The Reaches

Outside the Eight Nations

• “When an Alchemical evolves into a new city, she follows signs from Autochthon himself, transmitted by the Divine Ministers, to find the site of her apotheosis. In 4066 DA, two heroes, Luteous Ancress of Claslat and Exegetical Abraxas of Gulak, followed the omens of the Ministers deeper into the Reaches than any Autochthonian had ventured in living memory, all the way to the opposite ends of the world. There they have formed pockets of civilization at the greatest extremes of the Maker’s anatomy—the Poles of Oil and Smoke.”
• “Xexas and Loran lack only one feature common to all Octet member-states—Champions. . . . Primarily, Loran seeks defenders; its oil fleet is a poor match for the more powerful gremlins hunting in the light-less depths of the Pole of Oil. Moreover, they hope that the Exalted might be able to reach accords with the strange, hostile exmachina of the polar reaches, which still regard the drifting metropolis as an alien threat.
• Xexas holds no hope of compromise with its environment; the spirits of the scrap plains below are mad and vicious, and the destroyers of the Quarrantine Layer beyond parley. The hanging city instead seeks Champions to extend its influence beyond the confines of the Pole of Smoke. The Xexans believe that only the Exalted can forge a permanent bridgehead through the Quarrantine Layer, reconnecting their city with the rest of the Octet. Once contact is re-established, the scavenger fleet could reap a much greater bounty from the Pole below with Exalted aid, catapulting Xexas to the heights of power and prominence among the Eight Nations.”
  • Neither of these cities are mentioned even in passing in Gunstar, so one could assume they don't exist. Really though, I'd like to go the opposite direction: These two are vaguely part of the Octet (in the sense Hawai'i/Alaska are states), and there's possibly young unaffiliated cities hidden in the crevasses of the Poles of Lightning and Steam.

Tunnel Tribes

• Some Tunnel Tribes live in the Reaches, scavenging as nomads, sometimes from other travelers. More commonly, they form stationary communes.
• “The most common form of tunnel community is the commune, a permanent or semi-permanent settlement situated at the junction of several power, nutrient, and water feeds, with buildings cobbled together out of scrap metal collected from the nearby Reaches, often protected by crude fortifications and mechanical traps. Communes resemble the smaller towns of the Octet, though they lack key elements that make them feel eerily empty, almost dead, to civilized visitors—there are usually no propaganda sheets plastering the walls, no pneumatic lifts or tram lines, no work queues, and most distressingly, they are quiet places. The thunder of industry does not drown out the sounds of the Reaches, for the tunnel folk work only for themselves.”
• These communes tend to go through feast or famine bouts rather than dwindling resources like the Octet, and are far more concerned about local spirits. Most are ruled by those organizations willing to seize power, though a few have democracies. Likewise, most require new settlers to provide some benefit to those established before allowed entry.
• “The appearance of the Reaches combines qualities of caves and factories, with tunnels ranging from needle-slender pipes to corridors so wide and tall they disappear from view with an illusion of empty sky. These tunnels connect chambers, and such spaces may be empty or home to any scale of machinery. Motifs of steam-powered clockwork and sizzling circuits predominate, but some places are strangely barren with glass-slick floors or miles of grating suspended over rivers of molten slag. All possible permutations of the elements that compose the Great Maker see some manifestation in the Reaches.”

Loran

(Metropolis, originally Luteous Ancress, Moonsilver caste)

(adj: Loranei)

Physical Descriptions

• Alchemicals: “The metropolis of Loran extends up from the periphery of the Pole of Metal into the Pole of Oil. It is arranged into a series of semi-transparent moonsilver domes and spheres connected by flexible, tubular scaffolding. Loran’s inhabitants use small- and large-scale submersibles to explore their environment for valuable currents of rare oil and resource-rich nanocoral beds, and are currently preparing to send representatives to the Eight Nations to establish trade.”
• “Though rooted in the upper strata of the Pole of Metal, the majority of the metropolis of Loran extends up into the Pole of Oil—a titanic reservoir filling the upper hemisphere of the Great Maker’s body, vast as the Great Western Ocean of Creation. Viewed from outside, Loran appears a series of shining gold-silver domes and bubbles connected by tubular scaffolding and flexible tram tunnels. Its people, the Loranei, style themselves the greatest mariners of Autochthonia . . . ”
• “The city rests on the roof of the Pole of Metal—a hardened plate studded with access ports through which oil is drawn from and returned to the Pole. Few power veins or nutrient tubes run through this portion of the Maker’s body—it is primarily a thick, armored layer of the titan’s flesh, powerful enough to separate the crushing weight of an ocean of oil from the rest of his body. As such, very little of Loran extends down into the Pole of Metal—there are rarely more than two access hatches within the city.”

Places of Note

The Nautilus District: (sometimes they feel this anchor just weighs them down)

• “Loran’s central and largest dome has a curving, spiral appearance. This is the Nautilus district, with the Tripartite Assembly Hall at the center of the spiral. Loran’s key infrastructural elements are focused in the outer rings of the Nautilus—power generation, food and water purification, the workshops of the Prolific Scholars, as well as the city’s single Vats Complex, currently unpowered and shuttered. Spirals and shell motifs dominate the district’s architecture, with most buildings at least three stories tall, featuring conical exterior staircases for access. The district is separated by a series curving of moonsilver walls, which give the dome its distinct spiral appearance from outside; in an emergency, nictitating Essence shutters divide the area into 23 separate, insulated cells, preventing the complete loss of the city core in the event of a breach.”
• Two charms are detailed on p. 98, of note is “When in operation, these miracles of industry stimulate the Essence flows of the oil around the city, allowing Loran to uproot herself and move through the Pole of Oil, later resettling in more resource-rich environments. Without the Fluidic Agitation Combines, the city could not steer during such migrations, and would be carried away at the whim of the Pole’s currents.”

The Outer Wards: (save a life buy a ward)

• “The flexible, tubular moonsilver scaffolding of seven tram lines stretch out from the outer ring of the Nautilus district, leading to the three grounded domes and four floating spheres of the metropolis’s outer wards. The grounded cars are propelled by a series of pressurized oil locks, while the floating wards are reached by lift cars moved by air pressure. Most of the city’s heavy industries are located in the outer wards—raw material construction, textile manufacture, and the other basic essentials of Autochthonian life originate in these outlying regions.”
• The oldest satellite arm is known as the First Ward, or the dry docks. “These days, the First Ward is completely given over to the metropolis’s dockyards, where a force of Populat workers and Prolific Scholars design, build, and repair the city’s submersible fleet. Aside from the docks, the First Ward is notable for its many prominently displayed bits of salvaged oilcraft dating back to the city’s early years. The First Warders are a proud lot, well aware that the city could neither survive nor thrive without the machines they build and service.”
• The first floating arm is known as the Arsenal. Little industry is here, instead it hosts the Oil Fleet. “Currently composed of fifteen light scout submersibles, eight heavy cargo haulers, and five combat submersibles, the Oil Fleet is the beating heart of Loran, the crews of its oilcraft the most celebrated heroes of the state.” Primarily dominated by docking berths that can be partially flooded to allow the fleet entrance and exit. Has heaviest regulator patrol of Loran.

The Seventh Ward:

• Ward Seven, a floating ward. The entire thing is a Municipal Charm, and unlike the other wards which are pulled inward during travel, it is capable of separating and being pulled by a massive submersible known as the Great Cachalot. This submerisble usually sits upon the ward, too large to enter any dock.
• “The inhabitants of Ward Seven live in slightly larger and more private accommodations than the rest of the city; Populat laborers are housed in long, narrow dormitory blocks, with permanent oilcloth walls separating two-room, three-person apartments—luxury far beyond what most Populat will ever see. These accommodations are compensation for the great danger of living in Ward Seven, which spends more time separated from the rest of the city than attached to it. During the city’s migrations, Ward Seven acts as a forward sensory bundle. It performs deep scans on the bed of the Pole, looking for the next nutrient-power nexus; when Loran is stationary, the Great Cachalot tows the ward deep into the Pole, where it serves as a remote dock and emergency support station for the Oil Fleet.”

The Currents:

• “While Loran has no difficulty securing more than enough oil for its needs, other materials are harder to come by. Standard Reaches mining is difficult due to the thickness of the plate the city rests upon; few man-sized access tunnels permit access to the Pole of Metal, and fewer still will permit the passage of cargo trams loaded with material for the city. Thus, the Loranei are forced to prospect for raw materials inside the Pole.”
  • “But the Pole also contains vast currents of rare and special oil, much-desired by the Loranei; jet-black streamers of flamedrip, which burns as liquid fire, power the city’s foundries, while other oil streams have alchemical properties used in industries as diverse as Charm construction, textile dye, paint production, food preparation, leather manufacture, dome repair, and submersible maintenance.
• Loranei often find and wildcat rare and valuable oils, which can be dangerous as refinery-whales and other aquatic exmachina are not adapted for humans and summon destroyers to protect themselves. A worse prospect are the few Void-tainted oil clouds, Blight Zones within the Pole of Oil. These damage the city and fleet should they interact, as well as risk infecting any custodians who attempt to process it.”
  • “While some salvage can always be obtained from the shells of destroyed custodians littering the bed of the oil-sea, the city is best served by locating nanocoral beds—massive artificial reefs formed of extrusions of elemental crystal into the Pole, cemented together by elementals known as reef masons. The dense compactions of elemental Essence found at these sites agitates the bedrock-plate the reef rests upon, and older reefs often include organic inclusions of metal—the brass and steel of Autochthon’s flesh grows up into the reef, forming great twisting crystal-studded plinths and pillars which regulate and direct the flow of oil currents through the Pole.
  • Nanocoral beds are vital to Loran because their Essence concentration also leads to the formation of the magical materials—jade and adamant are abundant in dense thickets of crystal extrusions, while soulsteel plating can be found on the upper reaches of current-control spires, and moonsilver fronds wave at the base of the beds. Starmetal must be carefully mined from the reef’s interior, without drawing a defensive response from the brass krakens that frequently prune the beds with their long, flexible sonic cutters.
  • Orichalcum is the only magical material that does not naturally occur in nanocoral reefs; the city must endure the difficulties of the Pole of Metal to obtain any of that vital substance at all.”

The Great Lure:

• “Neighborless Loran is starved for trade; they have made a few sporadic mass-exchanges with passing Octet nations over the last few centuries, but these have been hectic, problematic affairs, thanks in large part to the difficulty inherent in simply locating the drifting metropolis.
• The Prolific Scholars believe they have devised a solution—a massive, bell-like municipal Charm which they propose to attach to the upper dome of the city. The Radiant Autosynchronous Beacon, as they have named the proposed structure, would register on all manner of known Autochthonian tracking technology, revealing itself even to autolabes that have never been attuned to it. This, the Scholars believe, will make stable trade with the Octet an ongoing possibility.
• Unfortunately, the nature of the Beacon would also draw hostile exmachina to Loran in great numbers—the delicate sensors of gremlin and destroyer alike would register the Beacon as easily as the devices of the Eight Nations. As a result, construction has not yet begun on the device, nor is it likely to so long as Loran has no Alchemical Exalted to protect it.”

Xexas

(Patropolis, formerly Exegetical Abraxas, Soulsteel caste)

(adj: Xexan)

Culture

• “The city’s people are a practical, aggressive, and sometimes fatalistic sort. The Pole of Smoke promises the city nothing but hardship, and never fails to deliver. Still, great rewards beckon for those willing and able to brave the dangers of Xexan life—like its sister city, Loran, the inhabitants of Xexas enjoy a bounty of raw materials unlike anything available to the Eight Nations… if only they dare go forth and claim them.”
• “Xexas is a boom town, and this has brought it problems. The city’s population is expanding at a faster rate than the physical dimensions of the Citadel District—a situation which would normally result in pilgrims founding a new town on the patropolis’s outskirts. Because this is impossible in Xexas, space is at a premium. Thus, the most productive or lucky workers, as well as those working in top-priority industries such as zeppelin construction or storm-suit fabrication, sleep in long, narrow barracks featuring triple-stacked bunks lacking sufficient head-space to sit up while resting; lower-class workers are forced to hot-bunk in hammocks strung between whichever portions of the spire’s superstructure are sufficiently solid and immobile to support them. Xexans have learned to ignore and navigate around off-shift workers sleeping between tram support struts, in the air above narrow alleys, or in the corners of factories. Light sleepers do not fare well.
• The Tripartite is little better off—only the city’s Tripartite Assembly members enjoy the privilege of living alone; even the most senior members of the Xexan elite share quarter-floors of tenements with one or two peers, while junior Sodalts and plutarchs may be crammed five or six into a four-room apartment.”

Physical Descriptions

• Alchemicals: “The patropolis of Xexas pierces the ceiling of the Pole of Smoke. Its jagged spires and circular docking platforms, coated in hardy, corrosion-resistant soulsteel, hang down half a mile into the haze of smog and storm. Lightning frequently crawls between its towers and tines, helping to power the city. Mortals go about in respirator masks much of the time, for the patropolis is young and even its formidable Health-Promoting Filtration Baffles cannot perfectly purify the worst pollution outside the city. Armored and enviro-suited scavengers pilot small dirigibles down to the gremlin-infested surface of the pole far below, scavenging for useful scrap. Fast-response craft stand ready to be deployed on rescue operations or to defend the city.”
• “Xexas hangs down from the ceiling of the Pole of Smoke, a vertical city descending like a soulsteel stiletto into the heart of the perpetual toxic storms that roil through the lowest point of the Great Maker’s anatomy. Viewed on approach, the city seems to be a vast black inverted citadel, a series of thin spires dangling precariously above a yawning empty void of churning smoke and corrosive fog, its dangling peaks and fins shrouded in miasma and crackling with electric discharges.”

Places of Note

The Citadel District:

• “The heart of the city is the primary spire known as the Citadel District—forty tightly-stacked levels of brass-and-iron decks, smoky and dim. Seen from outside, the Citadel District looks like a massive cathedral spire hung upside-down from the soulsteel-reinforced ceiling of the Pole. From within, it is a gloomy maze of ladders, spiral staircases, and pressurized lift-tubes carrying the Populat up and down between the city’s various dormitories and factories.”
• “The Citadel District features a number of open wells used to transport large cargo up and down through the city’s layers, but is otherwise narrow and claustrophobic, as much interior space as possible covered in decking. The only buildings with high ceilings are factories containing large machinery. Because the city is so densely structured, it is also dark, even by Autochthonian standards—there is little open space for light to shine through, and so the patropolis must be strung with a prodigious number of lamps and light beacons; for this reason, the Luminors enjoy great power in Xexas.
• The Citadel District contains all of Xexas’s heavy industry—textiles, weapon manufacture, equipment construction. Elaborate vent systems carry the smoke of the city’s forges and foundries away and expel it into the Pole beyond; teams of Scholars and regulators patrol key areas of this venting system constantly. Should it fail, the city must bring its industry to a halt or choke to death.”

The Storm Spires:

• “Branching off at a distance from the Citadel District are four narrow, downturned spines. These are the Storm Spires, the most dangerous places in Xexas. The lower reaches of the Spires are uninhabited and uninhabitable, save for a few heavily insulated maintenance ducts. Essence agitators and storm turbines howl within the spines, attracting Essence from the savage upper reaches of the Pole. Lightning constantly crackles between the tines of the Storm Spires, occasionally leaping to the lowermost point of the Citadel in massive kilomote surges. The Storm Spires are the city’s respiration system, generating power from wind and lightning and chemicals absorbed from the Pole’s omnipresent fog. Thanks to the Storm Spires, Xexas’s Essence reservoir has not dropped below one-third capacity in over 200 years.”
• “The upper regions of the Spires feature an intricate network of jutting fans of chemical-resistant artificial leather arranged around semicircular docking platforms. These are the docks where the city’s scavenger fleet anchors its zeppelins, and the storm-shroud hoods may be extended to completely enclose zeppelins to permit time-consuming maintenance or repair work.”

The Storm Spires have no permanent inhabitants, though there are accommodations should a maintenance crew have to spend many shifts down there. The only way down is either via zeppelin or enclosed walkways in tubes, which sway with the weather (to prevent breakage in more dangerous storms).

The Smoke:

• Xexas lies above miles of poisonous fog, under which lies the surface of the Pole of Smoke. It is a scrap pile where trash and trashed elements are cast away to be rendered back into pure Essence. Xexans instead strip these for what they can when they can.

“Studding each of the Storm Spires, massive brass docking clamps and retractable acid shields protect the greatest of Xexan national treasures—the zeppelins of the scavenger fleet. Made of feathersteel and acid-resistant oil-canvas, these vessels act as the city’s lifeline, connecting it to the toxic scrap-heap hell of the Pole far below.

• The scavenger fleet is an organization crossing caste boundaries. Plutarchs hand down salvage-priority quotas, Harvesters transform ruined scrap into useful raw materials for the city’s industry, and Scholars design the zeppelins—but these are merely the bureaucratic and infrastructural apparatus of the fleet. Its true heroes are the men and women who crew the vessels into the perpetual toxic haze of the Pole, and descend to fill their ships’ holds from the scrap mountains and blasted plains far below.
• A zeppelin’s active crew normally consists of fifteen to thirty Populat crewmen and salvagers, up to a dozen regulator marines, a Surgeon, and a pair of Scholars tasked with performing emergency repairs on the zeppelin should it come under distress during an operation. These are the ship’s salvage crew, and they alone are given leave to wear the broken-gear pin. Salvage crewmen are the heroes of Xexas, braving the dangers of storm, gremlin, and ashbreather mutant to supply the city with the raw materials which fuel its industry and life. Even members of the Tripartite will stand aside for a lowly Populat salvager when he passes in the tight, dark corridors of the hanging city.”
• “Salvagers wear alchemically-treated flight leathers, breath filters, and goggles at all times when working, but some degree of exposure to the toxic atmosphere of the Pole is inevitable. Jagged metal tears protective clothing; workers pull off their gloves for delicate work during salvage operations; acid rain collects in collars, drips into boots, or simply clings to a worker’s gear while he doffs it after a mission. Salvagers must even sometimes pull down their breath masks to be heard at the height of a storm. In the end, the salvage crews are prone to a number of medical conditions—early-onset arthritis, numbness of extremities, and especially a wide variety of cancers. The Meticulous Surgeons continue to research better means of combating the effects of exposure to the Pole.”

The Quarantine Layer:

• “Xexans avoid foraging in the Reaches above their home as much as possible. The Pole of Smoke is the intentional repository for all things broken and tainted within the body of the Great Maker, and as such, the presence of gremlins in the Pole, while not desired, is to be expected. As a result, the level of the Pole of Metal directly above Xexas is known to the Divine Ministers as the Quarantine Layer—a twisting maze of reinforced bulkheads with access points to the upper layers few and far between, patrolled by ferocious destroyers and other militant devas, none of which are encoded to recognize or permit the presence of humans.”
• “Despite vociferous protests from the Xexan Theomachracy, the scavenger fleet has devised one somewhat reliable method for navigating the Quarantine Layer—destroyer baiting. Reinforced and thaumaturgically warded soulsteel cages hang beneath the Storm Spires, containing gremlins captured from the surface of the Pole at great risk and usually great cost in human life. When the Xexans absolutely must access the upper Reaches, they haul the gremlin cages up and leave them in the Quarantine Layer, locks set to open on a time delay. This provides a short window during which a team can attempt to breach the Quarantine Layer’s security—so long as they move away from where they left the gremlins, they’re guaranteed to avoid the densest concentration of destroyers, as the militant custodians converge on the point of infection. None of the gremlins used as bait have yet managed to evade the destroyers and escape into the upper Reaches or Xexas, as far as anyone knows.”