Geography
You are in Bastion, Capital of Humanity. Imagine the largest and densest city in Victorian times and make it the size of the largest modern city, complete with every skyscraper and monument ever made in a haphazard crazy quilt of construction that puts Kowloon to shame. Only rarely does the haze of factory smog lift so you can see its horrifying majesty and the basalt mountains beyond.
The Core - The administrative district of Bastion roughly in the center of town, relentlessly bureaucratic and technocratic. Think 1984, Brave New World, and Terry Gilliam's Brazil. If Bastion is in the 19th century, the Core is in the early 20th. No horses. No muskets. Paper currency only. Electric lights and telephones everywhere. Subway cars and automobiles. Easy to travel out of but nigh impossible to get in. In the very center is a rocket launch pad with monthly excursions skyward (and back down!) Also called Electric Bastionland. The regulations they authorize rarely carry weight beyond the Core itself.
Mercy - The name brings shivers to every criminal. You’ve heard it’s a missing street, a large pit between blocks where those found guilty are dumped and left to fend for themselves to either spend the rest of their days or risk finding an escape in the Underground.
The Underground - As huge as Bastion is, it’s only the tip of the iceberg to the Underground beneath it. As many citizens reside in the basements and sub-basements as they do above ground, but deeper you’ll find Mutants who’ve never seen the surface. If you risk it all to go down deeper through each strata of Bastion’s history you’ll find secrets never meant for human eyes.
Hopesend - Last Port in the North. Sitting across the river from Bastion, the sinking pier attracts those who can't make it in the city or can't make it to the city.
The Near Lands - As you exit Bastion, the pavement disintegrates into cobblestones and eventually into gravel. Factories and tenement buildings shrink in the horizons as you pass forests and fields of grain. keeping their stomachs full as best they can. You'll find crumbling mansions where nobility cling desperately to their 18th century lifestyles. These same nobles crouch nervously by their windows watching the farm animals collectivize on the next property over.
Deep Country - Past the "Near Lands" are the wooded hills and hardscrabble mountains of the Deep Country. The people left in the countryside don’t like them city slickers, to say the least. They say the Deep Country remembers grudges longer than Bastioners remember their own parents. And the cryptids you find out there are a special kind of mean.
The Far Lands - Past where even the Deep Country folk dare to go are lands unearthly. No backpacker's guide could prepare you for what you find. Any natives you find out there are so different it would be a stretch to call them human at all. Go far enough through the alien-touched landscapes and over the basalt mountains you might find one of the twelve Lesser Cities that try to rival Bastion.
The Golden Lands - A legendary paradise no one has ever found, or at least returned from.
The Living Stars - It seems each star blinking overhead is doted upon by its own eccentric Star Cult. What mysteries do they hold? What wonders have the rockets from the Core brought back?
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:39, Thu 05 Jan 2023.
