Locations¶

Supplementary to WorldbuildingSynthesis. Detailed descriptions of the major locations in the world of Disruption.

Kyanos (Kyanos)¶

Literally translated: "Lapis Lazuli"

A center of commerce, innovation, and trade located in a vast desert beside a river that flows down from the Giant's Teeth mountains to the northwest. In its prime, Kyanos was home to hundreds of thousands and was the largest city in the known world. Analogous to real-world Petra or Egypt in its golden age — a melting pot of cultures.

Kyanos was originally founded by a tribe of nomadic desert warriors. It was built around a church dedicated to the Eidolon of Wisdom, from whom the tribe drew their spiritual identity. The city became a center of trade between Eastern spice merchants, northern clothiers, southern farmers, and western mathematicians.

After a mysterious stranger introduced the city to the magic of runescript — the ability to command the elements with symbols and Exousia — the city became an unprecedented triumph of humanity. Over time, the population stratified into Glyphein subgroups: those bred for raw Exousia throughput (Conduits), those bred for active manipulation (Wielders), and the rare Melders who could do both.

Notable Features: - Ergastiri (lit. "Workshop"): Foundries out of which Runic Builders operated. Largely privately owned. Studied the creation of Devices, the Runic Language, and interactions between Devices. Supported by robust supply chains. - Construction primarily used limestone. - The city's advanced technology was driven by Device development and Exousia engineering.

Open Questions: - How did Devices and Exousia technology develop over time? - What role did the desert tribes play in the city's cultural identity?

The Giant's Teeth¶

A large mountain range to the northwest of Kyanos. The source of the river that led to the creation of Kyanos. The Vanarites originally hail from this region, having migrated down from the far-northern country of Gandharva.

Kuklos Anankes (Kuklos)¶

Literally translated: "City of Fate"

The main setting of the story. Following the Disruption, Kyanos was renamed Kuklos Anankes, commonly called "Kuklos."

Kuklos is rimmed on all sides by a vast forest, and very few know what lies beyond. Most runic and metaphysical knowledge has been lost, and civilization has been reduced to nearly-agrarian levels of advancement. A large chunk of the remaining cityscape has been repurposed for farming. Dedicated groups track, hunt, and trap within the forest, but much of the meat has been mutated beyond safe eating. The populace knows how to create pottery and clothes as well as work metal. The entire economy revolves around the forest, as that is the only well-mapped layer of the Disruption, and Kuklos is isolated from the rest of the world.

Many districts suffered immense structural damage and have been deemed uninhabitable by the government. A few ne'er-do-wells skirt these restrictions, and certain districts hide secrets protected by lethal force.

The Disruption has created an exousia-inert zone around the city itself, while metaphysically terraforming the land beyond it through various stages. This inert zone serves as the Collective's protection — when the terraforming of the outer lands is complete, they plan to disable this protection and trigger the final stage of the Ascension Ceremony.

Devices are considered anathema by the general populace, largely due to an effective propaganda campaign by the Collective.

Districts¶

Kuklos has eight districts, named in Greek: - Nous (Mind) - Elpis (Hope) - Zoe (Life) - Logos (Word) - Ennoia (Silence) - Synesis (Intelligence) - Sophia (Wisdom) - (Eighth district unnamed)

Weaponry¶

Primitive weaponry has been developed. Metalworking is well-established, but without explosive powder, firearm breakthroughs have been slow. Use of Devices as weapons has been stigmatized, and only unconventional adventurers resort to them.

Fortifications¶

Large, robust walls have been built on the border of the forest. Because the forest is encroaching, the walls need to be rebuilt approximately every two centuries.

Culture¶

Clothing varies by district and class: - Near forest: Temperate to high-desert feel. Loose, flowing clothing — Sumerian, Egyptian, and Greek influences mixed with traditional fantasy garb. Adventurers and guards wear a hodgepodge of leathers, metals, and magitech. (Reference: Miyazaki's civilian clothing, esp. Nausicaa.) - Interior farming areas: Western rainforest feel, more pastoral. Mix of European, Chinese/Japanese, and traditional fantasy garb. - Larger cities / wealthy: Victorian style mixed with Eastern flares.

Open Questions: - Where do they get food? Clothes? - What does the religion look like in practice? - What do they use for currency? - What is the total population? - What does the government structure (The Union) look like in detail?

The Unknown¶

The region beyond Kuklos in all directions. Layered by the ripple effect of the Disruption's metaphysical terraforming. Each layer represents a progressively more transformed zone of reality, growing stranger and more dangerous as one ventures deeper.

The Forest — Overview¶

The Forest is a zone of indeterminate size surrounding the city. It covers all land features, including some long-abandoned towns, and stands in stark contrast to the former desert. Its flora and fauna are wildly mutated and sometimes otherworldly. Almost everything has innate Exousia overflowing, and magical effects are common. Most areas are hostile to human life.

Exousia Sickness: Extended time in the Forest (months or years) almost always results in Exousia sickness. Some areas are particularly virulent and can cause sickness in weeks or days. Devices can mitigate these effects, and medicines can help the afflicted, but extended time outside is almost always detrimental to health even if conventional hazards are avoided.

Expeditions¶

Expeditions into the Forest occur for several reasons:

Ampoule Recharge — Since the advent of ampoule technology, expeditions are required to operate Devices in the city. Most recharge expeditions don't penetrate more than a few miles to "secure" facilities.
Device Recovery — The Forest has covered outlying areas where Devices were used and claimed the lives of many Device wielders since the Disruption. With new Device creation nearly impossible, expeditions are often funded specifically to recover these artifacts.
Research and Harvesting — Ongoing efforts to understand the Forest's strange phenomena. Range from long-term field research sites to collecting particular plants and animals.
Exousia Bathing — All residents of Kuklos Anankes are, technically, Glyphein with latent magical ability. Those with enough money or determination sometimes arrange expeditions to use their powers in the Exousia-rich Forest — and to have short-term access to those powers back inside the exousia-inert city.

Expedition Companies¶

Those who make a living performing this work are almost always part of medium-to-large teams. Though some could be called adventurers, many are just desperate slummers willing to take dangerous work for decent pay. For the most part, they are paid relatively little and are often contracted by the wealthy. Specialized groups — particularly those doing Device recovery or exceptionally dangerous research — are relatively well-paid and respected.

Because expedition members spend extended periods outside the exousia-inert zone, many develop some level of magical aptitude (usually traditional elemental magic). The most experienced often sicken and die from Exousia sickness, though a handful have lived long enough to develop minor mutations.

Between fear of the Forest, magical ability, Exousia sickness, and long periods of solitude, expedition workers are regarded with a mixture of awe, distrust, envy, and disgust.

Layer 1: The Rainforest / Jungle¶

Music: flutes and violin

Ancient trees tower impossibly high, their canopies lost in perpetual mist. The air shimmers with unstable Exousia. Massive redwoods stretch skyward like pillars of a primordial cathedral. The undergrowth writhes with intelligence.

Points of Interest: - Defector Settlements (Adventurers) - Beast Dens - Collective Bases - Traps - Small rivers - Churches to Wisdom (pre-Disruption ruins) - Cathedrals of Ruin

Creatures: Shrieking Vines, Furrowed Bat, Harrowed Madman

Layer 2: The Marshes / Swamp¶

Music: unspecified

The boundary between water and land becomes a suggestion. Floating islands of moss and bone drift through channels of dark water. Mists carry whispers.

Points of Interest: - The Village of Monks (Order of Pious Sun)

Creatures: Gigantic Rat, Corrosive Wolf, Shifting Snake

Layer 3: The Caustic Rise ("Silent Reckoning")¶

A zone of insidious, slow death. Many promising adventurers have passed through reveling in exploration, only to later succumb to nature's slow, subtle poisons — creeping through nicks and scratches unnoticed. Survivors almost invariably become prey to the Tainted — monsters who share the layer's curse and are drawn to the scent of fresh blood.

Pools of glowing groundwater are littered with bloodied remains. The toxins are lethal beyond a dozen scratches. Many limbs have been left behind by those of sufficient pragmatism.

Environmental hazards concentrate near the layer's outer edge, as though the layer itself acts to dissolve foreign matter.

Creatures: Inspired Shadow, Maddened Captain, Wicked Shade

Gameplay: Heavy Robes grant 100% bleed resistance at -50% speed.

Layer 4: The Crest ("Graves")¶

Thinner than other layers — flat, barren plains with scattered skeletal trees. Nearly every patch of ground has been appropriated for burial, some plots recent. The only residents are ghostly humanoid figures in mottled gray cloaks called "The Disciples of the Circle," who drift across the graveyards placing small stone ring statues on fresh plots.

Creatures: Gremor (bear body, serpent neck, carapace hide, vestigial wings, stone-rending claws — armor has gaps where young carapace grows and breaks as the gremorling moves), Ruinmon, Gigaxian Ape, Scythid, Ruefang

The Infinite River¶

Music: piano and xylophone

A waterway defying natural law, with currents running in impossible directions.

Points of Interest: - Corpse Island

The Stonefield ("Spirefall" / "Mother's Teeth")¶

Music: drums and choir

A petrified forest zone where jagged spikes rise from the ground — completely comprised of stone and earth. Massive redwoods appear as mountains in the distance.

Points of Interest: - The Quarries - The Craters

Creatures (Layer 5+): Withered Guardian, Embodiment of Shadow, Truthless Spectre

The Mountains¶

Points of Interest: - Noble Retreat Grounds - Vanarist Proving Ground

The Valleys¶

Points of Interest: - Vanar (Vanarite settlement) - The Seed — a massive crystalline structure at the valley's heart - The Lumber Yard - The Forges

The Skeletal Tree Yard¶

Music: sitar and zuma flute

Bleached white trees stretch bare branches toward a sky that never settles on a single color. A graveyard of the old world.

Points of Interest: - The Graveyard (where dying Vanarites go to fight — those who venture there are called Vetala)

The Desert of Mist¶

Sand and fog intermingle. Dunes shift with the breath of something vast and unknowable. Few who venture here return.

Disruption's Shell ("Void") — Outermost Layer¶

Smoke from fires fills the skies as the Forest's trees give way to an open meadow — disturbingly idyllic. Bright green grass gleaming with morning dew, overcast skies with rain clouds. Tempests converge on the horizon, trailing an obscurance — neither fog nor mist. Fields of grass sweep into tiny hills and small valleys, flowers of all natural shades scattered throughout.

Anyone who departs through the Fog is never seen again. Even adventurers who ventured limited distances have been lost — as soon as they pass beyond sight, they disappear.

Vanar¶

The primary settlement of the Vanarites, located in the Valleys (Layer 6 of the Unknown). See Factions — The Vanarites for details on the people themselves.