The City of Seressin
I wrote this setting after reading Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and being inspired by the weird fantasy of it. It awakened my inner 14-year old and made me realise how stale a lot of my thinking had been around fantasy. I'd always had an idea of a late renaissance city and loved the idea of a Venice-like place, but drenched in strange magic. so here it is, for your reading pleasure: The City of Seressin.
Seressin, the water city.
Magic drenched, the republic of Seressin is a city attempting to rein in chaos and keep order. Aside from the Eastern Plague, the army of Sand (followers of the Book of Sand) threatens the city by sea and land. The great organic labyrinth of Barbuta grows and changes each year, and the conditerri of the city must be used to keep the creatures within contained, and seal each new exit. The labyrinth is known to be the lair of the Beast of Many colours, a demon and man eater. The maze is a tessaract, a maze in 4 dimensions, and those who enter have been known to leave at different times or different worlds. Where did the maze come from? Nobody knows, but most blame the unknown and ancient sorcerers who rent the veil between this world and the world of dreams. Magicians refer to these as 'the two worlds' because, on reflection, who can tell which is the real one?
The city has holes in its dimension. There are gates opening into other worlds - the so called 'paper windows' and these must be contained. Adventurers sometimes attempt to cross over and loot the treasures within - they must return before the magi of the city arrive to seal the entrance. The gates of the city to the sea are guarded by the Great Hydra, chained and fed, and soothed long enough to pull the chain to allow ships to pass. The great God of Black and White, and his monochromatic Cathedral, rule the city although his worship is corrupt and decadent. The treason wall is a great wall where enemies and traitors are impaled to slowly die. There is the skull cage, where the last king (300 years ago) has his skull after the was quartered and beheaded. At that time the old gods of chaos were driven from the city, although their worship persists underground amongst those who revere the old ways, or who seek power outside the priveliged channels of the monochromatic god. The skull still wears the crown of misery, a magical crown. The mad king's mind still inhabits it. One of the underground cults is 'The One Who Waits' - the god of the treader in dust over whom time has no dominion, and who can bring a glimpse of eternity which inflames the mind. Witch-hunters seek these cults and those who would worship forbidden gods.
One area of the city is the black quarter - an ancient catastrophe swallowed up a section of the city in inky impenetrable darkness. None who have entered have ever left. Occasionally horrific things or the remains of those who have entered wash up from within. Sometimes black water oozes out of the zone, and it is used sometimes for magical purposes or by assassins. The region is infested with the Primeval Dark, a type of matter from far across the galaxy. These dark changes the laws of nature. There are magicians working on ways that people can enter the dark and survive. A small clique of assassins called the Daggers of the Black haze have found a short path into the dark and have a hidden base there. They use portions of the blackness on their knives as poison. they are led by Morrigan the Death-witch. She is a skin covered skeleton, horrific to see, still alive. Her eyes are milky and her teeth white and perfect. From the dark they have brought antifire, lamps and torches that create darkness wherever they burn. They use these to give them cover for their deeds. They are used to the darkness. They use a guide chain to guide them in the darkness.
The black birds are magical harbingers - the magicians of the city may speak with them. Their intent is alien and unknown - they seem to serve some alien purpose but exactly what is unknown. An attempt was made to exterminate them but they made the treaty of the rookery, in which they make payment to the city and in return they stop their war against humanity (they swooped on soldiers and aldermen). The leader of the city is known as the father of the wolf, and he is annointed by the White bishop and Black bishop into his role for five years. The wolf is the spirit of Seressin and protects the city.
The Immortal is Sezeria, a wizened prophetess who is at least 10,000 years old and is protected by her own cult - she was the only of the old cults allowed to remain in the city, as her prophecies foresaw the coming of the monochromatic god. While she appears as an ancient woman, she still menstruates and her menstrual blood is gathered and sold as it can proffer the gift of prophecy to those who imbibe it. She has, on occasion, been known to produce children and these strange and unsettling infants have been either raised with reverence (most die) or sacrificed to dark demons or spirits. Sezeria appears indifferent to their fates. One prominent survivor is Hememi, a crippled man of around 60 who has also some powers of prophecy, and has some small influence and wealth as an interpreter of dreams. While he moves as a cripple on land, some have reported that he sometimes enters the waters, and can move as freely as a fish therein, and can even breathe under water. He is rumoured to have a pool in the basement of his house in which he relaxes.
There is trouble in Seressin as Arcen, the Tyrant, has won an unprecedented and probably illegal third term, citing the war with the Army of Sand as a national emergency. He is popular, but there is a growing resistance to his rule at all levels of society. Some worry civil war may spring up. The Tyrant has the glass medusa as an ally - she can turn men she gazes on into solid glass. She feasts on human flesh - it is the price the tyrant pays to have her as his servant. His executioner is known as the shatterer. The still living glass people are smashed piece by piece with a mace, an excruciating way to die.
A deeper unknown plague is infecting the city - a foreign drug from the southern lands is actually a pleasure giving parasite. For a while it gives pleasure in the form of dreams and pleasant idylls, but users are now finding themselves in the service of an alien parasite that is seeking to build nesting grounds and hosts in which to breed.
To the north, the Solar Empire rules, and hosts the pope of the monochromatic God.
Also in the lagoon are the circular ruins, the last visible remnants of an underwater city long since sunk under the ground and muck. sometimes great metal machines are uncovered in the ruins - ancient giant robots from a long lost age - none have been made to work but the lagoon is littered with their plastic, metal and ceramic remnants, long crusted in sea slime, molluscs and weed.
Much sorcery is based on Chaoplasm, a malleable ectoplasm from the dimensions of chaos that can be used for many purposes.
There is a Mouse King, directing mice throughout the city. The Mouse King takes the form of a swarming mass of mice in a sewer - if threatened it dissipates and reforms elsewhere. It is a holographic collective consciousness. It is hard to destroy and wants impossibly alien things. Discovering its existence and trying to communicate with it might be the goal of some scientist or wizard. It may be spreading the plague, or it might be preventing it, or indifferent.
The Seed House.
Brought by a merchant from a distant land this mansion has grown from a seed. It is a baobob style tree but a true mansion that has grown. It is still growing. Will it seed? Does it attract insects that will germinate it?
The Walking Tree.
A tree that grows out of the flagstones in a plaza. Ever decade or so, it uproots itself, and walks across the city and roots itself in another place. None know why it does so, or what manner of creature of plant it is. In all other respects it appears to be a perfectly normal tree.
Marble Lions and the Sundial.
A sundial that shows a shadow from a sun in another dimension. Two stone lions that guard the city. They are not animated statues, but living stone lions, the last of their kind. They are the only creatures immune to the glass medusa.
The Quiet.
This is a society of magic users. They meet regularly to discuss their theories, and they are torn between competition and collaboration to achieve their goals. The current Director is Jacopo Viterbo. Those caught by the witch hunter have their works and books confiscated, and these are often passed on to the Quiet for safe keeping. However, Viterbo has been researching them on the sly, to increase his knowledge. He has even invited a couple of collaborators. Their egos lead them to believe they will not fall prey to being seduced by dark magicks, and that only happens to the weak of will and the low born. The quiet is served by an intelligent Oran-Utan named affectionately Goffredo.
There are eight Laurea (disciplines recognised as areas of study) in the quiet - 1. Necromancy 2. Geomancy 3. Hydromancy 4. Aeromancy 5. Pyromancy 6. Chiromancy 7. Scapulamancy 8. Chaomancy
The geography of the city is hard or impossible to map because the magic and the paper portals twist space and time and make anything like mapmaking nigh on impossible, at least at a city wide scale. Line of sight is vitally important, as it prevents subtle magicks from twisting roads and paths, or from posh villas from waking one morning to find themselves in a slum. The councillors have erected mirror poles as markers, each with a slightly different hue, to allow those lost in the supernaturally labyrinthine streets to find their way. There are those who believe that this is part of the effect of the Labyrinth of Barbuta, but this cannot be proven. There are navigators, who know the streets by feel and can recognise them at once and adjust if they have shifted - they are known as bridge counters, after an old tale about the impossibility of trying to count the shifting bridges of Seressin. The bridge-counters have a guild, and are easy to find and essential if trying to navigate unfamiliar or distant parts of the city. Many don't bother and simply row around the edge of the city and enter at one of the ports or piers.
The Kettle.
A great brass head like Zardoz, salvaged and kept at the Reed Port. As the day proceeds it draws up water and heats it via the sun, and then at sunset roars/whistles. In the great workhouses and shipyards this is the sign to knock off work and head home, or to the alehouse.
The Tombs of the Kings.
The ancient kings had great mausoleums built in their memory and in honour to the old gods. These are still here deep in the city. They are long neglected, and half submerged, however they still contain great treasures but are protected by awful sigils and curses. The guard will intervene if anyone breaks in but once in they usually just seal the doors and let the mummies and spells and traps do their work. None have returned form a raid successfully.
The Risen Isle.
A sandy isle has risen from the sea at a particularly low tide, with half buried monuments and buildings. A temple to a long forgotten god and perhaps a place where treasures have been left. It must be excavated and of course there is a race to loot the island and multiple adventurers trying to loot it. It has risen because it is built on the back of a long slumbering alien giant, healing after being massacred in an ancient war. The giant has turned slightly in his sleep. If he begins to dream, all in the city and lands will share in his horrific nightmares of terrible ancient wars and battles.
Bleeding Gods.
The exiled gods bleed from the sky occasionally. Ceremonies from the monochromatic bishops prevent this. The jealous old gods are wounded by their lack of worship and exile. In fits of jealous and narcissistic rage blood rains down from the sky. The blood can form servitors of the old gods, or twist and change nature and animals and people into ancient forms, before civilization and the monochromatic god arrived.
Giant Moths.
Giant moths, shot down by archers who guard the great lighthouse. Sometimes these moths show signs of being marked or tagged by humans - by whom it is not known. Sometimes they carry messages in a distant tongue that is not known. Are they even from this world? Are they from the moon itself, or messages between worlds? The archers sometimes speak of a moth man that they have seen but never been able to shoot. He is considered by them to be a harbinger of doom.
Maps of Hell.
Trenius is a scholar mapping hell with the help of the horrific demons he summons and the ancient books he references. Demons are one thing - but he has found a new spell and he is able to bring forth the condemned dead from hell, quiz them about their local geography, and then return them to hell. But one or two - either they have escaped or Trenius has given them mercy for osme reason - or perhaps he keeps them as servants or slaves - some have not been returned. They are strange tortured (literally) beings, mostly human, horribly disfigured due to their torments, and in some way seeking both their cleansing tortures and possible redemption. Perhaps one seeks to make amends for his crimes while living.
The Vampires of the City.
Moving through air and water, they nest at various high points and at various depths of slime in the daytime. They can summon mists and swoop down to capture the weak and defenseless. They view humans as their herds.
Well-Witches.
Witches who live in wells and come out. In the days of kings witches were often drowned in wells for want of a permanent way of killing them, but one such witch, Berenzur, has been freed from her bonds by crabs and beasts of the seas. She is horribly mutilated but she can be brought back to life by revisiting the wounds she suffered on others so that hers are healed. She has been brought back to life by her sister in witchery, who has finally found her after centuries of searching.
Corpse Leeches.
May be attached to a corpse to speak with dead. They are rare, and a type of parasite on a rare tropical ape, but they work effectively on human corpses. Can be used to interrogate a corpse. They are sold by Doctor Porte, who has a room of infected apes he uses as hosts and breeding grounds. He does not know what the leeches will do to a live human subject - perhaps nothing, perhaps something terrible. He would love dearly to find out, but he is not so evil as to infect someone himself.
The Great Spiders.
Certain parts of the city have been largely abandoned, or have only recently reappeared after being lost in time and space for centuries. In these empty spaces enormous spiders cast webs across the towers and minarets of the houses, and catch birds in their webs to eat. If they are especially large they will catch children or even full grown people. They are wily, poisonous, enormous and hard to kill, and navigate high and precipitous places with ease. In short - they are hard to kill and dislodge. In most cases they are simply avoided - and their young are killed if they attempt to infest anywhere else. But in some cases - where ancient records indicate the buildings contain great treasures, or where a real estate developer wishes to claim the building for his or her own, brave, desperate and foolhardy adventurers might be sent to cleanse the building. Fire, of course, can't be used. The penalty for arson in Seressin is, of course, death.
One building is the lost tower of Jit Oromno, a famed and ancient mage. His ruined tower reappeared 50 years ago, and innumerable attempts were made to loot his laboratory. None returned, and were presumed to have fallen prey to Black Mary, the local nickname for the enormous ancient spider who squats atop the tower. She has many human sized web baubles now. But perhaps a tower collapses or some other way is found into the tower - or perhaps Black Mary is found dead, enticing a desperate band of adventurers to try their luck?
Other Weirdness.
The Eels. Great slime eels that live in the canals. Crab Cows - great underwater crabs that make fishy milk.
Stingray spears. The sea wights who eat the corpses in the great mausoleums of the funeral town. They sell the rags and jewels in return for fresh meat.
Obsidian bergs - black icebergs spawned from an equatorial volcano. Black and sharp as obsidian but as airated and light as pumice. Deadly to shipping in the region.
Black bats roosting in the abandoned tall towers. They cannot be caught because they are the ghosts of a long extinct species, who haunt the Earth in search of something which is also long gone from the Earth. Nobody knows what it is.Salt arrows - spears of salt crystals. They burn and are painful.
Water elementals wild and free in the lagoon. Small pixies flying and breeding amongst the ivy climbing up the walls. They are unintelligent.
Sea honey. Underwater bees and hives. Can dive for them. THe honey is sweet and salty.
Pain elementals - a paper window allows these pain elementals to enter our world. They enjoy pain and are impartial to who suffers - they experience pain and can inflict it at will on others. They simply need to inflict pain.
Fire water. Fuel is short but some water can be infused with fire elementals to burn - there is a special well set up for this purpose - the fire well. citizens pay a fee to the city to gather buckets of water which they can use to fill their fire-bowls. When burned, fire water leaves a residue called water ash which is used as a fertiliser. Smithies use water-charcoal to forge the amazing waterblades, which can be sued to shape and bend rivulets of ice so that they hold their shape and are strong at any temperature, and hold a blade incredibly well. The city guard have a small arsenal of fire blowers that
Fishermen - in the new moon they enter the space between worlds and fish the strange creatures there and return before dawn along the silver trail. There is a special spell that enables them to do this, known as the Boatman's Song. They do not teach it to outsiders.
Tortoise farmers. They herd and shepherd great flocks of tortoises. Usually they ride on a great, trained tortoise, and corral them on shore at night. They can train sharks to be corralling dogs for them.
Suit golems. Golems made out of suits of clothing. Not hugely resilient but often stylish. Terrible as guards, but good as messengers. Often vain.
