Carhio

Carhio is a desert city located directly south from Kufmal City. It is a dense, tightly-packed imperial core city known for buildings that are stacked haphazardly on top of one another. The city is known as a major industrial and economic center, partially born from rumors of blessed ground all the buildings rest upon. The city also hosts the nearby Kufmal military installation, Fort Roughs.

## Carhio

Flag of Carhio

Carhio at night, 11/03/2022

Map view of Carhio, 11/02/2022

## History

### Early History - The Shremple

Carhio began as a city-state before the start of the Empire of Kufmal. Its merchants traded with surrounding towns, including the city-state of Kufmal City. At the same time, the city built a pyramid that housed a deity whispered by mysterious priests. This temple became known as the Shremple, of which rumors began swirling that the blessings of the deity inside would bless certain plots of ground around it that the town already resided on. Residents began to believe this as shortages of goods Carhio had in abundance led to massive profits that only fueled more growth. Even natural birth rates seemed to climb without a specific reason. This trade led to the creation of the Kufmal-Carhio Express Railway over the ocean between the two cities, and the track even passed into the Shremple as a way to awe visitors to the city.

### Population and Building Boom

However, other residents who still did not believe in the power of the Shremple decided to flee the city, moving instead to populate Kufmal City. This did not stop the population boom, however. With this realization, the town's residents found themselves with an influx of immigrants who also wished to build on the blessed ground, which was already where the current town was. However, they came up with a solution. Instead of building outwards onto "worthless" ground, the new residents decided to build up. And so, Carhio's population grew almost as much as Kufmal City's in the coming years as they built rickety structures on top of one another haphazardly. If one collapsed, the owner would pay a fine and others would quickly take the new slice of vertical real estate. Rickety wooden pathways snaked through to connect the claustrophobic structures.

Today, Carhio is now one of the most populous cities in the empire. As such, it is also a major recruiting center for the Empire of Kufmal's military. So much so, that they built the nearby Fort Roughs as a training facility for new recruits. When the Kufmal Metro was connected to the city, the Express railway station was partially destroyed and turned into a small museum, with the tracks instead serving the Metro expansion.

## Geography

Carhio is located on the northern tip of the continent of Pinniped. It is connected to the Sea of Kufmal to the north and Lake Jennings to the south via the Southern Canal.

Carhio is built on the border between a grassland and a desert. It has plenty of access to fresh water via nearby rivers. Much of the city uses the nearby sandstone for construction. Whether or not the literal ground of the city is blessed is still up for debate.

## Demographics

Carhio has a diverse population of citizens from all over the empire, due to its reputation as an economic hub. As such, it also hosts a variety of human and non-human species such as Kappa, Tengu, and especially Tsukumogami, the highest concentration in the empire. The reason for the massive tsukumogami youkai population is due to all the tools that are dropped through the levels of the crisscrossed city streets, many of which are never retrieved by their owners and thus become youkai. However, many tsukumogami in the city are grateful for this, as it is an opportunity to forge a life of their own.

Other times, these new Tsukumogami desire to take revenge on their owners. This is either through direct aggression, or a more popular method where the Tsukumogami starts a business identical to the one their master owns. These Tsukumogami are often so good at their craft that they run the original craftsman out of business! This is an ongoing issue in the city and the merchants of Carhio have put up advisories to not lose or mistreat their tools. Tensions between these parties is only growing and some businesses in Carhio are starting to discriminate against Tsukumogami.

## Administration

A notable aspect of Carhio is that it has no official local government. Instead, the priests of the Shremple act as ad-hoc leaders as they control the temple that is the rumored cause of the "blessed" land the citizens clamor to build on top of. However, these priests mostly keep their hands out of city affairs, since the corporations hosted there pay the priests handsomely in "donations" to the temple.

## Infrastructure

* The city is connected to the Nether Highway Network from a building on the ground floor of the city.
* Carhio also hosts three stops on the Kufmal Metro; Fort Roughs, Shrek and Far Carhio stations, all served by the Green Line. Fort Roughs station is also a transfer station to the Orange Line.
* Carhio is also connected to the Southern Canal, a canal that connects Carhio and Fort Jennings to the Sea of Kufmal and its surrounding oceans.
* Every building in the city has a numbered address as part of the Imperial Address System. However, street names are impossible in Carhio as "streets" are instead flimsy platforms that connect buildings randomly, and any attempt to name them would be futile.

## Economy

Carhio's economy is built on small factories, craftsmen and workshops that all fiercely compete with each other. However, the lack of a major port or even elevators in the tall city means that goods mostly are carried by hand to carts on the nether highway, the canal or the subway, causing noticeable congestion that has led many city well-to-dos to request the imperial government assist in trade infrastructure larger than the Southern Canal.

## Culture

### Religion

There are a variety of Religions in the city. The majority religion in Carhio, Shrekism, is basically and extension of a merchant's superstition. No one know why the priests of the Shremple said the ground was blessed, but everyone just believed it after a while due to their increasing fortunes. Next to the Shremple is the St. Fiona Shrektist Church, a public place for worshippers and merchants to donate and pray. This was built so the Shremple's inner sanctum would not be constantly disturbed. No one knows what lives inside the tree-trunk shaped structure inside the Shremple. No one wants to question the Shrektist priests for fear of them revoking the blessing. Anyone who tries to is silenced by the merchants of the city.

Other religions are tolerated in Carhio, with the caveat that they do not speak out against the Shrektists or actively proselytize. The largest of these is Catholicism, whose followers meet in the San Borodino Mission on the far side of the city.

### Nightlife

The city is known for its active nightlife scenes and bars. Some notable venues include the Club Chartreuse and the Quarry Theatre. The city's biggest star is Raiko Horikawa, a Tsukumogami who has assembled a band of other living instruments who tour around the empire.

### Light

Due to poor lighting in lower parts of the city, some of its residents are more sensitive to bright lights compared to other cities in the empire. Experiments with bioluminescent plants are being conducted at the Carhio Ecological Institute to address this.

## Notable Structures

* The Shremple - Address #103
* St. Fiona Shrektist Church - Address #102
* Carhio Obelisk - Address #141
* San Borodino Mission - Address #145
* Carhio Municipal Prison - Address #106
* Royal Acacia Hotel - Address #128
* Historic Carhio Railroad Station - Address #70
* KFP Carhio - Address #10
* Carhio Public Library - Address #166
* Carhio Courthouse - Address #178
* Quarry Theatre - Address #182
* Tsukumo Sister Music Store - Address #183

## Trivia

* The real life inspiration for Carhio is the former Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong. Look it up, it's insane.
* I literally built the Shremple as a vague, dated reference to the old "shrek is love, shrek is life" meme. A creeper also jumped me from the top of the temple for a kill while I was building it.