Kakiro

Known as one of the cities of  Yamiyō, Kakiro is one of the few that is connected by the Sea Rail going through Shi Cheng to the massive Northern nation of Buraltar. This city state is located at the extreme Southern end of of Yamiyō and is known as a rather nice coastal location. It was known as one of the economically stable lands due to the fact the forests around it were not actually part of the Spirits Glow Forest meaning that it could be maintained and used however the people of the city saw fit. This lead to a sort of economic and agricultural independence from the rest of the nations and city states in the continent. In fact more often than not they would export rather than import making them one of the former economic powerhouses alongside Shi Cheng and Kabe.

This was the case until the event now known as the Sakura Disaster, in which part of the Doomsday Clock was released burning the central city, Kari to the ground. This killed one third of the population within the city and left the three outer cities to become overcrowded and lead to a drastic decline in the might of the nation. Now the nation still stands, having found that the center of the city has become uninhabitable, there is a centralized rail system which circles between the three outer cities. Due to Monsters now inhabiting Kari, members of bodyguard, hunting, and even murder guilds are known to make bases outside of the cities, working for hire to protect the cities or to ride on the rails to act as protection for the railways in case a monster rushes the rails or tries to expand their territory. Many Guilds have often known to set up Guild Houses around choke points between the three cities and railway systems.

## The Four Cities

### Kari (The Dead City)

Also known as the former central city, Kari was once the home of agriculture and travel in Kariko. It used to hold the central market for all of Kariko which had trade and business through all of the nations centralized in this single city. It was rather Western in design, unlike some of the other of the cities and nations, this is because of it's direct connection to Buraltar unlike many of the other nations of the country.

It was a centralized city built into the shape of a large circular pattern. In the middle of the city is a giant town square which seems to act as the central feature. This town square features a clock tower, which is seems to be made of some sort of metal with large hollow tubes built into the outside which open when the bell chimes, thus creating a natural musical instrument which would signify the time. In front of this clock tower is a large fountain, this fountain features a large statuette of the towns royal crest above a representation of both Bahamut and Atlas holding it aloft.

The city itself was not generally a residential area with very few but large apartment complexes built around the town. This is because most of the town actually acted as a business hub with most commuting from the other three cities. Most who lived in the city would either live in the intermingling buildings or in houses which were built into the mountains around the city; of course people would rather the city due to the noise from the trains which circle through the mountains. The city itself was built in a large flower pattern, created for an aesthetic reason for those living in and around the city. Something else that has to be noted, is that because of the flower pattern, each of the streets is marked with one of the different names given to the Jasmine.

### Kito (Paradise Town)

This city was known as one of the small paradises of the nation, Kito is located along the eastern most coast of  Yamiyō and is the where most of the people who live in Kakiro actually live. It's name is derived from what people planned for the sprawling city and it's multiple smaller wards, as it was the place most people set up their homes and begin families as it was considered the best place to raise a family.

Kito itself is a sprawling woodlands and coastline, low industrialization, and spans most of the coast itself, mostly filled with hills and valleys. This makes it the perfect place for farmland along with settling. It was from there the main city of Kito was built, located on the sea bound edge of the land. From there it spread to the barriers of the mountains to the North that mark Kari and the large ravines that mark Iru to the south.

The size of the city helped because it did not clump everyone together like Kari, but instead allowed small wards to be built, usually patches of anywhere between two to three hundred houses along with other small shops and schools. Each Ward has an official in charge all of whom answer to those in charge in the main city of Kito.

### Iru (Steel City)

Better known as the mountain city, Iru is located as a central low point surrounded by mountains which form natural barriers and mazes. out of all the cities this has to be the most industrialized, as it is filled with hundreds of factories, refineries, and city scapes. This is because Iru is built around a massive hotbed of mineral deposits, each mountain found to have sprawling veins of rare metals and jewels. This is what lead many businesses from Kari and guilds from Kabe to set up in Iru, which was originally a center for developing magical weapons and technology, unitersted in what could be found in the mountains.

This soon changed as Iru became a massive city in almost a single day. The city itself remained in it's low point among the mountains, filled with skyscrapers and large towers, it soon earned the title of Steel City because of it's looks. It was not long after that the giant factories and refineries came up around the edges of the Iru, forming a vast network of infrastructure. This went so far as to connect many of the buildings with a large underground tunnel network people could use to not only commute from Iru to these buildings thanks to a subway system but to create mines leading into the mountains.

There is of course competition between the businesses, so much so there is tight vetting of passes between people allowed to enter into each of the different factories or mines. This does not apply to all of the subway stops or the industrial parks linking the stops, but there is with the various mines and buildings. While one could say that it would be easy to slip between these locations, thanks to the fact that Iru is a rather small city with most workers knowing one another and their families, it would be easy for a person to recognize one another.

### Doro (The Marsh Town)

Doro is the last of the three towns of Kakiro, Doro itself acting as one of the real sources of sea based agriculture out of all of them. Doro it located on a salt water marsh which runs down the southern end of the minor continent. This always for a large influx of salt water fish to come in when spawning and during the change in currents so the people don't have to go too far out into the dangerous waters to make a living.

Still much of the area is known for flooding, as such the people have built their towns on large floating barges built to allow them to rise and fall along with the tides and keep the people from drifting away. The buildings themselves are built on top of the barges and in the modified bridges, allowing people to run their shops and sitting areas out in the light of the sun, though the people actually build their homes in the inside to give them protection from the elements.

The railway itself was built upon floating tracks which rise and fall with the coming of the tides allowing for a train to run through the area continually. The bridge itself is bound into the ground on spikes that can go up to sixty feet; allowing for the constant rise and fall. The tracks themselves are built on a higher incline to keep the rails from getting covered in the thick muck that may come from the marsh. The train station itself is only accessible by a boat which moves from the main town to the train stop which isn't too far off.

## Locations

### Timekeepers Tower

What more can be said about the beautiful instrument which remains as the constant memorial of progress in Kari, Timekeepers Tower is the giant clock located in the very center of the ruined city. The metal has remained intact, the metal tubes still singing out each and every hour, letting out the distant melody to the long dead or corrupted within the town. Still the clock continues to tick on, fueled by an Eternal Magic Spring like the one in the Brudenheim Sky Burner Tower.

### Florists Crescent

This is the fertile crescent around the largest bay in Kito, where it's one thick sand dunes turned into sprawling expanses of wild flowers which have become a rather popular tourists attraction, especially in the summer months. Spanning two to three miles, Kito blossoms to life from spring to fall with all sorts of exotic colors and is maintained by the people of the small villages in order to not only grow medicinal flowers but to continually draw people to visit Kito.

### Irons Radio Tower

A large radio tower which sits on the north most area of Iru, it is the second largest building in all of the city and is one of the main draws. Modeled after Tokyo Radio Tower, each floor of the tower itself holds restaurants and shops for people to visit when stopping by, though it is rather pricey considering it is mostly for high ranking Guild officials, businessmen, and bankers. The top of the tower is an open area where many couples go to look out over the mountains and to the other towns, it is one of the few buildings that people can do this considering the smoke from the towns smokestacks and chimneys always blows away half way to the top.

### Sea Kings Court

This is the largest building in all of Doro, made up of multiple house barges having been welded together with massive structures built all over them and then welded and fused in place. The area is one giant strong hold, created for when sea beasts come in from the ocean or an invasion. This area is a heavily armored fortress, brimming with cannons along the outside and massive harpoons and net guns lying in wait; the former for invasions, monsters, and non edible sea beasts, the latter for those which can be eaten by the people. This entire area is run by the actual leader of Doro, this place acting as both his home and base of operations, he had set it up in honor of his blood brother, the Don of Kabe.

## History

Kakiro started off as a small town between the mountains where not much ever happened, a mostly dead place where life was always the same. Expansion had always been an option but no one wanted to pursue it, rather most people were content with the lives they lead from the fuduel times from which they had been brought, this was truly the representation of an old country town. Though as time progressed they saw the growth of the people would soon overtake the town, so they began to expand into an extension of the village a few miles away, thesse two areas would be known as Kari and Kito, combining the names of the village to Karito, a linguistic misnomer for most.

This worked for some time, especially with the long pathway discovered that would lead to the future location of Doro, this allowed people in the main village to have further resources made available to them by scores of fishermen taking days out on the swamps to gather and cultivate fish while those living in Kito would pull in daily harvests, working with those growing spices and flowers to help preserve the fish. For a while this economy worked and helped them to occasionally trade with other small villages a ways out.

Eventually this changed with the advent of the train system that would run through the nation, it brought in far more people and made their trade easier, it meant they could sell unique herbs, spices, and floral creations only made in the village. Of course it also brought the slow modernization of the nation, most centered around the large barren valleys and stone mountains out to the south east, many people were interested in buying the land though the people refused to budge. It lead to constant battles with groups of outsiders coming in through their marshlands or by sea to try and create mines or set up instillations, often bringing the ire of the people who fought them out, usually to the loss of those living within Karito.

So without much to do, they went to the Don of Kabe who, for a price would help them settle the area and create their own mines. This pushed them as a power in the mountains but what of the other entry way? This is when they created the large settlements made of water born houses and large barges bound together in the area of what would soon be known as Doro while they named the land in the mountains Ira. These areas were still largely disjointed with no way to quick travel or communicate.

So as time continued, word of the expansion project reached the disjointed village; they knew what they had to do and so they petitioned to have their village expand to a full on city with its own outlying areas. Knowing the power the area of Karito had as far as their own exports and resources they had within the area the people of Yamiyo were happy to help expand. To help with the influx of people Kari and Iru were brought up in scale, slowly growing to bustling cities. While resources were sent to Doro and Kito, helping to expand them to much more active miniature towns. This ramp for industrialization also helped with the instillation of the train system which connected the parts of the now city in a constantly running rail system. With this came the instillation of phone and radio towers, finally bringing the people into the truly modern era while keeping the at country nature of the city, the name finally changing to Kakiro.

The growth continued into the 1990's when the first appearance of the Great Weapon occurred, its power destroying most of Kari's central area. This not only caused the destruction of the area but distorted the spiritual energy and created a gate from which hundreds of monsters spawned. While people were able to escape and the area was quickly and easily quarantined the city needed to be abandoned. Even now it is still closed off with special trains taking people around the ruins and into Kito before departing and leaving them to transit between Kito, Iru, and Doro. Even now the Guilds and Council work together to break through the well of Monsters while constantly working to seal the gate. This is a slow going process but in time there is hope that Kari will once again be inhabitable.

## Trivia

Each of the cities were named for different reasons which should be obvious through their set up and descriptions

* Kari in one form of kanji translates to flower, it was given this name thanks to its flower design
* Kito means hopeful planning, understandable it would be named that considering it is the future hope of the people of Kakiro
* Iru is translated into the phrase 'to exist' named this because of how the machinery and large factories seem to have taken on a life of their own, with or without people
* Doro translated literally to mire or swamp, aptly named for being a salt water swamp

Each of the locations are based off of video game level archetypes; the ruins, the seaside, the industrial area, and the swamp/ocean level.

The train itself does not run as one would think, runs through Akai-Yama and Kabe along the coasts to a mid section outside of Kakiro. From there the armored train departs, fully armed and with the protection of Guilds and different clans riding inside. It will circle around Kari going through the other towns before stopping back at the station. There is of course a stop running from Kito out across the sea to a large bridge taking people to Buraltar.