IC Thread
It is called the White City.
By those who dwell within.
It is not named to imply grand or beautiful marble architecture. In fact the buildings within the city are remarkably dismal and dilapidated. The Victorian style wooden buildings commonly bear broken windows, collapsed walls, or roofs of rotting shingles. The roads are barren of life, and littered with debris from fallen structures or downed trees. The city is housed within a giant, black stone wall, bearing few gates.
It is not called White City because of any nobility or morality among its inhabitants. On the contrary, denizens within the walls of the city are usually violent, merciless, and self-serving. There is no governing power, only ruthless, savage anarchy. It is generally accepted that if one does not fight on one’s own behalf, he or she will not live long in White City. While the streets may seem barren, the alleys and buildings hide predators waiting to take advantage of the unsuspecting newcomer.
It was not even named for its skies, as White City has never seen the sun. Only the pallid moonlight has ever touched the city. The cycles of the moon have been the only way the city’s denizens have been able to measure the passing months.
No, the reason it was named White City was simply for the snow. The endless, freezing snow drapes over the city like an icy death shroud. Winter never ceases, and daylight never comes.
Entering and the Price of Leaving
When inflation could really mean an arm and a leg.
No one remembers how they arrived in White City. Few have memories of a life they lived before. Sooner or later, however, everyone has realized that they cannot leave the city. Even if they manage to pass over its walls or sneak past its gates, and run into the skeletal forest of bare trees beyond the city, they will inevitably find themselves once again inside the city.
No one has been able to escape White City without paying the Gatekeepers a price.
The Deifides, colloquially known as the Gatekeepers, made deals with everyone who entered the city. They may be permitted to leave if they paid a specific price, different for each individual. Unfortunately, this price is always so heavy, so costly, and so unthinkable that it would test the individual’s very sanity to give it up. And undoubtedly, if one were to pay the price, one would never be the same.
The Deifides exist beyond the reach of the city’s inhabitants, unless they choose to appear. They know everyone’s thoughts, and they seem to have unlimited power. There have been attempts to kill Gatekeepers, all unsuccessful, and all ending with massive death tolls.
Health
There is no disease, aging slows exponentially, but it’s still ****ing cold.
White City is devoid of natural death. There is no disease, no starvation, no hypothermia. Despite the city’s freezing temperatures, no one has ever died from the cold. Almost all inhabitants wear heavy clothing to protect against the cold, as it is unquestionably torturous to endure it.
Individuals can still
feel the bitter, freezing air, but apart from discomfort, it does no one any harm. One does not have any need to eat, but may choose to for pleasure purposes.
As years pass, people do continue to age. The older they become, however, the slower they age. A man who appears to be in his twenties may be in fact closer to forty. A woman who looks 75 or 80 may in fact be hundreds of years older. Extreme old age does have the normal drawbacks. Deterioration, weakness, dementia, slowness. Darwin’s principle usually does an excellent job of dispatching White City’s most aged denizens.
Social Structure
Total bloody anarchy, except for three or four pockets protected by vigilante groups.
With all bad, there is some good. There are several portions of the city which are considered relatively safe (though not completely so), with vigilante forces policing the streets. Businesses are run which provide food, clothing, and places to sleep. There is no currency in the city to speak of. Most people run business simply out of a need to do something other than merely exist within the city. This is not always the case. Many businesses do require differing forms of payment and barter.
Most of the city however is ruled by cults and gangs. These are the most savage parts of the city. A newcomer who finds himself in one of these areas will not last long unless he can think fast on his feet and defend himself.
Some gangs are simply organized for personal gain and protection as a group. Some cults are completely off the wall, engaging in cannibalism, ritual sacrifice, or raids, revolving around individual, demented religions.
There are plenty of empty houses for anyone to call home, but living alone is risky, even in a protected community. Most people live in community houses, six or seven people to a mansion. Protection in numbers has proven to be one of White City’s most powerful laws.
Hybrids
Love’em. Hate’em. Mostly hate’em.
Conventional weapons are rare and hard to come by. There are guns, knives, swords, and bludgeons, but generally these items change hands quickly or are destroyed. For a grave price (though less costly than the price to leave the city), Deifides offer White City’s denizens the augmentation of special abilities that can aid in survival. Sometimes the abilities are of the individual’s choosing, sometimes not.
It’s generally frowned upon but nevertheless common for people to give up their humanity to become something more powerful. This is usually done through mutation. People are granted claws, wings, extra strength, heightened senses, or other new traits, imaginable and not.
People who undergo this mutation are termed Hybrids. Generally feared or shunned by those who have chosen to remain human, the mutations can be mild physical changes, or be horrifically dramatic, not longer appearing human. One person may simply have blades jutting from his arms. One may appear to be a living skeleton. One may have stolen the form a gargoyle sculpture.
If one is a Hybrid, he usually hides his deformities from others, or lives within the anarchist chaos in the unprotected parts of the city.
The Ultimate Goal
Getting. Out.
While memories of previous lives before the city might be muddled or consumed in a complete fog, the primary desire for almost any city inhabitant is to
get out. Unfortunately, very few are actually willing to pay the unimaginable price set by the Defeides. Like water, however, desperation can find any hole or crack within a container, and eventually spill free. There are rumored to be other ways. These rumors are all honk and blather but trying is better than an extended meaningless life in White City.
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