Difference between revisions of "Negav's Underground"

Revision as of 13:53, 3 February 2016

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Negav content: | Negav main | Negav's Lower Tier | Negav's Middle Tier | Negav's Higher Tier | Negav's Underground | Negav's surrounding area | Negavian factions

Under construction

The city of Negav is undoubtedly the largest and most impressive structure built by humans in Felarya that managed to persist through time. Being famous and well known across the land, even among giant predators, it's no surprise that humanoids from all over the world are drawn to this place, to and beyond its limits of capacity. This led to the building of an entire city in its shadow, or more precisely, underneath. Slowly but surely, the city of Negav expanded underneath the grounds it rests on, like a plant taking root.

Negav's underground sector is huge and covers most of the expanse of the city over several vertical layers. Most sections are bundled together with long tunnels leading to others areas in order to keep the rest of the surface city on stable grounds. Technically, there are specific areas where people are allowed to excavate more room but those regulations are seldom regarded. The deeper one goes, the more chaotic the tunnels, rooms and structures become, as less accurate maps for orientation exist and less people care to follow rules from above. According to official statistics, the underground population is about three quarters of that living within Negav's lower tier. However, this only take into account the legal citizens of the city, and most commonly refers to inhabitants of the upper commons. The real number of people inhabiting the underground of Negav, both legally and illegally, is probably two to three times larger, making the underground a very significant area of the city's living space. That's why underground folks often call the surface area of Negav merely the tip of the iceberg. The underground is known to harbor the poorest of the poor. It's not entirely true however, as the population is extremely diverse and range from everyday citizens, who live and work above ground, to people who have lost everything but their lives and seek refuge in places nobody else would want to live. To some, the underground is a hive of scum and villainy that's best be sealed off from the world entirely, to others it's a fascinating place full of different cultures and people, where one could spend their entire lives and yet not see everything it has to offer. However, in most cases those who can afford it try to move above ground at the first opportunity. Living in the underground is widely considered as a social stigma because of the bad reputation of the area. Crime rate is extremely high there and even in the upper commons, those who do not look out for their possessions or watch their backs regularly find themselves robbed or worse. Mercy and Morality become luxuries in a world where most people have so little to spare and, more often than not, the law of the surface is barely worth the paper it is printed on.

Negav's underground is separated into several layers, each serving specific purposes to those who live there, and the ones above. Even though not as precisely separated in reality, they can be roughly be divided into two main levels: The hive and the depths. The hive is considered as an official part of Negav. It is relatively kept intact, connected to Negav's multiple networks of water and sewage. The Depths on the other hand is an unofficial area, whose existence is unknown by most of the surface population. It's a complex network of hidden caverns, derelict tunnels and shafts. To live here is a harsh and brutal existence and for many of the unfortunate souls who were born there, seeing the light of the day one time in their life is nothing but a distant dream.

Surface Connections

The Upper commons are the highest layer of the hive, and connect to many different staircases leading to the surface, which end in various locations of both the lower tier and the middle tier of Negav, the latter being gated by heavy iron doors and guards, allowing to seal the entrances in case of emergencies. However, the connections between the lower tier and the upper commons are, for the most part open, and rarely guarded, both for the convenience of travel and because they are too numerous. Moreover it gives the citizen below a relative sense of freedom, as there are always some way up that cannot be closed off - serving an important role to prevent panics and keeping the underground population peaceful. It is worth noting, that there are no known connections between the upper commons and the high district, as official building regulations did prevent the underground area to spread underneath the area for stability reasons. It's almost certain however that some secret passageways to and from important places such as the Nexus or the Isolon university exist.

The Hive

Upper Commons

Negavians, who can't or don't want to rent a place in the poor districts of Negav often move down to the upper commons. The place is a large network of subterranean streets, plazas, houses and shops. Several of its richer areas actually look fancier and more pleasant than some of the poor districts above. Most walls, ceiling and floor are made of Takrit, although some more valuable materials are sometimes used as well. It's interesting to note that some underground houses are just a few feet below the surface street, and sometimes even have windows that lead to small shafts in the ground, allowing some amount of sunlight to flow into their rooms. However, most of the light underground is artificial, and a very large amount of magic torches and lamps are scattered throughout the streets and homes of the Upper commons. Some areas are surprisingly spacious, allowing for impressively shaped arches that hold the city above, fancy looking hallways, and houses with actual roofs instead of being carved directly from the walls. Most areas however are simple tunnels and housing districts, made with efficiency in mind. A typical underground house consists of three to four rooms carved into the stone, usually including a kitchen and bathroom with running water supply. For economic reasons, smaller aqueducts are used to allocate water between the households, using gravity rather than pumps to get the water to its destination. Since a new home can easily be connected by carving another branch into the side of an aqueduct, water supply is usually a much lesser issue than getting rid of the used waters. For that reason, there are many public waste-holes around, which allow for easy disposal of dirty water and other wastes, which are directly led into the sewage system, for those who don't have the luxury of a drainage system.

The Upper commons is home to many regular citizens, who go to work, eat and live above ground, just as any Negavian of the surface and might even pay taxes to the city if their income is high enough. Families often live together in one single home, and form tight knit communities with their neighbors within the same street or the same block, as districts are called. The security underground is poor and scarce, forcing many citizen to organize themselves and form militias that watch over a street or a block. If you attack or rob one citizen and get noticed, it is very likely that you will have a whole bunch of armed people after you relatively quickly. The lines between a militia and a gang are often very blurred and can shift rapidly. Many gangs started as civic defense groups that wanted to work to secure a better life in the underground for their people, before becoming hardened and violent themselves and oppressing the people they were meant to protect in the end with protection fees and other mafia practices. Many of those groups looks suspiciously at outsiders and perceive security forces as threats, leading to many outbreak of violence and flash-points. Some of those gangs are so adamant about their self defense, that their blocks resemble more military complexes than residential areas, with few and very well defended entry points. Other blocks take advantage of being near a corridor leading to the surface to demand tolls from everyone who wishes to pass through. From there it's just a small step towards organized crime, and many block gangs quickly seek to control, and partake in everything that is going on in their area of influence, up to the point of taking over other blocks. In a way, it is an invisible war about alliances and control, and many skevols are being made through having the manpower or strategic locations needed to put pressure on others citizen.

The power of the gangs is a fact of life though, and many citizen point that they are necessary for survival as they provide some amount of security. Some tunnels are very dangerous to trespass on one's own, as abductions do happen every few days. When a person disappears, their family will usually soon find a letter, demanding a ransom for the captives' release. In other cases they find them wounded and naked somewhere in a dim lit tunnel, robbed to their last piece of clothing, but at least alive if they are lucky. Some people disappear and are never seen again, usually taken down into the depths below, where they suffer a much worse fate, being forced to work, get killed right away, or sold as slaves to those who can afford a couple of skevols.

Notable locations:

Sapphire Plaza

Sapphire Plaza is a comparatively large cavern underneath Negav's middle tier, relatively close to the cities center. It is an impressively spacious area that spans over a total of three floors and is filled with a small landscape, complete with grass, trees and a small lake, the latter being the places' namegiver. The area is so wide that globes of magic light underneath the ceiling resemble suns or stars, and the chirping of real birds can be heard throughout the plaza. The most remarkable about the Plaza however is its ceiling, which has been painted blue, to give the feeling of being under an open sky. The fine painting along with the subtle lighting will give pause to a person seeing it for the first time. A finely crafted walkway leads to the Upper commons administrative tract, where most legal business is taken care of, while a variety of tunnels leads to many other sections of the zone.

Ayutayas Bazaar

The Ayutayas Bazaar is an array of three streets fanning out from a spacious cross-section, right underneath the lower tier's northern district. The distinctive shape of this array, similar to an Ayutayas leaf gave it its name with smaller streets spreading from the three main ones like the veins of the leaf. They house a variety of small buildings that are carved into the stone, sporting shops and storage rooms for all kinds of simple everyday-life wares. Food and clothes can be obtained for a relatively cheap price in the Bazaar, as do lower quality magic artifacts commonly needed in a household. Prices vary, but are usually roughly around the same as their lower Tier surface equivalents, though one is able to get a steal just as often as one may get ripped off, if they don't compare the prices and if they don't attempt to negotiate and barter. Even though the place is well lit by bright daylight torches and guarded throughout day and night, shoplifting and pickpocketing are such common crimes, that the local police guards rarely even attempt to pursue the culprit. Even if one had been recognized by the victim, it would be nearly impossible to catch the thief before they merged with the masses, or left the place undetected. Many stores, for that reason, hire private bodyguards, who usually bear well visible gang tattoos in order to make very clear that committing a crime in this estate could cost the thief dearly.

The sunken District

Below the Motamo river, there was once a district of the upper commons that thrived with life. It was one of the richest areas underground, with well crafted architecture and even a ceiling made of enchanted glass that was supposed to endure millennia and allowed the citizen to look through the ceiling into the river above them. A mysterious earthquake however caused the ceiling to breach, and the district to be instantly flooded with water. Many people drowned when the section was quickly cut off and sealed from the rest of the city, saving the other districts at the cost of hundreds lives. Very few managed to survive by swimming up to the surface after the initial torrent of water subsided. Today, the place is inhabited by amphibian species and merfolks who found shelter in those sunken homes. It's not considered part of Negav anymore but stands today as a ghastly reminder of why it's a bad idea to dig under a river.

The Underground Network

The Depths

Lower Commons

The lower commons are a part of the depths way below Negav and the surface. Unlike the upper commons and other regions of the hive, the lower commons are a largely unorganized set of randomly dug tunnels, shafts and trenches, that span in chaotic patterns below the city. There are only few access-ways, few sign posts and even less trustworthy ones. Following a direction in lower commons can quickly lead you to troubles, traps and ambushes. Reliable signalization is not that scarce however, for those who know where to looks and can read the secret and cryptic language it’s written in. Any surface dweller without a guide is very likely to get lost down here. Most areas of the zone are simply carved out of dark grey or brown stone, with little effort put into shaping corridors or homes. Usually, as long as at least one person fits through a hole, it is considered good enough, leaving little room for comfort or safety. Unlike in the hive, tunnels in the lower commons don't follow any plan or architecture, especially on the outer and lower levels. Efficiency and organization are foreign concepts to those who desperately search for the smallest crevice to cram their home into, causing tunnels to breach into each other, overlapping homes and completely useless tunnel sections leading to nowhere. Cave-ins are a serious problem as well, and at times, entire sections are cut off from the rest of the network, causing many people to get crushed under tons of rubble, or simply starving to death in their stony crypts. The upper regions are only slightly better to live in, with a few winding tunnels well lit with torches lining up their entire length. Others have clearly been raided for supplies though, leaving only empty torch sockets and plunging entire sections in darkness. Those who wish to traverse them better have some sort of light source with them, lest they are doomed to get lost in an endless dark maze.

It is hard to imagine, but the place is teeming with life despite the harsh conditions. Only the poorest of the poor live down here though, unable to even afford to rent a space in the upper commons. It is the place where dwell the destitute, the illiterate, the disabled, the mutated. It is a maddening and violent life devoid of reason to hope. Many residents of the lower commons spend their lives ignorant to the fact a surface even exists and to whom sunlight is only a fascinating attraction of the pit in the best case, or nothing but a hopelessly romantic myth in the worst. Down there, a home costs nothing besides the muscle it takes you to either carve your own into the rock, or claim someone else’s as your own. Many people are willing to kill for little more than a corner with a flea-infested rug serving as a night-rest. Messing with the wrong guy will quickly get you killed though, as anyone who can, will organize themselves in some sort of armed group and gangs.

The law and rules of Negav aren't worth a skevol in this twisted maze of stone and the few guards patrolling this area are either in constant fear of being ambushed, or involved in shady business themselves. Corruption and a distinct lack of mercy turned the lower commons into some sort of underground city jungle, where only the quickest, wittiest and strongest survive. People in the lower commons are either part of a gang, or are fair game, ready to be robbed by anyone with more cruelty or simply higher manpower. There is little in-between. Those who refuse to follow that path of violence often have no choice but to seek protection from a local gang and to pay what little they have in exchange. Money is scarce and valuable, and even a single skevol down here is worth a fortune. More often than not, the people from the lower commons use barter as trade, exchanging food, weapons, clothes, various illicit substances and the rare jewelry, both real and fake. Water is filthy and used, many public access-points offering little more than sewer water cleansed from pollution by various means, although it can do little to weaken the disgusting taste. Some people make a living simply by climbing to the surface, to bring fresh water down into the depths and trade it to the locals. Real jobs are few and far in-between, often controlled by and distributed among the currently most influential gangs. Others have little choice but to move up and try to steal from the upper commons population. Abduction of people to press out a ransom is a lucrative source of income, and many people disappear that way. This is also the seed for many gang wars, as the block gangs from above might raid the lower commons to get back their hostages. Even those unrelated to those crimes often get into the crossfire, as nobody truly trusts one another, unless they belong to the same gang or family, and people would usually rather shoot and ask questions later than finding a dagger being struck into their backs.

Not everything is as dark and hopeless as it seems though. Some gangs actually manage to run flourishing communities which, while acting cruelly and ruthlessly towards outsiders, almost function like a family on the inside, forming a bulwark against the outer threats. Some people genuinely try to make the lower commons a better place to live in and sometimes manage to create small islands of happiness in the midst of an ocean of misery. In those areas some actual stores can settle in, and the Negavian government sometimes secretly supports them. The High council of Negav is indeed aware of the dismal situation of the lower districts, but is reluctant to do much about it. Most of the council has already given up on the lower regions, assuming that the benefits of pacifying the area and keeping it safe would be nowhere worth the enormous costs and loss of soldiers lives they'd have to endure to achieve it. Others simply claim that the people below are technically not even citizens of the city and thus, not their problem. Generally, the high council tries to stay clear of the lower commons, and most of the major gangs agreed to maintain that status quo by limiting their business to that area. Some rare magiocrats however, actually do business with some of the major gangs, playing one group against another, or hire them for shady deals, in exchange for slight redirection of patrol routes, or exchanging a guard here or there for a more cooperative and lenient one. There are rumors that Lord Trebiz managed to gain the trust and goodwill of all of the major gangs, and could have them serve as his private army to overthrow the Negavian government and set himself as the leader. No proof of these outlandish accusation have ever surfaced though, and most people generally find unlikely that one man could gather such a bunch of quarreling ruffians behind him, too busy as they are fighting each others, to even care about Negavian nobility. Less malevolent tongues assume that Lord Trebiz actually is the reason for Negav's relative peace, manipulating the gangs to keep them busy with each other, and thus, keeping the rest of the city as safe as it can get in that regard. Whichever reason it is, Lord Trebiz is currently the only one to really know.

Notable locations:

The Lower Market

The Lower Market is located in the uppermost region of the lower commons, near the boundary with the upper commons and close to the connection tunnels leading towards the surface. It stands as a sort of shady reflection of the bustling Grand Market District or the Ayutayas Bazaar and is set in a long wide tunnel, the edges crammed with stalls selling whatever wares are possible and lit by many blue and purple magic lights. The walls are pierced by countless shops and back caves selling varied, and often illegal, goods. The Lower Market is also known as having some of the best prices on Felarya for those who know where to look. The most famous shop is the Selodonna Antique Store. Owned by an elderly neko, this place looks like a junk shop on first glance, housing lots of wares that were discarded or used. However, those who know what they are looking for will find many rare pieces coming from ancient times, some of them imbued with amazing powers. Overall, while the Lower Market may not have the quality of the others merchant districts, it is teeming with opportunities and good bargains and it has a slightly eerie and bizarre charm of its own. Smart shoppers looking for a deal tend to peruse it at regular intervals.

The Meat-Grinder

The Meat-Grinder, or "Rage Cage" is a wide and open arena deep underneath the city. Carved into the stone it loosely resembles an amphitheater, with a circular arena, and many stone benches above it, for the people to watch the fights taking place in the pit. Underneath the benches are cages and corridors, leading the fighters into the arena, even though wild animals and, more rarely, predators are sometimes presented as well. Everything is secured with thick, rusty steel bars, even the arena itself is sealed off inside a cage. Due to the Isolon Eye effect being weakened through all the layers of stone, all manners of predators are only slightly affected by it; enough to create a very stressful and unpleasant environment for them but not enough to prevent them for devouring humans and fill their stomachs if they get the chance.

The atmosphere inside the Meat-Grinder is extremely tense and intimidating. Beasts are purposely kept in a state of hunger and aggression, their roars echoing along the grim halls. It's not uncommon to see, amid the ranks of impassible, steeeled-faced fighters, men with a lesser resolve crack and sob at the prospect of impending and violent doom. Indeed, many fighters "chosen" for the fights have been captured by slavers, to make a quick buck, others try to pay off a debt by winning in occasional tournaments. Unlike the Jaslow Arena of Negav however, what is taking place in the aptly-named Meat-grinder is a real, brutal, merciless bloodsport. It's displayed in all it's morbid glory to the blood-thirsty audience who cherish the principle of "two go in, one comes out". The fights usually don't end until one of the fighters is either dead, or got eaten whole and alive. Aside from the entertainment value, the fights offers gangs and private people alike the opportunity to settle disputes, or gain respect, in order to prevent others from seeing you as an easy prey. A fight in the arena is also a common ritual and joining requirement in some gangs, forcing one to kill and survive to prove their worth to the community.

The Pit

A part of Underground Negav, the pit is a large cavern that has an equally large depression in it. The pit was dug out by the inhabitants - at one time there were magnificent crystals growing across the ground - sadly they were consumed in the need for more real-estate. The Pit is a good name - it is generally accepted to be the area where the poorest of the poor live and is often nicknamed the "Skyless city". The area is a mess of shanties and tents, run by an incredible collection of brutal gangs, greedy mobs and ruthless mafias. Life is extremely hard and dangerous in the Pit, and the only law there is that of the dagger or the shotgun. People have started to nail shacks onto the walls of the cavern to give more room. The pit gets deeper as people excavate it for more room. There are even starting to be a few adventurous nekos who have built dwelling that hang from the ceiling ! The only proper "building" in the pit is a shrine to Oth, the Sun God. It's a white building with a series of golden mirrors on the top. In an act of charity, this temple magically radiates stored sunlight during the day. The priests also give donations of food and blankets to the needy, usually along with free scriptures of Oth.

On multiple occasions the government has tried to stop development of the pit, worried that the expansion of the cavern could destabilize the buildings above it. Others worry that something very bad and hungry might be dug up if the Pit is dug too deep. Already, the Pit has the highest rate of unsolved disappearances in the city. Most assume this is just regular murders or people leaving without telling anyone. Others claim that something nasty has already been awakened and when the temple of Oth turns off the light for the night, it comes out to feed on those who won't be missed...

New Chargate Prison

New Chargate is the main prison of the city. Besides smaller holding prisons operated by various governmental groups, most prisoners will end up here, below Felarya. The prison is known as "New" Chargate as the original prison was taken down. This was simply due to the fact that, as Negav expanded, there was less room for buildings, and people thought it ridiculous that the valuable above-ground property be spent on something as unpleasant as a prison. Thus the prison was demolished and relocated underground. To prevent it from taking up too much space underground and becoming too close to other areas, the prison was built vertically - many estimate that the deepest point in the Negav underground is the lowest areas of New Chargate. The prison is essentially a giant open shaft that stretches down into the darkness. The sides are lined with the cells and walkways for the guards and wardens. It is a dark, damp and dismal place. Typically, the only people ending here are criminal that are too dangerous to be left in liberty as blinded ones, and too important to be simply expelled from the city. The lower the level of the prisoner, the more dangerous they are. The very lowest levels also have powerful magical wards on them - this is where rogue and criminal mages are kept. Rumors tell of fallen Magiocrats being held there. Perhaps due to the inmates, or pure magical residue, this lowest area is assumed by all the guards to be haunted. In fact, there is the occasional strange disappearance down here. But whatever the cause, the magical wards keep whatever it is securely below.

• credits to Jaette-troll for the Pit, New Chargate Prison, and Lower market idea and to Amaroq for his revision and rewritting of the entire article.