Indigo

Indigo is a city in Windrose, and the setting of the Forgotten Indigo campaign. It is (debatably) located in the province of Notus, right on its small western coastline. The city is famous for its pivotal role as an exporter of food to the rest of Notus and to the province of Zephyrus, as well as being a tax haven for merchants. It is also notable for being the testing ground for the Aranean Finance Division's "vision of the future", which has involved heavy construction of Indigo's Seaside District to make it look more "modern", with skyscrapers and paved roads. Recently, it has also gained notoriety for being extremely haunted, attracting a variety of exorcists from across the world to the city.

### Geography

As previously described, Indigo is located on the far western edge of the Windrosi province of Notus. It sits on the mouth of the Indigo River, which itself opens up into the long, thin bay created by the Heavy Crown Peninsula. The mouth of the river upon which Indigo is located seems to have at one point been a river delta, which allowed infrastructure projects over the city's history to mold the path of the various branches of the delta into Indigo's famous canal system.

The climate of Indigo is mostly temperate, with the immediate area surrounding it consisting primarily of temperate woodlands. Some of this surrounding woodland has been turned into farmland, which produces much of the food that the city itself exports to cities such as Rue and Gaillardia. Many of these farms are abandoned, however, primarily due to intensive damage incurred during the One Week War, specifically as a result of Lancea's bombing campaign in Notus. Notably, one plot of farmland has been bought out by the Calamity Tempest as a base of operations.

### History

#### Founding and Early History

Indigo was founded around 500 years ago by exiles from Raoji, fleeing the war between gods that occured during the empire's establishment. It is likely that at least a sizable portion of these refugees were followers of Aporia, a Raojian god who also fled to Indigo during this time after losing badly in the war. These first settlers founded the small town of Indigo, and with Aporia's assistance, it was able to flourish and become a mildly successful and self-sufficient town. However, this would change when Gaillardia set up a rival settlement further south down the Indigo river. Due to Gaillardia's impressive network of trade routes, it was able to sell products that Indigo couldn't possibly rival, and it could sell them with far more efficiency. After this point, Indigo's early history becomes muddied, but at some point, the city was approached by a "Spirit of Greed" (the nature of which is unknown, and could possibly be a metaphor for Aranea), who promised the city prosperity. Indigo accepted this, and it developed the city into a shining beacon of progress, likely reflecting Aranean development in the city. However, this also seemed to have a negative side effect, corrupting the nature of the city and with it, its founding deity, Aporia, who would become forgotten and lost to time.

At some point, around 400 years ago, the Mirage District was founded by an unknown mage to act as an academy for mages, but it would eventually change roles to become a haven for mages fleeing the growing political unrest in Indigo, and it would mostly seal itself off from the city, hiding its entrances in easy-to-miss locations. The University was also likely founded in this early period, and quickly became a famous center of learning and scholarship.

#### Before the Empty Night

As Indigo developed, it began to attract many populations from elsewhere in Windrose, greatly diversifying its population of the descendants of Raojian immigrants. Most pivotally, a handful of major noble families set up within the city. Three of these families, the Iris Family, the Deltano Family, and the Testudo Family, would eventually become the heads of the Riviera, a mafia organization within the city. Another of these families, the Ilmen Family, would be banned from the city for spreading a Summoning technique that allowed non-mages to summon Legent familiars, which most other Windrosi nobles frowned upon. Finally, the Marigold Family would become the ruling nobility of Indigo, with the family's head acting as the city's mayor. The descendants of the Raojian immigrants that founded the city would mostly end up living in the 13th Ward, a district in the city's southwest region.

Due to its proximity to Lancea, many citizens of Indigo fought against Lancea in the One Week War, and many of them died, or were inflicted with mercury poisioning. At the same time, the company of Aranea in Bluebell became extremely powerful following the One Week War, and the CEO of its Finance Divison, Gwyn, began buying up land in the city and developing it, constructing modern buildings, as well as paving the roads of its Seaside districts, despite the lack of cars in the city. Additionally, two large skyscrapers were constructed: Pinion Tower in the Flag District, and Pinnacle Tower in the Mall District. This was primarily done to construct what Aranea called its "shining vision of the future", using Indigo as a blueprint to show the rest of the world how cities could look in a few decades. Of course, the citizenry of Indigo were not asked if they wanted to participate in Aranea's experiment.

While all of this was occuring, Aporia's corruption continued to worsen, and the first Phantasms began to appear within Indigo. The Underneath, a labyrinth of tunnels and reflections of the city above, began to form deep beneath Indigo, where Aporia and these Phantasms took up residence.

Nine years ago, Kokuten, specifically Kokuten of Nothingness, visited Indigo to speak with Aporia, who had now been fully corrupted and mostly forgotten by the city. She decided to assist Aporia in his plan to retake the city, and gifted him one of the Core Spirits that made up the "mask" that was Kokuten's body, specifically the Core Spirit of Divinity, the original Kokuten. Aporia planted this Core Spirit in the 13th Ward's shrine, where it would remain until something caused it to disappear without a trace.

#### The Empty Night

With Aranea's influence rapidly growing throughout the city, the current head of the Marigold Family, Maurice Marigold, decided that he had had enough. He began to collude with Indigo's police force, who started buying out independent detective agencies and forcing their former owners to join the IPD. Now far more empowered, the police began terrorizing the citizens of Indigo, acting more like the Marigold Family's enforcers than the protectors of the law.

Eventually, these tensions hit a boiling point, and two years ago, a riot broke out in the middle of the night. Under the orders of Maurice Marigold, the IPD began burning down sections of the city, primarily in Seaside. This prompted counter-rioting, namely from the Riviera mafia and Aranea's security forces, which led to the spread of fire and other forms of property damage. Heavy fighting broke out between the IPD and the forces of the Deltano Family near Indigo's University. The Deltano fighters begged the headmaster, Derringway, for shelter within the University, but not wanting the fighting to spread to his students, Derringway refused, and many Deltanos died at the hands of the IPD.

At the same time, the up-and-coming head of the Riviera, one Leticia Lucent, discovered something that confirmed some sort of suspicion she had about the nature of the Empty Night, likely related to Aporia. She, along with Cassius, Julius Tear, and an unknown fourth accomplice, descended into the Underneath, fighting their way to something hiding within Pinnacle Tower. While they did this, the head of the Iris Family, Jean-Mirage Iris, went to kill Maurice Marigold.

Before he left to assist Leticia, Julius Tear managed to convince his family, the monster hunters known as the Tide's Edge, to assist in fighting against the IPD. This would help turn the tide of the riot in favor of the defenders.

After fighting through the Underneath, Leticia and her group arrived at the Mall District, and stormed Pinnacle Tower. When they confronted the being within it (very likely Aporia), they entered a desperate battle against it, burning down the tower in the process, killing everyone inside. Aporia then killed every single member of Leticia's group, and somehow turned them into Phantasms. After Pinnacle Tower was burned, Aporia grew to a massive size and went on a rampage, annihilating everyone who couldn't escape him and erasing them from the memories of the citizens. One of the people fleeing Aporia was a younger Chantilly Iris, who was saved from annihilation by Sonder, who then proceeded to fight Aporia seemingly one-on-one.

As the rioting winded down, the IPD was beaten back by the rest of the city. Maurice Marigold managed to survive his confrontation with Jean-Mirage Iris, who had been forced into becoming Aporia's Avatar on the surface due to unknown circumstances. However, he, along with every other non-Riviera noble, police officer, and politician, were exiled from the city.