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Attum-Mess


From the Mess you come and to the mess you will return.
One of the older cities in Solaris, Attum-Mess is a coastal town on the edge of the Halebrook Forest. With roofs made of a hard and ridged bark that guides the forest rain to the ground, growing ferns along their edges in a unique style choice for the region.
  The town was born from an old bard camping spot, a place where the bards of Solaris would build a set of tents around a fire-blossom and talk politics and music. The space soon gained some of the local troll species, and the local Bidee Foliad population, willing to move from their smaller communities to this ball of colour and sound and light. When the foundation of the city was laid, the town was already known for producing some of the best songs and tunes from those around and it was this creative root that made Attum-Mess a hub of culture within Solaris.
 

The city that refuses to be mapped

One of the strangest things about Attum-Mess is that something quite strange happens when people try to put Attum-Mess on a map - it rarely ends up there. The cartographer will mess up and ignore it, or someone will spill ink on the map over the spot where Attum-Mess stands. Or if written into a binding someone will mess up the circuits and a indistinct smear will appear where the name should stand. It is not cursed, but people still wonder why this strangeness occurs.

Demographics

30% Troll, 70% Foliad

Industry & Trade

As the bard outpost grew, it also gained inhabitants from fishing villiages down the road, gaining a long reed jetty that could take some of the smaller fishing vessels in for trade, and latter a fishing community of its own.
  It also exports song, bards coming from all sorts to trade culture and news - to think up new songs and bring older songs into their lists to bring their wonder to the deeper parts of the realm. With the joining of the Br1n Network, the town also has gained recording abilities, and bards find their way here by rumors and directions to get their voice spread along the ether.

Points of interest

One of the more interesting contraptions in Attum-Mess is the Cage. Actually 3 devices, they are semi-submerged woven safety-spots, large balls able to host about 5 adult people each, enough to protect those that may be hanging around the jetty should a Minas Alis be around. Able to be dropped from around 100m, the light magic woven into the mesh of the cage stops most momentum for those within the cage. While broken bones might occur in a vicious attack, the cages have a high success rate in overall survival.
  Another point of interest is the Night-Stage. Built around a large fireblossom, in remembrance of what made those initial song-camps special, it is a circular stage at the bottom of co-centric rings of leaflike seats. It is a raised platform, with a maintenance and preparation area beneath the stage. Mechanisms allow the stage to rotate, and in modern times bioluminescent vines rim the raised stage.

Climate

Being this close to both Oceanus and the Halebrook Forest, Attum-mess is certainly within the tropical storm zone of Levis, taking to its face a cyclone or two. During its tenure within Solaris, when the tropic fronts hit, it is first in line to brace for impact and first in line to supply river reeds, resources and fish to the people of the Kingdom.
  Flying Lizards love the town, its warm, moist air a great environment to settle down an steal a sea potato or hunt for a water moth. On good days, the mornings are early and the nights late, and the people of the town enjoy some hard work before returning to the blossom for a night warmed by heat captured by the nearby ocean.
See Also:
Founding Date
1846QY
Type
Large town
Location under
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
Thank you for reading, feel free to give feedback.

Articles under Attum-Mess



Cover image: Swamp Ghoul by Vormoranox

Comments

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Jun 24, 2025 07:34

That's an interesting quirk for a city - I love it!

Join me at the sandy beaches of Aran'sha for new adventures.
Jun 26, 2025 00:14 by Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

Hmmm, curious. I wonder why it refuses to be mapped.   I love the description of its architecture with the bark and the ferns.

Emy x
Explore Etrea | Summer Camp 2026
Jan 29, 2026 17:34

This is so lovely, how the city wasn't planned, but just grew on its own. Nobody said "Let's build a city here", it was just a logical thing to happen. Really sweet.

Jan 29, 2026 19:50 by Asmod

I love making places like that. With the technology to grow your homes, it feels the more natural choice.