This idea came to me in Philosophy class today, and I'd be doing it a disservice if I let myself forget it. As always, feel free to chime in with what you think and how I can best expand upon what I've got;
The city of Harrow is an abscess on the ancient cliff face, a wound gouged into the living rock through unknown means by builders nobody can remember and infected with a civilization built of worn stone and rusted metal incessantly teetering over an ocean of bluish oblivion.
It is called the City of Cloaks and Masks, because those are the garments all citizens don out of necessity. They wear cloaks because everything leaks and drips; they wear the masks to hide their shame.
It is called the City of Slaves, because vast pen-ships bring pale-skinned slaves from unknown ports. They are meat; the City eats them.
It is called the City of Smokes, because rich and poor are brought together by the narcotic-pipe, the opiate-needle, and the need for escape.
It is meant to be a rotted sort of world: bleak and decaying on the surface, but with color flourishing in unlikely places. Themes of decay, death, morbidity, and an ancient and unknown past abound. Swords and plate armor exist in anachronistic harmony with night-vision goggles and assault rifles, all of it recycled a thousand times over.
Sounds interesting, although there is not that much to go on as of yet! Harrow is a good name though.
Are they all cannibals? Or did you mean "eat" metaphorically? Very evocative diet, yet almost unsustainable financially and logistically. I could imagine the upper elite believing that man-flesh allows them to sap strength and youth or some such, though.
I would love to see some of examples of "color" the beautiful/poignant counterweights to these pretty horrible elements.
The "eat" is both metaphorical and literal. Slaves do the work the citizens of a mile-high labyrinth of rust, grime, and decay won't demean themselves to. Of course, the Harrowed are infamous for their opportunistic attitudes, so cannibalism carries no taboo. Fresh young slaves might be a rare treat for a family of elites, while an old and bunt-out helot can expect to have his corpse gnawed upon by the poor after it's dumped in the waste.
This does sound awesome, but... Harrow is a borough of north-west London. Not that that stops it being a very cool name, just... I can't help but think of actual Harrow, haha. Others may not have that problem. That aside, though, as I said, some very cool ideas that I would like to see fleshed out!
Sounds really cool! Are you imagining magic, to any degree, or just technology?
Also, you should check out the link in my signature (The Cadaverous Earth) - my take on a similar dying world/macabre future theme (with plenty of cannibalism).
Quote from: Book of Dooms
It is meant to be a rotted sort of world: bleak and decaying on the surface, but with color flourishing in unlikely places. Themes of decay, death, morbidity, and an ancient and unknown past abound. Swords and plate armor exist in anachronistic harmony with night-vision goggles and assault rifles, all of it recycled a thousand times over.
This reminded me of both Steerpikes Cadaverous Earth and a short collection of ideas I wrote called Blurge! (http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,157922.0.html) I thought you were saying that the city was literally a living thing-it literally eats the slaves. All of the citizens were somehow sentient organs of some complex cliff dwelling creature-maybe some sort of aberation. I got caught up on the sword/assault rifle thing-but the recycled a thousand times over theme is something I was hinting at in BLURGE. (Never really spent much more time on it tho...)
Just a bit more for you all to digest. Inspiration comes in leaps and spurts for me.
Harrow really does resemble a massive, festering wound. Built within a deep gash high in the bone-white cliff face a mile high, ramshackle buildings jut out from every available inch of space. Catacomb-like excavations burrow deep into the living rock, while a few perilous bridges span the divide. Piers and wharves jut out into natural harbor that exists where the black sea flows into the lesion. All of it teeters.
There are no clean surfaces in Harrow: everything is covered in something, be it rust, grime, salt, fungus, or old and discolored blood. A river flowing from an unknown source drains its waters right down the middle of the city in a waterfall thousands of feet high, leaving everything dripping with moisture.
Every day, ships of the sea and air make berth in the port of Harrow. The people don't know where they come from. The people don't care. Harrow is the center of its citizens' universes, so while they may know of the existence of strange foreign lands from which hail many queer merchants, few can be bothered to know much more. The foreigners come bearing many treasures: exotic herbs and animals, potent drugs, and power-rings.
There is plenty magic in Harrow. Students of ancient traditions walk side-by-side with young spellpunks and their bootlegged hexes.
Grafters transcend their fleshy patterns with augmentation of metal and flesh, electrical wires as well as lashing tentacles. Few are the citizens who do not sport at least one graft, however minor.
The people worship many Gods. The Saint of Parasites asks only that you share your flesh with her. Cults of the Carrion Queen ritually devour their dead. Conspiracy is a holy obligation for the servants of the Many-Fingered King. Mercy wants to bring an end to it all.
Still good!
I could imagine the Harrowlings having some derogatory term for all outside traders. Maybe they separate them into colors instead of nations (a kind of indifferent racism). So the black traders would be black greis, the ones selling silk would be red greis etc. Just an idea.
To add to the wound aesthetic, the houses might once have been painted in the same colors, e.g. black/red/white (again), to suit the demented wishes of some would-be god-king of old. The incessant moisture and lack of maintenance will of course have caused most of the paint to flake and peel.
I do like the small notion about there not being untarnished surfaces in Harrow. Lends the whole city a sort of psychedelic, surrealist imagery where nothing is uniform or heterogenous.
Bootlegged hexes is brilliant, whatever it means!
I love grafts, but somehow they feel out of place here. Too premeditated for Harrow? They seem like a people who'd rather slave through existence than try to improve their lot.
Magic; are we talking fireballs or weird stuff?
The gods sounded decent enough on my first read, but the second time around I really noticed the Saint! She sounds terrifying.
I'll touch on two quick things before I elaborate later on.
Quote from: Superfluous Crow
I love grafts, but somehow they feel out of place here. Too premeditated for Harrow? They seem like a people who'd rather slave through existence than try to improve their lot.
Something I haven't really gotten to illustrating is that the Harrowed are not grim, dour people. They in many ways celebrate the corruption and decay they live in, the slow death of the city that is their entire world. They are the happy maggots wriggling through the flesh of their mother. Beyond its practical benefits, grafting adds mutation and asymmetry, not to mention that all but the most expensive ones are at least second-hand.
Quote from: Superfluous CrowMagic; are we talking fireballs or weird stuff?
Honestly, both. Nothing world-shattering here, but people are throwing fireballs and lighting bolts at each other all week long and then whispering to alien gods in narco-trances over the weekend.
I think what might be bothering me about the grafts is that they make the harrowers less "raw". But as I said, grafts are lovely, so by all means do keep them. I just wanted to give you as much feedback as possible.
The same argument goes for the magic, in a way. Vancian, elemental magic seems too clean and polished for a grimy, macabre setting like this. Of course, it would probably only take a few minor modifications to make it fit the tone!
I find this excellent. The names you have are pretty cool too. I like it when its simple. I'm interested in knowing how well this wide range of technologies will mesh together and how much influence the city holds over foreigners and vice-versa. Maybe the question needs to be; what do you intend this setting for?