Dark City-1

Formerly an experiment in human individuality by a hive-mind alien species, it now falls to one man to keep this space-bound city running.

Type: Blossom

Active Characters

John Murdoch

Overview

The unnamed "dark city" -- though it is dark no longer -- began as an experimental habitat for humans that it kidnapped from... SOMEWHERE. Even those who know about the Strangers (a species of hive-mind aliens who thought that humans' individuality could save their own dying species) do not know where the humans were taken from.

Though now that the Strangers are gone, can such a city and its inhabitants survive out this far without their captors to meet their needs? Will more people shake off the innate "ignore weirdness" directive they've been implanted with? More importantly... will more people wake up to the ability to control the city?

For right now, though, the people of the city languish in the odd ennui enforced by the Strangers. They all seem content to stay in the city, very few actually choosing to leave through the Vines that open periodically. Luckily it also means that those who enter from the World Tree proper are unlikely to rouse much in the way of suspicion.

Technology Level

The unnamed "dark city" is kind of all over the place when it comes to technology. Art-deco buildings and automats (cafeterias where food is served via coin-operated doors) exist alongside modern skyscrapers full of offices and apartments, lounge singers perform in neon-choked clubs, and rich people who dress in 20s fashion live above streets filled with both automobiles and streetcars.

It's almost impossible to pin down an "era" of technology, but one's liable to find any technology from the 1920s to the early 2000s in this city. That said, the people of the city aren't adverse to using higher technologies. So it's entirely possible that higher technology from around the World Tree might propogate throughout the city.

Ignore Weirdness

The "Dark City" and its people neither reject nor embrace the World Tree. The Vines are just... there, or they're not. Strange powers and people are either there, or they aren't. Weird how that guy can make stuff float. Must be a magician. Hey, that lady's got fur... nice costume she's got.

The Strangers implanted a directive in the humans' brains at the beginning of their experiment, the directive to simply ignore things that point to inconsistency. Can't remember how to get to Shell Beach? "Ah, it's been years since I've been there". Even something like not being able to tell someone the name of their city if asked gets little more than a, "I'm not exactly a patriot, y'know".

A side effect of this is that, unless people are being directly threatened by the weird powers of the World Tree, most of the Tree's weirdness simply does not affect the people of the Dark City as it would another world that just suddenly found itself with a whole multiverse of unknown creatures visiting it.