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World #33221 - Sanctuary The Omphalos issues keys to Sanctuary to all its agents. Sanctuary is a fellow nexus, which allows its gate’s anchor points to connect harmoniously with the Omphalos without using outside energy, and a special, dedicated gate to this location can be found just off the lobby. Operatives are welcome to come and go as they like from Sanctuary’s port, though they are warned to stay inside the city if they can. Special, magically charged stones protect Sanctuary itself, but outside its boundaries are wild animals, unpredictable magical storms, and monsters. The land around Sanctuary is a frozen landscape most resembling a mammoth steppe, and in fact, much of its native flora and fauna hails from that long bygone age, though its nature as a nexus point draws in other beasties as well. It is a small, coastal city surrounded on three sides by thick forest, and on the other side, the steppes and then the sea. Dangerous weather and out of control wild magic prevent anyone from venturing past the mountains that encapsulate the whole thing, and strange leviathans dwell in its seas. But during the summer months, the area is almost pleasant, and the Omphalos does a lot of trading with Sanctuary– mostly game, leather, furs, and fish. The city has little to no notable technology. The magic storms that strike the area on the regular degrade most technology at best, and at worst, can send it absolutely berserk. Those with cybernetic prosthetics or who are non-organic beings are warned to avoid traveling outside of Sanctuary’s walls at all, and are urged to exercise caution while within them. Most should be fine with repairs as long as they are not hit by a storm outside of the protective shielding, but it pays to be cautious. The city itself has a varied population. Many are refugees resettled from lost worlds. Some are the infamous Sunbirds, a raptorial, four armed, bipedal bird-like race that superficially resembles earth’s harpy eagles. They are wingless and possess a metallic sheen to their feathers, which is what gives them their name. They were one of the first to settle Sanctuary after they were rescued from their own dying world, and no one doubts they run Sanctuary, mostly because they won’t let anyone forget it. There are also rumors of a shapeshifting wolf people within the woods, ones with vast powers of the mind that howl to warn of storms or danger, but sightings of them are rare, and they like to keep to themselves. Tech Level  Magic Level  OOC Notes (Select to Learn More)
Locals Your character does not have to be an agent from the Omphalos. When the AotM rescue people from dying worlds, they are often rehoused in Sanctuary until a more permanent solution can be found, and you are more than welcome to play one of those people. However, keep in mind that their ability to roam the Omphalos freely, should they visit, will be limited. Some agents also choose to make their home in Sanctuary, despite the cold, as it affords them far more space and privacy than living on the Omphalos. You are also more than welcome to create a Psi-Wolf or a Sunbird to play (though please contact Jabber if you have questions about their species that aren't answered on their respective pages.) Gates As many of the friends and family of people who work in the Omphalos live in Sanctuary, there are two public gates for free use in Sanctuary that transport people back and forth to the Omphalos's lobby. Visitors are welcome in the public facing areas of the facility, and there are even school trips occasionally. One gate can be found in Sanctuary's town square, while the other can be found at the edge of town near the farming sector, just outside of the city gates. Since these gates still run off Walker blood and must be activated for use, they are only available when they are being actively manned, which also helps to prevent wild animals and bad actors from getting through. Laws & Security Sanctuary is only a few years old, and in all the rush to get food and shelter established, it doesn't have too many official, established laws yet. That being said, it's far from a free for all, and there's a general, unspoken rule of, 'everyone gets along' and 'everyone puts in work'. If you steal from or menace the populace, chances are that someone is going to catch you eventually. What happens to you then depends on who catches you and how bad what you did was. Sanctuary is a city of survivors, and they protect their own. Frontier justice is very much alive and well on the frozen steppes of this world. Crackle Storms The effects of Crackle Storms are left vague on purpose to allow player freedom. However, if you'd like a touch of fate in your encounters, feel free to use this chart to roll some dice or to use for inspiration! Crackler Effects (Mild, Temporary) Roll 1-6 on a 20 sided die - Effects last for a couple of hours to a week or so. ◂ Your character can see in ultraviolet. ◂ Your character experiences a shift in awareness that allows them to perceive time differently. Everything seems to be moving in slow motion. This only lasts a few hours, but it feels like months. ◂ Your character leaves trailing after images of themselves wherever they walk. Many NPCs generally won't touch them or get near them until this fades for fear of it being contagious. ◂ Your character experiences a personal time loop of a few seconds to minutes every time someone says a certain word or phrase. They move back, but the rest of the world stays put. The village children may decide to make a game of this. ◂ Your character finds a dead body in the snow. It's them from another timeline. If your character touches it, it dissolves into snow. ◂ Your character has no reflection. If they had no reflection before, their reflection is now someone else's face. Alternatively, their reflection gains a life of its own. It can't touch anyone, but it sure is a jerk. ◂ Your character can hear singing. It's hauntingly beautiful and sad, but they're not sure where from. It sounds more like whalesong than words. Crackler Effects (Moderate, Temporary) Roll 7-17 on a 20 sided die - Effects last for a few weeks to a few months. ◂ Your character loses their memories. ◂ One of your character's items becomes sentient. It's not friendly. ◂ Your character temporarily loses all their powers, if they had any. If they had none to start, they now have the temporary ability to float about five to ten feet off the ground at will. ◂ Your character temporarily devolves into one of their ancestor's species. How far back you go along the genetic family tree is up to you. ◂ Your character gains spirit sight. There are ghosts everywhere. Most don't say anything or move. They just stare with hollow eyes, stare and stare. ◂ Your character grows an extra eye somewhere on their body. It closes and vanishes again after a time. Your character can't see through it, but it seems to look around with a will of its own. ◂ Your character wakes up with a different amount of fingers each day for a week. Crackler Effects (Severe, Permanent) Roll 18-20 on a 20 sided die - Effects may be undone by powerful magic or by surgery, but are otherwise permanent. ◂ Your character is caught out in the storm close to a plant or animal. Some of this plant or animal's traits are a permanent part of their anatomy now. ◂ Your character ages 5 to 10 years, or de-ages 5-10 years. ◂ Your character stops aging, period. This probably won't be evident immediately. If your character was immortal before, they now begin to age normally. ◂ Your character loses one of their powers/abilities for good. ◂ Your character turns invisible and intangible whenever they are touched by the light of the full moon. ◂ Your character gains an extra, functioning limb. What they get is up to you. ◂ Your character no longer needs to sleep. In fact, they'll find that they can't. Their bodies can be knocked out and made useless, but they retain awareness the entire time. If they try to astrally project, strange things happen. ◂ Your character goes mostly blind, but can see living auras. ◂ Your character becomes inexplicably drawn towards the sea. If they finally venture in, they will find themselves growing gills, scales, and fins, and possessing a sudden immunity to the cold. However, as long as they are in this form, they will also draw the attention of monsters from the depths. ◂ Food and drink has no taste anymore, but your character finds that they can eat almost anything without becoming ill. ◂ Your character loses all their memories up until this point but retains the basics of how to speak and function. Art Credits Image of the Psi-Wolf den in the snow was done by Jabberwookie. Questions & Answers (Select to Learn More)
Have a question about this world? Ask Jabber for an answer! ❔ Can my character drive a vehicle in Sanctuary? ❗Sanctuary's streets are fairly narrow. They're made more for foot traffic and the occasional cart and beast of burden rather than modern vehicles. To add to that, most of the main streets are made from cobblestone, and most of the outer roads are dirt roads. While something smaller, like a motorcycle might be able to fit, with the crowds that tend to populate Sanctuary's inner roads, any attempts would likely be met with many angry complaints for disrupting the existing foot traffic. The dirt roads on the outer limits of the city, near where the farms are are a better bet. As long as one's careful not to interrupt crops or livestock, there's more room to roam here while still staying within the safety of the shields. Off road capable vehicles may fare alright outside of the city entirely-- the steppes are pretty wide open. But there's always the risk of any electronics being severely damaged if caught within a Crackle storm. ❔ Do Crackle Storms mutate technology? ❗Crackle Storms tend to break technology-- if it's ordinary. The more high tech, the stranger the effects get. They don't mutate like plants and animals do, but they may explode, melt, corrode, or in the case of sapient technology like cybernetic beings or AI, they may go temporarily or permanently mad and become aggressive towards everything around them. Tech is generally safe within the shielding of the hearthstones, but some of the really bad storms can still cause damage to electronics, which is why Sanctuary tends to opt for lower tech options for day to day life. Tidbits & Trivia (Click to Expand)
✦ Sanctuary has two bright stars that travelers use for guidance known as 'the Lupines'. They are named after Sanctuary's psi-wolves, who often alert the locals to storms and similarly guide lost travelers to safety. There's a mercenary group called The Twin Star Mercenaries that are named after these two stars. |
Gate Status: Security Level 0 Anyone may receive a gate pass to and from Sanctuary. The Agents of the Multiverse do not currently have a designated outpost or Enclave here, so overnight arrangements must be settled on a personal basis if desired. The city of Sanctuary is considered fairly safe, though venturing beyond its gates, particularly after dark, comes with far more hazards. Dominant Trade System: Bartered Goods, Precious Metal Coins Most locals prefer to trade directly for goods, but will also take any sort of coin or small object, as long as it is gold, silver, or copper. You can read more about currency and commerce in Sanctuary here. Sapient Species: Sunbirds, Psi-Wolves, Human, Many Others There is a large human population present in Sanctuary, as well as the avian Sunbirds, and the telepathically gifted lycanthropes known as the Psi-Wolves. Beyond this, as Sanctuary is a Nexus, there exist here species of all sorts from all over the multiverse. Technologically based, inorganic beings often find the hazards of Sanctuary's Crackle Storms and intense temperature drops challenging, however. Local Factions: The Switchback Forest Pack, The Twin Star Mercenaries Transportation: Horses, sled animals, hired sapient mounts, foot travel, carts & carriages, boats You may be able to get away with some forms of motorized transportation inside the city walls, though Sanctuary's streets were not built for that. Outside of the protection of the hearth stones, it is considered exceedingly foolish to bring large electronics-- they're prone to exploding or turning on their owners, and Crackle Storms are unpredictable. There are also really no proper roads. Beyond mounts both animal and sapient, a river goes through the middle of the city all the way to the sea that is often used for quick transportation by some. Hearthstones These mysterious, deep red stones are embedded in the earth at regular intervals around Sanctuary's borders, and were there long before the first of its current inhabitants arrived. No one is sure where they come from, but they keep the temperature within Sanctuary slightly warmer than the rest of the area, keep the dangerous animals and aberrations out, and most importantly, protect Sanctuary from the ravages of Crackle Storms. Notable Locations: The Sparrow & Hare Tavern, The Fireside Market, The Scrapyard, Mammothjaw Hotsprings & Bathhouse, The Vault, Switchback Forest, The Ghost Barrens, The Obsidian Sea & Osprey Cove, The Hunting Outpost The Sparrow & Hare is the city's most popular tavern, and where most visitors choose to stay if they have rooms available. The Fireside Market, named for its many, seemingly ever burning braziers and bonfires, is a pleasant place to purchase goods. The Scrapyard, on the other hand, has a habit of being a little more colorful, but you can find almost anything there. Osprey Cove and its public use hunting outpost are a long hike, but good for fishing and game hunting. Lastly, the Omphalos’s main Artifact Vault is hidden somewhere near Sanctuary, though its exact location is known only to Guardians and trusted Special Operatives. Local Trade Goods (Select to Learn More)
Flora & Fungi Cloudberry & Cranberry Tea, Candies & Jams; Nettle Tea; Beebalm Tea & Mouthwash; Duck Potato & Burdock Chips; Black Walnut for food & Ink or Dyes, Chicory Coffee, Watercress, Asparagus, Yellowfoot Chantrelles, Dulse & Dulse Bread, Sugar Kelp, Birch Syrup, Arnica Ointment, Dried & Fresh Mountain Thyme & Wild Mint, Fireweed Honey, Popped or Dried Amaranth. Fauna Meat, Fur & Feathers (Mammoth, Elk, Harlequin Duck, Caribou, Musk Deer, Steppe Bison, Wild Boar, Snowshoe Hare, Moose, Scimitar Cats, Foxes, Ermines, Black Bears, Short Faced Bears, Rock Doves, Ptarmigan, Snowcocks, Snow Geese, Highland Cattle, Giant Ground Sloths, Musk Ox, Vicuña); Seafood (Sea Cucumbers, Octopus, Shrimp, Pike, Freshwater Clams, Scallops, Red Sea Urchins, Smelt, Crucian Carp, Salmon, Chub, Various Seals & Sea Lions, Herring, Auks, King Crab, Pollock, Halibut, Whitefish, Saffron Cod, Lake Trout, Giant Isopods, Abalone); Insects (Dried Mayflies, Giant Cave Spiders) Live Animals Vicuña, Steppe Horses, Caribou, Forest Cats, Rock Doves, Harlequin Ducks, Owls, Ravens, Eider, Sea Eagles, Goshawks, Peregrine falcons, Golden Eagles, Gyrfalcons. The Sun Birds, a species of large, bi-pedal, sapient avians, have formed a particular affinity for the local predatory birds, particularly the Gyrfalcons and Golden Eagles. While their ancestors were taken from the wild, the animals that the Sunbirds sell have been hand raised for generations now, and seem to be unusually clever and long lived compared to their wild counterparts. The Sunbirds are the only group allowed to breed and sell these birds, and they're very selective about who they go to. Other Vicuña Wool, Glowstones, (Quartz of various color & shape that are capable of absorbing magical energy and releasing light in return. They are often charged out in Sanctuary's Crackle Storms.), Highland Cow Butter Notable Wildlife (Select to Learn More)
Sanctuary is home to many animals now long extinct in other worlds. Mammoths roam the steppes, and mastodon can sometimes be found within the surrounding forests. Scimitar cats and enormous short-faced bears fearlessly stalk hapless travelers who venture beyond the safety of the city walls, and Giant Ground Sloths and Megaloceros can be spotted closer to the mountains. The vast majority of these prehistoric creatures seem to be from the Pleistocene Era, though the massive ground spiders and millipedes that live in the mountain caves may be from an even older time. Despite this, you're still more likely to find animals closer to Earth's 'modern era' on a daily walk. The prehistoric beasts of Sanctuary are numerous, but also often clever, and they seem to know how to vanish at a moment's notice-- even the biggest of them. The majority of them vanish entirely when Sanctuary's harsh winters set in, migrating to some unknown place. Some suspect they know a way through the tunnels that go beneath the impassable mountains that flank Sanctuary, but no one has yet been successful in tracking any of these animals through, and many don't return from trying. There are also many other animals unique to Sanctuary. Beluga Whales, Narwhals, and Orcas frequent the outskirts of Osprey Cove, along with the ever shifting seal colonies. Polar Bears and the occasional leopard seals can be encountered out on the ice, and even further out, Humpbacks, Bowheads, Sperm Whales, and even the occasional massive Blue Whale can be spotted. Going out on the water or the ice after dark is cautioned against, however, because enormous Aberrations also patrol the waters once the sun goes down, and many of them can easily swallow a ship. In the forests there are wolves, flying squirrels, ravens, and wolverines. Terns and Skua like to follow fisherfolk back to Sanctuary, and can be persistent pests where food is involved. The Sunbirds employ their raptors to keep them at bay, and to protect the flocks of Harlequin Ducks that wander the streets freely in their sector of the city. The forests here are mostly pine, fir, and spruce, but you will find redwoods, aspens, birch, rowan, and cedar as well. By nature, any flora and fauna within Sanctuary are cold-hardy species, but less hardy species can sometimes be found within the city itself, particularly in and around the hotsprings and bathhouse. Hazards & Important Notes (Select to Learn More)
It should be noted that while the locals sometimes hunt the saber cats and other predators in the area to manage numbers and for their hides, it is an unspoken rule that the wolves living in the area be left alone. It is notoriously difficult to tell the wild wolves apart from some of the smaller lycanthropes that call the area home, and the Psi-Wolves are incredibly protective of their wild brethren even without accidents. The Megaloceros that are also occasionally spotted in the area are seen as a sign of good luck, and killing them is frowned upon. More serious threats can be found in the notorious Crackle Storms and more natural deadly weather found outside of the protection of the city gates. Crackle Storms can come on suddenly, though the larger ones can usually be spotted before they occur. A distinctive crackle-hum in the air arrives before most storms, followed by a prismatic aura that is as beautiful as it is deadly. Small storms can cause damage to electronics and can inflict individuals with temporary mutations or enchantments. Larger storms can drive artificial lifeforms insane, shut electronics down permanently, or cause systems to overload. They can cause long lasting or even permanent changes in living beings caught out in them, some turning into Aberrations. Aberrations are magically mutated flora and fauna, though plants and fungi seem to be affected significantly less often. They are often larger and physically different than their natural counterparts, sometimes even unrecognizable, and are often predatory and aggressive. Curiously, some creatures seem to change in the same way each time they are affected, like Sanctuary's rare, but infamous predatory trees. The Aberrations within the sea are particularly old and dangerous. Found records suggest that some of them have been living and growing within the icy waters of the Obsidian Sea for centuries, and they can and will devour errant ships within their path. Thankfully, most, though not all Aberrations prefer to hunt at night. Research Files & Mission Logs Research Files Sunbirds, Psi-Wolves Caspian Terns, Gojanala Mission Logs Nothing Currently Maps & Enclaves Nothing Currently People of Interest Nothing Currently Art & Artifacts An example of an Aberration, done by Ivyking |
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