Planar Metropoli concepts

[Psion]

In considering possible settings for my river of worlds concept, I was toying with an idea for the basis of planar metropolis concepts.

Basically speaking, IRL, cities historically spring up where modes of transportation change -- for example, seaports.

Applying this to a planar campaign, I thought that a general principle of planar metropolis formation would be that such cities would spring up where there are junctions between different planar pathways.

My campaign is set on the so-called river of worlds, a planar pathway that provides gates to a number of world via a planar ocean of sorts (introduced in the FFG's Portals & Planes book). So most of the concepts I am entertaining are junctions between the River of Worlds and various other planar pathways -- the river styx, the river oceanus, the world ash, Monte Cook's nexus, the infinite staircase, etc. So what would cities sitting at these junctions likely be like? (I would also be interesting in hearing about other junction cities not on the river of worlds)

Any ideas what some of these cities might look like?

 

[Alzrius]

Well, D&D has a few such planar metropoli that you could use as examples.

There's Sigil, the center of the multiverse (the best source for that is the Planescape book In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil).

Union, another such metropolis, is described in the Epic Level Handbook.

The City of Brass on the Elemental Plane of Fire is another (not sure what book, if any, describes that...something in Al-Qadim I think), as is the City of Glass on the Elemental Plane of Water (described in The Vortex of Madness and Other Planar Perils).

Finally, there's the githyanki capital of Tu'narath. A product detailing the city is downloadable from Paizo's website for $2.

 

[Amal Shukup]

In considering possible settings for my river of worlds concept, I was toying with an idea for the basis of planar metropolis concepts.

Basically speaking, IRL, cities historically spring up where modes of transportation change -- for example, seaports.

Applying this to a planar campaign, I thought that a general principle of planar metropolis formation would be that such cities would spring up where there are junctions between different planar pathways.

Interesting.

Major seaports share a number of defining characteristics (deep water sheltered by land, convenient trade winds/tides, access to 'upstream' transportation infrastructure like canals, rivers, rail termini etc.). The physical structure of ports are determined by these characteristics: dedicated right of ways for rail, shipping infrastructure, defensive emplacements etc.

Part of your challenge is to determine the physical (magical?) characterstics required to be a good 'river of worlds' port and how the city would 'grow up' around that physicality (even if that physicality is radically different). Major ports are also a 'big deal' economically, militarily and politically, which drives the development of those infrastructures as well. Even artistically - think the Statue of Liberty, the Collosus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria...

In terms of other cities, your transportation metaphor could be taken further: smaller towns often appear along rivers when the landscape changes - requiring locks to facilitate the moving of shipping up or down a rise; and drives the development of the required infrastructure, personel and opportunities for commerce.

Another driver of development is access to resources: a town straddling a 'gateway' to a newly discovered source of Adamant might share some characteristics with old west boom towns. A gate located in an inhospitable waste might resemble the 'company towns' located near Northern Canadian oil fields - or even North Sea Oil platforms...

A'Mal

 

[Nifft]

There's also the idea of Cynosure (from the Grimjack universe).

Basically, this planar city is where the dimensions cross for "natural" (or supernatural...) reasons. The blurb goes something like...

"Cynosure. Sweet, cynical Cynosure. Magic works on one side of the street, guns work on the other. Swords work everywhere."

This kind of city was made for swash-buckle-y fantastic adventures -- the only things that work everywhere are skills and swords.

(In D&D terms, some areas are dead-magic, some are wild-magic, most are somehow restricted magic. Tech levels are similarly restricted in certain areas. There were some tables in either the 1e DMG or the 1e Manual of the Planes that described a bunch of potential planar traits -- chemical volitility, highest degree of consciousness, magical mana, etc. -- which would be applicable.)

Certainly fits in with the "modes of transport" idea -- imagine humans lugging crates from magically controlled bronto-caravans and loading them onto hovercrafts, right at a planar border between a high-magic world and one with high technology.

-- N

 

[Starglim]

An interesting example on the river Styx is Tantlin, the city of ice on the fifth layer of the Hells.

The first layers of the lower planes are miserable ruined places, constant battlegrounds where all manner of minor planar beings and Prime upstarts harass the lowest-ranking gatekeepers of the plane, while various nuisance effects make the place unpleasant. The lower levels are more stable, though. Tantlin is favoured as a planar trade centre because it has access to a major conduit (a harbour on the Styx) while being insulated from the petty nuisances of the first layer.

 

[Andor]

I'm picturing the Venice of the Planes. Multiple dimensional rivers feeding into a mess of little overbuilt islands, Pit fiends in gondolas, Sauguin fish vendors, Intrigue, Excess, Art, touchy honor, touchier guilds, an Ilithid Michalangelo....

On a side note my favorite thing about Cynosure was the 'snowball' dimensions. These were pocket dimensions a couple of hundred yards across that would go bouncing alone the streets. So you'd be sitting in your nice stable office and here comes a snowball, all of a sudden your robots go berserk, the computer quits working and the water cooler starts casting fireballs. Just about the time you finish wrecking your office the snowball moves on, everything goes back to normal and you have an interesting appointment with your insurance agent.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I think an island, either one of sand and rock or build on the hulks of ships that have sunk on the rivers. The area would be part snagnate pool (center) and rapids (outer), the rivers pusing into the area, the waters merging, misting the area.

 

[Southern Oracle]

One example from literature is Castle Perilous by John DeChancie. It's a demon transformed into a humongous castle with 999 rooms (or 9,999 or 99,999 -- I don't remember the exact amount). Many of the windows and doorways lead off to different worlds or dimensions as well, and there are dead and wild magic zones within the castle.

 

[tetsujin28]

[nitpick] The plural of metropolis in English is metropolises, in Greek metropoleis. [/nitpick]

 

[fusangite]

[nitpick] The plural of metropolis in English is metropolises, in Greek metropoleis. [/nitpick]

And in Latin (not that it's a Latin word originally) metropolites.