[RWBY] RWBY Shorts

[Sift Green]

And of course this one was originally posted on Jaune's birthday:

Happy birthday to Jaune Arc-The closest thing to a fully realized character this show has.

Click to shrink...

"Thanks for helping us set this up guys," Nora said as she looked around the room taking in all of the decorations Team SSSN had set up.

"Don't mention it," Sun replied as he got down off of a ladder, having just finished putting up a banner that read Happy Birthday in a loud font. "Jaune's a stand up guy and we're happy to help!"

"How much longer until Jaune's back?" Ruby asked as she made some final adjustments to the pile of presents.

"Renny sent a text a little bit ago saying they just boarded the Bullhead back to Beacon, so we have like fifteen minutes, twenty tops," Nora answered. She looked to the door impatiently, "Which means we're cutting it close on the cake..."

The double doors swung open letting Coco and Velvet come into the room. The two of them then held the doors open for the boys on their team and all the boys of Team CRDL to come in holding a cake so massive it required all six of them to cary it safely.

"Why is that cake so huge?" Weiss asked in confusion. "That's way too much for all of us to eat!"

"That's because this cake has a hidden chamber for a lady to hide in and pop out of once we finish singing Happy Birthday," Nora explained as she pulled a skimpy costume out of a bag and handed it to Pyrrha.

"Oh. Oh my," Pyrrha's cheeks became as crimson as her hair as she took it all in.

Yang looked the costume up and down with a calculating glint in her eye while taking Pyrrha's stunned state as hesitation. Sensing an opportunity of sorts she sauntered forward.

"Well I believe the tradition actually involves a blonde bombshell popping out of the cake, so why don't you just hand that over Cereal Girl and I'll-" Yang's pitch came to a halt as Nora clamped a hand on the brawler's shoulder.

"Pyrrha's my present to Jaune-Jaune this year," Nora's tone brokered no argument. "If you want to be my present to him you need to get in line."

"There's a line?" Yang asked incredulously.

"Yep," Nora confirmed. "May's going to be next year's present, and Ruby's already volunteered for the year after that."

"WHAT!" Yang spun about to look at her sister.

"I'm letting May go before me because it will take two more years for me to be legal in all jurisdictions," Ruby explained.

"THAT WASN'T MY QUESTION!"

Meanwhile Pyrrha had started giggling like a loon while Coco and Velvet helped her get into the cake and change into her costume.

 

[emileano154]

well since people are starting to bring their favorite posts from the other side here is mine

He has come to see us


Team JNPR and RWBY have come back to Beacon after a week on the frontier patroling grim. Team RWBY enters their dorm room only to discover it completely destoried.

Yang "who trashed our dorm?!"
Blake "It must have been the demon you and Ruby insist on keeping in the room he must have done it"
Wiess " this is too much damage for one dog"
Ruby "And Zewi is with our dad right now"

Team JNPR opens their door to find two drunk men half naked just getting up cause everyone on the floor heard the screams from RWBY. A tall one in gray is barly standing "my head what's with the all the noise" before falling to the ground. one in his underclothes sits up and rubs his head "where the fuck am I?"
Jaune "I know that voice uncle henry?" Jaune looked down at the hungover swordman. Henry "Jaune I come to visit you but please excuse me" Henry pull out a bottle with a dog painted on the side and drank it then drank one with the picture of marigold flower and handed two bottles to Qrow for him to drink and both men were now more awake and steady.

Henry "apologies everyone I came here to visit Jaune but ran into an old friend" Yang butted in "and you know drunkle Qrow how?" FLASH BACK Qrow and Henry are in a bar drinking FIVE MINUTES LATER they are in an alleyway puking TEN MINUTES LATER Henry has Qrow in a head lock punching him in the face and both men were screaming SEVEN MINUTES LATER police show up and try to arrest both men Henry breaks free and starts running "NEVER YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE" he tries to cross the street as everyone is shouting for him to stop and then a speeding truck hits him dead on and sends him flying.

Henry is covered by a white sheet and the police made Qrow sit next to the body much to his displeaser as the cops were writing thier reports and talking to the truck driver. one cop is radioing in "dispatch we have two drunk civis one of which is DOA". another cop is calming down the truck driver "he just came out of nowhere I hit the breaks but this thing does not stop on a lien card" cop 2 "sir its okay you are not going to get charged for anything" while the cops were busy waving away people and filling out reports the white sheet that covered Henry shuffled and a pair of hands was lockpicking Qrows cuffs.

Dead Henry? "Qrow focus you bad luck semblence and we will both run when they are distracted" Qrow did as ordered and a cop car had its siren blare louder and louder before bursting into flames and when everyone was scared by the sudden fire both men disapeared. A few minutes after that a report was made about a bulhead hijack heading towards Beacon. Qrow "how did you survive that impact?!" Henry laughing "Ive been beaten up by 10 men coming at me at the same time and fallen for a mile high cliff and i lost count the number of times I've been shot stabed and ambushed and I do not know HOW TO FLY THIS THING!!!" Qrow rushes to the controls but to late the bull head crashes into the head master office.

Henry "Me and Qrow have been on huntsmen jobs countless times before and have saved each other multple times so much that we are practically brothers now" Qrow looking around for his pants "yeah Henry is a one man army and his decoctions and potions have always helped in the middle of a fight" Yang narrows her eyes "so uncle Qrow what is his full name?" Qrow freezes and starts to sweat before Jaune takes over " Henry Skalitz Argentum Arc my father basically adopted him into the family after his hometown was pillaged and burned by bandits he basically went on revenge rampage on every known bandit clan before being thrown from a cliff surviving by landing ontop of the bandit he dragged down cause the leader did not care her own men and my father and mother found him and mom patched him up and taught him how to fight and patch himself up his potions are all his own invention". Qrow is now sweating more intensly before Henry angerly goes "That so called bandit queen who not only lead the assult on my home village, killed my parent and tried to kill me multiple times was Raven Brandwen" before he slowly remembered why he tried to kill Qrow last night.

Qrow with his hands in front of him "I hate that bitch of sister but I do not know where she is" Henry is just still as tension climbs "Everyone I must apologize but please excuse my exessive use of force KURVA REVENGE RAMPAGE!!!" as Henry launches himself in a flying tackle which propels the both of them back into RWBY's room . Qrow tried to dodge but his bad luck causes him to lock up and they land on remains of Weiss's bed before the ropes holding Ruby's bed snap and the bed falls on the both them. after a second the bed is suddenly thrown into the ceiling and both men are in rolling fist fight before another hit of Qrow's bad luck throws both men out the window. Ruby sheepishly "uh we are like on the 20th floor are they are going to be okay right?" both RWBY and JNPR hear Henry go "you shall die with me" before hearing a splash and Miss Goodwitch about to rip a man's skull out of their head so she could beat them to death with it.

Yang Ruby and Jaune "NOT AGAIN"

 

[AndrewJTalon]

The RWBY thread on Spacebattles is reopened. Of course, since I'm banned, there's no one to manage the threadmarks.

My suggestion: Everyone just grab your posts and move them over here.

 

[emileano154]

keep the party going everyone

by the way what have been some funny tags you've seen on the sites here, SB and AO3 my fave is "no beta we die like men"

 

[TheFabulousCustodes]

The RWBY thread on Spacebattles is reopened. Of course, since I'm banned, there's no one to manage the threadmarks.

My suggestion: Everyone just grab your posts and move them over here.

Click to shrink...

What for?

 

[AndrewJTalon]

What for?

Click to shrink...

It's a long, stupid story. So let's just not get into it here.

 

[Frankly Tired]

Im trying to write a Jaune Fate short.

Problem:
How does Jaune save Olga?
He cant infuse Aura to a unbound soul
Aura doesnt work like that.

Possible solution:
Jaune goes to the control room first, finds a dying Olga, unlocks her Aura to save her. (Or feeds his Aura into her Magic Circuits that heals her)
Jaune sees people are down in the transference room, and takes the jump from the window all the way down to the room.
(Jaune takes a massive hit to his Aura from the drop. Its a big drop. Woops...)
He trues to help out, but stays to comfort Mash instead.

Begin transference.

As Olga is now alive, Transference doesnt take her soul.

New problems:
Lev.
Also Jaune, please stop trying to fight with the Servants. I get you can tank a few blows from Aura, but like, they only need to hit you a few times to kill you rather than a Normal 1 hit like most humans.
~~~~
Future:
In canon, after Jaune fell, RWBY fell too.

Problem: Jaune was in Chaldea, and Humanity ended. So RWBY fell in a timeline that doesnt exist anymore.
Solution: Jaune can unfortunately (for him) summon Team RWBY as Servants.
(Team collective? All 4 summoned together, but weaker individually?)

Problem: Canonically Jaune was suppose to be the Rusted Knight.
Solution: Rusted Knight (Foriegner) summon. He's not happy.

 

[DarthAtrox]

Funny idea:

Through shenanigans, Jaune and Weiss end up glued together. Could be an older student's semblance, accident in the dust lab, etc., but now they're literally attached, and unable to separate for an indeterminate amount of time.

Since Weiss currently hates (not really, but she certainly doesn't like him) Jaune, and currently trying to romance Neptune, she and Jaune must avoid being seen stuck together, lest anyone get the wrong idea.

What is their day like?

Inspired by Kick Buttowski:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czGgb_KDPlo

Sorry about the fart humor. It is a kids show, so of course it's got to have it.​

This could end in romance, friendship, frenemies, what have you. What do you guys think?

 

[Gur40]

I really need to know how this Weiss behaves.

Click to shrink...

Ask and you shall receive

Spoiler: Warning LONG

and

Spoiler: WARNING VERY LONG

Oz: Correction Glynda, what have i unleashed upon Salem

---

my ADHD ass going again

Spoiler: Beacon Yang

Beacon Yang had better Strength, Aura levels and combat talent then her teammates just bad stamina and 1 bad match up with Neo

Spoiler: Atlas upgrade

Yang literally used random tools to take apart a LITERAL PROTO TYPE and fix it to be better then Atlas so called elite geniuses and her upgrade was... bombs... WTF

Spoiler: burn lv 3?

they showed she has pyrokinesis in the intro and SHE NEVER USES IT!

Spoiler: v9 meet Branwen

take absorb energy to it's logical extreme taking heat to make ice [KHR logic]

---

historically accurate Joan of Arc

Spoiler: Blond comes from Artoria

the reason Jaune isn't mad about all the shows references his ancestor is they keep mixing his ancestors together so they aren't really them but if you asked him he'd go an a rant about historical inaccuracies

---

Glynda Arc

Spoiler: 2 sides

Jaune being both amazing at logistics and child raising helps alot

---

who does this fit in the Jaune x chart?

Spoiler: please give you suggestionbs

???, Weiss and Ruby

if you agree or disagree please say

---

post Salem how many fans ship the hereos of Remnant?

Spoiler: plushie

 

[digcat]

Ask and you shall receive

Spoiler: Warning LONG

and

Spoiler: WARNING VERY LONG

Oz: Correction Glynda, what have i unleashed upon Salem

Click to shrink...

That was great.

historically accurate Joan of Arc

Spoiler: Blond comes from Artoria

the reason Jaune isn't mad about all the shows references his ancestor is they keep mixing his ancestors together so they aren't really them but if you asked him he'd go an a rant about historical inaccuracies

Click to shrink...

He still has nightmares about Ozpin rants about how wonderful her tits were.

who does this fit in the Jaune x chart?

Spoiler: please give you suggestionbs

???, Weiss and Ruby

if you agree or disagree please say

Click to shrink...

Pyrrha

 

[emileano154]

Snip

Click to shrink...

do you sleep?

 

[GraveyardShift]

You goddamn FUCKING madlad!

 

[zMADLAXz]

you agree or disagree please say

Click to shrink...

For Shirou and Artoria it's more like "We are both broken and accept each other like that, mow let's fu-"

 

[Sift Green]

Continuing copying from SB:

So during October of last year I made the following post:

Alright so something I've been thinking about over the last several months: The logistics of Salem's Castle Evernight.

So Evernight is a castle located deep within the Lands of Darkness, which is presumably somewhere in the dark dragon shaped continent that no kingdom claims. Yet in spite of this incredibly remote location Evernight is not just a well maintained structure fit for human habitation, it possesses facilities and amenities that seem to be quite modern.

This raises the question of how things are being maintained, and how the facilities are being furnished. It's obvious the Grimm aren't doing it; most of those creatures lack the anatomy and the brainpower necessary to maintain a building. And while I suppose it'd be possible for Salem to use magic to keep everything running I'm not sure she'd want to waste her powers on such menial tasks.

So that leaves us with human or Faunus servants doing the scuttle work, but those servants increase the supplies necessary to keep the castle properly furnished.

In other words Evernight needs a lot of supplies to remain a livable place for Salem's inner circle and any other mortal servants she may have. So where do they get those supplies? They can't get them from the major or lesser kingdoms because Oz would be able to discover such a supply line and cut it off, starving out Salem's mortal servants and leaving her with only Grimm to work with.

Quite the conundrum, is it not? So how do we solve the logistical issue?

I'd say the solution is to go bigger:

I say Evernight shouldn't just be a castle; Evernight should be a proper city that's self sufficient in terms of industry and population growth. A dark reflection of the capitals of the Four Kingdoms.

I mean Salem worshiping cults have been a thing for most of Remnant's history. It wouldn't be difficult for her to grab a starter population or two of those most devoted to her to bring back to the Lands of Darkness and establish a city around her home. Have her give those followers a few artifacts connected to her power to keep the Grimm non-hostile as they work and then Salem would have a city to provide her home with all the supplies and servants it needs to be maintained.

Do this far enough back in the timeline and the City of Evernight could rival any other major city on Remnant, making Salem the Queen-Goddess of a secret Dark Kingdom that she could potentially levy for a conventional war against the Four Kingdoms.

What do you guys think?

Click to shrink...

And now I'm going to try expanding upon it a bit.

Through A Mirror Darkly: Exploring The Cities And Peoples Of The Dark Kingdom

By Lore-keeper Manuel Goldstein

Introduction:
​

It is common knowledge among the citizens of the Four Kingdoms and most of the more developed Aspirant Kingdoms that the interiors of The Dark Continent are incredibly hostile to both human and faunuskind. A mysterious miasma permeates the air of that place that gets thicker and more oppressive the farther one goes from the coast. This miasma somehow dims the light of the sun and only the sun through a process modern science does not yet understand, making the brighter of the two great celestial bodies appear dimmer than the full moon even at high noon.

Consequently the stars don't disappear with the rising of the sun and the sky remains midnight blue twenty-four hours a day. As a result of this endless night the temperatures of the continent's interior rarely rise above those of the late autumn or early spring you can find in other lands with similar latitudes, with most of the continent's warmth carried in from the sea by powerful winds.

The greatly reduced sunlight and lower temperatures combined with the powerful winds caused by the temperature imbalance means that only the hardiest of flora and fauna can survive. The few plants native to the region have leaves and bark so dark they are practically black in order to absorb as much of the little existing light as possible, making them almost indistinguishable from plantlike Grimm. The native animals are some of the hardiest and ornery to inhabit this world, well adapted to the harsh conditions the endless night brings.

On top of all of this is The Grimm.

In the absence of normal flora and fauna the Grimm take their place. Plantlike and fungal-form Grimm cover the earth while the more animalistic Grimm move through these false biomes in a parody of the ecosystems found elsewhere on Remnant. One could move through an entire forrest or jungle and never see a single real animal, plant or fungus as the presence of Grimm-life has squeezed them all out.

In light of all these hardships and the overabundance of hostile Grimm it should come as no surprise that efforts by the Old Kingdoms that preceded our current world order to colonize the Dark Continent all failed. Even on the coasts where more normal sunlight levels exist and non-Grimm life is at it's most abundant the Grimm of the continent remain too numerous to make longterm inhabitation more than a pipe dream. Even with modern technology setting up any outpost not intended to be evacuated and abandoned at a moments notice is a fools errand, and has only been done thrice in recent history as logistical support for search and rescue operations following the crashes of the White-Star Luxury Airliners Titania, Olympia, and Gigantic.

The films immortalizing how each of these pleasure cruisers were blown off course, crashed upon a mountain of the Dark Continent and the heroic efforts taken to find and rescue the survivors have cemented the image of an inhospitable wasteland where no human or faunus could survive into the popular zeitgeist of this age.

However, this understanding of the Dark Continent is a relatively recent development. One only has to go back a hundred years to find that most people believed some lost kingdom existed within the nocturnal interior. This belief was rooted in old folklore and traditions dating back to the dawn of recorded history.

Stories from the Age of Myths, the Age of Legends, and the Age of Sagas tell tales of fanatical armies of both humans and faunus sallying forth from the fabled Temple City of Evernight intent on burning down all other civilizations in the name of the Grimm Queen they worshiped. More than half of the evil witches and warlocks found in old fairytales were said to have learned the dark arts at the feet of Evernight's ruler, and more than one wicked princeling or dark lord is said to have escaped justice with their entourage by fleeing to that evil place.

Even today when one goes to the less developed parts of the world rumors of the Dark Continent's inhabitants coming and going where the Huntsmen and Huntresses that uphold the world order won't learn of their movements persist.

These rumors are true.

This is not an idle claim. My grandmother hailed from those lands, having originally come to the Kingdom of Vale to spy upon its people for the leaders of the Dark Kingdom. She faked her death and hid from her former masters in the countryside of Nova Quitalia where she met my grandfather and had my parents. Grandmother first told me of her homeland on an evening where she was deeper into her cups than normal, and then confirmed what she had said once she was sober the following morning.

When my curiosity could not be satisfied by her stories I resolved to go and see the interior of the Dark Continent myself. When she realized she could not dissuade me from this she told me everything I would need to know in order to travel there, navigate the cultures that lived there, and hopefully return.

I went.

I saw.

I took pictures.

Those pictures are included in the appendix of this book.

I spent two decades traveling those lands. I saw the major cities of the Dark Kingdom, from the imposing capital of Evernight to the Lost Migrating City of Ponya-Nigalya. I walked their streets, talked to their people, learned how they lived and what they thought of the world. I met a set of sisters who were curious about the sunny lands beyond their own shores, and when I escaped for home I brought them with me. They have helped me edit this book.

I publish this under a false name to make it harder for agents of the Dark Kingdom to track us down and silence us. I risk publishing this because the knowledge contained in this book is something the people of the Four Kingdoms and all of the Aspirant Kingdoms need to know.

For while our memories of them have faded into obscurity and myths that are dismissed as tall tales they have not lost sight of us, and they look upon us with envious eyes...








So how's that for an introduction?

I have some thoughts about how people can live in the Grimmlands, a few ideas for a couple of important cities and a few other things.

I don't know how quickly I'll get around to it, but if you guys want to see more I'll try and make it a priority.

 

[Sift Green]

Through A Mirror Darkly: Exploring The Cities And Peoples Of The Dark Kingdom

By Lore-keeper Manuel Goldstein

The Village of Schull:
​

After many long weeks of serious contemplation my editors and I have decided that the details of where I entered the Dark Kingdom, and more importantly where we left it, should not be shared with this volume as doing so might jeopardize those seeking to enter or leave the country without the ruling regime's knowledge.

And so all I will say on the matter of my arrival is that I met the sisters who became my editors for this work (hereafter referred to as the Sunrise Sisters) within my first week in their hometown. The youngest of them immediately realized my foreign origin and stepped in to cover a serious faux pas of mine. She and her sisters then took me in and became my cultural guides, allowing me to move through the Dark Kingdom without drawing undue attention to myself. The eldest of the sisters also had work that enabled her to move about the country as she willed, and to my good fortune the Sunrise Sisters allowed me to accompany them as they went form place to place. In many ways I would not have been able to travel freely let alone survive without their help, and a return journey home would have become an impossibility.

Now if we aren't going to begin with the first settlement I arrived at then I must also scramble the order of the various stops on our journey to further obscure the point of my arrival and the place of our egress. This naturally raises the question of where to begin this travelog. Do we start with Ponya-Nigalya where we spent the most of our time? Do we start with the capital of Evernight? The Dust mines of Naranjal? The trade hub of Victual?

In the end we decided to begin with the village of Schull, a midsized settlement built around the midway point of the overland rout between Evernight and Naranjal. We chose to discuss Schull first as it is fairly representative of the average smaller-than-a-city community one can find within the borders of the Dark Kingdom, allowing us to present a slice of the countryside while also explaining how people can survive so deep into the Grimmlands.

Schull was originally built upon a large and rounded hill that resembled a human skullcap from a distance, hence the name. The hill offers an excellent view of The Queen's Road which runs along the city's southern edge. The village is walled, but these walls aren't the impenetrable fortress quality one would expect from being constantly surrounded by the creatures of Grimm. The reason for this is simple: the walls are primarily there for the small handful of Grimm that aren't cowed by the village's Bloodspire Obelisk.

A Bloodspire Obelisk is a structure carved from normally bone-white stone, but while it is fully functional it is a deep crimson color. While it functions any Grimm that enter its' area of influence becomes cautious and adverse to confrontation with humans or faunus. In short they become less mindless engines of destruction and more like natural animals in temperament, capable of being managed in the same ways creatures like large bears or bison can be managed. Still a danger if you don't know what you're doing, but not an existential threat so long as you practice some common sense.

To those of you hoping I discovered some miracle solution the Four Kingdoms and the Aspirant Kingdoms can copy I must disappoint you. The Bloodspire Obelisks operate on principles that if they aren't dark magic might as well be. The name Bloodspire is not poetic; the device is powered by blood. Human and Faunus blood specifically. On the holy day of each week (Wednesday on our calendars) the priest and/or priestess of the community will feed the obelisk more blood. How this blood is collected differs from one community to another, some methods humane and others less so, but in all cases blood must flow.

If a Bloodspire Obelisk isn't fed sufficient blood its' crimson color will fade until it is white, at which point it stops working. The amount of blood needed to keep one working differs from one obelisk to the next, hinging on factors like the size of the area the effect covers and the size of the obelisk itself. If material factors like that were the only factors affecting the functionality of a Bloodspire Obelisk I'm sure some of you would still think it was worth it. Unfortunately a more esoteric factor is involved; loyalty to the regime in Evernight.

The rulers of Evernight have some way and means of adjusting any given Bloodspire Obelisk's required blood intake without even leaving the capital. If any given community is considered insufficiently subservient for one reason or another they can increase the amount of blood needed to keep the community's Bloodspire running, often to a point that community cannot sustain.

This has made rebellions against Evernight rare, as most communities cannot afford the highest blood price an Obelisk can require...

...though a handful can. They will be discussed later.

Schull's current Bloodspire Obelisk is located in the center of its' town square standing over five stories tall and affecting all the grim within a ten mile radius. This is a spherical radius, not circular, making the village safe from both flying and burrowing Grimm. The older and less impressive Obelisks that the current Bloodspire replaced have been moved to the edges of that ten mile radius, greatly expanding the space available to the villagers of Schull.

The Grimm that remain a problem even when the Bloodspires are operating at peak power are handled by individuals known as Grimm-binders. The art of Grimm-binding involves the use of two half-sphere gemstones of a peculiar construction; both half-spheres were originally part of the same crystalline ball with esoteric patterns carved into it, only cut into two exactly six hours before they are meant to be used. Then an aspirant Grimm-binder has one half of the gemstone permanently grafted to their skin while the other half is grafted to a captured Creature of Grimm.

If the ritual is a success then the gemstones will link the mind of the aspirant and the mind of the Grimm, causing the Grimm to consider the Grimm-binder to be an extension of themselves and allowing the Grimm-binder to direct the Grimm's actions. Interestingly this also causes other Grimm to consider the Grimm-binder and extension of the Grimm they are connected to, allowing them to move amongst the Grimm unmolested.

Successful Grimm-binders will patrol the area around their community with their bound Grimm, marking the territory and deterring unbound Grimm from approaching. If an unbound Grimm is still brazen enough to attack anyway the Grimm-binders will use their own Grimm to fight it off or capture it for use in a Grimm-binding ritual.

Not everyone can become a Grimm-binder, and most of those that can are only able to bind to one or two Grimm. Particularly exceptional individuals can be bound to as many as six different Grimm at a time, but binding any more Grimm beyond that to oneself is considered incredibly foolish thanks to the drawbacks of the binding.

It should come as no surprise that directly linking a mind as alien as a Grimm's to one's own mind would carry consequences. If the binding ritual fails the aspirant binder is driven irrevocably insane. Even if the ritual is completely successful the longer one is bound to a Grimm the more Grimmlike one's own thoughts become. Eventually you become hostile to everyone that isn't a direct blood relative of yours, meaning your family will have to constantly play babysitter for you in public once a certain threshold has been crossed. The more Grimm a Binder is bound to the faster this process becomes, with those only bound to one or two Grimm keeping their minds until their late fifties or early sixties while those bound to five or six Grimm becoming unruly by their late twenties or early thirties.

There are six families in Schull that provided the village with Grimm-binders. In addition to patrolling the area around town Schull's Grimm-binders provide additional services to the townsfolk like escort to neighboring settlements or using some of their larger Grimm to perform certain acts of physical labor that Grimm could be useful for, such as using a team of Megoliaths to pull a vehicle out of the mud. Not every community's Grimm-binders are so helpful in day to day life, with many towns having Grimm-binders that only bothering themselves with the community's defenses and ignoring the concerns of commoners that can't produce Grimm-binders of their own.

Schull's economy is what you'd expect of a small town built along an important highway: the biggest industry is the service industry, providing a place for travelers to rest and enjoy themselves before beginning the next leg of their journey. As such Schull has an overabundance of hotels and entertainment establishments connected to those hotels.

Beyond that you'll find the farming any community of this size needs to feed itself. These farms are the typical farms common throughout the Grimmlands, which makes them atypical from the farms most of you would be familiar with.

You see in most places farming is ultimately about turning energy from the sun into food. Plants directly feed on sunlight and livestock feeds on plants while fungus feeds on the waste of animals and plants, so no matter what kind of produce the farmer deals in they are taking energy from the sun. This is incredibly difficult in the Grimmlands thanks to the strange miasma that dims the light of the sun to a level only comparable to the full moon, and as a result the staple crops of the Dark Continent don't rely on sunlight.

They rely on Dust, and not the typical Plant Dust some famers will use as a fertilizer.

While most methods of extracting energy from Dust result in its consumption a few varieties can be activated without that consumption taking place. The most obvious example you'd be familiar with being Gravity Dust, which can levitate rock formations of incredible size near indefinitely without loosing any real potency. The Dark Kingdom has invented a variety of Dust that can be used passively like Gravity Dust can to provide energy to the flora they farm.

They call this variety Fecundate Dust, and when properly tended to it diffuses an energy into the soil that plants can absorb in the absence of sunlight. In order to release this energy without consuming the Dust crystals a farmer must bury it in their fields where it will not be disturbed by the roots of their crops, yet also high enough to not be submerged by the water table.

As a result of this farmers of the Grimmlands will carve out chambers beneath their fields to place their Dust Crystals in, bricking these chambers up with specialized clay and sealing them with wax that will allow the Dust's energy to still permeate the soil without being disturbed by root or water. More developed farms have a complex network of tunnels running beneath them that allow the farmers to check on each chamber's integrity.

The creation of these tunnel networks often leads to the farmer branching out into subterranean farming, growing edible fungi beneath the ground.

The foods cultivated around Schull are the most common staple crops found in the Dark Continent. First is the Tooth Corn, a variety of maize whose kernels are bone white. Second is the Vukanović Gourd, a crimson colored squash that resembles a pumpkin. Thirdly you have Kidney Potatoes, a variety of potato that like its' name suggests looks like a kidney.

Moving away from plants the fungal cultures Schull's farmers favor is the Star-Capp, a black colored mushroom with many white spots that make it resemble the starry sky.

When it comes to livestock Schull's farmers once again raise the most commonly consumed creatures in the country. The Phaea Hog is a grey breed of pig somehow capable of consuming Grimm-matter, and even eats that substance before it will eat normal food. It's used to help keep fields clear of plantlike and fungal-form Grimm and can grow to big enough to weigh three hundred pounds.

The Weeping Cavy, named after the tearlike patterns around its' eyes, is a plump and quick breeding rodent that acts as a daily source of protein in most households thanks to how easy they are to breed and keep.

The Sar-lyk is a yak-like bovine that serves as the primary source of dairy in the Grimmlands, while its thick fur is the primary source of wool. Three specialized breeds currently exist, one optimized to have the most meat, another to produce the most milk, and the last to grow the most wool.

Two competing breeds of duck, The Bone-Mask and the Blood-Wing, are where the people of the Grimmlands get the bulk of their eggs and poultry.

Other livestock and domesticated plants exist, but they aren't really raised in Schull so they won't be discussed here.

The last thing of note about Schull is its' arena. Originally built as a place for the local Grimm-binders to advertise their protection services to travelers by showing off while honing their skills against one another it eventually expanded to being a place where everyone can practice combat. This expansion saw the area develop into a school that offered classes in foundational and advance fighting techniques of all stripes, making Schull's Arena somewhat comparable to the combat schools that prepare the aspirant huntsmen and huntresses of our Four Kingdoms for the Huntsmen Academies.

With that we have a general image for what the average Grimmlander settlement looks like, and it is time to move on to the real major players within the Dark Kingdom...












Some notes:

So Schull is like a dark mirror reflection of Patch, i.e. it's a smaller settlement that represents what normal life outside of the big cities is like for the Grimmlanders. It'd make a good point of origin for a "Hero" of Salem with humble beginnings, like a nega-Ruby/nega-Yang type character.

I called the blood red pumpkins Vukanović Gourds because a guy named Tatomir Vukanović is the first person we know of to have ever written about vampire pumpkins/melons. Seemed fitting for a creepy edible plant you could find in the Grimmlands.

 

[Sift Green]

Through A Mirror Darkly: Exploring The Cities And Peoples Of The Dark Kingdom

By Lore-keeper Manuel Goldstein

The Capital of Evernight:
​

When the Sunrise Sisters first described Evernight to me they waxed poetically about the city they hoped to visit someday. They shared with me stories from their childhoods, of how the first structure of the city was created when the Queen-Goddess Salem pulled many massive pillars of stone as tall as mountains out of the earth before hollowing them out and making her home inside of them. The Queen-Goddess named this imposing fortress of stone Evernight, and brought her most faithful servants to live within its walls and made it her home.

Having seen Evernight Castle with my own eyes I can say it is as impressive as their stories had made it sound. The citadel is indeed a rock formation that in many ways resembles a castle, towering over everything that can be seen on the horizon with a hight comparable to some of the largest skyscrapers ever constructed. The City's officials list the hight of the castle in The Goddess' Cubits*, which are roughly one and a half Valean Feet or Forty-Five International Centimeters. So if I've done my conversions right the 1,616 Cubit structure is roughly 2,424 Feet or 739 Meters tall.

Needless to say nothing else in the city comes close to the Castle's magnitude.

The amount of hollowing out this colossal rock formation has gone through is also mind-blowing. There are one-hundred and sixty-six floors above ground in the central pillar alone, with another sixteen carved out below ground level that regular citizens can access while rumors persist of even more floors going deeper into the ground.

In the ancient past all of this space made Evernight Castle a self contained city, but as the march of history moved forward even that much space inevitably became limited. This ultimately forced the growing population to build outside of the citadel's walls, and as the population continued to grow and grow the more important and influential families started to monopolize the living space Evernight had to offer.

And yet no matter how powerful and influential a family could be none could remain influential enough to keep their rooms in Evernight forever. One by one the great families were forced by circumstances to move out of Evernight Castle itself, often building stately manors in the surrounding plains.

Thus the city grew into a mega-metropolis equal to any of the capitals of the Four Kingdoms.

As history approached the modern era the few families that still lived within Evernight found themselves getting squeezed out by the encroachment of a force even their wealth and power could not hold back: bureaucracy. Be it the priesthoods serving the needs of the Queen-Goddess or the various ministries of the government the different bureaucracies that ran the kingdom sought to repurpose Evernight Castle into the administrative heart of the Dark Kingdom.

Today the floors accessible to the general public are the wings that have been converted into temples dedicated to different aspects of the Queen-Goddess, which hundreds of thousands of the faithful make pilgrimage to every year. Then there are the halls and offices where citizens can interact with their government. If you aren't part of the government or the sacerdotal class your odds of seeing anything beyond that is unlikely.

Yet in spite of this there are still a few residential floors. The top twenty floors are the personal residence of the Queen-Goddess Salem (said to be the same Salem that lived in ancient days, a claim I cannot dispute in spite of how outlandish it may sound and so will treat as fact for the purposes of this travelog) and her inner circle. The two floors beneath that belong to The First Minister's family.

The First Minister runs the nation in the Queen-Goddess' name, making Evernight's political structure superficially resemble that of the shogunates that have occasionally ruled the Fuujin region of Anima. The chief difference between the First Minister and a Shogun is that a Shogun's subservience to their sovereign is often polite fiction to hide the fact that the opposite is true, whereas the First Minister's subservience to the Queen-Goddess is an indisputable fact. Throughout Evernight's history Salem has often contradicted or countermanded the orders and edicts of that era's First Minister, and even the most powerful individuals that have held the office of First Minister have backed down once Queen Salem has spoken.

There have also been eras where Salem is a far more active participant in the governance of the nation than you would see in a true shogunate, with these eras seeing the role of First Minister reduced to handling the day to day minutia of the bureaucratic process and little more than that. Yet other eras exist where Salem and the First Minister act as if they are a duumvirate with power shared equally between them. However most eras have seen Salem only performing her ceremonial roles in the state recognized religions, giving the government its' superficial resemblance to a shogunate.

The office of First Minister also appears to be hereditary at first glance, giving the position another superficial resemblance to that of Shogun. However this is more of an artifact of how close the First Minister's family lives to the Queen-Goddess, giving Salem a chance to have a hand in raising the First Minister's children and shaping the next generation into her ideal civic servants. As a result the position of First Minister has only switched bloodlines a handful of times, twice through Salem's displeasure and thrice from the bloodline abruptly and unexpectedly ending.

The current First Minister, Mirafra Vortices, almost had her bloodline abruptly and unexpectedly end. Many of her children, nieces and nephews found themselves the victims of a plot to assassinate the First Minister carried out by those opposed to her modernization programs. Her son and presumed successor Rufous Vortices was among those killed in the attempt on Mirafra's life, with her granddaughter Lullula being her sole surviving progeny.

This tragedy lead to the event known as The Queen's Six-Month Walk, where Salem left her private sanctuary and personally visited everyone who would benefit from the modernization programs stopping. A few old families disappeared from the census. First Minister Mirafra resumed her modernization program with new zeal and vigor, while Lullula was taken fully under Salem's wing to be protected and cultivated into the next First Minister.

The purpose of the modernization program is to bring the Dark Kingdom into technological parity with the Four Kingdoms, as Evernight's isolation meant they were late to the industrial and computer revolutions. When it became clear that the technological pioneers in the outside world weren't slowing down and in many ways seemed to be speeding up Minister Mirafra began to fear that the tech gap would widen to unacceptable levels unless drastic action was taken. This lead the First Minister to draw up her modernization program, which required a massive restructuring of the nation's bureaucracies, the purchasing and reselling of massive tracts of land, and a complete overhaul of the tax code. Many people were upset as a result of this which lead to the assassination attempt that prompted The Queen's Six-Month Walk.

After the Six-Month Walk all opposition was too terrified to object further, and Mirafra's reforms went through at a rapid pace. When I first arrived in the Dark Kingdom these reforms were in full swing. I saw the new factories spring up all across the land, manufacturing new products only a few years behind the cutting edge of Vale and Atlas. Computers and scrolls went from rare commodities only owned by the uppermost classes to common place goods owned by the average joe on the street. Motorized vehicles went from being outnumbered six to one by beast drawn carriages to outnumbering carriages ten to one.

More concerning was the number of weapon factories that have been built, alongside the First Minister's rhetoric glorifying the ancient military expeditions from the ages of Myths, Legends and Sagas where the people of Evernight launched various jihads against those that didn't bow down to the Grimm Queen. It doesn't take much reading between the lines to guess that Mirafra Vortices main motivation for her modernization program was to gain the capacity to wage a modern war with the Four Kingdoms and those Aspirant Kingdoms that could one day be acknowledged as the Fifth.

Irregardless of her unsettling motivations First Minister Mirafra has managed to drag the nation kicking and screaming into the modern era, and the fingerprints of her reforms are plainly visible all over the wider city of Evernight, with many historical buildings in the shadow of the new built by her programs.

One of the few historical buildings not overshadowed by the new ones is the Calamitous Coliseum, a massive combat arena built during the Age of Legends under the order of First Minister Calamitous Corvid. This coliseum was originally built as a place where warriors could display their skills before Queen Salem and the people to aid in the selection of generals for Evernight's military expeditions beyond the Dark Continent. As such the coliseum was designed with more than one on one duels or squad level fights in mind, having enough room and modifiable terrain to simulate platoon scale skirmishes in a multitude of different environments so hopeful generals could display their tactical skill alongside their combat prowess.

When Salem stopped sending major military expeditions into the wider world near the end of the Age of Sagas the Coliseum managed to find a new purpose in entertainment. Battles were still held within the area, but over time they became scripted so skilled combatants didn't die in a way that didn't serve the community. It was kind of like the how our pro-wrestling scene developed when the owners of the various carnivals hosting wrestling matches realized they could hold more matches and thereby sell more tickets if the wrestlers were following a script. Now I want you to imagine all the wackiness and drama from one of our pro-wrestling matches but scale it up to a platoon sized fight.

If you can imagine that you probably understand why the Coliseum stayed afloat after it was abandoned by Queen Salem.

However in recent times only one fourth of the matches follow this scripted format. Part of First Minister Mirafra's reforms saw the return of highly serous true combat to the arena, as the First Minister hoped this would help Evernight produce combatants on par with the Hunters trained by Beacon, Atlas, Haven and Shade Academies.

And so the nation's most elite warriors gather to compete at Calamitous Coliseum. Major Grimm-binder families currently dominate the circuit thanks to sending members that have successfully bound multiple powerful Grimm to participate, but there are some non-Grimm-binder contestants that can still compete against the most dangerous team of bound Grimm and their handler. Some of these combatants aren't that different from the Hunters most of you would be familiar with, i.e. eccentric folk with custom weapons that are impractical below a certain level of mastery, while others are part of more standardized combat traditions like the Vertumnus**; aka The Seasonal Guard.

The Vertumnus were originally just a normal unit in Evernight's army, but when they managed to impress Salem in the Battle of Lonely Lake she took them aside and gave each member a personal blessing. The unit grew in size and continued to add more and more glory to its' name, each new victory seeing Salem grant them greater privileges and responsibilities. Eventually they became the most elite unit in the army, and then they became independent from the army as Salem made them her official Imperial Guard.

The Vertumnus are divided into four cohorts of intermittent size that perform different functions. These cohorts were named by Salem the Eiar** (Spring), the Theros** (Summer), the Phinoporon** (Autumn) and the Cheimon** (Winter). The Eiar act as the formal bodyguards of Salem, the First Minister, the family of the First Minister, and anyone else Salem deems worthy of her personal protection. The Theros act as the formal bodyguards of most other government officials and the important priests and priestesses of the officially acknowledged churches. The Phinoporon act as intelligence and counterintelligence, spying on the world and making sure the world cannot spy upon Evernight. The Cheimon are the Secret Police.

When not performing their regular duties it is not uncommon for members of the Seasonal Guard to participate in the combat scenarios of Calamitous Coliseum to keep their skills as sharp as possible, especially after the failure to stop the assassination attempt that killed most of the Vortices family. This failure brought them to the conclusion that they didn't face enough varied opponents during their normal training regime, and the Coliseum offered endless variety.

Another more informal group that frequently participates in the Coliseum's serious combat scenarios is the Society of The Sorcerous Staves, a group that blends modern Dust sciences with the older alchemical pseudosciences of ages past in the pursuit of becoming practitioners of true magic. Experts in creating a wide variety of different Dust mixtures they do a fairly convincing job of imitating what magic is supposed to be, especially if they're lucky enough to have a pseudo-magic semblance that pairs well with dust, though even the most skilled among them will acknowledge what they do is only a pale imitation of true magic like Queen Salem is supposed to posses.

The name for the organization comes from a group of uncommon artifacts known as Sorcerous Staves. These staves have a special chamber that a Dust Crystal can be slotted into, and once inside the chamber that Dust Crystal can be activated without consumption as many times as the staves' wielder wishes. By using the now unconsumable crystal an experienced member of the society can sling around Dust effects like they were an elemental wizard attuned to the element of the Dust Crystal used.

According to tradition these staves were tools handcrafted by Queen Salem herself and given as gifts to those who had her favor, which were then passed on to the receiver's descendants. As Queen Salem has lived for thousands of years and given Sorcerous Staves to multiple individuals each generation there are thousands of these things in circulation. On the other hand only sixty-six members of the society throughout all of Evernight's history have successfully copied Salem's work to a level where they could make Sorcerous Staves of their own, and each of them only managed to produce a handful. Because of this there's a limited number of them in circulation. Those within the society that are lucky enough to posses a stave are given the title of Dust Sorcerer/Sorceress, while those who do not yet have a stave but yet are skilled enough to be worthy of one should one become available are referred to as Dust Magicians.

First Minister Mirafra Vortices and her granddaughter Lullula are both Sorceress of The Society, as the Staffs of Office used by the First Minister and their successor (The Solstice Staff and The Equinox Staff respectively) are both Sorcerous Staves. Both of them are considered high level members of The Society even if they hardly ever have the chance to participate in its events and rituals in part because of their political office and also in part because their inheritable family semblance. This semblance, Dust Transmutation, allows them to transform any dust their aura is interacting with into any other kind of dust. This allows them to change the kind of Dust they are using without switching crystals, letting them resemble a wizard that's mastered all kinds of elemental magic when they cut loose.

The Society of The Sorcerous Staves own and operate a campus a few miles away from Evernight Castle's southern gate, know as Makila University. There they have several extensive Dust laboratories where they study Dust and teach the next generation the art of Dust mixing. Makila U. also contains the central Lodge where the senior most members of the society meet to discuss business. Several satellite campuses and lodges exist throughout the kingdom, serving to funnel the nation's best talent to the City of Evernight.

Other notable locations include Wayang Theater, a historical site focused on shadow puppet plays of a truly impressive quality and scale. The Hall of Horae is the largest public library in the continent, with over a two-hundred million items in their catalog and over three-thousand staff keeping track of it all. Mouseia Square is the musical heat of the city as many historic concert halls were built there that are still in use, playing the traditional music of the land to all willing to come and listen.

The last major location I will make note of at this time is actually several locations: The Grimm Pools.

Grimm Pools are like their names suggest pools filled with Grimm matter that somehow exists in a liquified state. When one watches one of these pools they will see the surface ripple at relatively regular intervals, and half the time these ripples proceed a newborn animal-like Grimm crawling its way out of the depths and onto the shore. Usually these Grimm are of the common varieties you'd find basically everywhere else in the world, but sometimes a truly rare and unusual breed will emerge from the pool.

It seems likely that pools like these are the ultimate origin point for most species of Grimm.

Pools like this can be found in several different locations across the dark continent, but most human settlements are built far away from them. Evernight City was built directly next to and around a great number of them. All of these pools are closely monitored by the cities different Grimm-binder families, because while the city's Bloodspires Obelisks are some of the most powerful in the kingdom they are less effective on literally newborn Grimm for a number of reasons. The most important of these reasons is that making a Grimm act like a normal animal is less helpful when that normal animal would be terrified to find itself in the middle of a major city with no experience navigating a space so alien to its' instincts. As a result it falls to the Grimm-binders to manage the Grimm Pools, calming and escorting the common Grimm beyond the city's walls while capturing the more rare Grimm to be used in future binding rituals.

Now that I've painted a picture of Evernight you might have an inkling of how many people live within the Grimmlands, which raises the question: Where did all these people originally come from?

That question is better answered with the story of the next city the Sunrise Sisters and I decided to focus on, the Traveling City of Ponya-Nigalya...












*Since Salem is an immortal woman with unchanging perfect proportions it would make sense that a bronze age system of "let's standardize our measurements using our ruler's body" would be a solution that would stand the test of time. So the Darklanders use the Cubit, which is subdivided into Palms, which in turn are subdivided into Fingers.

**Vertumnus is the Roman god of Seasons. Eiar, Theros, Phinoporon and Cheimon are the Greek names for the personifications of the four seasons. Three guesses as to why Salem named her Imperial Guard like this.




Anyways what do you guys think of this glimpse of Evernight City?

 

[Sift Green]

Through A Mirror Darkly: Exploring The Cities And Peoples Of The Dark Kingdom

By Lore-keeper Manuel Goldstein

The Traveling City of Ponya-Nigalya:
​

The story of Ponya-Nigalya is a story some of you may be familiar with, at least in part, especially if you're from Mistral or if you love lost civilization mysteries.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story of The Traveling City let me take you back in time to the continent of Anima, during the transitional period between the Age of Legends and the Age of Sagas. Back when the Old Kingdom of Mistral ruled only one half of the Lion's Maw Bay, the old kingdom of Taejo had just invited their own native writing system instead of borrowing Mistral's logograms, the First Shogunate of Fuujin began its' decline, the Hellenic League entered it's first age of exploration, Pathism first appeared in Pandu, the peoples of Jotunheim established their first true cities worthy of the name, and the nomads of Rostram became more interested in trade than raiding for a time, thereby allowing the Shah of the settled peoples to establish proper diplomatic relations with the other great kingdoms of the continent.

With this backdrop the story of Ponya-Nigalya begins. A community of faunus living in the border regions of Old Mistral and Rostram discovered a great vein of Gravity Dust. The leader of this community was a mighty warrior named Jianguo Gantulga, and he destroyed the Grimm nest guarding the Dust. Jianguo saw the naturally floating stone encasing the Gravity Dust as a good foundation to build watchtowers that could protect the land he had claimed for his people. And so he built miniature fortresses upon these floating rocks, while his more scholarly inclined brother Meng devised a series of sails and magnets that would let them to control the movements of the floating watchtowers allowing these mini-forts to patrol the valley they had claimed.

Jianguo's heirs were further inspired by the work of their father and uncle, and devised a way to work Gravity Dust into the foundations of all the buildings they constructed, from the humble grain store to the lavish manor. Soon all of the structures of their central community were held aloft in the air, safe from grounded Grimm and bandits. Meng's descendants in turn invented adjustable zip lines, retractable catwalks, kites and hot air balloons that allowed for easy transit between the floating buildings, making traveling to the ground unnecessary for a large chunk of their population.

They had become almost untouchable, and when that reality settled in they stopped sending taxes to the imperial palace of Mistral and declared themselves the independent city of Ponya-Nigalya. When the imperial court sent a small army to bring them back in line the mobile fortresses gave the Ponya-Nigalyans a big enough edge to rout them quickly, forcing Mistral to acknowledge their independence. This was cause of great celebration for them at the time, but unfortunately it inspired the next generation in many dark ways.

Their next ruler, King Jianjun Gantulga, was a man of great ambition who saw a quick and dirty path to untold riches and wealth. The mobile watchtowers and forts could be just as advantageous on the offense as they had been on the defense. They could bypass any army and circumvent any city wall. Why should his people descend and toil in the dirt when they could take the labor of those who were born to be grounded? It wasn't like the grounded people could stop them!

And so with a few impassioned speeches and some carefully drawn up plans King Jianjun directed the entire city to leave its place of origin, sailing forth on the winds to plunder the other peoples of Anima.

Like a plague of locusts the floating buildings of Ponya-Nigalya went from town to town and city to city, demanding tribute and sacking the homes those who refused to part with the fruits of their labor. From the southernmost tip of Fuujin to Argus in the north, from Polyphemus in the west to Rostram in the east not a single corner of the land was untouched by Ponya-Nigalya's reach. The Traveling City became rich and fat off of the wealth of Anima.

For almost a hundred years they traveled from region to region like a farmer rotating their fields, allowing each old kingdom time to recover before returning again to demand more and more. Yet this reign of terror could not last forever, for making enemies of all their neighbors had consequences; namely giving all their neighbors common purpose.

All of the different grounded peoples of Anima sent dignitaries in secret to Aelia Paravel, where they hammered out the framework of an alliance and brainstormed ways to strike down the Skylords that tormented them. These secret meetings evolved into official and public ones hosted by Mistral itself, and soon The Grand Alliance against the Skylords came together and mobilized against their hated foe.

After a decade long campaign the chief general of the alliance's armies managed to lure Ponya-Nigalya to the Himavat mountain range, and then further provoke the traveling city into following him into a valley pass between two of the world's largest mountains. Unbeknownst to the Ponya-Nigalyans the alliance had convinced the Lhotse people of the mountains to join their cause and had provided them with an absurd number of bamboo rocket carts and well as kites large enough to cary a fully armored Lhotse warrior. For once the alliance had the high ground, and they exploited it ruthlessly. Three-quarters of Ponya-Nigalya's buildings were destroyed or captured with the captured buildings used to pursue the survivors out to sea, where Ponya-Nigalya disappeared from history.

Once the alliance was sure the Skylords were not coming back the captured floating buildings were destroyed according to treaty, and the last evidence the Ponya-Nigalyans once ruled the skies of Anima was lost to the sands of time.

Most of you who have heard this story probably learned about it as an aside in lessons about Mistral's Mandate of Heaven, with an increasingly large number of modern scholars viewing the story as nothing more than a mythic epic devised to justify Mistral's political claims to all of Anima. Indeed many later Mistralian dynasties would use the fact that Mistral lead the alliance as the legal basis for making their neighbors tributaries, then vassals, and then fully integrated parts of the empire.

I won't bore you with the full details of the scholarly debate academia is currently having about the subject, going over the evidence for or against the existence of Ponya-Nigalya would be pointless for me because I know the truth of the matter. I walked the catwalks that connect its' buildings today. I road its' zip lines, I've flown on its' kites and hot air balloons. I've slept in their inns, broken bread with them and haggled in their markets.

Let me tell you the rest of their story.

The floating buildings that survived the battle in the Himavat mountains found themselves lost at sea, for their navigators too used to having clear landmarks on their horizons and were unused to navigating by starlight. They ended up at the mercy of the wind, and were soon blown across the sea and into the Grimmlands of the Dark Continent. There they found themselves herded by flocks and swarms of flying Grimm to the City of Evernight, where they found themselves the unwitting guests of Queen Salem.

Salem was fascinated with their floating buildings and all of the little inventions that made a city of free floating buildings truly livable. The thing that caught her eye the most was the warehouses and grain silos, as she could see their potential in bulk shipping.

The Queen of the Grimm offered them a deal: she would provide them with the Gravity Dust they needed to rebuild so long as they served as her royal caravan, carrying goods across her kingdom as she saw fit. Seeing no other option at the heart of her power the surviving Ponya-Nigalyans agreed to her terms.

Queen Salem then placed loyal Grimm-binders bound to flying Grimm amongst them, ensuring they stayed on task and wouldn't wander off.

And so the city of Ponya-Nigalya grew within the confines Salem had set, and as the generations passed the Traveling City became prosperous and wealthy enough that they stopped minding the constraints the Grimm Queen placed upon them. Today the city is highly loyal to the Queen, migrating between the other large settlements within the Kingdom of Evernight on a set schedule carrying goods and services from one city to another as a grand flying caravan.

As a trade caravan that spends months at a time on the outskirts of all the other important settlements of the Grimmlands modern Ponya-Nigalya has become quite diverse in its' genetic makeup, but the descendants of the original inhabitants are easy to spot as they are all faunus of some highly specific varieties; Red Pandas, Panda Bears, and Raccoons. As people from other cities joined their caravan these original families sought to make their nature even more obvious by making tattooing part of their coming of age ceremonies. When these ceremonies are completed the Ponya-Nigalyan will have a full body tattoo giving them a skin pattern that resembles the fur patterns of the animal they bare a trait of.

These ritualistically tattooed faunus make up three-quarters of the modern city's population, with most of the upper class comprised of Red Panda families, most of the middle class made of Panda Bear families, and most of the lower class made of Raccoon families. The non-ritualistically tattooed inhabitants of the city mostly find themselves on the same social rungs as the Raccoons.

Now with only that oversimplification to go off of one might think the Red Pandas and Panda Bears pit the Raccoons and the non-ritualistically tattooed against each other to maintain dominance. They don't for a few simple reasons. Firstly enough wealth flows through Ponya-Nigalya that those in the lower classes are actually pretty well off. Secondly anyone who isn't a good fit for the city can easily leave once Ponya-Nigalya makes landfall on the outskirts of another town and see if they're a better fit there. These simple realities remove a lot of the social pressure that can build up in the lower classes of most other major cities.

Of course offloading their less than content citizens on other cities doesn't always endear them to the other communities of the Dark Kingdom, but these antics are tolerated because of the raw wealth they bring with their bulk shipments.

I spent most of my time in the Dark Kingdom living in Ponya-Nigalya as the circuits it made across the Grimmlands allowed me to visit everywhere else that was important, and it helped me see that the story of Ponya-Nigalya is the story of every city and people living under Evernight's power.

In summary a group of people would find themselves on the outside of Remnant's proper societies either through their own dumb decisions or the prejudices of those proper societies. Eventually they become so alienated from their neighbors that their options either become extinction or to flee to the one place those they are alienated from will not follow: the Grimmlands. Once there they find themselves at the mercy of Evernight's Queen-Goddess, who will either find a place for them in her Kingdom or she will destroy them herself.

There is of course variation in these stories. The people who were with Salem for the founding of Evernight City were cultists that worshiped her as their Goddess, something that made them the boogeymen of the Age of Myths. Grimm cults from all eras of history followed those original settlers in their path of alienation, with a large number of them successfully reaching the Grimmlands and given a place to settle by Salem because they were already hers and alienated themselves from their neighbors by following her will. Others like the Ponya-Nigalyans managed to alienate themselves from their neighbors through their own initiative and were then found by Salem. And yet others found themselves alienated from their neighbors because their neighbors were the problem and they found themselves having to flee to the Grimmlands anyways.

Irregardless of how the alienation happened all of the different peoples living within the Dark Kingdom remember that it did. This colors their views of the rest of Remnant, and informs how they wish to interact with the outside world. Some simply want to remain in isolation away from those that hated them... but others look outwards dreaming of the day they can avenge themselves upon people long dead.

The people of Ponya-Nigalya have not forgotten the century where they were the de facto rulers of Anima, and many of them imagine a world where they can destroy and replace the City of Mistral as the heart of the continent. Fortunately their time as merchants has dulled most of their desire for revenge, as there's a hard limit to how much money one can make off the deceased.

In spite of Ponya-Nigalya's size and population it has surprisingly few unique facilities. This is because as a massive caravan they spend a good chunk of their time next to other cities, allowing Ponya-Nigalyans to take advantage of the theaters, arenas, and other cultural sites the locals have built. The travel time between different settlements is rarely longer than a week since all of the city's buildings fly. The raw wealth of even the low class citizens means that everyone's homes are well stocked with games, books and other means to stave off boredom during transit. For those where this isn't enough paragliding with massive kites is a popular hobby.

However this doesn't mean there are no points of interest unique to Ponya-Nigalya. For instance you have Sarangerel Hospital, a massive mobile medical facility that offers its' services to any settlement Ponya-Nigalya stops at that isn't big enough to have its' own hospital. Patients with severe conditions are frequently taken with the Hospital when the Traveling City moves on, returned to their home when the city passes by again after they are cured. Those who are released before the round trip is up are offered employment that can help reduce their final medical bill.

Another building to note is the Bilguun Library. This is a privately owned collection and a non-lending institution. However an old school printing press can be found next to the main lobby, so if you really can't take the time to read the book there the scribes the owner employs can print you your own copy for the price of materials and labor. These scribes are absolute maniacs when it comes to their jobs so they'll be done in only two days irregardless of the book's length once they get to your place in the queue.

There is also Jargal's Game Hall, a seven story structure with every kind of board and card game you could imagine available. Gambling is only allowed on the top two floors, meaning the lower floors are mostly reserved for the entertainment of families and younger folk.

Now as a caravan city one might ask what goods Ponya-Nigalya normally deals with, and the answer is normally bulk shipments. After the First Minister's modernization programs these bulk shipments include electronics and motorized vehicles, most of these going from the capital to the surrounding regions. You also have the traditional luxury goods like bundles of silk and other high quality fabrics, or boxes of spices and incense. Then you have the always necessary commodes of food and Dust.

Food is normally collected from trade hubs built along Ponya-Nigalya's normal rout that surrounding farming communities are able to gather at and then brought to the next big city on the circuit.

Dust mostly comes from mines of Naranjal, Evernight's biggest problem child, which the Sunrise Sisters agree we should cover next...






So I got Ponya-Nigalya from the Nepali term for Red Pandas, Nigalya Ponya, which the word Panda is ultimately derived from. Why did I name the Traveling City after Red Pandas?

Well do you remember the TaleSpin episode Last Horizons? If you don't the quick recap is Baloo sets off to find the semi-mythical city of Panda-La. Many explorers had reported seeing the city just on the horizon, only for it to disappear the next day when they would try to get closer. Baloo had seen the city once in his youth and wanted to prove it was real, and eventually he succeeds in tracking the city down and making contact. It's revealed that all of the city's buildings are actually the baskets of hot air balloons/blimps, and the entire city relocates itself from time to time.

Unfortunately the pandas living in Panda-La are only fake friendly with Baloo, because for all of their Chinese aesthetics they're more of the Mongol Raider types, with the various locations the city moves between being the homes of past explores that had successfully reached Panda-La that the panda's had plundered and burned to the ground with no survivors. They let Baloo go on his way, and follow him home fully intending to add Cape Suzette to their list of conquests...

Anyways I remembered it, and was inspired. Gives us a very different take on the Flying City concept from Atlas, with each individual building flying under its' own power instead of a singular floating plate the city is built on top of.



So how do you guys feel about this one?

 

[digcat]

Jaune and the guys as adults having some beer talking about the "good old days" with their sons.