Worldgen
...can get quite in depth but I'll limit myself to the "last city of a dying species" archetype for the time being. There's some decent plot hooks in there, will decide on one eventually.
The book contains a couple examples for what you can call your city but they all stink. I'm going with "Gulgalta" on this one. It also lists the things a city needs, namely people, power, places and problems and what it is known for. This is a weird order of how to build things, so let's just go with a general overview of the place and work that stuff in. Enjoy this blurb:
Gulgalta: City of Giants
Deep within the scorching deserts and far away from the rest of the civilized world, there lies splendorous Gulgalta, last city and only reminder of the giants' glory of days long past. Home to some 20'000 people, it remains a marvellous oasis of lush, green gardens, blindingly shining towers and intricate architecture, the likes of which have yet to be surpassed by the younger and lesser nations. It is also a hub of misery, corruption, greed and envy, horrors untold and brutality unspeakable.
The people of Gulgalta are not free. Out of 20'000 inhabitants, at the very least 17'000 of them are slaves of various rank. At the very bottom are the chattel slaves, either newly bought, or bred and born into centuries long lines of slave families. Forced to grow crops and do back breaking labor, their lot in life is a harsh and often short. They live on the very outskirts of the city, disgusting slums bereft of even the smallest luxuries.
These throngs of thralls are herded by cruel taskmasters, who are themselves slaves and answer to even crueller masters. In exchange for a slight but ever important raise in quality of living, these traitors to their kind willingly oversee their lesser brethren and see to it that their lords' will be done.
These lords are the very few free citizens of Gulgalta, having either been born into families of rank and importance or being wealthy merchants, diplomats or other strangers who have been allowed to make the city their home. Many of the native families are vile sorcerors or warlocks, using their power to justify and enforce their privileges. Many of them own house slaves and slave soldiers, with the wealthiest of them commanding small private armies, using them to threaten their rivals and capture more slaves, for all freemen in the city are slavers. They are decadent and constantly engaged in petty squabbles amongst themselves and live only to see their enemies humiliated and beaten in spiteful aristocratic schemes.
Powerful though these free families may seem, their power and influence, both political and sorcerous pales to the one wielded by Gulgalta's founders and rulers; the Giants of Gulgalta.
With even the shortest of their women standing around 7 feet tall, the Gulgaltan Giants are massive people. The color of their eyes ranges between every imaginable hue and from out of their foreheads sprout menacing curved horns. Each of them a sorceror of at least some power, they are the descendants of the Giants that once ruled much of the known world using their magics, subjugating every nation that they could. Now they number no more than a thousand, their realm reduced to their last city and their blood thinning with every generation.
In their evil, the Giants are without equal. Living in the oldest and most beautiful quarters of the city, walking on gold paved roads and living between walls of marble and limestone, they rule the city through the terror they inspire. To disobey or cross a Giant is to ensure one's quick and gruesome end. They keep the population in check through the regular blood sacrifice of beautiful female slaves, kept and bred for this exact purpose. Spilling their blood to Chaotic forces beyond the veil, it is said that these terrible rituals are and have always been the source of the Giants' sorcery.
At the very top of the Giants' hierarchy and thus the entire city are the members of the Ruling Council. These sorceror-kings are unrivalled in their malice and power and are feared even by other Giants. Their number is subject to change. Though Giants are long lived, even said to be immortal, should they never meet an untimely demise, it is not uncommon for one member of the Council to wind up in an unfortunate accident or poisoned by a rival. Such murders, while not awfully common, are of no surprise to anybody, should they happen anyway. The current number of Rulers is unknown but to the Rulers themselves but is thought by those with certain connections to the higher echelons of society to be around 15.
Who you are in Gulgalta is determined entirely by who you know and to whose house you belong. Thus, every family's importance is derived from their association with someone higher up the hierarchy, with the most significant people having ties to the Giants themselves. Those who are not as fortunate, settle for knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone who works with the Giants. This proximity to the ruling species is what separates the greater from the lesser houses.
From this, let's shortly derive those P-words from earlier.
People
Let's put some important people of the city in here, not sure how and even if I'll make use of any of em
- Abudamu, High Priest: Giant and head of the blood cult. Most feared and respected member of the Ruling Council. His sorcery is unmatched and only surpassed by his cunning. By virtue of his priesthood, his position is untouchable, harming him or his being considered great sacrilege.
- Shamshun the Firehead: Giant. Strong and of hulking stature even by giantish standards, Shamshun is a crazed killer, though he sees himself as a mighty warrior. Instead of pursuing a craft or poetry as many members of his kind do, he prefers to master the art of hacking apart, impaling and bludgeoning defenseless slaves for fun. He is thus widely disliked among his peers who consider him boorish and ill-mannered and his hobbies of poor taste. If it weren't for his position as the commander of the city watch, it is unlikely that he'd be tolerated in Gulgalta.
- Asharra Benzion: One of the few matriarchs of Gulgalta, Asharra has stayed on top of house Benzion for the last 2 decades. A disgustingly vain and arrogant woman of 62 years, she draws her power from her ties to the blood cult, being the largest supplier of blood slaves around. Her house also runs the most esteemed brothels in the city and supplies the highest quality of temple prostitutes and concubines to any able to afford them. The local drug trade, though formally illegal, is under the purview of Lady Asharra as well.
- Arnulf Wulfriksson: Having settled in Gulgalta some decades ago, Lord Arnulf hails from the far lands in the north. He used to serve as a mercenary and bodyguard to increasingly important people, eventually working his way up to become captain of the city watch outside the Giants' Quarter. He answers directly and only to bloody Shamshun, a connection Arnulf often invokes to get his way. Being part of no greater house of important, Arnulf's standing is precarious, a fact he is well aware of.
- Slavecatcher Hawk: Formally owned by the lord of house Barca, Hawk is a Mamluk, a highly trained slave soldier, who was permitted by his master to go on slave hunting expeditions on the behalf of other lords, for the right price. Leading raiding parties into far away lands, he reliably returns with many captured men and women, as is usually requested of him.
- "Mad" Akgöz Cloudwatcher: The most infamous of all non-giantish sorcerors in the city, old Lord Akgöz has peered behind the veil one time too many and long since sacrificed his sanity in the pursuit of Chaotic knowledge. His power is as fierce as his mind is shattered, leaving his many sons and daughters to tend to his estate and its businesses. When it comes to the forbidden arts, the lord of house Cloudwatcher is considered despite his madness to be the most important reference in this regard. The old man receives few guests these days and petitioners will have to make do with receiving knowledge from his lesser talented offspring.
Power
I guess this is where the factions go:
- The Giants: Though in constant rivalry to one another, the Giant houses understand that their associates from the free families would love nothing more than to eventually supplant them and take power for themselves. For this reason, the Giants operate under and unspoken agreement that no matter their differences, they would never side with a human over a Giant and do their best to limit the influence of their lessers to a reasonable degree. Nothing in the city happens without the approval and knowledge of the Giants, as they ultimately control everything from the slave trade to how foreign merchants are allowed to do business in Gulgalta. They rarely if ever leave their gated city quarter and most Gulgaltans will go through life having never seen a Giant.
- The free families: In an unflattering imitation of the intrigues of the Giants, these aristocratic houses all seek to outdo one another. This infighting is often sponsored and encourage by the Giants as a method to keep the families divided and preoccupied. Though houses may be in an uneasy alliances, should they happen to operate in the same city quarters of branches of the economy or political system, they are anything but friendly to one another, all courtesy and any veneer of sophistication purposefully implemented to hide the true cutthroat nature inherent to the families' utter decadence. While pretending to owe fealty to the greater houses and ultimately the Giants, any house is envious of the one above it and seeks to supplant it one way or another.
- Foreigners: These are the foreign dignitaries, merchant, mercenaries, scholars and other travellers, who have managed to get into the good graces of the ruling class of Gulgalta. They are associated with any house of lesser or greater status and partake in any given business they are known to engage in. Though nowhere near to being considered equal to any member of any free family, their expertise and connections can make them invaluable assets and commonly participate in local plots for their own gain.
- Slaves: While holding no power themselves, they are the basis of influence of many important people in Gulgalta and while their needs need not be met, their numbers must be maintained and their loyalty ensured, often through brutal means. The many slave soldiers, especially those serving in the city watch, have proven to be valuable assets and a great danger to their masters, as many a lord or lady have found themselves extorted if not entirely overthrown by their own troops. Slave revolts and smaller scale palace coups are quickly and mercilessly subdued in Gulgalta but no one wants to go through the trouble of doing so and risking one's neck in the process, not to mention having to bear the shame of having suffered a rebellion.
Places
- The Giant's Quarter: Also known as the Inner Ring and the Walled City, this is the oldest and most prosperous part of Gulgalta. High, thick and intricately decorated walls as well as many Mamluks make sure that none enter it without permission. Only Giants are allowed to live here, whose slaves may enjoy a short life of relative luxury serving their large masters. Here, you'll find huge mansions and towers and their lush gardens as well as the Grand Temple, center of the giantish Chaos cult of blood. Only there suitable slaves are sacrificed and the Ruling Council meets in secret, making it the center of Gulgaltan power.
- The Upper City: This is where the free families and foreigners dwell and do business. It consists of many different quarters and substrata, separating the greater inhabitants from the lesser ones. As a rule, the closer to the Walled City, the more splendorous the quarter and its inhabitants. The Upper City is the center of everyday Gulgaltan life, containing slave markets, regular markets, workshops, taverns and more.
- Outskirts and Slums: Not formally recognized as part of Gulgalta, the hovels of slaves and dwellings of lesser, sometimes illegal inhabitants constitute a large part of the city's area. Here slaves are gathered, commanded, herded onto the fields and into the mines and wait to die or be killed. Not much of note is found here, though criminals are subversive schemers have been known to hide in this forsaken place and operate undetected.
- The Undercity: To the overwhelming majority of Gulgaltans, the Undercity does not exist and is at best a myth. In truth, the Undercity is what remains of the original settlement of Gulgalta, the modern city having been built over it centuries later. It also contains tunnels and caves that even predate the first Gulgalta and are so old that not even the Giants remember who dug them or why. The Giants believe that in the Undercity their ancestors first came into contact with Chaos and where the blood of the first sacrifices was spilled. Some of the more influential Giants have sponsored secret expeditions into the Undercity with most of them returning empty handed, having found nothing but rocky caves and dangerous fauna, or not returning at all. All of the known entrances to the Undercity are located in the Giant's Quarter, though it is entirely possible for hitherto undiscovered entrances to exist outside of it.
Problems
As stated above, Gulgalta is a city of strife and intrigue with no shortage of ongoing and potential conflicts. As the Giants scheme against one another, so scheme the humans, be they master or slave. Getting ahead and attaining power is all that matters in this city, with those of a naive and good natured disposition quickly taken advantage of.
There is however one prime problem above them all, the solution to which will eventually decide the fate of all Gulgalta. The Giants and their sorceries are slowly but surely fading and have been even since before the fall of their empire. The cause of this is unknown. Some believe their devotion to Chaos is no longer satisfactory, demanding more sacrifice, other believe that they must reclaim their glory of old and set out to reconquer the world. The Ruling Council has been ever split on this matter for centuries, tacitly accepting and supporting the status quo of an unstoppable and steady decline. Fearing the loss of their own influence more than the death of their kind, the members of the Council do not possess the courage or the will to enact any change that could through one way or another endanger their position. The rest of the Giants are aware of this or at the very least suspect it, leading to a widespread discontent with the Council that is, despite its popularity, never voiced loudly.
The Giants are unsure as to how much the humans of Gulgalta know of their impending doom. Luckily for them, few free families have the time to ponder this and even fewer possess the power to one day topple the Giants. A common conspiracy among the aristocrats is that, since no Giant has been seen by most of them, they have died out long ago and the members of the greater houses, who have been invited to a Giant's abode, are lying about their existence in order to strengthen their position. Some houses have attempted to send spies into the Walled City to gather evidence of the Giants and these houses were without exception all stamped out shortly after their failed espionage.
