Welcome to Glome
The City is so big it boggles the mind. The megalopolis’s sky-jutting towers stretch across the cold plain seemingly without end. Few people know much of the city’s environs outside their home district. Others never leave the catacombs beneath the streets where an entire underworld thrives in darkness. Vagabond nomads wander the maze of brick and concrete for their entire lives and never pass the same street twice.
Smoke belches into the purplish sky from factories where gnomes tinker with steampunk machinery. Deafening bells clang precisely on the hour from massive clock-towers. The rail lines perched above the streets shriek and groan as the trains rumble past. And overhead gargoyles, zeppelins, and dragons soar, their silhouettes barely visible through the smog.
But don’t look up for too long or you might not see that Trull about to stick you in the windpipe with a devilblade.
Glome is heavily based on China Mieville's New Crobuzon and Gene Wolf's City of Nessus (from the Book of the New Sun). I'm also borrowing from Monte Cook's Ptolus (which I can't recommend enough), Planescape's Sigil, and Waterdeep.
[For rules, I'm using my custom RPG Metal's Old Skool Rules, which is now available on drivethrurpg for pay what you want. It's a mix of old school B/X, 1st edition, and a sprinkling of 3.5 and 5E. I use OSE for monsters and magic items with ascending AC. I won't go into further detail in this post- download the rules if you are interested in knowing more.]
Finally, I wanted the city to be dangerous. This is where I got the idea for the "eternal twilight." Since it is always dusk, the city is never really safe. Monsters, thieves, and undead prowl the streets at all hours. This way Glome is an extension of the dungeon. Want to go shopping? With wandering monsters, that could be an adventure in itself.
Here's a shortened version of the initial writeup I gave my players to introduce them to Glome:
Glome, the City of Eternal Twilight, has many names, as one would expect for a city so ancient that its past is largely forgotten. It has been called the City of Lost Dreams, the City of Tolling Bells, Morthas Karthon, the Last Bastion, the City of Bones, and many other names.
The purple radiance from a Dead Sun perpetually baths Glome’s streets in twilight. The stars are always visible beyond the violet glow, or at least when the cold wind clears the City’s smog. Each year the dim light grows slightly brighter as the world spirals towards the Dead Star and its inevitable destruction.
Except for the City of Glome, the world of Eru-Lath, which means the Land that Time Forgot in Elvish, is a desolate wasteland ravaged by ancient wars, dangerous magic, and cataclysms. As far as most people know, nothing lives outside the City except for scattered bands of degenerate mutants and monsters.
The City lies on the coast of an icy ocean called the Sea Beyond the Seas. Mutated fish and strange fish men called the Deep Ones live in its icy waters. To the west of Glome, lies a vast dark plain of blowing sand known as the Deadlands.
The Dead Star provides just enough warmth and light for life to exist on the chilly world of near-darkness. While plants are largely extinct, certain species have adapted. Potatoes, cabbage, turnips, and leafy vegetables grow in dirt-plots and rooftop gardens throughout the city, while exotic fruits, trees, and flowers grow in vast greenhouses fueled by magical sunlight. However, good food is expensive and beyond the means of many people. The poorest subsist on weevil grubs, algae, and fish.
The city’s populace is largely human- nearly 40%, and almost all of the noble houses and government are human controlled. Demi-humans, such as dwarves, halflings, gnomes, elves, are also common. Goblinoid races and orcs also make up a sizable population. More bizarre races, such as daemons, angels, Trull, Mantid, and other extra-planar creatures, were summoned from other worlds during ancient wars of sorcery. Vampires and half-vampires are openly accepted in some districts if they restrain their thirst. Mutoids, Reforged, and automatons make up the last 1-2% of the population and occupy the lowest rung on the social ladder.
Technology remains on a medieval level because society and learning has decayed, and much knowledge has been lost. Wizards, scientists, and secret societies hoard forgotten arcana. Electromagnet storms and radiation also make electricity and other machines nearly impossible to maintain. However, a few steampunk marvels remain operational, such as railway and train system.
Glome is governed by an Imperial Autocracy under the rule of the God-Emperor Tempus. According to legend, the God-Emperor saved Glome from the wars and natural disasters that destroyed life on the rest of Eru-Lath. Statutes cast in bronze and marble throughout the city depict the God-Emperor as a giant-sized being of perfect masculinity with angelic wings and his head always covered with an eyeless iron helm. However, the God-Emperor has not been seen by the public in decades. Rumors claim the Emperor is dead, while others say the divine being escaped to the outer planes.
In the God-Emperor’s absence, the City is ruled by a disjointed conglomerate of ministries, guilds, temples, and noble houses. Each district also has their own individual ruler or government. Several nobles houses wage a secret war against each other for control of the city.
At some point in history, Glome was a bastion of truth, freedom and goodness. Under the command of the God-Emperor, its soldiers fought to destroy ancient evils. Its paladins and clerics were champions of Law and light.
Those days are long forgotten. Today, Glome is a decadent, corrupt civilization. The aristocracy live luxurious and self-indulgent lives caught up in twisted vices. Grotesque art, hallucinogenic drugs, and bizarre fetishes are popular with the hip socialites and intelligentsia. Torture- both self-administered and inflicted upon others- is all the rage among fashionistas.
As befits a planet slowly hurtling towards its final doom, many citizens are obsessed with death. The rich devise fashionable suicides, plan elaborate funerals for themselves, and build intricate booby-trapped crypts. Others poison themselves slowly or willingly contract the latest in vogue disease. In certain parts of the city, people embrace undeath because life is seen as meaningless. Secret cults dedicated to dark entities that practice necrophilia, human sacrifice, and ritual cannibalism are also rampant.
Addiction to magical and chemical substances, including dragonweed, witch-tar, and dream-meth, is widespread. The worst addicts waste away in crack-illusion houses, unable to escape magical fantasies. Potions of invisibility, love, speed, and longevity are also commonly abused.
A massive crypt plagued with undead lies below the district of Lichburg. Zombies and ghouls have overrun some areas throughout the city. City officials, or at least those who pretend to care, and a few champions of Law are only now realizing the extent of the problem.
Dungeons, catacombs, and caverns lay beneath the city. Parts of the Underworld are inhabited by dwarves, deep gnomes, and other societies that are open for trade and business. But most of the netherworld is perilous and home to vile creatures, strange magic, and long forgotten things. Brave or foolhardy adventurers delve into these dark places in search of treasure and magic.
Well, that's it for my first post on the new campaign. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Next time I'll start my actual play reports.
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