Sancta Civitas

shot of the central palce

A vast contentanople-esque city that notably lacks any buildings except a central palace and the walls. Intended to be a shelter in times of trouble for Mortal kind and a massive head start for when they do figure out the whole civilization thing. The city is tended to by swarms of giant insects who maintain the vast structures so long as they are left undisturbed.

## Titles

Prestige: 17

II insect caretakers: The insects dwelling within the city aid in its maintenance but are generally indifferent to its inhabitants, staying out of their way and not engaging in conflict unless their homes within the city are threatened. The insects can be individually tamed by the citizens of the city, allowing them to be used as hounds, horses etc. Ants are particularity good at carrying materials in their large pincers, while Hivers can be used to lift heavy goods skywards.

Further ranks will increase the unity of the city’s population and insect kind.

II Shining city on a hill: All stonework within the city will be transformed into the city's base building material, namely a wondrous pure white stone more pristine than marble and harder than Granite.

## Population

* Mantarin
* Vespian
* Goblins
* Eloxochitli
* Itztli
* Vrool
* Akua

## Layout

### Outer City

> Eventually the procession caught their first sight of the ancient city, the corner of its great wall coming into view where it met a river where it flowed into the sea. Several stone based aqueducts fed off of the river a ways upstream, flowing down under the outerwall and into the land beyond. Clustered around the river mouth was a small series of wooden warphs hosting a number of sailing vessels sporting up to four dozen oars along their lengths, although most were smaller, likely fishing vessels. Oddest of all was a very small ship transporting the carcases of a large armored deer like creature coming in to dock right as the lizards watched, powered by the wing beats of a Vespian sat gripping the sides of the vessel at its back acting as what Artifex would have described to an uncomprehending audience as an air based outboard motor.
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> The majority of the vessels still in dock seemed to be for transporting foraging parties and their gains across the river. A glance to the west revealed the location of the docks sister, or one of them at least, found by a small town resting upstream. A glance east found a saltwater port made of and guarded by stone walls where goods would eventually end up in bulk transport.
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### Inner City

> The inner city of Sancta Civitas had grown a lot since the days when the Mantarin had effectively squatted in one of its gatehouses but was still far from reaching its full potential. Rather than a singular mass the construction work within the city had developed into four separate towns camped within the grand walls. The first hugged the majority of the western inner wall but clumped mainly around the gates leading out into the cordoned off farmland and managed wilderness and dealt primarily in the processing of the agricultural produce of the city. The second sat next to the gates to the seaport and was a center of commerce, ship building and the city’s military. Between these two towns and sitting away from the road connecting them was an industrial sector that was segregated away from where anyone wanted to live so that the fumes of smelters, forges, tanneries and the like wouldn't choke the life of the other districts.
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> Finally, sitting atop a hill near the back of the city was one situated around the palace that had been built by Artifex himself. Scattered around the city’s seat of power where most of its other major civic buildings, including a modest Amphitheatre, the grandest and most gloriose temple in the city dedicated to both Artifex and Cadien, a smaller one dedicated to Tekret Et Heret who’s lack of grandeur obfuscated how integral it was to the training of the cities bureaucrats, a rudimentary hospital and the city's first public bathhouse.
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#### The Fume Borough

> It started off as a series of buildings built around the
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> industrial district when it was first being constructed to house tanners, smiths etc. and their extended families. Unfortunately, the families of those workers didn’t want to move out to live next to the
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> smoke filled area, and it was rare that an entire extended family could pick up that kind of trade. There were a few, but mostly the artisans who still lived with their families traveled to the district each day, leaving a lot of space in the borough unused. Loners, outcasts, eccentrics and the disowned found their way into the borough and via a lot of unauthorized construction work, made it into their own tangled mess of apartments and alleyways that the administration could never find the energy to try and reorder.
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## Arcitecture

### Housing

> The majority of the people of Sancta Civitas lived in communal familial housing. Mantarin, who were all related by virtue of having the same regal mother, tended to either stick around her royal majesty in one of the large homes for their kind built in or around the palace or within a very small number of similar structures built in the other districts if they worked out there. Vespian naturally conjugated around their hives and individual queens, either living within the Swarm filled hive itself or in large airy compounds built on top of them. Goblins stuck together in various clans made up of their extended families, often able to trace their way back to tribes who had migrated to the city, in sprawling maze-like complexes taking up entire streets.
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### Granaries

> Deep pits were dug into the ground. Entire trees were carried through the gatehouse. From them huge beams were chopped and placed into the ground. Meanwhile, pottery workshops sprouted up around the granary. Producing more and more amphoras and pithoi to fill with goods. The granary began taking shape as a structure elevated up from the ground. The main barn-like doors were large enough for two carts side by side to move inside. The entire first floor was left empty With ramps going upwards on both sides. The first floor held hundreds and hundreds of little sections separated by thin walls. Each ready to be filled with the pottery containing various amounts of food to be gently rolled down the ramp down. More ramps climbed upwards. Going to the floors upwards. Where hexagonal sections were already being made with natural wax from the Vespians. The upper sections would look more and more like full hives.
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## Surrounding environment

> The grass grew tall and wild and the flowers sprouting in the plains towered over the landscape, making ants of mortals and filling the air with their pleasant scents. Giant bushes grew blue, black and raspberries the size of melons on their foliage after their flowers had been pollinated. Root vegetables buried their secret stores deep in the earth, growing tubers of immense, and delicious, size.
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> The mountains that towered over the region and split barren wastes from the forests with copper, iron, silver and marble for mortals to dig out. Then he converted some of the trees into rubber trees and coco trees while others grew massive, towing over all below and bore apples the size of bears. Finally in the earth below the plains he hid coal and aluminium, while beneath the sea he hid oil and natural gas.
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## Local Species

Giant Aphids: Apathids, only bigger. Eat plants like cows rather than leaching off of them. Produce honeydew.
Civitas Ants: More or less Leafcutter ants, only bigger. Minims, Minors and Mediae are the size of small, medium and large dogs respectively, while Majors, often called soldiers, are large enough to ridden like horses. They dwell beneath the first city in a great nest where they tend to fungal gardens. Above ground they cut down foliage to bring back and tend to equally giant aphids that they milk to acquire honeydew.

Hivers: Bees, but not just bigger. Like ants, and unlike regular bees, they have casts of Minor (song bird sized), Mediae(bird of prey sized) and Major (Lion sized) bees. Only Mediae Hivers have stingers and act as the warriors of the hive, while the numerous minors collect nectar like hummingbirds while the rare Majors reap the bounties of the giant flowers that grow in their native habitat. They also have thick shaggy fur covering their front halves for insulation, protection and pollen gathering purposes.
More Oceants, only these ones are tame and less aggressive in general.

This lot: “Along with these he created giant aphids who grazed on the plants and produced sweet honeydew and some cloud moths and madhoppers like those from the Kylsar Isles. On top of this he spawned beetles, large and small, strange bugs with spiny ridges that glowed in the dark and armored deer. In the woods he placed wandering Antwolf swarms that did battle with the furred monsters within.

> and a mysterious, terrifying and yet totally harmless creature to challenge the mortals into conquering their fears.
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## Defenders

> For guardians he created Serdanthe quick, Motsian the wise, Urgath the strong and Ordun the noble. These four great beasts were who he put to sleep and hid away in secret chambers below the earth, to be awoken only in the city’s darkest hour.
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