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--- fractured_planes [2021/05/15 21:04]
admin
+++ fractured_planes [2021/05/15 22:16] (current)
admin [The Free City, Myst (Gaia)]
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 ====== The Free City, Myst (Gaia) ======
+** History **
+About 40 years ago, a minor trading outpost near the Free City of Lophia experienced a violent earthquake. All structures, wood and tent alike, collapsed, and animals scattered.  As the merchants and locals surveyed the carnage, they noticed a large fissure had opened nearby along the caravan route.  The fissure was about a mile long and several hundred feed wide at its most wide.  Strangely, a think mist filled the fissure to within a 20 feet of the the brim almost like a it were full of water. The mist churned violently and boiled as if fires below heated it, but the mist was cool to the touch.  Every few weeks, the mist would spill out of the fissure and blanket the desert valley in a surreal but spooky vail.  Strangely, an unprecedented amount of water began streaming forth from the lowest edge of the fissure and created a small river than ran back east to the _ river.  The water would also run strong for a few days and then completely disappear for days to weeks only to return again later.
+During the first few days, several of the locals would climb down into the fissure and into the mist.  After a few safe forays, the locals who ventured in stopped returning.  Family of the missing would drop ropes with loops and bells into the mist hoping that those lost below could find the rope and be pulled up.  Having no success, more people began venturing into the fissure, and they too failed to return.  The outpost's unofficial mayor, declared that no one was allowed to climb down after the lost and that they must wait.  Days passed, and spouses and children of the lost became more distraught.  On the 3rd day after the last expedition went down, one of the dangling ropes grew taunt and faint shouts from below told that someone was below.  A cry went up, and those on watch pulled on the ropes with a sense of hope and desperation.  Finally, one of the locals from the first expedition emerged bedraggled and frost bitten.  The man spoke of a exploring tunnels in fissure before loosing his footing and falling chest deep into a snow bank.  Having only heard about snow from travelers from the north, the man screamed in alarm and slowly dug his way out.  After exiting the snow, he realized that the mist was nowhere in sight and that he was in the middle of a snow covered rocky expanse surrounded by fir trees.  The man was able to start of a fire from fallen branches, some flint, and his knife.  He huddled in frozen corners of the expanse for days before finding a cave full of a familiar mist.  Finding this, he hurried through despite his frostbitten toes, found himself emerging from a cave, and encountered the rope with the bell.  His friends and family thought the story a fabrication of shock but couldn't explain the frostbitten toes and fingers.
+Later, a team of daring and more prepared explorers defied the mayors edicts and ventured again into the fissure.  They returned several hours later with tales of an abandoned city full of riches.  They brought with them tarnished silver cutlery and weathered gold statues.  They gave their treasure to their loved ones and returned into the fissure to never return again.  As tales spread back to the Free Cities, more and more adventurers arrived to explore the fissure.  Some never returned, most return empty handed but with tales of exotic lands and beasts, and a few returned with treasure.  From one of these expeditions, a renowned Artificer returned and reported finding a cavern full of _, a rare crystal crucial to the Artificer trade.
+As more and more tails and treasures emerged, the merchant families of the Free Cities took notice and deployed teams to investigate.  They realized that a something akin to a gold rush was happening with much at stake.  Blood was shed between representatives of several families, and armed guards and mercenary contingents were sent to protect their assets as blood had been shed in a few instances as several families butted heads.
+As tensions rose while more treasure spilled forth from the fissure, a mysterious company of 150 soldiers wearing unrecognizable armor and speaking in foreign accents.  The belligerent company claimed to be part of a larger organization, later identified as the Gatekeepers, and they were there to claim the fissure for themselves.  Their ludicrous justification included saving the world from an unspecified threat.  The families quickly declared a truce and combined forces to defend the fissure.  Seeing forces allying against them, the mystery force stopped trying to negotiate and drew their weapons.  The force also carried battle-mages, something long since banned from modern warfare, and they summoned gouts of fire and bolts of lightening to their cause.  The merchants forces, confronted by highly trained soldiers and battle mages, folded under the smaller force but eventually regrouped enough to drive the invaders away in a series of bloody skirmishes.
+After this the surprising appearance of these mystery soldiers, the families unified and rapidly brought forth their lawyers to establish a new city state to manage both the wealth and defense.  As bidding increased for the cost of each committee seat, only the wealthy families could afford such an expense.  With the legal framework in place and the ambition of the now ruling families, the fifth formal city state of Myst joined the Free Cities.
+Some months later, a full regiment of the now identified Gatekeepers appeared at the doorsteps of Myst only to be apposed by a fortified town garrisoned by a force that was easily the match of the Gatekeepers.  Surprised the rapid defense of the fissure, the Gatekeepers launched a few skirmishes to test the defenses.  Finding them sound and victory very unlikely, they retreated back into the Barrens.  Since that day, fortifications have only improved around the city and military guard thickened.  Years later, spies suspected of being gatekeepers broke into the city and set many of the warehouses containing the food and supplies for the entrenches armies alight.  Other smaller acts of sabotage were reported over the following decades, but the gatekeepers seemed to have been repelled.  However, more expeditions began going missing, and a few survivors reported being hunted by Gatekeeper soldiers in the other worlds.

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