Hello All,
Well I've been thinking, which in and of itself is a dangerous thing, and I have a few ideas to throw out there.
Every City needs to have a Hook, something that makes it unique.
Freeport obviously has the whole Sea Pirate thing down. Bluffside, has it's geography. Sigil has the Planes....etc.
So what should be the Hook for E-City?
A couple of ideas have popped into my mind. One has to do withe the geography angle. It seems that everyone is agreed on the Lake/River think, but we have some that want a swamp, and plains too. So bear with me as I try to sort this idea out.
What if the Lake is man made? Say like Lake Mead here in the U.S. Now how do you make a man made lake? With a Great Big Dam!
Visitor: This is one dam big city you folks have here...
Local: No sir, this is one Big Dam city....
So perhaps the city started out on the side of some tall mountain within a mountain pass that had a river flowing through it, and someone got the idea to build a dam across the river to cut off the water that flowed south down to a lower kingdom. As years rolled by the lake grew, and the old river bed dried up (instant clay deposits). Of course eventually the water found new exits from the mountains and now there are at least two rivers exiting the lake, one of which is still trying to cut a new channel, thus creating your swamp to the west. Now as the lake grew the city found that it had to move higher up the mountain, and was of course running out of room. So someone just cut the top of one peak, leaving a vast flat spot, upon which the City grew. Now of course the water level of the lake is almost even with the ground, or maybe even slightly higher? The "islands" in the lake are really the old mountain tops of some of the smaller peaks within the mountain range.
Whew.....I think that gives enough of a start for the rest of you to chime in on the "geography" hook, now on to my second idea.
Politics!
The ?City? is alos known as the City of Crafts. Starting with the earlier metal workers, than adding the potters, then the gem-cutters, then the silk-weavers (BTW sidenote: The "silk" is actually discoverd to be the result of the ingestion of sapphires by the worms?) the city soon found that it had become the center for crafts of all kinds, and of course when that many craftsman start coming together in one place Guild's soon follow. So the city has developed a House of Guild's and Workers Senate. But who is the Executive? Well now that is where it gets interesting. The City Leader is actually (no NOT Erics Grandmama) but an "elected" Mercenary Leader. because not only does the City export almost every known craft, but it exports Mercenary Troops!
Over the years the mercenarys have found that the city was a safe place for "wintering over", as would have it with so many mercenary brotherhoods in one place Rules of etiquette had to eventually be established, and over the years these have become a Code so deeply ingrained in the City's inhabitants that none think to break them. During the winter break the mercenarys have a lot of various "Tournements" that determine the pecking order for the next year. The Captain of the winning band is the nominal City executive until the next year. Of course this means that the city also has the strongest standing army in the region.
Whew again....I think that is enough for now...now it is your turn to tear it apart....
