Three Vices

**Three Vices** is the main setting for the story. It is an obscenely massive city named for being a place where one can go to pursue the three vices of want; pleasure, wealth and power.

Expansive and diverse, the city serves as a bustling hub of commerce and entertainment. From all across Totality, people are drawn to the city for its chaotic freedom, indulging in all sorts of forbidden pleasures and experiences, hoping that the city doesn't swallow them up instead.

The normal folk? They're just trying to make it through the day.

## Geography

Located on an unnamed world, most of the planet's natural resources has been reaped by the cities residents throughout the years, leaving the surface barren. Worse yet, many of the cities conflicts have taken place outside its walls, the land left twisted and scarred by the muddled confrontation of mantra. As a result, people are just about forced to live in the city if they want to have a chance for something of a life.

The city itself is splayed out across the world. Like a wound that just won't go away, it festers and bleeds, vast areas known as Provinces rising and falling as the years pass by. This has resulted in the city becoming a collective mess of places that don't quite match.

The most striking aspect of the city, however, is its corrupted state. In its many years, the use of mantra within the city has been widespread, and has resulted in the city becoming a place where reality and dream often blur. In particular, the city has many curious events manifestations entirely unique to it, such as the burrows where horrors slumber, a province suspended in time, fountains of eternal torment posing as youth, and more. This, along with the cities chaotic nature has served to draw people from across the totality to the city, making the busting hub that it is.

## History

Originally a place for vagrants and societies unwanted, the city has in time grown to become a superpower like no other, snuffing out other cities and countries as it steadily expanded. This cut-throat, survival of the fittest mentality has persevered since the cities inception, many of its residents swearing by the creed like none other. Little else is known to be reliably true about the city, though the people spread plenty a tale.

Below are are some of the more renowned tales among the cities residents.

* Camilla's triumph: Perhaps the most widely believed and parroted tale of history among the cities residents. The tale goes that a young lady of modest means struggled to eventually become the catalyst for growth within the city that became, laying the groundwork to implement many of its important structures. Camilla has since become a symbol of hard work, perseverance, and community, ironic, given that most people have become actively selfish in their scramble to attain a better life.
* The weeping giant: The tale occurs during the cities growth and rise prominence, as it was slowly eating away at its surroundings, and eventually the entire world. During this time, a massive life form passed by and glanced down at the city. Then and there, it wept, tears falling unto the city, eventually becoming the lake known as Prayer's End. It's not known why the giant cried. Some say it wept tears of joy, seeing such progress in action. Others say it wept tears of sadness, glimpsing at the death and destruction, worse yet, a future peek at what the city would become.
* Twice broken: During a period of strife, where various factions fought over controlling the city proper, a few were said to have pulled it off, albeit briefly. The first was a warlord of extreme skill and popularity. Rallying a vast base of supporters, he took the city through violence and bloodshed. Taking the city was one thing, ruling her was another. The warlord was quickly usurped, a council for the people by the people instated in his place. Turns out, quite a few citizens and their knives felt that they weren't being represented, and so the city broke out into conflict once more, where it has since remained. Many citizens quote this tale as an example of their, and the cities thirst for freedom.

## Culture

While the city is a melting pot of cultures and races from all across the many near and faraway worlds, there are a few that remain a constant within the city. These are Humans, Matarua, Issho, Hiiltynyt, Pytka, Fasi and Hostemor. Each of these races have more or less settled within the city for one reason or another, and make up a majority of the population.

As a whole, the culture is a rather fractured, messy, and constantly changing subject within the city.

## Technology

Despite its grime and danger, Three Vices remains one of the most advanced places in totality.

The city uses a standard of steam-powered machinery, which in itself isn't anything special. What is, however, are the areas webbed throughout the city where technology is powered by mantra. For example, there is a province where ships sail streams of air within the sky that were created by hymn. In another, a family has made a fortune by selling their service of using mantra to accentuate the brightness of objects to give an otherwise dark area some light.

## Politics

Like the people that inhabit it, the city is a world of messy conflict and struggle for power. As far as its history stretches, the city has never had a ruling power or governing structure in place. Instead, it's a carcass where the hungry scrape and claw for flesh. Across the many provinces, powerful gangs, families and cults vie for territory and power. Of course, not all are equal, but they do all influence peoples lives.

Here are a few of the major powers within the city.

* **Chikara:** An hoard-like gang with structure, discipline and drive. Chikara has among the most members of any gang, most of whom are trained and loyal. Unfortunately, the gang lacks coordination as a result of being splintered into clusters, each with their own hierarchies and feuds. This has, in recent years, worsened into inner-gang conflict.
* **Carne:** A bunch of flesh mongers and opportunists. Carne is a gang that's in it for revel, and nothing less. Despite having influence and connections, brought about from their many transactions and shady dealings, the gang has little actual power and is often targeted by other factions.
* **Umazane Barabe****:** Originating from the Underslums, the gang is a motley mass of some of the cities most desperate people. In recent years the gang has grown into a movement, amassing the most members of any faction. Most, however, are not skilled warriors, but rather peasants and petty thieves. As such, despite their number, Umazane lacks potential for proper battle outside of their typical tactic; overwhelming numbers.
* **Feast:** A medium size gang comprised of a collective of smaller groups. Scattered all across the city, Feast aims to gain as much territory as possible and reap the benefits. Unlike some of the other factions in the city, feast cares most about wealth, and employs less needlessly violent means in their endeavors. As a result, they are tolerated more than some of the others.
* **Blut Tropft:** A crazed cult that worships the human body. They regularly sacrifice people and practice self-mutilation, believing that by doing so, they will attain a higher level of existence. The cult are close allies to Carne, frequently purchasing bodies from them.
* **Kikuchi:** A young family of Issho that has been making strides within the city. Many among their kin have established themselves in positions of power and/or wealth in recent years. Most notably, the family head has come to lead one of the strongest and well-organized cluster within Chikara.