My last big post was about six shops in the city of the lost, in the center of the plane Disorder. Here are more details about the place itself.

Art by Chris Cold

Anarchy

The entire plane is the domain of a god, named Anarchy. It is, as you might guess, the god of anarchy. Freedom, rebellion, overthrowing rulers. It’s domain both includes lawless hellscapes and the overthrowing of corrupt and evil regimes. This makes It a somewhat controversial figure.

Anarchy looks extremely demonic. The reason for this is unclear, It is not a fiend and never has been. In the days before It took up the mantle, it was a fey. It bleeds into the darkness, wearing the shadows around it like a cloak. It sits among the people at a great feast table, among farmers and craftsmen, standing out like a blot of pure black on a sunlit day.

Some quick background on deities. They have a few abilities that set them apart from other powerful creatures.

A Mantle. The magical source of their power. Rarely a physical object, and more of a spiritual designator marking them as a god. All mantles can be transferred to other beings, but each requires a different method.

True immortals. They cannot die as long as they hold the mantle

A Word. They each know one word of the language that speaks creation into existence. Commonly known as Power Words, each god can speak their word at will.

Reverse empathy. Mortal creatures around them share their strong emotions.

Effect on their surroundings. Any place they are worshipped, and their current location, is changed by them.

For the last note, some gods have their domains over continents or kingdoms, some have demiplanes they live in. Anarchy has a demiplane. But by definition of Its own godly mantle, nobody, even Itself, can rule over Its domain. This gives the plane and the city in it a very strange culture. There are no rulers, and attempting to take power there is against the natural law of the place itself. However, it’s difficult for any creature not to picture the god and the creator of the ground you walk upon as your leader. Cognitive dissonance abounds.

Art by Noah Stacey

The Citizens

The demographics of the city exacerbate the chaos. Anyone or anything that is lost, exiled, or unwanted can end up here. Many of the residents are semi-reformed criminals, and only a portion of those were unjustly imprisoned. In addition, the city boasts a huge number of powerful creatures from among the planes that didn’t fit into their own grand societies. Angels just a smidge too evil, demons just a smidge too good. Hive mind creatures cut off from the host. Aberrations and strange things from the deep, with too much curiosity for how the surface kind live. Deposed gods often wind down to this city, either to hide from reprisal or to plot the retaking of their mantles.

The city has a population somewhere in the range of 400,000 people. The vast majority are humanoid, with demographics similar to the universe at large. Elves and uncommon humanoid races have somewhat higher representation than usual. There is an active Goblin bloom in the city. Then there are the stranger things. Visitors will often overstate the population of higher order life forms, but an accurate census places their number quite small.

The only major population is the Fey. The border between here and Faerie is well known, and so much travel occurs across the boundary. The next largest population is tiny by comparison. Demons and fiends. There are roughly 800 to 1000 fiends here. The vast majority are between the level of an imp to an incubus. The incubi and succubi make up the majority of the humanoid demons one encounters here. Greater demons are few, perhaps 20 in total. At least one pit fiend lives in the city, but it is given a wide berth.

The next largest is Angels. Most fallen angels are still too moral to take to sowing despair, and so end up here for lack of options. After them comes the sentient elementals, mostly Djinn. Then comes the small colony of things from between the worlds. Small colonies of gith and the like. Last are the aberrations. Few of these star spawn have minds that can align with mortals enough to form a society, but those that do have a few representatives here. Creatures with strange anatomies, or even no anatomy at all as we understand it. The majority, however, are simply humanoids who have been touched by the outer stars and come back changed.

Art by Morry

Personalities

There are six craftsmen and shopkeepers in the city who deal in the kind and level of magic that draws outside attention. Those with the knowledge of other planes, especially powerful mages, may journey here to see them. Read about them here.

The other people a traveller should know of before a visit are Anarchy’s Freed. Anarchy’s mantle consists of Its thirteen eyes. Anyone who holds all of them takes Its mantle. The catch is that they can only be given willingly. If the holder is killed, the eye will worm its way back to Anarchy before it can be stolen. The Freed are anyone who holds one or more eyes. Anarchy leaves them surreptitiously in the path of those who have or will make great strides in the cause out in the myriad worlds. They are powerful magical items that protect the bearers from mind altering magics.

Rarely are more than one or two in town at once. They are who they are because they have business toppling regimes in other worlds. Here are the current holders:

Molly: A fey knight of the midnight court. Wears black armor and rides a black unicorn. Also known in myth and legend as the Black Knight. She rides from realm to realm hunting down tyrant’s greatest warriors. Always fights alone, and rarely attacks anyone in a large group.

Volregal: A demon philosopher who writes that gods are by definition tyrants, with the amount of power they wield. Struggles with the innate amount of power he was born with, as a manifestation of godly power. Has a strange moral code, he feels he must give all foes the chance to surrender or switch sides before battle.

Robyn: An archer obsessed with the power granted by wealth. Redistributes it violently, through guerilla warfare. Has a large following, nearly an army.

Moshr: A diplomat and envoy who preaches about freedom and justice to the masses. Believes zealously in the equality of all sapient beings.

The main point of the Freed is to tie this place into larger campaigns. Giving one to a player as a plot hook, or to an appropriate NPC to hint at this place’s existence.

Art by Frida E. Arntsen

The City

The plane is an infinite black sea, only waist deep. The city itself is formed out of lost and abandoned things. If a building is lost in a flood, it will sink into the mud, and then rise from the black sea of this plane. If a city is razed and forgotten, it will fade into the mists and appear here. The city is haphazard, stacks of buildings growing out of each other, no rhyme or reason to the era or technology behind any buildings. In addition, citizens have build all manner of things to suit their needs, but as they all come from wildly different cultures there is no cohesive theme to be found there either.

Due to the lack of natural light, the city is illuminated by lamps. Both fire and magic are used, and each district may have a distinct glow from the last.

Social constructs that can readily be used to sort people into hierarchies dissolve rapidly. The first that most will notice is money. It is not used here. Most resources are rationed out, or distributed democratically. Trade mostly happens with travellers, and the trade is for whatever the craftsman thinks would be useful to the community. Even the shopkeepers from the other post do a great deal of their work for free for other community members.

This does not make the city a utopia. There are fights, shouting matches, murders, riots, gangs, and the occasional butting of heads of two beings far above mortal ken. Society is maintained through three vectors:

Democracy: The official way the city is run. When there are issues, the people vote. Whichever way the majority rules, the city goes. Every sentient mind that has lived in the city for more than a year and a day gets one vote.

Reputation: The unofficial way the city is run. Rumors and news travel around the city at lightning speed, and the city keeps a loose tally of how much good any person has done for the city. How much the city weights your ability and power into that reputation ebbs and flows with the years. Having a low reputation can be dangerous, and one may end up being “encouraged” to pick up slack. Those with high reputation are the ones who are trusted to enforce the decisions made democratically.

Anarchy and the Freed: The Freed are elevated in this society. There are obviously not given any institutional advantages, but in practice, they have an artificially inflated reputation. As they’re usually beings of high power, they have the responsibility of solving any major crises in the city. If it is above their ability to solve, Anarchy Itself may step in, but It refuses to use Its standing to force others to do anything, which limits the effectiveness.

Despite the bad though, there is a real sense of community here. There are festivals, and feasts, and parties abound. You might not want to end up at a demon’s apartment party, but it may be the only place in the universe where an angel will. Civic duty is very important to the people here. Some due to fear of reprisal, but many develop a true conviction after they see the good it does.