Metropolis

Home. In the time before humanity’s imprisonment, this was our residence. No one description of Metropolis can do the place justice, for it encompasses the totality of human ingenuity, architecture, knowledge, and technology. Twisted spires of iron and glass scrape the skies, endless service tunnels still hum with aged servers maintained by the tekrons we left behind. Mad azghouls worship the last remaining artwork of their lost slavemaster, and frustrated magicians study the monoliths and scriptures of an impossible and divine past. We will return to the topic of divinity some other time, but for now embrace the idea that Metropolis, the Eternal City, is where gods lived. Lived, because since the Demiurge’s construction of the Illusion the city has lost its original rulers. Left are only our machines, our works, our slaves, and our past. Along, of course, with the Citadels of the Archons, those enormous and oppressive spiritual beings created to shape and uphold the Illusion and humanity’s imprisonment.

Our home begs for our return, and we beg for it. Every city on Earth, every opulent monument, every road reaching across wilderness to weave humanity together yet tighter, seeks to recapture the splendor of Metropolis. Humanity has built grand cathedrals and hundred story tall business centers, unconsciously striving to reclaim hazy memories of our original home. We have seen that twisted house before, we know which path holds a secret. The dances we teach each other may be reflections of ecstatic movements of the divine, the songs we compose hymns from our worshipers. Our constructions and actions in Elysium reflect places and events within the Eternal City, and it is this innate recollection and recognition which brings humanity towards it. The homes are long bombed out, mutilated angels now scream in the gutters, and the tekron phlegitarch has rewound our old data center circuits, but it is all still there. The humans who experience Metropolis do not fully understand the scope and context of what they see and learn there, but the power it holds is intoxicating and frighteningly familiar.

Metropolis is our home, but it is also the origin of our prison. The result of this is a constant push and pull, a gnawing human desire to reconnect with our roots challenged by the forces that seek to contain us. The Archons and their ten Citadels manifest as impossible towers dedicated to controlling humanity and the Illusion, and their power emanates across the Eternal City. The lures and distractions of everyday life, from our inherent understanding of Hierarchy to the niggling whispers of Avarice, grow to profound and terrifying proportions in Metropolis. This power repels us from The Eternal City with intrusive thoughts and violent emotions, whispered worries or deadly terrors. Even within the Illusion, the servants of the Archons work tirelessly to oppose the latent knowledge of our home. Offending artwork is purged, streets are renamed, oppressive messaging on every channel and news stream remind us of our spiritual impotence. The mad and burnt out scream about the churning machinery behind the world until they are dismissed and dragged off for *treatment*. Metropolis surrounds humanity in every aspect of its being, but it is always, always, kept from us.

So what can we make of this? Metropolis offers people a dangerous answer to their troubled yet mundane life: the power of divinity. It might express itself as a miracle cure to end death itself, an eerie yet perfect reconstruction of your childhood home, a secret server with rituals still cast by its aged processors. Metropolis as a realm is the realization of humanity’s fullest potential, told through post-apocalypse. No matter the desperation, no matter the curiosity, Metropolis could contain what you need, and you might even remember where to look. However, The Eternal City teems with danger. It is dilapidated and rusted, but ferocious beasts and mad terrors still roam the streets, foreign Gods with unknown agendas wait for their moment, and the Archons have eyes everywhere. I offer again some thoughts.

## Keystones

The AwokenThreadsElysiumThe PrinciplesOrigins**Metropolis**The OthersRealmsInferno