Mycaelis

Hey guys,

Put everything related to the development of Mycaelis and the stories within the city on this thread. Please remember about the few rules regarding this issue about Mycaelis:

1. Please make sure that nothing cataclysmic happens in your story. A random exterminatus on this city won't fit all that well with stories focused on normal everyday school life.

2. As of now, all our stories should be self-contained. This doesn't mean that the stories cannot be a single story in a series or have stories derived from this one. However, if you are going to do something like this, please pay extra attention that your story makes sense by itself.

3. Mycaelis is a modern city and appears to be more or less similar to any city we currently have. Fantastical, sci-fi, or otherwise otherworldly elements are welcome in Mycaelis, but please be sure that such aspects of the story does not disrupt other potential stories; this usually means that such elements should remain hidden from the general public.

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The mayor in power 62 years ago was notorious for many things, among them the overtly complex sewage system he installed. The sewage is complicated to a ridiculous level, with multiple layers of the sewage connected by literally thousands of tunnels, each connecting to another desolate corner of the sewage. To make matters worse, the sewer map was lost after the unfortunate fire that annihilated a portion of the city’s archives about 40 years ago. The fire wiped out the information related to the sewers so completely that it was common knowledge among Mycaelians that nobody in the world has anywhere close to a thorough understanding of the sewers. A few attempts of mapping out the sewage system were made, but ultimately the mapmakers were only able to map out the first layer of the sewage. Fortunately enough, the city is running well using only this small portion of the sewer.

Because of this lack of knowledge, being a city sewage worker is a dangerous job, and few workers ever step outside of the small area they are responsible of. Well, and because of some incidents related to the sewers… Years ago, the more adventurous individuals would go explore the unmapped area of the sewers. People tend to bring tales of skittering creatures and mysterious aquatic animals, along with a few pieces of rusted metal. Two decades ago however, a group of people who went into the unchartered areas of the sewers disappeared. A rescue group was sent to fetch them but the group never returned, and the only thing it brought back was a radio message filled with static and what sounded like muffled shouts and gurgles. The then current mayor ultimately decided that nobody will go into the unchartered areas of the sewage, and proceeded to make an effort to seal off the unchartered areas. However, due to the sheer complexity of the sewer, the city government gave up two years later.

Indeed, the underground of Mycaelis isn’t nearly as ordinary as most suspects, and indeed, a number of people, or more rather…things…for a lack of better word, have comprehensive knowledge of the city’s sewer systems. The city government believes that there are six “floors” in the sewers, linked together by a complex system of tunnels. That’s actually quite far from the truth. There is a seventh floor to the sewer, connected by a single tunnel in the sixth floor that mingles among an intersection of tunnels of maze-like complexity. In that floor exists a large elevator that connects the city sewers to an underground chasm of even greater complexity. Furthermore, life lurks down in the sewers, life much more intelligent than underground fish, insects, and rodents. They seem to operate the unchartered quarters themselves, successfully hiding themselves from the above ground for decades. What is more alarming is that organic movement is detectable in the chasm below the sewers, yet life is undetectable.

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The Underground:

Building on the Canon that Audnance left off: on the Base Plane, where all reality is anchored upon, the Mayor, Moses Brown, 62 years ago, in an attempt to cut corners to cut costs, dug into and flooded the Catacombs of Mycaelis, reasoning that if a bunch of useless tunnels where down there already, “there is no point in paying more tax money for all that shit.” He was only able to do this with his connections to the black markets and thriving underlife in Mycaelis, which allowed him to accrue massive funds in order to bypass the usually endemic deadlock between the political factions of Mycaelis. As a result, even before the fires that burned down the archives, a huge portion of the sewage system was in reality unknown. Additionally, the reports of vast underground cities below the catacombs and sewage system have some basis in reality: much like other ancient cities such as London, Paris, or Peking, there are myriad ancient ruins under Mycaelis (Note: In real life, when laborers dug out a stadium for the London Olympics, they unearthed a Roman settlement)—also, the original settlers of the city buried their dead in a massive underground cave system with it’s own complex ecosystem, which later, newer settlers then attached the Catacombs of Mycaelis to. When the Mayor flooded those catacombs, he also inadvertently flooded those ancient remains and destroyed huge amounts of the cave ecosystem and burying valuable archeological evidence, much to the consternation of the Archeological Department and Ecological departments of Mneuriske University, where one of my characters, an Intern named Isis, is currently a student, and is planning to lead an expedition to recover some ruins from the underground before it’s too late.

Still, the new subway system is pretty sweet. I wonder why there are so many security guards?

The “Old” section of the city is currently the closest to the main bulk of the sewage system, the skyscrapers of the Financial district being much too large to be on porous earth. Still, the sewage system leads everywhere, and theoretically, if one knew how to travel it, one could quite easily get anywhere in the city. Most people stick to the uppermost level of the sewers, and apparently, in the larger sections, there is a thriving black market.

(Note: For people who only will write about mundane things, these events all occur on the “Base Plane” level, where even the most egregious of supernatural acts have a completely mundane explanation. Below is a supernatural explanation which may or may not be true.)

Upon the Higher, Symbolic planes, this massive underground network has always and will always exist, and is referred to as the “Labrynth”, divided into seven great “Fathoms,” or levels. To these people, the revelation of the uppermost portion of the Labrynth was the final move of a three decades long struggle between the native, eyeless peoples that have lived in the upper caverns since time immemorial and the newer, so-called “Aristocracy of the Night,” or Vampyres, that have come with the modernizing and industrializing humans. The election of the the greatly corrupt and secular mayor was a massive triumph for the Lords of the Damned, and the destruction of the cannibal eyeless tribes have opened the way for the exploration of the this symbolically potent portion of the world. Previously, despite all the dark sorcery of the undead, they have been unable to crush the ghoulish, subhuman denizens of the deep, until now.

Soon, however, even the victorious undead will have to face the horrors in the underground.

Since the flushing of the first Fathom 62 years ago, a couple of urban legends:

At night, there is the sound of the heavy tread of thousands of metal boots, as if a massive army is on the march.

An old man on the subway screams that he has “seen white eyes staring out of the walls.”

A few years ago, a boy was taking a bath. His parents heard him scream, but by the time they broke open the door, there was only blood and gore coming from the drain.

A massive statue crushed a spelunker years ago. It was dated to be 2000 years old, and looks just like the dead man.

A woman was lost in the sewers many years ago. When she was found, she claimed she saw “thousands upon thousands of tombstones, each bearing the name of a man still living, as if in preparation.”

Theogonos is coming.

One Fathom has been opened. Six remain.What wonders or horrors will lie in the final, seventh Fathom?

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The Military Base:

Fort Martel is a military base located a reasonable distance from Mycaelis. It currently serves some 28,000 active duty members and 7000 reservists and 10,000 civilian employees and 6000 contractors from various departments and corporations, including Deiron Corp. Fort Martel’s placement has been looked upon strangely by geographers especially since there is another, larger Fort a mere few hundred miles away, but the government has never properly explained it’s presence and most people put it up to beauracratic ineptitude and tradition.

Queerly enough for a military base, there is over double the amount of civilian workers on base at all times, and a disproportionately high number of contractors. Unlike some other forts which focus on mass drills and grand strategy, Fort Martel consistently favors small unit tactics and is rumored to have a massive R&D department. Despite it’s closeness to Mycaelis, soldiers are almost kept sequestered from civilians, even during their month of Military Leave, in a special district of Mycaelis. Additionally, witnesses of the Fort Martel have said there are two very strange designs:

Instead of pointing against the sea, the guns and fortification primarily point towards the city of Mycaelis. Second, there seem to be more guns pointing inward, towards the base itself, rather than out…

The Penumbra Academy was and still is only for the talented. The word “talented” does not mean those who can play the guitar well, or can juggle. It does not mean that you need to be able to perform various illusions on the streets of Mycaelis to impress those who happen to be nearby to you. They want those well suited to the shadows, those who can stalk prey unseen, and those who have displayed a uncanny ability to manipulate light itself, an ability called lychflecting. Those who have displayed these abilities either on the streets or in the military academy are selected to join the Penumbra Academy, to learn the ways of covert ops, and ultimately, assassination. With almost over three hundred graduates, all governed by the inner council, it watches the streets of Mycaelis vigilantly. Legend has it that no one sneezes without the council knowing about it. Of course, the legend quickly died down after the storyteller died abruptly.

The Penumbra Academy is situated right between the Downtown district and the Old Town district. To any ordinary pedestrian, it looks like an abandoned house. To those who are trained to see through this illusion, however, it is a impenetrable fort. It has battlements rivaling those of Fort Martel, with looming towers that seem empty, but have multiple unseen sentries quietly watching from above. Most initiates, upon entering, ironically notice that it is well lit for an academy that emphasizes the art of shadow. This is to poise a challenge to its students to walk around in the academy unseen, a skill that only the most talented of graduates have. The academy is divided into four sections: The northeast is where surveillance and espionage is taught, the northwest is where combat training is honed, the southeast is where the lychflecting and stealth classes are taught, and the southwest is where the art of assassinating is taught. In the center of it all houses the elder council, the rumored assassins of old that were said to have defeated the great Lues kingdom singlehandedly.

Rumor has it that the Penumbra Academy has the largest armory of weapons, surpassing even that of Fort Martel. Those who train vigilantly under the four disciplines know this for a fact. Three entire halls are dedicated to the armory, with special engineers making every piece by hand. Not only are there weapons, but state of the art vehicles and tanks, not to mention the exoskeletons currently under development. The signature cloaks of the Penumbra Academy can also be found in this armory. The Penumbra Academy also houses several operations centers, each of which dedicated to each member of the inner council. With all this space taken up, the students are forced to live in spartan-like quarters: a bed and a bathroom. Initiates are divided into several groups, and they all live together in a room barely the size of a kitchen. Fortunately, after they have graduated, they can go off and live wherever they please, as long as it is in the old town itself.

The area surrounding the Penumbra Academy is quite interesting. The old town is quite antique, with houses that date back to the year 1600. No one knows how these houses survived the many conflicts that Mycaelis was involved in, but they are still standing, tall and proud. What most people fail to realize is that the Old Town harbors the entrance into the terrifying Underworld. Even the Penumbra Academy Graduates, the most skilled assassins in the world, are afraid to venture into the Underworld. The other side of the academy is located in the Downtown district, where the high rises and apartments are all built. It is a very modernized place, with lights flashing everywhere. It is a wonder that the Penumbra Academy has yet to be illuminated by all the dazzling lights of the downtown. Vehicles are whizzing everywhere, with the constant yelling of a driver at another driver. It is, undoubtedly, the loudest part of the city itself.

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Civilian District

Aside from the militaristic strength and shady underground business in Mycaelis, lies a bustling district where the majority of middle and upper class citizen's inhabit. This bustling district is the heart of the city's ever growing economy along with its renown education programs. The most prestigious school in this district goes by the name Aurelius, which is known for its intensive education system and high expectations set by the instructors.

This district is also known for its wide variety of shopping malls, containing the latest trends and fashion goods. Entertainment centers which boasts top tier hardware and consoles. (Feel free to use this district as long as there are no explosions, apocalypses, wars, or anything that will disrupt the peace.)

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Ambrosia Forest

At the outskirts of the city is a vast forest called Ambrosia Forest. Despite its close proximity to a civilian district, the forest remains largely untouched by exploration. There has been multiple speculations as to why that is, it may be because parents telling scary stories to their children about the forest to prevent them from venturing into the forest, it may be because some people who have gone in have not come back and others simply reported to have gotten lost in the forest walking in circles for hours before finally giving up, it may also be because of the rumors that mythical creatures and magical beings have been spotted within the forest. Whatever the reason may be the forest have been left alone by the nearby districts. Recently, people have reported that they have seen people walking in and out of the forest and coming into the civilian district to set up shops or do business. However, no one recognizes them, knows for sure who they are, and where they come from...