Registry of Mad and Beautiful Cities

Intrepid travelers have been returning from far away lands, reporting on the strange and wonderful cities they have found. As more cities are reported, they will be posted below.

Perhaps, some day, some mad cartography will make a map so that we can see how these cities are connected:

If you should come across a description of a city like these, please post a link below so that it can be added to the registry.

New Labyrinth: Githyanki, Minotaur, Sprite, Otyugh, Illithid, Red Dragon
The minotaur have built many of the winding alleys of the city, leading it to be almost unmappable and very difficult to navigate. This pleases the minotaur aesthetic, as they not only lived in labyrinths in their home country but their religion worships the winding roads that life leads you on.

Ancient Sword Subject Divider

The Maw: Goblin, Umber Hulk, Homonculi, Aboleth,Kruthik, Eidolon
The Maw is a completely separate political entity from the goblin empire–the Strand of Jewels–but a large number of goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears have made their home in the city, attracted by the foreign wealth it offers, and eager to wield whatever political and business connections they might have throughout the archipelago to carve themselves a piece of it.

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Peryyn-Bynner, The Blood Sea City: Sahuagin, Hobgoblin, Satyr, Banshrae, Neogi, Myconid
The Sea Devils and the Human / Hobgoblin Congress fought a bloody war decades previously, but capitalism won the day, and the various races realised they could profit far more working together than bickering.

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Var-Orizar: Wraith, Thri-Kreen, Kobold, Lamia, Giant Scorpion, Living Scirocco
The bulk of the population are the wraiths of the original inhabitants of Var-Orizar. Quiescent in the harsh, dream-destroying light of day, at night they return to life, re-enacting their lives over and over again.

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Eidolon: Rakshasah, Quickling, Grell, Owlbear, Shadow, Mimic
The Grell are newcomers; five years ago, two hundred of them entered the city from the sea, floating silently over the waves from the distant lands of the South. Even now, nobody is entirely certain what to make of them…but they seem to be a hard-working lot, despite their odd appearance, and their bizarrely discordant music has become inexplicably popular in the waterfront taverns.

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Boolyut, the Citadel of Mud: Myconid, Kuo-toa, Zombie, Ogre, Clay Golem
However, in the centuries since the golems’ creation, the magic that keeps them quiescent and controlled has begun to wane, and at least one has had to be put down by myconid guards.

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Name Unknown: Part 1, Part 2 Sahuagin, Griffon, Satyr, Ghoul, Displacer Beast, Shambling Mound
Before anyone knew what has happening, the brothels and drug houses had been taken over by a remarkably social group of Satyrs. Together, they run much of the businesses that cater to the baser natures of the sailors, tradesmen, and soldiers that move through the city, its ever transient population providing an ever replenishing supply of coin.

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Name Unknown: azer, gnoll, sahuagin, black pudding, eye tyrant, ravid
Gnolls built and settled the city originally, according to legend, and imported the first human settlers as slaves millennia ago. Whether the myths of Hessl, who smashed her chains and those of fifty gnollish guards before her execution, or the myths of Fook, Hessl’s mate who led the first successful slave uprising, human supremacists are in the city known as Hessl-Fooks, or simply fookers.

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Scalehaven: City of the Snake God: Yuan-Ti, Salamander, Kobold, Flame Skull, Gibbering Beast, Bay Hydra
Mammalian races are certainly residents of Scalehaven, but they are not the strongest presence there. Most of the denizens are of a decidedly colder blood.

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Bastion, the Last Fortress: Valpurgeist (Ravenloft), Gnoll, Iron Golem, Gelatinous Cube, Umber Hulk, Beholder
Everyone gets one life, and one life only. This is the promise of the Fortress Queens. Live it well, for the Great War needs you after. Ever after. Because the demons outside will never stop coming. And so, neither can you.

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Name Unknown: Devil, Shifter, Sahuagin, Homonculi, Fowlspawn, Sorrowspawn
The city’s on a weak point in the fabric of reality, making it easy to summon things from beyond. Devil-summoning is common and quite acceptable; the city has comprehensive pacts with a number of infernal powers.

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Her Majesty : Azer, Gargoyle, Drider, Gibbering Mouther, Purple Worm, Hag
In the first age, airships traveled through the heavens, from plane to plane, carrying entire civilizations on their mighty decks. Those days are gone, the worlds are divided and the airships are no more. All have gone but one, know only as “Her Majesty”, this behemoth swam into our world and crash landed into a great volcano.

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Deep Zion: Gnome, Kuo-Toa, Treant, Lamia, Rot Harbringer, Marrowshriek Skeletons
For every world that exists, there are a thousand that do not. In the real world, a thousand years ago the Dwarves of Mount Zion rose in revolt and slaughtered the giants who built the city. Now they rule it, a prosperous and powerful city-state that stands as one of the greatest bastions of the Empire.

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New Kroy: Lizard Folk, Kobold, Sahuagin, Larva Mage, Shambling Mound, Chuul

The lizard realms were devastated by disease when the humans first arrived; their overlords abandoned them or were slain by human wizardry, their priesthood was suppressed, their cities were plundered.

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Vicida: Bullywugs, Warforged, Dopplegangers, Purple Worm, Marut, Predatory Vines

Much of the Gilded’s time is spent on internal struggles over property and inheritance. Bullywug’s breed fast but don’t live long, and their mating patterns are complicated to say the very least. This means that inheritance is a constant consideration, and the basis of unending argument and occasional violence. If you imagine the biggest, richest family you can, and then imagine that the patriarch or matriarch (who uses the purse strings to control the next generation, which is rife with a sense of entitlement) keels over every decade or so, you’re off to a good start.

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Los Kimeros : Hadozee, Gnomes, Dopplegangers, Vampiric Mist, Myconids, Neogi

‘Kimeros is a sight to see. The three Ziggurats, each reaching nearly 2000 feet into the sky, are connected by an elaborated network of rope bridges, thick guywires, and a unique monorail. The tops are modeled on local flowers. A combination of sunlight and wind direction makes the Ziggurats sing a harmonious tune. The cloud whales will sing back to the towers when then pass the city at twilight – returning from the plains of floating mountains or feeding in the southern marshlands on stirges. The rest of the city is built upon the 3 hills surrounding the Ziggurats and huge natural harbor known as the Blue Crescent.

My buddy, Pete sent this to me via e-mail. I will ask him to post it up on SG so that I can link to the complete text.

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Kalinos: angels, maruts, devas, wraiths, giant ants, sorrowsworn shadowraven swarm

When the gods died, the world was pretty shaken up. Most mortals might not have known what was happening in the heavens if not for the sudden appearance of angels to tell the story. These fearsome beings came in great number, and a lot of them came to Kalinos.

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Cruithven: Banshrae, Rakshasa, Satyr, Battlebriar, Harpy, Swordwing

Cruithven is a river-port city artfully blended into its forest backdrop through the use of Battlebriar exterior walls and living hedge-maze street partitions. Ruled by Banshrae, it is marked by their desire for the music that they love but cannot create themselves. Those whose singing surpasses that of the Banshrae’s pet Harpies may find themselves well-rewarded, however, culminating in the role of the Master of Feasts, the bard to whom much of the Banshrae’s day-to-day authority is delegated. The Satyr-dominated Fife and Drum Corps commands the Battlebriars and maintains law and order within the city. Trade flows actively, bolstered by sybaritic Rakshasa merchants who secretly hawk wares pilfered from the lairs of Swordwings who have collected the relics of an ancient fallen empire.

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Azorad, City of the Magi: Tiefling, Oni, Kenku, Archon, Naga, Star Spawn

In fact, the Convocation of Archmagi maintain a sort of royal guard consisting of the finest warriors from each element. Some have expressed concerns about maintaining a small army of powerful elemental beings in the city, but so far the magi are doing an excellent job segregating the elements and playing them off one another, not to mention encouraging competition within each element for appointments to the royal guard.

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City Name : Monsters!

Cool Quote

“I wish that everyone knew that the most creative force they will ever meet in gaming isn’t a game designer or a writer but the people they are sitting next to every week.

I wish all gaming experiences harvested the creative powers of our friends and helped us create and learn and destroy and explore beautiful, terrible and just plain cool-ass shit together.”
– some guy

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7 thoughts on “Registry of Mad and Beautiful Cities

  1. Re: githyanki bork bork bork?

    It looks more like those are placeholders for further listings to come.

    I’d love to play this city-game, but it seems to require knowledge of some other game, called D&D? I admit I’m not familiar with that one.

  2. Re: githyanki bork bork bork?

    Actually, it doesn’t really require knowledge of the game as much as the descriptions and abilities of the actual monsters. A lot of these must be new, because while I recognize githyanki and otyugh from days of old, some of these other ones, I haven’t the faintest idea what they are.

    The core idea behind it “creating a new Crobuzon” is fantastic.

  3. Cruithven, City of Silence and Song

    <>< HREF="http://evilhat.livejournal.com/241625.html">Cruithven:<><> Banshrae, Rakshasa, Satyr, Battlebriar, Harpy, Swordwing.

    <>Cruithven is a river-port city artfully blended into its forest backdrop through the use of Battlebriar exterior walls and living hedge-maze street partitions. Ruled by Banshrae, it is marked by their desire for the music that they love but cannot create themselves. Those whose singing surpasses that of the Banshrae’s pet Harpies may find themselves well-rewarded, however, culminating in the role of the Master of Feasts, the bard to whom much of the Banshrae’s day-to-day authority is delegated. The Satyr-dominated Fife and Drum Corps commands the Battlebriars and maintains law and order within the city. Trade flows actively, bolstered by sybaritic Rakshasa merchants who secretly hawk wares pilfered from the lairs of Swordwings who have collected the relics of an ancient fallen empire.<>

    < HREF="http://evilhat.livejournal.com/241625.html">http://evilhat.livejournal.com/241625.html<>

  4. Re: githyanki bork bork bork?

    Bestic: Crabman, Shadow, Minotaur. Morkoth, Gargoyle, Shrieker.

    < HREF="http://nekobasu.livejournal.com/776240.html">Find out more!

    Truly, this is a grand atlas worthy of slow consumption. Thanks for the idea!

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