Rickit
“Where there’s progress, there’s a future”
The City of Crafters. Carved into the Guroq, a crescent shaped mountain ridge in the southwest of the charted lands of Eris.
Built in multiple levels (called balconies) the city holds enough residents to be one of the four big cities, being a beautiful mask to the wide and deep reaching mine system behind. A system that reaches deep into the Underdark.
The city is framed by the “Silent Guardians”, two gigantic golems carved into the stone on the outer edges of the mountain. Myths tell that those are automatons, which activate if the city is in grave danger to defend the citizens.
To reach the different balconies, there are multiple stairways leading up in various spots, as well as a wooden elevator system mostly to transport bigger inventions and heavy goods, but also for those with a little coin to spare.
The higher up you go in the city the richer are the people and research institutes you will find, although most research and crafting facilities can still be found on the ground centre area of the city, which is the heart of commerce, fun and hospitality. Here you find most inns, (work-)shops and entertainment facilities.
In the outskirts of Rickit one can find the more makeshift or camp-like housing from people mostly working as miners, explorers and other folk, that usually does not stay long above ground.
Government
The city is being governed by “The Seat of the Five”, a conglomerate of the 5 biggest Institutes in Rickit.
Industry & Trade
The economy mostly lives from exporting the variety of processed goods and innovative inventions. Automatons, tools, crafted goods as well as some of the minerals and other resourced found in the deep leading network of mines. “Normal” necessities, like food, are usually imported from outside the city.
Infrastructure
Animated Platforms
Vertical running platforms connected by cogwheels and chains lift and decend for a faster connection between the balkonies. The systems are run by stationary automatons that set the wheels in motion by command.
Stairs and Ramps
For people that prefer to move their muscle (or save the coin to use one of the Animated Platforms) there are ramps and stairs carved into the mountainside to bring one from one level to the next.
Assets
Automatons
Being the city, in which Automatons have been invented and constantly developed since then, a big part of the population is robotic in kind. Automatons, serving a variety of purposes, roam the streets, guard or help households and build most of the law enforcement in the city (still eyed by the eyes of the occasional city guard). They are the biggest export good to other cities. Trading contracts with other cities include them not being able to be used as combat machines, although they are certainly capable of doing so. Even in Rickit having a fighting Automaton is usually frowned upon, although it is not forbidden. Even the law enforcing automatons are only using their combat abilities when ordered by their humanoid partners.
Guilds and Factions
Institutes
Being part of an “Institute” is vital to survive in the city. Institutes are unions of people designated to supporting the development of specific fields of research, production, technology etc.
There are many Institutes present in Rickit. To register an Institute, one must provide a problem, or invention, the Institute would be working on as well as enough backers and financial support to get started. If the goal of the Institute seems to fill a gap or provides a totally new approach, the institute will be approved and registered.
Most people in Rickit proudly represent their Institutes by wearing the Institute’s colours or sigils, decorating their homes accordingly and engaging in the occasional banter and rivalry between them.
While the bigger Institutes cover a bigger, wider field of research, smaller ones offer a more specialized section of them. Therefore, the larger Institutes often start sponsorships for the smaller ones to have them included in their own research.
There are friendly rivalries between the Institutes. They keep mocking each other or like pulling pranks to each other. While those are nothing too serious, between smaller institutes this rivalry can more often become hostile. Some Institutes, while being approved officially, are also not being accepted by everyone. Law enforcement tries to keep everything in line as best as they can.
Architecture
Buildings are mostly carved into the mountain by skilled masons who are not only able to make room but also give the buildings flare with ornamental carvings and artistic elements. The fassades, that often peek out of the stone, are built with wood and white stone and decorated with ornaments and intricate carvings, as well as banners and pennats representing the colors and crests of the Institutes they belong to.
Geography
The city is settled directly into the crsecent shaped mountain.
Protected on 3 sides by rock and stone, there is only one access from the east, leading through the outskirts of the city that has become the home of most people working for the Institute of Acquisition.
Main Institutes
- Institute of Animation
- Institute of Order
- Institute of Acquisition
- Institute of Construction
- Institute of Commerce
Automatons
POI (Points of Interest)
- Hall of Inventions
- Inns
- The Greasy Rivet
- The Spicy Seal
- The Different Lute Tavern
- Shops
- "The Hardware Store" (Blacksmith)
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