The City

The events of Sleepless Domain take place in a single city, isolated from the rest of the world by monsters and the barriers built to keep them out.

## Nightly monster attacks

The city is attacked every night by dangerous monsters that appear between the hours of 10 pm and 2 am. The monsters vary greatly in size and shape, and many possess powers such has telekinesis or ice manipulation. Left unchecked they will hunt down and kill people. Only magical girls are able to safely contest them, but they aren't invulnerable either, and fatalities have been known to occur.

Besides the magical girls, the city is protected a large outer barrier, which encircles the city and prevents monsters from entering during the day, and an inner barrier, which forms at night and protects buildings during monster attacks. It is vulnerable to monster attacks and will fail if a monster is able to attack it for long enough.

## City structure

### Geography

In Interstitial 1, a simplified drawing of the city is shown in the first panel. A large dome is located at the center of the city. This dome powers the Inner Barrier. Many of the buildings in the city have tracks and ladders, presumably to make it easier for magical girls to get around.

If Ben's map is to be believed, the city is more or less circular and split into North-West, North-East, South-West and South-East regions. Techno Blitz also implies that one can move at least 2.4 km without leaving a region, meaning the city's diameter is at the very least 5 km (though the resources used and implied population hint it's much larger than that). Most of the comic takes place in the eastern part of the city, as Undine takes the Eastbound Line home and Tessa attends Easttown High School.

### Technology and infrastructure

Cube has stated that the city has no cars or advanced technology. However, they do have television, although it is not live. Their level of technology can support machines such as treadmills, microwaves, ovens, and refrigerators, which implies that factories for manufacturing this technology must exist as well. They use trolleys for public transportation.

It’s unknown how the city sustains itself, and it is a mystery how it gathers resources to support their fairly large population and build their infrastructure; it’s known that luxury commodities such as flatscreen TVs are common, as well as expensive foods and establishments such as fast food brands. It is unknown where the city mainly raises animals and plants for food. Roof gardens have been shown as a way to grow vegetables. The city’s climate and weather patterns are also unknown. However, there are clouds, fog, and precipitation. Interstitial 3 notes that there are no clouds when it rains.

### City governance

Several institutions are known to exist:

City Defense Department (C.D.D.)
Responsible for coordinating the defense of the city. Their duties include ensuring all areas of the city have proper coverage at night.
Magical Girl Support Institute (M.G.S.I.)
Conducts research into the nature of magical girls and investigates incidents involving injured or missing magical girls.
Bureau of Magical Girls
Handles registration and helps match up girls with partners. Also called the Board of Magical Girls in an earlier chapter.
## History

Most of the city's history can only be assumed.

A teacher in Chapter 2 states that they "eventually moved to a more democratic system in C.Y. 127", suggesting an age of at least 127 years. Cube has described the city's political system as a "democratic republic".

The same chapter also shows us Undine's notes which when deciphered read something close to

> It was eventually determined that **[illegible]** had no effect **[illegible]** magical potency caused an upheaval in the local power structure.
>
>  People began to question whether those without these magical blessings of the city should be allowed to rule. It became a big fight. Progressives and traditionalists **[illegible]** with the progressives eventually **[illegible].**
>
>

The Founder, while not mentioned in the history class, could be the city's founder, but it is unclear.

## City culture

The city’s culture is strongly centered around magical girls, who are treated as celebrities. For more information, see Magical Girls.

Cube has stated that the City has several holidays similar to the real world. Hearts Day, a holiday resembling Valentine‘s Day, is a holiday where the main goal is to give as much candy as possible to friends, coworkers, and acquaintances, whlie also giving something special to a significant other. Cube has also confirmed that magical-girl branded valentines exist as well.

Crimmus is a holiday similar to Christmas, but there is no religious factor involved. Santa Claus is replaced by an immortal magical girl who is an old god of the solstice; she kills all monsters in her path and travels through walls to deliver gifts to children.

Instead of Independence Day, the city has Foundation Day, which presumably celebrates the date of the founding of the city.

As of Chapter 10, it has been revealed that pet animals such as cats and dogs exist in the city.

## References

1. ↑ Mary Cagle: "yeah democratic republic, some mix of socialism and capitalism, leaning a bit more socialist than the US", Discord, 2018-05-27.