Opus (Where Authors mean business)

[Ghostman]

That's quite a bit of text, but reads easy enough that it's not overwhelming. You've got an excellent idea with the livespires there.

[sparkletwist]

I like the little quotes.
They add a lot of flavor. :D

[Weave]

That's quite a bit of text, but reads easy enough that it's not overwhelming. You've got an excellent idea with the livespires there.

They do border a bit on the Wall-o-Text status, but I'm glad to hear it's easy to read. Regarding the Livespires, thanks, I'm glad you enjoy them :).

I like the little quotes.
They add a lot of flavor. :D

Thanks! I decided to add more quotes to things as I update the wiki. I think it helps me just as much as it does any reader get a sense on what life is like.

[Weave]

[ic=Marks]Ceylunis, the great city, also has a system of keeping track of anyone who leaves and enters the city. These are called marks. A mark is a special symbol written in black ink (lowercase "I" here) that essentially act as passports for people to pass not only into and out of the city, but basically anywhere amongst the districts and Walls.

Marks aren't enforced outside of Ceylunis, so they aren't characteristic of the whole Bastion, but a person without a mark in the city is essentially a non-entity; they lose many basic rights if they are unable to produce a valid mark by a certain time. People without marks can be unjustly enlisted into the darker Scientium Syndicate experiments (usually those pertaining to human body manipulation or drug administration tests), can be legally stolen from, and can hold no property of their own. Refugees of the Human-Faerie war must outwardly display their mark for one passing (month) before being allowed to conceal it on their person.

Many unmarked folks exist within Arcanova, the innermost district of the city. There's actually more danger in carrying a mark there than not, since marks are such a hot commodity and prime target for theft.[/ic]

Right now, there are a few groups that are characteristically labeled as "unmarked." They are the Trolls and the Highdwellers. Highdwellers exclusively reside in Arcanova, but Trolls are more common in Castadona, the wall beyond Arcanova.

[ic=Highdwellers]
"Crazy lot, they are. Give em two quick shots to the back of the head, BANG! - that'd teach em. But you can't. They're fast, and their ledgewalkers are always watching us from above, as we walk, as we climb. Little masked bastards, drop down at night like spiders to steal our hard earned food and ransack our cupboards. If I had my way, I'd bring those towers down at their base."
- Fuming Arcanovan shopkeep.

Highdwellers are strange, masked folks who live in the higher spots of the abandoned Livespires. They're referred to as Ledgewalkers, Spiderlings, and Crawlers at times, but Highlanders don't seem to care what they're called, they're content to watch the world below and, on occasion, take what they think should be theirs back to their tall towers.

Highdwellers aren't all that popular amongst the more "grounded" folks of Arcanova, calling them thieves and cowards as they scurry back up the walls with alarming speed. Many believe they worship the ancient Order Spiders, trying to make order out of the senselessness that Arcanova is falling to, but those remain only rumors.

"My mum hates the highdwellers... thinks they're a bunch of thieving cowards who got sticky fingers. I always saw them in a different light; I was lost when I was just a girl, no more than 6 pages, and I couldn't find my mum. I cried and cried but people just walked past me and ignored me. Night was coming (you can't see much now, but back then there weren't as many bridges and you could see the sky more clearly), and I got this little tap on the top of my head. I looked up and there's this masked fellow hanging upside down above me with these big goggles with green lenses. He picked me up, darted soundlessly across places I didn't even know could hold the weight of a man, and dropped me off on my mum's doorstep. I would always leave a piece of bread outside my window for them to take, and I still do."
- Calia, Arcanovan shoe peddler.[/ic]

[ic=Trolls]
"The way I see it, we must be kinda brilliant or somethin'. We Trolls just exploit the fact that a lot of people, 'specially the higher-ups who'd afford to have us removed, don't look down all that often."
- Scrapmaster Kirth, notable Troll 'thrupallojist (anthropologist) and experienced Troll scrapper.

The Trolls (not to be confused with actual Trolls located outside the Bastion) are the proverbial urchins of the city. They get their name from their plight: forced to live under bridges and ramps along the Livespires and along the underbelly of railways and overhangs, Trolls live rough lives. Dirty and poor, Trolls cluster in large groups in meager, tiny dwellings that can barely support two people, let alone the five or more that often inhabit them, and feed off of the figurative scraps of the folks living above them, sometimes literally.

Trolls are most common in Castadona. Though many would assume the more unseemly and ruinous Arcanova would harbor the largest Troll population, the fact of the matter is that there's enough living space around that Trolls don't need to occupy their stereotypical under-dwellings. Castadona has the richest population, which means the best scraps can be found left over for Trolls to subsist on. Frequently astonished by what gets thrown down their way, Trolls eagerly gather and make use out of the upper class's garbage.[/ic]

[sparkletwist]

I like these new entries.

The system of marks makes the Bastion a little more oppressive, though. "Papers, please!"

I'm also glad to see that you're putting my contest entry from way back when to good use. :D
Are Highdwellers human?

[Weave]

I like these new entries.

The system of marks makes the Bastion a little more oppressive, though. "Papers, please!"

I'm also glad to see that you're putting my contest entry from way back when to good use. :D
Are Highdwellers human?

I'm happy to be using the Order Spider :). I imagine many people would wear a spider brooch to show their devotion to their "ancestor authors," or something. I wanted to link the actual contest entry, but the post seems to have disappeared...? I couldn't find it, let alone the contest thread.

Highdwellers are human, as far as anyone knows. I picture them as spindly, thin, and highly acrobatic folks who dart along the spires. They speak a language that is eerily familiar but not enough so to glean an outside understanding on what they're saying. It's possibly a very old dialect of the Bastion language (currently unnamed), used before the Author.