike team is selected. I mean, the population of the world is in the millions. Who gets called? Thus, the religious order of warriors, dedicated to the Empress-to-Be on the promise of getting to see the outer world. This is the path of War.
3) Walking outside. This is the path of Journeys. It's the one encoded into the canon text of the kingdom making charm. I simply added the flavoring and social repercussions of how leaving behind the society with "committed" loyalty to the infernal would not be taken well, but trying to do so would be treated as normal.
4) This is the one I had to work most for. This is the path of Serenity, and it is also heavily inspired, as readers might have noticed, by the initiation into sorcery trials. Since I made a door in the north-most city that leads to an easy exit, I had to justify why people wouldn't use it, and how it could be used. I also wanted a way to make heroes in this realm, if really needed. Not Molly's honor guard, but someone independent. Thus, this idea. It is basically a socially acceptable way to escape into the outer world. By following the steps of the path, the applicant prepares themselves (learning to fight, getting education mundane and occult, becoming intimate with the concept of death), and society (creating new knowledge, art, and a member of society) for their disappearance.
The followers of the third path diminish the world by leaving it, while the followers of the fourth path enrich it through their journey and becoming heroes of the people.
5) The final path, presented as an in-story scribbling, is the path of Secrets, and is left vague. It is even harder to follow than the fourth path. It is there, because this is hell. There's a giant twin statue of Oramus and Ebon Dragon in the middle of it. There has to be blasphemous knowledge hidden somewhere and a way to sin against the world.
It is the law of universe that everything that exists, be it a mountain or man,, will one day be ground into dust by the unrelenting passage of time. It is no less a law that in the passage of the ages, no life is ever lost, and everyone broken will be restored. This is the fundamental truth we call "The turning of the Wheel".
Among scholars, one of the definitions of life is "the form of existence that is subject to restoration by the world". To graduate from a university with a specialization in the Wheel study, one needs to take biological, thaumaturgical and physics studies. So far, the following laws governing the Wheel's rotation have been discovered:
Every living thing more complex than a single celled bacteria will be restored by the world if their physical substrate is destroyed. They will not experience passage of time between destruction and restoration.
Upon restoration, the cause of the destruction will be eliminated. If someone succumbed to a disease, they will not be sick. If an organism succumbed to age, it will be restored to its prime. Lethal wounds will be repaired, missing organs restored.
The time it takes to restore a living organism depends on the species, age, manner of substrate destruction and conditions of the realm. It does not depend on how long it has been since their last return.
Restored organism will always be restored in an area where they can survive unaided with no active thaumaturgic effort on their part. They will be more likely to be restored in places which are connected to them – places they and their kin live in, places that have the largest emotional significance to them, etc.
Those that are destroyed within Great Prison will be restored in one of the cells within Great Prison.
Every living being has a way in which they can be permanently destroyed. Sapient beings can only be permanently destroyed through the rituals of the City of Endings. As an empirical law, the more complex an organism is, the more narrow and complex the circumstances at which they face permanent destruction are
Based on the current understanding of the mechanisms that govern rebirth, a number of technologies have been developed. Unlike past ages, it is quite possible to ensure that one will almost always return back if not in their homes, then at least within their city district. Radical medical treatments concentrate on isolating and accentuating the treated conditions to force the patient into their next incarnation. Recent advances in spatial translocation have been rumored to be related to the studies of how physical substrates are inserted into the world upon restoration.
The laws of the Wheel result in a connection between fertility rates and the available living space. Careful observations demonstrate that, as the ecological niche of a given species decreases, the fertility rates drop accordingly. Current prevailing theory posits that this is related to fourth law of the Wheel. It states that birth is considered by the universal laws as no different from restoration. Since it is only possible to be restored in conditions suitable for life, and the restoration occurs in places connected to the restored, if no resources are available, than the cosmic forces would delay the birth. This is a probabilistic law, and cases of local overpopulation are well documented. The extreme consequence of this theory posited by some philosophers is that all beings to ever live in the future exist already in potential, and are only waiting to be brought into the world when conditions for their lives would be met.
While it is treated as a superstition, and no direct proof has ever been found, it is a common practice for those desiring to conceive to participate in housing construction and farm development projects. "Build a house, and plant a tree to father a son" is the saying.
This is how I envision Endless Suffering Trait working. It reconstructs those that die, while repairing the damage that led to their deaths. So, for example, death from old age will restore one to their youth, death from blunt trauma will remove the trauma, etc. This creates a number of issues and consequences. In hell, life can be very, very varied, organic, corporeal and not. Thus, life gets defined as "that, which is subject to Endless Suffering". When one of the first AI asked its creator whether it had a soul, the answer was to kill the AI; and not a malicious answer too - the return of the AI was all the answer needed.
I needed a way for the realm not to collapse into a cancerous mess of endlessly increasing organic remains. To handle this, I waived the rules for non-sapient beings, saying "rules change depending on how close to sapience you are". A post-sapient being would also have different rules. This tied greatly into "fertility is tied to how much resources are available" idea introduced in Godsworn. I only needed to introduce rules 3 and 4 to tie both effects into one "physical law". Essentially, births are treated the same as reincarnation by mechanics. This also leads to philosophical hooks of "all potential unborn children already exist in potentia, and are only waiting to be born" theories, pre-destination, etc. It also creates interesting cultural traditions, like couples who want to conceive joining construction projects to build houses.
It is important to know that, in my mind, you don't come back from death in "perfect health". You come back as you were minus the issues that led to your death. So you can't, for example, treat obesity by jumping from a high building. To treat obesity via death, you would need to eat so much you'll get polyorganic failure. In order to treat drug addiction, you'll need to OD. Needless to say this leads to certain interesting medical techniques.
As with any fundamental law, by studying it, certain technologies can be developed. In this case, arcane links between a person and locations can be explored, including for the purposes of teleportation.
The realms is 2.5 times smaller than Earth in surface area (Vast size: -3 kingdom creation points), and is a perfect circle with the radius of 8128 km (the surface area of Earth is 509600000.0 square kilometers, the surface of our kingdom is ~ 207541262 square kilometers). The radius is a "perfect number", that is a number that is equal to the sum of its positive divisors, excluding the number itself.
There is a moon seen circling around the realm. It is a super-giant magnet.
Most of the realm is unsurvivable, with only a narrow goldilocks zone, and has a hard terrain (Difficult terrain: 0 points, Pockets of Safety: +2 points). The surface temperature outside the survivable area (indicated white in the map) is ~ -200 C, meaning that nitrogen and oxygen are liquid, and argon, mercury and most other things are solid. The atmosphere in those areas is composed primarily of hydrogen, with heavy presence of deuterium and tritium heavy hydrogen isotopes (I'll explain later). The ground is composed of large ice-like crystals, razor edged and perilous to traverse. They are inspired by tiberium from Command and Conquer. They grow, devour material from the ground and reconstruct it into parts of themselves. Essentially, they are very alien, very dangerous, plant life forms (deadly flora +1 point). Some very alien creatures exist in the rivers of liquid oxygen. Those creatures are mindless and hostile (deadly beasts +1 point). They use thermal energy of nuclear decay for sustenance, and feed on uranium dust that is abundant in the rivers. For a reference picture see a tiberium landscape, but far colder.
The landscape is very heavy with metals and heavy elements. Because of how cold it is, several metals, specifically bronze alloys, are superconducting, creating strong magnetic fields and leading to stuff like levitating rocks existing.
Harsh winds ~ 500 km/h circle the outer edges of the world. Essentially, it's a huge mega-tornado encircling the whole realm. The direction of air movement is indicated on the map (blue curved arrow). The air is heavy with electrically charged iron and nickel dust. This, together with the moon's rotation, essentially creates a super-giant induction motor that generates a magnetic field that plays merry havoc with electronics and navigation. Visibility is also very low. The dust is small enough and sharp enough to cut anything unprotected by serious armor down to bones. The alien nature of the landscape makes it hard to navigate (Dangerously Alien trait: 0 points).
Similar winds, but rotating in an opposite direction, are blowing from the center of the realm out. Where the cyclone and anticyclone meat, they collide, generating friction, electrical discharges and heat. The magnetic fields generated by the two winds also negate each other in this area. Because of this, magnetically confined hydrogen plasma is ignited in the upper parts of the atmosphere. Because of the heavy deuterium tritium presence, low intensity fusion reaction occurs, generating additional heat and some radiation.
All these factors combine to make a narrow band of the surface (indicated in white, 496 km wide) habitable in terms of magnetic fields, temperature, illumination. However, the terrain is still hard enough, and there's metallic dust. Because of this, the human-like civilization is confined to the five great megacities.
The cities are separated by dense forests (Earthen flora) of blue and purple leaved plants (colors based on hypothetical exoplant plants, if I got the wavelengths right), that constantly shift in the wind and by themselves, in order to shrug off metal particles accumulating on them. Said particles accumulate on the ground beneath them, and serve as part of their makeup. They also try and catch lightning from the skies for energy, which is accumulated in underground capacitor banks. Because of the excess of metal, animals (Earthen fauna) almost universally have metal shells and are rather heavy.
The city-states are located in five corners of a giant pentagram. They are technologically advanced, with complex societies of human and non-human inhabitants (Advanced Social Structures: 0 points, Advanced technology: -2 points, Human Populace: 0 points, Resident Devils: -1 point, Committed population: -2 points). Each city is located on top of a giant pole of metal, paved over with insulating material. In order to generate electricity one needs just to put a metal rod into the ground and attract lightning from the air. The poles generate magnetic fields that keep the metal dust away. The poles are high enough that the air pressure in the cities is significantly lower than air pressure in the forests. In the cities it's approximately what it is at sea level on Earth, while in the forests it's more than 2 times higher, with an oxygen rich atmosphere more similar to what it was in prehistoric times on Earth. It's possible to survive in the forests, but one needs acclimatization. The cities are connected to each other and the center of the realm by an advanced underground train transportation network. The train network takes advantage of a natural realm-wide cave network which has long since been upgraded and repurposed. Within the cities, public transportation is well developed (Accessible Terrain, 0 points).
The cities are inspired by the Maidens, as people might have noticed.
In the north (Indicated as yellow) is the "Mercury city" inspired by the Maiden of Journeys. It houses the industries needed to maintain transportation networks existing between the cities and in the cities and the "foraging" industry, which essentially runs Tiberian Sun harvesters – operations to venture out into the hellscape and gather valuable resources. It also houses a large golden gate, beyond which there's a direct route to the realm's border – a giant underground tunnel.
In the east there's "Mars city" (indicated in red), dedicated to war. Since the cities are (mostly) in peace with each other, and depend on each other, it wouldn't make sense to make a "war industry only" city. Because of this, police academies and prisons are also located there. There are a lot of martial monasteries working on developing magical martial arts. Weapon manufacturers (including for weapons needed in foraging industry) are also located there.
In the south-east there's "Jupiter city" (green on the map), a center of learning, both technological and arcane. Universities, laboratories, arcane centers, and also spy agencies are there.
In the south-west lies "Venus city" (blue on the map), which is an center of entertainment and arts. Theaters, art galleries, TV studios, brothels. Also kindergartens, because children should be happy. It is also a major center of food production.
Finally in the west there's "Saturn city" (purple on the map). It is a medical and psychological counselling center. It also primarily deals with dead souls sent to our realm, other than those we need imprisoned (those go to "Mars city"). Mortuary centers are also there. Because the population of the world is unaging or at least very slowly aging, it would also deal with "endings", ie a very thorough psychological renewal sessions for very old beings to make them make a new beginning in life. This is also the only place where final death can happen in this realm (endless suffering. -1 point, condition for resurrection "any death except one that happened in special rituals in Saturn City").
Population of each city is about a billion people. The food production is handled via vertical farms, and very efficient and nutritious alien fruits. There's not much meat, though.
The surface area of a city is ~193 thousand square kilometers. Let's assume that roughly 1/4rd of the city is residential districts. Let's assume that 1/30th of the land in the residential areas is covered by housing. This gives us ~1610 square kilometers of housing. Let's assume that on average, a resident of the courts, including children and incorporeal beings, has ~ 40 square meters to call their own. This means that the average number of floors in a residential building is 25. That's well within modern construction technology, much less of a futuristic metropolis. Obviously, depending on the district, the actual building height differs from 1 floor historic estates, to several hundred stories tall arcologies.
In the center of the realm, there's a giant column depicting two ascending eastern dragons. It is meant to be inspired by Ebon Dragon and Oramus. At the top of the column there's a giant crystalline complex. For image reference, see Crystal Tokyo. It is a political and religious center of the realm, and Molly's seat of power, complete with an (almost always) empty throne. It houses the united government of the people of the realm, even if each city also has self-governance. As a special feature, the throne, which is located at the geometric center of the realm, is illuminated by unseen sun. Anyone sitting in it, if they look up, would be able to see said sun, in an effect that is reverse to how one can see night sky from the bottom of a well (and yes, I know that it doesn't work in real life). The sun is sometimes yellow, and sometimes green. When you are sitting in the throne, the light shining upon them, or emitted by them is amplified by the palace and the whole thing lights up like a sun.
At the bottom of the statue complex is a giant sphere almost completely buried in ice, with only a small hill emerging, barely a hundred meters tall, with a giant crack running through it. The dragons can be seen as escaping it. The sphere is inspired by Malfeas – it's a giant magical prison complex of advanced, but slumbering, technology populated by devil tribes. It's composed of multiple concentric spheres of brass. It has a huge number of rooms, each of which can be used as a prison cell, with enchantments preventing teleportation, shapeshifting or other means of escape. Even if someone dies there, they reincarnate back in their cell. Only a very small part of the complex has been investigated. To activate all of it, and possibly take full command, one would need to reach the center of the sphere, braving many an obstacle. The sphere is populated with hostile tribes (Resistance Movement +1 point – I am using Resistance movement as "subset of the population that is actively hostile to us if encountered"; not quite Hostile trait, since it's only a subset of population). The tribe development level ranges from primitive (Archaic technology, 0 points) in the outer layers of the sphere, to advanced, using more intact core systems, near the center. If the sphere is brought under control and restored to full functionality (probably with Prince of Ruin Attitude charm being required), it'll provide Gaols and Grand Grimoire perks.
Where the top of the sphere pokes out of ice, just a tiny bit, the bottom (possibly, it's left ambiguous) dips below the bottom of your realm and into oblivion.
I have left Lord of the Land without fluff description, but one can say that the land is waiting for its misress to come.
1) Arctis Tor – that was the place that redefined Molly's life, like it or not
2) Sailor Moon – both as a mockery of Arctis Tor, and because Molly likely watched it as a kid
3) Dreams of the First Age. Just enough very small (IC) hints are references, based on forgotten lore suppressed deep in our exaltation, on the dreams that allow us to learn Ancient Sorcery that, with a lot of time and effort, we could uncover more.
4) Five cities – inspired and stylized by Five Maidens of Exalted. War, Secrets, Serenity, Endings, Journeys.
5) The Gaol Sphere – the buried sphere under the ice. Inspired by the greatest prison to ever be – Malfeas himself. It held Yozis, the architects of reality. It held our exaltation at one point.
6) Twin Dragon statues – Ebon Dragon and Oramus, two of the Yozi. The architect of the reclamation, the mind behind infernals, and the being that defines paradox.
7) Our shining crystalline palace is meant to symbolize our exaltation itself. Something for which Yozis grasped to get them to freedom and salvation. A shining symbol of hope. A place of rulership
Black areas - unsurvivable areas
White area - survivable "goldilocks" area
blue arrow - wind directions
Blue lines - transportation network
Colored circles - cities
3D model of the main design features:
Colors were chosen from the fluff description.
You guys should keep in mind that when it says 'guardian of the dead maybe' it means maybe. The Shen are not nailed to their roles, they can and do wander. It is the role of the Celestial Bureaucracy to make sure they stay on task, but it has been many a long age since that went well and Chicago are far from the Middle Kingdom, in miles and in culture. Why would any shen serve an Akuma? Take your pick:
They are tricked
They are compelled
It's an amusing distraction
In exchange for some kind of bribe
They have passing interests in common and the shen thinks they can pull a fast one
I think, for Witness to Darkness in particular, it might (might) be because it was originally written as the charm you had to get to unlock the ebon dragon charmset, so the problems are the cost of the rest of the charmset and not the charm itself.
There is a 4 dot charm that negates the penalty. But primarily, I think, harshness of the penalty has to do with the fact that Vampire is a beeeg part of the oWoD as a setting, and you really could spent entire stories never stepping into the light. An infernal could go pretty far just playing silly manipulation games with the Sabbat and Camarilla.
I am not a fan regardless, but I think that is the logic behind it.
Thing is we never see anyone set up a no sell no focus solution. Even the people who are good at it still have to know before they're under attack to set things up or else fight an impromptu psychic duel.
That doesn't equate to reflexive defenses that perfectly block everything.
That's probably because we only ever see the people who are explicitly incompetent at it in universe. We never get a PoV of anyone who isn't incompetent using mental defences.
I think it was Corpsetaker who acted like someone with competent mental defences would have reflective mental defences that would no-sell her body jacking that would be running in the background, and the fact that the White Council wizards didn't was because they were crap at it.
I think, for Witness to Darkness in particular, it might (might) be because it was originally written as the charm you had to get to unlock the ebon dragon charmset, so the problems are the cost of the rest of the charmset and not the charm itself.
Holden fundamentally changed how charm acquisition works when he got rid of the prerequisite mechanic, so leaving in a cost that only makes sense within that context is sort of lazy. It should be even more obvious than with the other charms that this one would be a problem.
You guys should keep in mind that when it says 'guardian of the dead maybe' it means maybe. The Shen are not nailed to their roles, they can and do wander. It is the role of the Celestial Bureaucracy to make sure they stay on task, but it has been many a long age since that went well and Chicago are far from the Middle Kingdom, in miles and in culture. Why would any shen serve an Akuma? Take your pick:
They are tricked
They are compelled
It's an amusing distraction
In exchange for some kind of bribe
They have passing interests in common and the shen thinks they can pull a fast one
Seems like barely anyone had a good retirement plan available for divine servants back in the day.
Good for us though; dental and a 401k should get us applications by the truckload.
That and the threat of eating their souls if they screw with us, but I'm pretty sure Disney has that in their contracts too and I don't hear anyone complaining about it.
That's probably because we only ever see the people who are explicitly incompetent at it in universe. We never get a PoV of anyone who isn't incompetent using mental defences.
I think it was Corpsetaker who acted like someone with competent mental defences would have reflective mental defences that would no-sell her body jacking that would be running in the background, and the fact that the White Council wizards didn't was because they were crap at it.
It was corpsetaker, but she didn't specify that people should be able to block it easily.
She also seemed to specialize in ambush tactics, which implies that it's an effective way to bypass most defenses.
I'm not saying that major entities like angels should be wide open, just that we shouldn't assume everyone who matters automatically gets the ability to ignore any ability that doesn't involve doing damage.
That's probably because we only ever see the people who are explicitly incompetent at it in universe. We never get a PoV of anyone who isn't incompetent using mental defences.
I think it was Corpsetaker who acted like someone with competent mental defences would have reflective mental defences that would no-sell her body jacking that would be running in the background, and the fact that the White Council wizards didn't was because they were crap at it.
Well Molly is inhumanly skilled. GYTB is a Manipulation + Subterfuge roll and Subterfuge is a key ability where we are generally going to use this as a social roll against COD.
@DragonParadox : Molly is keeping herself wet for this night out right? It seems like basic good practice even if she has to go through water bottles by the gallon.
It was corpsetaker, but she didn't specify that people should be able to block it easily.
She also seemed to specialize in ambush tactics, which implies that it's an effective way to bypass most defenses.
I'm not saying that major entities like angels should be wide open, just that we shouldn't assume everyone who matters automatically gets the ability to ignore any ability that doesn't involve doing damage.
She just about punched right through Harry's mental defences in a head on assault, not an ambush, describing them a standard White Council methods, and as 'tripe'.
Harry only survived because he supercharged his defences with Hellfire which she mentally burned herself on.
Harry needed to consciously raise mental defences, but I don't she even bothered trying to mind crush her fellow Necromancers, from ambush or otherwise.
Well Molly is inhumanly skilled. GYTB is a Manipulation + Subterfuge roll and Subterfuge is a key ability where we are generally going to use this as a social roll against COD.
@DragonParadox : Molly is keeping herself wet for this night out right? It seems like basic good practice even if she has to go through water bottles by the gallon.
I'm not saying that major entities like angels should be wide open, just that we shouldn't assume everyone who matters automatically gets the ability to ignore any ability that doesn't involve doing damage.
She just about punched right through Harry's mental defences in a head on assault, not an ambush, describing them a standard White Council methods, and as 'tripe'.
Harry only survived because he supercharged his defences with Hellfire which she mentally burned herself on.
Harry needed to consciously raise mental defences, but I don't she even bothered trying to mind crush her fellow Necromancers, from ambush or otherwise.
Most of them actually knew how to fight off mental assaults as an active fight, or at least it's not a stretch to see that since that's the default defense at minimum.
None of that actually supports the claim you're trying to make, because there's no reason to believe that they're anything but more competent at executing similar things.
If you want to assert that there's significant evidence of that kind of thing in DF canon I think you need better evidence of it.
[X] Keep investigating the club and try to find out more about the dead DJ, if he had something like this hanging around his former place of work that means he must have been a full shaman and thus more likely to leave clues about what killed him and why -[X] Activate All Things Betray, and occult excellency
I just want to repeat that if the mental defenses aren't perfect that Molly is inhumanly skilled. It is reasonable to assume that she can beat any mental defense Corpse taker or Peabody could as a starting point.
Why smaller? Also the talk about the great rivers of superconductors makes me wonder about turning the realm into a giant circuit board.
Also I feel like you could add something about the Mars city exporting adventures and explorers who brave the inhospitable landscape to harvest the abundant riches. Maybe the dangerous beasts out there also have harvestable cold fusion cores that are can be made/replicated in the cities, but are still very valuable*. Just makes sense that they are doing something productive with all their warfare talents.
*Just like in theory we can synthesis caffeine in a lab, but in practice it's cheaper to harvest.
Well, the description of Vast says "• Vast (Cost: 3 points): Welcome to Hell World. The Realm is its own small world, complete with biosphere, diverse regions, seasons, and so on.". Emphasis mine. The world is descibed as small, so I had to make it somewhere between the size of Australia and the size of Earth in available space. Earth total surface area is 509 600 000 square kilometers. Land surface area is 148 326 000 square kilometers. At 207 541 262 square kilometers, the realm is larger than all the land masses of Earth put together, but less than Earth in total. And this is before you consider how the planetoid buried underground is only 1.5 times smaller than Earth, and is actually fully hollow, with multiple layers ready to be explored and potentially colonized.
If I made it bigger, the numbers got really, really ridiculous. Like, right now I clock the total population at ~ 50 billion. That's roughly 8 times total Earth population at the time (6.635 billion in 2006 according to google). That's significantly higher, but still "Earth is at least noticeable" range. If I went with equal surface area as Earth in total, the numbers would be > 100 billion. More than an order of magnitude more than Earth. That's... Well, honestly I don't think it's really possible to do this scale justice. It becomes complete statistics, and the setting falls apart, kinda. Even right now it's a bit straining my imagination to think of how this all works.
Also I feel like you could add something about the Mars city exporting adventures and explorers who brave the inhospitable landscape to harvest the abundant riches.
In the north (Indicated as yellow) is the "Mercury city" inspired by the Maiden of Journeys. It houses the industries needed to maintain transportation networks existing between the cities and in the cities and the "foraging" industry, which essentially runs Tiberian Sun harvesters – operations to venture out into the hellscape and gather valuable resources. It also houses a large golden gate, beyond which there's a direct route to the realm's border – a giant underground tunnel.
Mars is industry, and martial arts, and law enforcement, and spirituality. Actually, all cities have everything - they are states in their own rights, too large to be anything else. All cities have their own foragers, and their own prisons, and their own universities and stuff like that. But if you want to win a world martial arts tournament? Chances are you'll need to train in Mars dojos. If you wish to get best of the best education, you'll go to the city of Secrets. For best medical care you'll go to the city of Endings. Etc.
Most of the realm is covered in ice. There are absolutely mountains and even seas and deserts and such. I started making some illustrations and comments on this here. It's the civilization I am straining to think about.
If you want to maximize population use floating islands all the way down to the core, each the size of a continent stacked on top of each other. None of that wasted space of the mantle, or core.
