Monkeyrats -
In the cities and towns of Quaya, you'll find very few of the huge, diseased rats found in other parts of the world. Instead you'll find monkeyrats.
Monkeyrats are the same size as rats, but they're better climbers, and most importantly, they're smart as hell. They're rare in the wild, but extremely common in the cities, living in huge troops of up to 100 individuals, usually inside roofs or in the drier parts of the sewers. They're smart enough to figure out ways to subsist on human excess, by stealing a couple of nuts here, eating some garbage here, and avoiding people whenever possible. Some Trysteran Lenguamancers claim the Monkeyrats are smarter than the average peasant, although whether this is meant as a compliment to the tiny beasts.
They fight a constant, invisible war with rats, which they usually win (by virtue of cooperation) and also with cats, which they usually lose (because cats are murder machines). Still, cats in Trystero frequently die when they get surrounded by monkeyrats, or when the monkeyrats drop a brick on them from 3 stories up, so owners beware.
The cities have a complicated relationship with monkeyrats. They're seen as pests, but they're a bit too intelligent to treat like vermin. And they're too numerous to ignore. Huge extermination attempts have been enacted in Salendar with partial success. But whenever the monkeyrats are killed, normal rats jump up to replace them.
Trystero the city that never thirsts-
The gleaming city of Trystero is surrounded by a gleaming sandstone wall, the stones of which were mined over 80 miles south long before the Moon Emperor descended to the earth. Fragrant fields of hops and wheat grow alongside ginger root beds and raspberry vines grow along the warm hillsides past the west wall of the city, the eastern wall protects the Trysteran Citrus Grove, a sprawling grove with over 15 varieties of lemon grapefruit and various citrus trees as well as a large stand of cocoa trees.
There are 3 major factions in the city of Trystero:
The Casque Masters Guild, where beer masters of renown the world over make finely crafted, often magically imbued ales and wines. The head of the Guild is Mug Brewington, famous for his Eisbock, a strong lager style beer made by partially freezing the beer during fermentation and removing the ice that forms before finishing the brewing process.
The Confectionaires Guild: Where sweets and cakes of a thousand varieties are made, where chefs come to study the art of sugar blowing and chocolate making. There are whispers that the confectionaires guild sometimes dabbles in dangerous and rare ingredients such as the infamous Red Honey and Underdark Cocoa Beans, which must be grown and harvested in the flesh of still living slaves.
The Lenguamancers College, where mages study the magic of the Tongue. The lenguamancers have an ongoing rivalry with the confectionaires guild over who can construct the most universally appealing and ecstasy inducing flavors. They had a brief rivalry with the Casque Masters, but lost miserably as Mages have no idea what people find appealing in their alcohol.
Salendar the city of chimes -
The road between Salendar and Trystero is 40 miles longer when you travel northward from Salendar to Trystero than it is when you travel south from Trystero to Salendar. No one is really sure why, a number of mages have investigated it and believe it might be related to a long dead a lamellar labyrinth of hypertoroidal tissues.
Salendar is known for it's uncountable chimes. Homeless children build chimes of broken glass and junk string, while the richest nobles and merchants build massive chimes from entire buildings. The chimes are all dedicated to the wind spirits who call Salendar home, there's a great cliffside at the edge of the city wear the veil between realities wore thin thousands of years ago, now it's a minor gateway to the elemental plane of air, and air elementals of all sizes and dispositions pass into and out of our reality with relative ease.
There was once an elementalist college here, mages studied how to bind and control the spirits of the wind now it's great halls and towers lay in ruins, a reminder of the past. A great tempest elemental was summoned and then bound by the elementalists long long ago, but it escaped it's bondage and destroyed the mages, shatteand leveled half the city before becoming entranced with childlike joy over a childs wind chime. Ever since the city has lived in awed respect and admiration for the great creatures and view mages with distrust.
In the cities and towns of Quaya, you'll find very few of the huge, diseased rats found in other parts of the world. Instead you'll find monkeyrats.
Monkeyrats are the same size as rats, but they're better climbers, and most importantly, they're smart as hell. They're rare in the wild, but extremely common in the cities, living in huge troops of up to 100 individuals, usually inside roofs or in the drier parts of the sewers. They're smart enough to figure out ways to subsist on human excess, by stealing a couple of nuts here, eating some garbage here, and avoiding people whenever possible. Some Trysteran Lenguamancers claim the Monkeyrats are smarter than the average peasant, although whether this is meant as a compliment to the tiny beasts.
They fight a constant, invisible war with rats, which they usually win (by virtue of cooperation) and also with cats, which they usually lose (because cats are murder machines). Still, cats in Trystero frequently die when they get surrounded by monkeyrats, or when the monkeyrats drop a brick on them from 3 stories up, so owners beware.
The cities have a complicated relationship with monkeyrats. They're seen as pests, but they're a bit too intelligent to treat like vermin. And they're too numerous to ignore. Huge extermination attempts have been enacted in Salendar with partial success. But whenever the monkeyrats are killed, normal rats jump up to replace them.
Trystero the city that never thirsts-
The gleaming city of Trystero is surrounded by a gleaming sandstone wall, the stones of which were mined over 80 miles south long before the Moon Emperor descended to the earth. Fragrant fields of hops and wheat grow alongside ginger root beds and raspberry vines grow along the warm hillsides past the west wall of the city, the eastern wall protects the Trysteran Citrus Grove, a sprawling grove with over 15 varieties of lemon grapefruit and various citrus trees as well as a large stand of cocoa trees.
There are 3 major factions in the city of Trystero:
The Casque Masters Guild, where beer masters of renown the world over make finely crafted, often magically imbued ales and wines. The head of the Guild is Mug Brewington, famous for his Eisbock, a strong lager style beer made by partially freezing the beer during fermentation and removing the ice that forms before finishing the brewing process.
The Confectionaires Guild: Where sweets and cakes of a thousand varieties are made, where chefs come to study the art of sugar blowing and chocolate making. There are whispers that the confectionaires guild sometimes dabbles in dangerous and rare ingredients such as the infamous Red Honey and Underdark Cocoa Beans, which must be grown and harvested in the flesh of still living slaves.
The Lenguamancers College, where mages study the magic of the Tongue. The lenguamancers have an ongoing rivalry with the confectionaires guild over who can construct the most universally appealing and ecstasy inducing flavors. They had a brief rivalry with the Casque Masters, but lost miserably as Mages have no idea what people find appealing in their alcohol.
Salendar the city of chimes -
The road between Salendar and Trystero is 40 miles longer when you travel northward from Salendar to Trystero than it is when you travel south from Trystero to Salendar. No one is really sure why, a number of mages have investigated it and believe it might be related to a long dead a lamellar labyrinth of hypertoroidal tissues.
Salendar is known for it's uncountable chimes. Homeless children build chimes of broken glass and junk string, while the richest nobles and merchants build massive chimes from entire buildings. The chimes are all dedicated to the wind spirits who call Salendar home, there's a great cliffside at the edge of the city wear the veil between realities wore thin thousands of years ago, now it's a minor gateway to the elemental plane of air, and air elementals of all sizes and dispositions pass into and out of our reality with relative ease.
There was once an elementalist college here, mages studied how to bind and control the spirits of the wind now it's great halls and towers lay in ruins, a reminder of the past. A great tempest elemental was summoned and then bound by the elementalists long long ago, but it escaped it's bondage and destroyed the mages, shatteand leveled half the city before becoming entranced with childlike joy over a childs wind chime. Ever since the city has lived in awed respect and admiration for the great creatures and view mages with distrust.
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