An Overview of the City-State of Wunderspire

The Extraordinary City-State of Wunderspire is a massive metropolis that spans five islands the size of small continents in the Boundless Sea. Nothing ever truly disappears in Wunderspire: new buildings are built atop the the old, junk and scrap metal are refashioned for new and startling uses, and salvage, patch, repair, is a mantra held dear by the industrious citizens of the City-State.

Countless souls call Wunderspire their home. All manner of sapient creatures rub shoulders in the boulevards, back-alleys, and boardrooms of the city. While some beings prefer to keep among their own kind within exclusionary wards and well-defended ghettos, Wunderspire is largely a place of urban cosmopolitanism. Most citizens will live their entire lives within Wunderspire and never venture outside its walls.

The City-State is self-sufficient due to the large swaths of farmland that are part of its agricultural districts. Rooftop gardens, hydroponics, magebred meat, and underground fungus farms help supplement the people's diet.

Everything to be dreamed ofand a few things that could only be the product of nightmarescan be found in Wunderspire for a price. Few indulgences are banned outright within the City-State, but even then aeronaut and maritime smugglers work tirelessly to provide the people of Wunderspire with decadent, verboten pleasures.

Wunderspire had been at war with the socialistic, expansionist Malishnikov Union for over twenty years. Last year, a truce was signed, but no one truly believes that the Treaty of Redflag will hold. Fear of Malishnikov infiltration and agitation is rife within the City-State; the daily broadsheets hint at dark intrigues and acts of espionage that herald the coming of a new war.

A Rough guide to Wunderspire

Wunderspire is a City Ruled by the Educated Elite

Wonderspire is ruled by an oligarchy of scientists, inventors, and captains of industry from the Illustrious Society for the Improvement of Natural Learning.

The head of this oligarchy is the Lord Technician, an elected position chosen by ballot by the twelve High Technicians of the Illustrious Society.

The current Lord Technician is Ethelyne Tantalum, a statuesque and utilitarian-minded woman from a long line of celebrated lady scientists.

Since the position of Lord Technician is a life-long appointment, it is not uncommon for them to be assassinated by political rivals to make way for a new candidate.

Wunderspire is a City of Scientific Marvels

The many boroughs, wards, and districts of Wunderspire are connected by steam-driven overland and underground swiftrail trains.

Messages can be sent far and wide instantly by the tiefling-run Ethergram Union.

Zeppelins, hot air balloons, and airships moor at the docklands; these craft are capable of both continental travel and the traversal of the ethereal sphere. Seacraft and submarines conquer the waves.

Automacists craft both unthinking and sapient apparatuses from clockwork, steel, and analytical engines. The largest of these apparatuses are the

armored mechs used in war.

Wunderspire is a City of Arcane Secrets

Although magic is not held in as high esteem as science, the two are not necessarily antagonistic toward each other; indeed, many scientists look to wizards and mages to add a spark of enchantment to their improbable devices.

Wunderspire's most famous school of magic is the Geddenmoor Academy; the current headmaster of the Academy is Augustus Drood, a young wizarding prodigy who has accepted a number of defense contracts that allow his students to produce new, experimental magic weaponry for use in defense of the City-State.

Throughout Wunderspire there are areas known as Incarnate Zones where reality does not function as it usually does. Some Incarnate Zones function as portals to other worlds, while others are simply places where magic functions more powerfully or in unexpected ways. Some Incarnate Zones appear to give access to the past; others seem like projections into the future.

The oneiromancers are a decadent sect of mages who can enter and shape the dreams of mortals. They can even capture and sell particularly potent dreams so that others might experience them.

Wunderspire is a City of Heights and Depths

Wunderspire has a massive vertical reach; the Crowning Tier of the city sits above the clouds and is home to

the wealthy and aristocratic elite. Wunderspire also extends deep into

the bowels of the earth; the people of the Slumgullian Warrens toil deep underground at furnace, forge, and fungus farm alike, and rarely, if ever, see the light of the sun.

Elevated roads spiral up from street level to reach the lofty heights of the city's higher tiers; mechanical lifts extend down into the depths of the city and up into its elevated districts.

Rumor has it that Wunderspire was built on the site of a far more ancient metropolis and that the foundations of that earlier city still exist as winding and unexplored catacombs beneath the Warrens.

Wunderspire is a City of Varied Multitudes

Though the majority of Wunderspire's citizens are what we would call human, numberless races and species inhabit the City-State.

The people of Wunderspire are policed by the Gray Bishops, a constabulary force that answers to the Illustrious Society. The detectives of the Gray Bishops use ever-developing scientific methods to catch criminals, but those seeking satisfaction outside the normal channels of law have recourse to organizations such as Blind Justicesightless thief-takers and bounty hunters who use precognition to find and capture their prey.

The pubs of Wunderspire are the great levelers of social class; shared pub songs unite the populace in ways that few other traditions can manage.

The streets of Wunderspire are patrolled by a masked vigilante known

as the Red Wraith.

Wunderspire is a City of a Thousand Gods

The streets of Wunderspire's Cathedral Ward are lined with a myriad of churches, temples, ashrams, monasteries, and other places of worship.

Although a multitude of incompatible faiths are practiced throughout Wunderspire, there is precious little open hostility between the various religions.

One of the most popular faiths in Wunderspire is the Church of the Brass Messiah, a religion that preaches that technology will be the savior of all.

Although most faiths practice openly in Wunderspire, there are a number of vile cults and mystery religions whose rites must be consummated in the shadows. For example, the Children of Fimbul are a sect of druids who believe that they must usher in the end of days to restart the natural cycle of death and rebirth.

Wunderspire is a City of Cultured Intrigue

One of Wunderspire's most powerful institutions is the Libris Rex, the grandest circulating library in the known world. The librarian-explorers of Libris Rex often fund expeditions to forsaken ruins to retrieve lost knowledge and to preserve rare texts.

The opera houses of Wunderspire are as famed for the gossip, idle talk, and information trading that transpires therein as they are for the quality of the artistic performances that take place on stage.

Some aristocratic families cling to feuds that stretch back through generations; these feuds often erupt in street violence between gangs of partisans or duels to the death.

The impoverished upper classes borrow heavily from the goblin mafia. You don't mess with the goblin mafia.

Wunderspire is a City of Underclass Dissatisfaction

Lady Magwitch recruits adventurers into her service to further some obscure vendetta against the Compeyson, a swindler of note.

A disease called the clicks, which causes strange metallic growths to sprout from the afflicted's skin and a loss of emotional capability, is a hazard of life for those who work in Wunderspire's factories.

Malishnikov agitators have infiltrated the ranks of working-class trade unions to advocate for revolution.

Use of blue orchid, a hallucinogenic opiate made from the dehydrated venom of the great eastern scorpion, is endemic in the downtrodden underclass; frequent abuse of the drug leads to incurable, violent madness.

Other Lands

Numerous city-states, island nations, and artificial islands dot the Boundless Sea; these are some of the most important of those lands:

To the east are the Floating Cities of Kai-Fong. Ruled by the androgynous Lunar Empress, the Floating Cities are havens for skywaymen air-pirates and are the hub of the blue orchid trade.

To the north is the Malishnikov Union, a supposed worker's paradise that is

in practice an oppressive realm of collectivized islands governed by the military dictatorship of Annalise Zharoff. The Malishnikov Union is closely allied with the krieg-bears of Bjornistad.

To the far northwest is Bjornistad, the frigid kingdom of Heinrich II, the Jarl of the krieg-bears.

To the northeast is Cinderheim, the imperialistic and militarized nation of the elves. These elves have abandoned their stewardship of the natural world in favor of crafting mech armor for their colonial endeavors. They are ruled by a masked, and supposedly immortal, Erlking.

To the south is Citadel, a fortress-like city-state of religious zealots. Every aspect of life in Citadel is oriented toward serving the Last God, the monotheistic deity who dominates the hearts and minds of the Citadel's populace.

To the southwest is the island city-state of Azrakhan. An unknown calamity has transformed the populace into a mindless horde of ravening cannibals. The scientists and mages of Wunderspire have erected an electro-spiritual barrier that keeps its blighted residents trapped inside. Despite the obvious dangers, explorers sometimes enter the accursed city-state to seek its forgotten treasures.

To the southeast are a series of largely unexplored jungle islands.

To the west is the Wild Frontier, a series of islands rich in precious ore. These islands are currently being colonized by Wunderspire, Malishnikov, Citadel, Cinderheim, and the Floating Cities.