Post by Gaea on Feb 10, 2016 20:13:54 GMT -8
The massive floating city of Arcadia is equal parts doomsday weapon, a nexus for adventurers, and a living testament to the colossal collaboration between humans and dragons that forged the magitech that forms it. Few among even its creators understand the unfathomably complex combination of sorcery and design that created it.
Think of a mix between Exalted's 'Directional Titans' and Bioshock Infinite's 'Columbia' - a whole bunch of floating islands and structures loosely attached together, built around a gigantic central 'core' with a hilariously oversized mile-wide orihalcum lens on the underside of the core that can create a laser powerful enough to punch a hole through a continent. Built as a final solution to an Elibe that seemed to be tearing itself apart, as a way for humans and dragons alike to survive the death of their continent and the possibility of war with whatever was causing it, the tactical applications of Arcadia lie dormant as it has more or less been converted to a mere floating city - nexus to countless adventurers, home to refugees with connections, and silent guardian of the Lycian Divide.
The skies around Arcadia are filled with an endless swarm of motion; dragons coming in for landings, pegasi, wyverns, and griffins alike returning from a long day of patrol or setting out for their shift, and of course a great number of ferrying services from the ground below for both people and supplies. Arcadia trades heavily with the core regions below to provide enough food for those on board, as well as fund the endlessly ongoing magical research that goes on on board.
Ferrying services up to the enormous floating city are highly varied thanks to multiple competing alternatives; for single-person transportation, pegasus and (to lesser degrees) wyvern/griffon ferries are cheap and fast, while groups more often rely on one of the few dragons willing to ferry or mages with flight magic. The fastest but also most expensive and limited method of transportation is teleportation - there are a few powerful mages with group teleportation capabilities (and pricing to match the demand for their services), and in the Core there is a massive portal room with one large and several smaller gateways that can be reached from two the two remaining cities in the Lycian Divide; the large one is almost entirely reserved for heavy cargo and food, while the smaller gateways are very limited in number and location and prohibitively expensive for most, but heavily discounted for registered adventurers.
Think of a mix between Exalted's 'Directional Titans' and Bioshock Infinite's 'Columbia' - a whole bunch of floating islands and structures loosely attached together, built around a gigantic central 'core' with a hilariously oversized mile-wide orihalcum lens on the underside of the core that can create a laser powerful enough to punch a hole through a continent. Built as a final solution to an Elibe that seemed to be tearing itself apart, as a way for humans and dragons alike to survive the death of their continent and the possibility of war with whatever was causing it, the tactical applications of Arcadia lie dormant as it has more or less been converted to a mere floating city - nexus to countless adventurers, home to refugees with connections, and silent guardian of the Lycian Divide.
The skies around Arcadia are filled with an endless swarm of motion; dragons coming in for landings, pegasi, wyverns, and griffins alike returning from a long day of patrol or setting out for their shift, and of course a great number of ferrying services from the ground below for both people and supplies. Arcadia trades heavily with the core regions below to provide enough food for those on board, as well as fund the endlessly ongoing magical research that goes on on board.
Ferrying services up to the enormous floating city are highly varied thanks to multiple competing alternatives; for single-person transportation, pegasus and (to lesser degrees) wyvern/griffon ferries are cheap and fast, while groups more often rely on one of the few dragons willing to ferry or mages with flight magic. The fastest but also most expensive and limited method of transportation is teleportation - there are a few powerful mages with group teleportation capabilities (and pricing to match the demand for their services), and in the Core there is a massive portal room with one large and several smaller gateways that can be reached from two the two remaining cities in the Lycian Divide; the large one is almost entirely reserved for heavy cargo and food, while the smaller gateways are very limited in number and location and prohibitively expensive for most, but heavily discounted for registered adventurers.
