Cool ideas for cities required

[Kristivas]

A city where the people worship their bodily functions and seek to have diarrhea and other conditions as often and as strongly as possible. In this society it is considered to be very rude to eat in front of people or in social settings, but reliving one's colon or bladder is a social event - the reverse of how eating and going to the bathroom are in most cultures. People eat in small, secluded rooms; instead of shared dining areas they have large multi-person toilet areas where social events are held. Food and water supplies there will leave PCs dangerously ill for days. It would be an amusing but unpleasant place for PCs, but they might obtain spells or items that discomfort or disable enemies with sudden bursts of diarrhea at bad moments. They also might find that mundane commodities such as clay (for making toilets or tile) are rare and desired there, while items coveted elsewhere like gold and silver are discarded (because they make for cold, uncomfortable toilet seats). In fact, gold and silver and jewels might be commonly discarded into the sewers, by children in particular, and one adventure might involve PCs trying to figure out how to retreive gold and jewels from the disgusting, disease and creature ridden sewers - a place that locals hold taboo and that cannot be entered without severe punishment if one is caught.

You, sir... win the internet. This is the first ever EN world post I've read that made me want to vomit. Tally ho!

 

[WayneLigon]

One of the flavours of the settings is that most of the city-states have one (or more) great magical artifacts left over from the imperial times that now no-one can maintain or build - The plan is that every town has some kind of magical signature and that its fallen / falling into disuse

Daniel Hood's Fanuilh books contain references to the 'great public magics' in the larger cities. One city has The Stair (I think that's what it's called); every fifteen minutes or so this multi-ton block of stone rises up from the lower city to the upper city, conveying anyone standing on it.

Other things you might use would be:

A simple fountain of endless water for a small desert city, allowing it to grow and prosper. It's the source of all the drinking and bathing water, plus irrigation for the nearyby crops and orchards.

Small finger-sized bits of carved stone that float and glow with the equivilant to torchlight. They swarm in the city, following people moving about at night like fireflies. Not only does this make it easier on travellers, it makes it hard for theives to skulk about in darkness.

A grand marketplace with a design worked into the courtyard stones that casts a slow spell on theives.

A giant bronze guardian for a seaport. It animates if pirates attack and destroys their ships with it's massive sword.

The audience chamber of the palace can create illusions in all the major public places of the city, so that that king can address his people more directly, appearing as a transluscent figure that can be heard clearly.

 

[darthkilmor]

A city with a powerful evil artifact that can create food and water for every inhabitant but requires a sentient humanoid sacrifice (or 5 or 10 or whatever works best) every day to work. The city has become so dependant on it that they have no other means to feed themselves, and with the empire collapsed, they don't have any more foreign slaves to feed to it. Most crimes(even petty ones) have a penalty of death by sacrifice, but they're running out of criminals and the populous is becoming restless.
Plot point one: Its requiring more sacrifices every day to work, and the city institutes a lottery to select random citizens to feed to it. Riots are a common occurance.
Plot point two: its starting to malfunction and some food created is rotten or foul water.
Plot point three: Its actually an very evil lich's path to godhood, with every sacrifice he gets closer and closer to achiving it. The PC's discover an ancient drawing detailing parts of its construction and recoginize it for what it is. The cityfolk don't care and will do anything to keep the PC's from destroying it.
Plot point four: It actually carries every sacrifice victim into a pocket diminsion controlled by powerful being X, which turns each victim into a ghoul/ghast/zombie/vampire/whatever, until he has enough forces to spill out and conquer the world. The PC's have to "sacrifice" themselves to get to the bad guy and stop him.
Bonus: The city is called Soylent Green