A thousand years ago,the Red and the White mages almost exterminated each other in a magical war so great, that the very mountians were turned into quartz.Centuries passed and the magic died away enougth for humans to visit the area and remain in human form. And a city of quartz was built upon the site, which is the most magical city in the whole world...
The pavements, streets, houses and public buildings are all made of beautiful quartz, Rose Quartz for the public buildings and Milkey Quartz for the rest.The worst a fire can do is kill a few people and burn all the furniture in a house, so there is no danger of the city burning down, but there is a price to pay for such a safe and beautiful city...
Even after many centuries, the quartz that the city is made of is magicly radioactive and reacts with people's feelings, sparking off cantrips and, if the feelings of a certain person are strong enougth, fireballs and even worse. The grief for a person who has died may be enougth to bring him or her back as an, often evil, undead creature. People have accidently killed each other with magic.And anybody who is a wizard or witch, finds their powers greatly enhanced within the city limits.
After numerous magical accidents and a few magical murders, the City Council cracked down hard. Nearly all cities have quite strict laws about spellcasting within them, but here the laws have become draconic. A first offense, if no real damage is done, is normally pardoned with a fine. For a second offense the caster of the forbidden magic is made to wear an enchanted collar for a fixed time period.This damps down the magic in that person, but wearing it for more then 24 hours will sap the person's will.
For a third offense the person is locked up in chains and placed in the collar until he or she is no more then a zombie with no will left.Zombies are made to publicly work at the hardest and/or dirtiest tasks until they fall apart, as a warning to everybody else.
Because a person's feelings often cause cantrips, the showing of any strong feelings, or at least of any strong negative feelings, is frowned upon by society and by the laws of the city.Mourners are banished until their mourning period is over, whilst showing anger is seen as a criminal offense.Those who cannot conform end up being turned into zombies.
Because of the magic within the city, a major industry is the making of wizard's staves,wands, crystal balls and other items which are a lot better then those made elsewhere.
Plot Hooks-Have the PC's enter the city without knowing of the magical radiation. Trouble will soon happen...
The PC's have to rescue someone from the city prison before he or she is turned into a mindless zombie...
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Links to this article 2
- 30 Cities Cheka Man linked by Cheka Man
- The Diamond Desert Cheka Man linked by manfred
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Interesting city. A place where open displays of emotion are banned. Can't be an easy place to live in. 4/5
I ... like it. A lot, actually...
There could be an underground culture where people gather and live out emotion in relative safety, perhaps under the supervision of a competent anti-mage/abjurer.
A festival could consist of people stepping up on a piedestal or such, and wishiong someone well... the gathered positive feelings might bestow a blessing.
A public execution could simply consist of the offender being tied up, with all the people being mad at him... the magic takes care of the rest (plus, a good way to vent those negative feelings).
Beings that feed on emotion could find themselves paid to remove those feelings welling up inside - this could make for truly peculiar denizens.
Also, very strong feelings and botched spells could give birth to a wide variety of curiosities: a childless couple wishing for offspring could subconsciously animate the doll they hugged in place of the child they'd never have; a student in love might allow some spirit to take material form, that of his beloved of course; fairy tales might be even forbidden, as the power of children's imaginations would make the figures from the tales real.
Just don't start to believe there's a monster under your bed. 5/5
Hooray. I can't vote. Whee.
imagine a city full of emotionally truncated people, kind of like the Vulcans. Logic and learning are inifinly more important that ultimately dangerous and uncontrollable emotional reactions.
5/5
The vote bug is back. Again.
But other than that...
4/5.
Hmmm... A city of quartz, ehh? Well, there are some interesting notions and ideas here. Bonus points for those.
In addition: your submissions are really improving nowadays. Get a group and go have some fun, your hear!
+Creative and cute
-Potential for becoming a magically overpowered city of 'Drow magnitude' (ie. munchkin's wet dream).
-Could have used more fleshing out.
A weak 4/5.
I usually don't like settings much, but this one is awesome and unique. Adds good history to the region too, I definatly want to use this in my campaign.
5/5
Impressive!
The idea of a crystal city is cool all on its own. The magical radiation from the crystal adds a whole new dimension and brings out all kinds of possibilities.
This idea is quite neat - though I could see this place easily converted from a simple high-magic location to something more sinister.
I wonder what value of this city would be on a Thauatometer (spelling?).
Anyway,this is great, a wonderful plot device and a cool setting with interesting visual suggestions. I wonder if thIs city still has the lazy-emo narsacistic types, the ones who don't finish tasks cause they don't 'feel inspired' or motivated or just get too 'sad'. How does the city respond to slacker emotions?
Murometz's Boots Of Ennui (added to Cheka Man's 30 Pairs of Boots) would be prized in this city.