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Anything Under the Sky Setting

A little over two hundred years ago, the City was founded on the ruins of a much older city. Streets and houses were renovated and walls were set up around the portions of the city that were left uninhabited. Thus the City was born, and became a haven for commerce....and crime.

City Map

The Old City was circular, with a wall surrounding it. No one is exactly sure what happened to the population of the Old City, but when it was found abandoned, a new city was established on top of it. Because the cost to fix the entire city would have been enormous, large sections of the city were cordoned off behind new walls. These days the majority of the Old City has been incorporated into the New City, but there are still substantial areas of Old City remaining.

Areas Within the City

The New City

The New City gives off the impression of being clean and safe for those who live there and the tourists who frequent the place. Almost every Party of adventurers must pass through the City at some point, as it has become perhaps the biggest city in the world, economically. It appears a perfect merchant's haven. Crime within the New City is fairly rare. There are con-artists and even a few thieves, but most of them get caught fairly quickly by the police. But underneath its utopian image is a more nefarious subculture that the police can't do much to stop.

The Old City

The Old City is the part of the city that was never renovated. Amongst the crumbling buildings and unclean streets, the government had no power to speak of. So an underworld began to develop almost immediately. Not all of the people who live or spend much time in the Old City are criminals, but few of them have much respect for the law. The Old City is an "autonomous zone," and unless they want to claim it (which would cost a lot of money), the government of the New City can't do much about the culture of the Old City.

Factions Within the City

The Guilds

As in any heavily commercial city, the Guilds hold a lot of power within the city itself. The guilds regulate trading contracts and enforce patents, but also protect its members' rights and ensures that commerce will continue to be viable. Any businessman wanting to join the guild must have an established business before they'll even listen to him, though anyone who can afford it can go to the Guilds to negotiate contracts.

Law Enforcement

Because of the considerable rank that the high-ranking merchants carry, it is quite difficult for the city's police to do anything to stop those of them who are part of the Underworld, even when they know that they're connected. Many of the cops have given up hope, though there are a few who want to try....though they would need solid proof to ever catch these guys, and since they almost never get their hands dirty, it's left wanting.

This leaves the Law Enforcement with two types of cops: those who have basically given up, and those who redouble their efforts, and so come down hard on whatever crooks they can find until they can catch the big guys.

The Underworld

The Old City provided an excellent hiding place for the criminal underworld, and so while the infrastructure grew, so did the power of lawbreakers. Some of the most powerful merchants in the city are assumed to be high ranking members of gangs or mafia, so their interference means that small competitive businesses often find themselves challenged to ever become more than forgettable hole-in-the-wall stores.