The Plaza

Only two places in Thyra do not resemble a hive of brass and steel and brick: a few noble and moneyed streets in Oldtown and The Plaza.

The Plaza is an area just outside the main urban area that was left clear after the War. It is a large space, by far the largest single-use area in the city, and on an average day, it heaves with activity. 

Carts and people disappear and appear, apparently out of thin air. Carts, wagons, wheelbarrows, everything is used to move stuff around.

For you see, The Plaza has the biggest concentration of Passages in the whole of Thyra. In an area slightly smaller than a couple of  hectares, there are dozens and dozens of passages, randomly spread out throughout.

It is one of the main thoroughfares in the city, and a sign of how big a hub Thyra actually is.



I have recently come into possession of about a hundred more possible new Places, so I needed A LOT more Passages.

TANDEM (Thyran Defense Directorate Multiverse)

The one key difference between Thyra and all the other Places, is (if one ignores magic, dragons, high technology, etc.), it that Thyra has NightGems, and the rest of the Multiverse does not. Why this is is a source of extensive debate, but the facts are there. This makes the city singularly important, not only as a hub, but also as the source of this material.

After the debacle of Passage 66, it became clear, throughout the Places, that all the eggs were very much in the same basket, and if Thyra fell, ALL the passages would be at risk.

TANDEM was created for this purpose. A rag-tag collection of individuals from all backgrounds, acting on an information network that extends throughout the Places. Not a fist, not even a scalpel, more like a snipers bullet, preventing situations from escalating, before they can endanger Thyra or its commerce.

With individuals and tactics from Places throughout the Multiverse, TANDEM are a force to be reckoned with. Moving in the shadows, and with absolutely no official standing, these people(s) have been key on keeping the trade going.

Secretly, that is.

Something I've been thinking about for some time. Perhaps having the characters have a bigger purpose, or indeed be a type of unofficial (and indeed illegal) secret agents, might open more doors to the narrative.

The Quarantine Zone

To the South of Thyra, there is an area that has been permanently walled off. Even most of the tunnels and passages of Below end just before they reach this area. 

Now simply called The Quarantine Zone, this was the area of the city that was hit the hardest during the War. The cost of repair being deemed too high, the whole place was simply cordoned off. 

There is, however, an issue.

The Night fell in a roughly West/East trajectory. Upon impact, the QZ was in the same line as the impact trajectory. This is the area with one of the highest concentration of Passages known. Only 2 are known to be open (onto seemingly uninhabited worlds). Also, it is known that there is a similar area of Below beneath the surface, cut off from the rest of the network of tunnels.

Tales abound of riches and treasure behind every stone in the QZ. The Ministerium doesn't care too much about scavengers, although the Yellowstripes maintain a nominal patrol of the wall that isolates the area.

The Kerrigan Asylum For The Ethereal Challenged (The Mansion)

Way out in Exilopolis, there is a massive building.

The Mansion started as an offshoot of The College experiments with NightSerum. Right from the start, and although volunteers were easy enough to find, it was clear that the fail rate was impressive enough to demand some arrangements. Sure, most individuals died, but a few did indeed develop magik abilities, and these were very much beyond their control.

Thus The Mansion was opened. A safe (or as safe as it can be made) place for these wretched souls to exist, and to - perhaps - be helped back into some sort of peace. 

The staff, picked by hand from a number of Places, are kind, nurturing and patient. 

The guests.... They are not what they once were. 

Some are horribly mutated into grotesque forms, and need to be kept in quiet, gloomy rooms. Some wield impossible energies, and live their lives in copper covered rooms.

They are an unfortunate consequence of progress, some would say. Thyrans prefer not to think about it too much.

The Yellowstripes (Thyran Militia)

If The Ministerium is the brains of Thyra, the Militia are its muscles. Although of course, no one calls them the Militia, but insted, due to the sashes that mark them as such, they are known as the Yellowstripes.

Although their presence is welcome, they are a study in paradoxes. They are without a doubt a group you'd like to have by your side in a fray, but some gold in their hands has been known to turn heads away from major incidents.

Usually fair, usually useful, usually good. Just don't expect great leaps of imagination or philosophical considerations towards the legality of an event.

They are trained by fighters chosen from at least 4 Places. They are VERY good at fighting. 

TEMPO (Thyran Messaging Organisation)

Two of main concepts that rule Thyra are these: a) Information is ammunition, and b) Knowledge is power.

Information is the lifeblood of the city, and the possession or lack of it is indeed often paid in blood.

Enter TEMPO, the Thyran Messaging Organisation. A private enterprise, with funding from everywhere and everyone. Respected by all, feared by all, they are perhaps not the movers and shakers, but the ones to tell them where and when to move and/or shake.

There are TEMPO posts scattered throughout the city, their presence known by their ubiquitous dark blue fronts. Inside, dark blue uniformed clerks take your message, encode it, and give it to one of the Pigeons.

There are as many types of Pigeons as there are grains of sand: there are your human ones, delivering messages on foot, the mechanical MECHA, transporting hundreds of parcels, smaller MECHA, running through specially made pipes throughout the city, the smaller winged MECHA flying through Passages, and into TEMPO offices in other Places, the hybrid MECHA/Animals..... The list goes on.

Their prices are modest, their volume immense. They might one day flex their muscles, but for the moment, TEMPO seems to be happy to be the nervous system of the city.

Thyran NighGen Purification and Liquidizing Plant (The Plant)

There is one area of Thyra Below which truly never sleeps. On the outskirts of town there is a giant sunken area, originally a subterranean armoured airship bay. The vast structure is now a small city in its own right, populated by the hundreds of workers that daily feed and maintain The Plant.

It's not like NighGems aren't powerful, they are. But they are still rock: big, heavy, and above all, solid. A process was developed to make them a liquid. And once a liquid, they can be distilled and concentrated.

The Ministerium wanted a monopoly on the operation, and gave The College vast incentives (and threats) to keep the process in-house. They did so.

The result is The Plant, a huge, building-sized factory. Run by the College and The Order, it is a place of bottled lightening, all involved know that the energies they are  playing with are not for the faint hearted. Many a bush-y tailed newbie has had their claws clipped by The Plant, where a moment's inattention might mean disaster.

The results were the 4th Generation NighGem Cores, energy generating devices the size of small tables that can power a whole airship.

Also, although this is not usually know by the public, they are now finally producing Omega-grade NightGems. 99+% Pure.

In theory, these could be used to open artificial Passages....

Professor Thaddeus Mighty Monstrous Circus (3M)

Tolerance and acceptance were both things that didn't come naturally to Thyrans. The mere concept of Passages was inconceivable for some, let alone the exotic species that came through them. 

And not just random animals. These new people could think and bar cosmetic changes, they were pretty much as they were. 

The cultural differences were in a way harder to deal with. So your neighbour has horns, no problem. But when his Clan affiliations are stronger than family, duty, honour and anything else you can imagine.... Then things are slightly more difficult to understand. 

Enter Marcus Thaddeus. He had an idea. Maybe offensive. Maybe wrong. But with potential. He asked around the newcomers, to see if there were any performers amongst them. Sure, you had elvish sharpshooters, troll weight lifters. You had young exiled changelings and disgraced noble Rakshasans.

And he proposed his idea to them. Perform for the people. Yes, it's wrong, yes it's demeaning, but it will be a way for Thyrans to meet you, to see you and to be shown your culture.

About two thirds of them accepted on the spot. 

The 3M has sentient species from all know passages and animals and plants from at least as many worlds.

The circus is the first line of contact between ‘normal’ Thyrans and people from other Places. Its complex of tents lie in the wild space between Rattown and Steamville. As a contact tool, it is working really well.

It is also making ‘Professor’ Thaddeus phenomenally rich.

Thyra Below (Or simply Below)

Thyra is like an iceberg, 70% of it is hidden Below. Starting as a series of bunkers and tunnels during the War, these were since then interconnected and now span the whole city and well beyond it. 

Some are as lit and airy as the streets above. Some aren't. 

Some are filled with trade and laughter. Some aren't.

Some are filled with nice sentient beings. Some really aren't.

And there's more. There are Passages down here. The shards of the Night were thrown in 3 dimensions, so they also went down. Some of the passages are known.

Some aren't.

List of known Passages and connected Places

Passage 4 - Cordigan Land. Homeworld of the Cordigans, humanoid canines. Agricultural/urban, tech level slightly behind Thyra.

Passage 5 - Llaruundo. Similar to literature's 'high fantasy' world. Humanoid races, elves trolls, orcs, etc. Agricultural with scattered cities. Tech level well behind Thyra. Some trade in handicraft goods. Presence of Magik, source unknown.

Passage 11 - Hyperboria. Savage world, pre-medieval. Hardy human-like inhabitants, predatory fauna. Limited contact, some trade, usually in melee weaponry. 

Passage 19 - Gaia, Urban world, tech level similar to Thyra. Commerce in manufactured goods, some services and high grade metals.

Passage 20 - Odin's Eye, alien planet, toxic gases, no native animals or plants, respirator needed. Some gem mining.

Passage 24 - The Hive. A world covered in billions of alien Insectoid inhabitants. Mostly friendly, producers of organic-based goods, as Insectisilk. Extensive trade. 

Passage 33 - Unknown. No explorers have returned.

Passage 39 - Umbrous. Late medieval world. Feudal. Presence of Magik, source unknown. A dark, misty, swampy world.  Races and beasts take strange shapes, vaguely reminiscing of 'dark fantasy'. Limited trade. Limited contact.

Passage 42 - Futuristic city. Limited contact with only a few inhabitants. Tech level at least 200 years in advance of Thyra. City goes by the name of New Hades.

Passage 45 - Water Passage, The Billion Isles. Word-spanning archipelago. Tech level about 100 years behind Thyra, some limited trade due to extensive piracy.

Passage 48 - The Anvil. High desert, no habitation, animals or plants ever found. Temperatures are in the upper 50oC constantly, tidal lock with star, no night. 

Passage 54 - Uninhabited verdant world, Farmopolis. Some agricultural colonists.

Passage 59 - Water Passage. Terminus is half a mile off the coast of Khaemet, a desert continent, broken up into a myriad kingdoms. Vaguely reminiscent of Pharaonic Egypt. Tech level low, but extensive trade in jewels and artefacts.

Passage 60 - Persephone Sigma VII. Passage terminus is about 100 yards away from a trading post on an alien planet. No atmosphere, vacuum suits needed. Many different species, Tech levels range from millenia ahead to centuries behind Thyra.

Passage 66 - Hell.

Passage 72 - Water Passage. Pelagicus, water world. Extensive fishing and trading with the Gloor, aka Atlanteans, humanoid amphibian sea dwellers. Tech level about 50 years behind Thyra.

Passage 75 - Rru-Ssarr. World with radically different evolutionary path. Dozens of sentient species, most look like versions of what we would consider 'lower animals'. Tech levels differ between individual species, from about 50 years behind Thyra to about 50 years after. Extensive contact. Extensive trade.

Passage 90 - Koncorvire. Alien world. Hostile silicone-based life forms. Humanoid inhabitants. Sporadic contact, no trade.

Passage 88 - E'rth. An apparent alternate version of Earth. Extensive trading with local Hugh-min population. Tech level comparable to Thyra

Passage 92 - The Core. Passage opens inside gigantic, world-spanning cavern network. Many different native inhabitants, some trading with a selected few of them.

Passage 103 - Alternate futuristic Earth. Local name unknown. Some sort of environmental catastrophic event left this world devastated. Passage ends near the ruins of London. Limited contact. No trade.

The Passages (Portals)

My original design for Thyra can be summed up in one word: flexibility. I wanted a background that allowed players to move between campaigns, Universes and adventures on a whim. The GM's whim, of course. ;)

Hence Thyra. The fall of The Night pierced the fabric of reality and many worlds are accessible by simply walking through a Passage (a vaguely shimmering irregular shape in the air, like heat distortion). The first passages ever explored seemed to take explorers to more or less benign worlds. Other peoples and cultures were found, and trade is booming (the second reason for Thyra's wealth, after the NighGems).

Some other passages aren't really that good. The infamous Passage 33, from which no one has ever returned. Or passage 48, that takes you into a blistering hot desert, no shade in sight, a giant planet hanging above you, taking up half the sky.

And then there is Passage 66. Mmm. How to put it? It is somewhat outside of town, and it is nominally guarded 24/7. It is a passage to a realm.... Where the same laws don't seem to apply. There are things at the other side of Passage 66. Not the nice trolls of Passage 5. 

Things. 

Some break through every now and again, creatures of fire and brimstone and death. Some are as ethereal as smoke, but at least as dangerous.



So then, here we have it. A steampunk city, in the mists of a gold rush, with direct links to dozens of places throughout space and time. Welcome. We've been expecting you....

Map!

Here it is, a map of Thyra. It is all centered around Crater Bay (ground zero for the impact of The Night). I'll adress the neighbourhoods later on, for now, I just wanted to mention the red dots. These are the known (catalogued) Passages into other Places (Universes). Some are empty.

Some really really aren't.

Dramatis Personae

• The High Ministerium (The Ministerium) – A council of representatives of all the important bodies in the city. Not the most effective of bodies but the de facto brains behind organisation and logistics in the city, as well as the Yellowstripes. Most organisations have one seating member (official or unofficial ones). Corrupt and power-mad, only the infighting of the members keeps it from ascending into full blown dictatorship. You wouldn’t trust them for a moment, but the contracts are valid, the water does flow, and the sewers still work. For most inhabitants, it is all they ask.

• Walt Wilson Mining Consortium (WW) – The largest company in town. Everyone works or knows someone that works for WW. Growing up in Rattown turned WW into a ruthless, humourless man that rewards excellence and destroys incompetence with the same wry smile. Not necessarily evil, but ambitious and pitiless.

• The College Of Physical and Ethereal Sciences (The College) – School, University, Research Institute and Engineering Plant rolled up into one. Its members expand the knowledge of NightGems, and its applications. The recent discovery of Magik (NightGem energy-powered reality manipulation) was made at The College. Its practitioners, nicknamed Weird Doctors, are not necessarily sane but are bending our knowledge of reality.

• Order of The Wrench (The Order) – The union of engineers and builders that keep the city working. Most have ties to the Ministerium, some to The College, and some to no-one at all. The Order keeps very loose ties with its members by design, in a place like Thyra, no one would make money if everyone played by the book.

• Freehold Miners League (The League) – WW only has control over the Wilson Mines, all other veins are explored by small companies and independent miners. They are nominally bound together in The League, but it is in reality a free for all.

• Beggars’ and Thives’ Guild (The Guild) – Based out of Rattown, these keep their own peace, in alleys where even the Yellowstripes don’t venture. Rumours abound of ties to the Ministerium, of unofficial council members. What is known is, an unsanctioned murder today is a body floating in Circle Bay tomorrow.

• Society of Lok (Brothers / Sisters) – The closest thing to active religion in Thyra. Of unknown origins, these men and women teach, heal, clothe and feed with the same quiet contemplation. Many a thief or evildoer ended up as a Brother or Sister. Although there is no organised cult, the Society House is filled with icons and statues of Gods of many of the Places reached from the city, for any believers to enjoy. They seem to have deep pockets, but use it only in the help of the needy.

• The Clockwork Queen (The Queen) - a quasi-mythical crime boss, The Queen is a sort of bogey man for both state and crime people alike. Her existence is disputed, but on a number of occasions, the Guilds almost immediately deferred to someone else. Either a person or many or simply an organisation, someone pulls many strings around town. 

Welcome

It was barely a pebble. In cosmic terms, it was a mote of dust, barely worth the notice. If it had been found in our time, in our world, it would have earned one of those long alphanumerical strings that only tell you on what catalogue to look for it.Only one thing made it unique. And the world found out about it on the 31st of December, 1858.

It would eventually be known by many names. But on that fateful dusk, as it ripped the sky, as it became the first big asteroid  to impact the Earth since men arose, its dark smoky tail hid the setting sun. The Night had come.

And then it hit.

And Humanity was still here.

The core of the asteroid was a dense crystal, dark, oily, the likes of which had never been seen. As it hit, it revealed it's greatest property, as it could store an almost infinite amount of energy in its matrix.

It should have destroyed the world. And it did. Sort of.

It absorbed 99.9999% of the impact energy. The place where it hit was now ground zero for mining the new rock, now know as NightGems. A grain of sand would heat a tea cup. A chunk the size of your fist would power a loom. 3 or 4, a locomotive. Some, of high purity, could punch holes in reality itself.

Magik is now real. It's all about energies, after all, and now we have it to spare.

Technology was transformed overnight. Victorian steam met the atomic age.

War followed.

For 30 years, the War of Sorrows burnt the Earth. It's now over, because there was little else left. NightGem mining has resumed. The main mining city is called Thyra. It is a beacon for all that wish to make a quick profit. 

It is also peppered with Passages into other Places caused by the fall of The Night. Some Places are empty. 

Some aren't.

It is the beginning of Spring, 1910, in an Earth you wouldn't recognise. Giant Mecha roam the streets, airships are run by analogical computers, steam machines are powered by crystals from the Stars. Magik is real. Deamons from other Places kill and maim.

Welcome to Thyra.




Thyra came about in a D&D game, I thought, wouldn't it be useful to have a hub, in the middle of the Multiverse, where you could access hundreds of different worlds, and have adventures in all possible environments. I know there are Savage Worlds supplements out there for all of this, but I find them.... Chunky. It's almost metaphysical, some of them, with Gods and Heroes.

I just want to have a City surrounded by gateways to other Places (with a capital P). So one week I can have my players wiping out cultists in a jungle temple and the next, fighting an invasion in an alien colony somewhere beyond the stars....

So in a word, simplicity. Not chunky rules, nothing too weird. Maybe some penalties if the characters try to interact with grossly different technology, but that's about it. I hope it goes well!