The Citadel of Sorcery
Long ago, in what at the time had been the center of the growing Nexus, a cabal of magic users from across the multiverse gathered together with one purpose. They had hoped to harness the many unique forms of magical energy their presence had brought to the Nexus in one place, to master all power within this strange dimension in which they had been imprisoned. Perhaps they had wished to become gods, or to free themselves from this place, but whatever it was they aimed to do it all went horribly wrong. All that remains is a massive hole in the ground, and the largest focal point of magical energy in the Nexus today.
A spiraling Omphalos rises up from the center of this massive crater, consisting of thousands of threads winding up to the sky. Each is a different form and color of mana. Here the sky is violet with crackling power, all normal weather patterns suspended. Around this center an assembly of towers have been constructed of a variety of materials, each surrounding it in circles of increasing height and distance from the center. The oldest and most prestigious towers directly surround the Omphalos, squat edifices of stone bathed in its titanic energies. Each subsequent circle of towers is taller and more numerous than the last, size and opulence compensating for lessening importance and access to the Omphalos.
At the edge of the crater where the rest of the Nexus begins again is a thick wall of enchanted glass, impervious to all but the most divine of spells and unbreakable by any force short of hours of constant artillery barrage. Only a series of gates equidistant from one another around the circumference of the wall present notable weak points, and these only relatively so. The tallest and most durable of towers extend up from just behind the wall, home to the most militant and least prestigious of the crater’s inhabitants. Visitors seeking to partake of the Omphalos’ seemingly infinite might must first prove themselves to these guardians, a task easier said than done.
Culture
The Citadel of Sorcery, as it’s now known, is home to a population of magical users numbering in the thousands - largest in the Nexus. Every tower is home to either an eclectic bunch of sorcerous squatters, or the headquarters of a magical society of varying size and potency. The line there is a little blurry, with old orders declining over time into hyper-competitive rabble while the squatters organize and start deciding on dress codes and fancy titles. The only true commonality between them is a dedication to the art, science, practice, or whatever of magic as their members know - and a thirst for easily accessible energy.
Toward the center are the most successful and powerful of the magical orders calling the Citadel their home. The unimpressive but sturdy towers they live in are full of wonders and horrors scarcely seen elsewhere, enabled by the Omphalos. Competition for positions within their ranks are fierce, and they prefer to train their own members from scratch rather than accept powerful outsiders who have their own ideas and the weight to push them. They keep to themselves.
Further out this become less the case, with various magical orders jockeying to attract the attention of outsiders to fill their ranks and give them an edge that might allow them to claim the coveted central towers. Politicking and productivity abound in these intermediate towers, each of them eager to prove themselves superior by showing off the fruits of their sorcery. This activity forms a cornerstone of the Citadel of Sorcery’s economy as enchanted items, unique lifeforms, and potent potions flow out to practitioners and wealthy people in other districts of the Nexus in exchange for everyday staple commodities.
It’s not all knowledge and and power here of course. A substantial underclass of non-magical people are bound through fear and contract to labor beneath the shadows of the towers for their sorcerous overlords. Some of them have lived in the Citadel for generations, and exposure to the abundant mana has produced various mutations that make many of these people unsuitable for everyday life in most other districts. Joining them are the multitude of homunculi, summoned beings, and custom creatures who allow for impossible feats of engineering. Some of them are even rented out to the neighbors. Non-magical immigrants are for this reason uncommon.
Politics
There are four tiers of magical orders to be found in the Citadel. The highest and most exclusive rule from the towers directly adjacent to the Omphalos and its great power, and prefer to focus on their research into harnessing its power. They produce wonders, and horrors, the like of which the other orders can scarcely dream of and leverage access to their products in exchange for all the raw materials and necessities they need to otherwise ignore the world around them. They rule no territory beyond the immediate defensible territory around their towers.
The most publicly known of the first tier orders are the
Silver Seekers, an order of masked and robed alchemists who allegedly transfer their souls into golems after completing their apprenticeships. Those few who profess to have seen what they look like under it claim their bodies gleam with an outer coating of precious metals, and that their masters spend their days harnessing the vast might of the Omphalos as fuel for otherwise impossible acts of transmutation. Unique elements with properties not found in nature sometimes find their way into the hands of those who satisfy their eccentric demands.
The second tier consists of those orders who rule from intermediate towers are much more competitive and socially engaged. They maintain territories of varying size and productivity, turning raw materials into reagents and enchanted items and constructing “capacitors” for mana out of metal and stone. The means available to them begins with human and demihuman slaves and goes up to whatever the order can procure through their magic at the time.
Perhaps the most economically active of the second tier orders are the
Scribes of Thoth. Known for their pure white linen robes, their shaved heads, and their Ibis headdresses, the Scribes have harnessed the magical power they claim is inherent in record keeping. By making exacting records of every transaction, every discovery, and every historical event they can they seek to perfect their understanding of the Scroll of Ages, a cosmic record containing all knowledge. There appears to be something to this theory, because through numerological examination of their records and the proper application of mana they can make forecasts of incredible accuracy regarding future events - especially economic ones. They are the go to for anyone looking to figure out which markets to break into, and when. Their ability to call upon the spirits of the dead and bend them to their will is pretty neat, too.
The third tier is made of the militant orders whose towers loom over the peak of the great wall surrounding the Citadel. They are both the most popular and most tedious of magicians, battle mages who specialize in blowing things up and enhancing their own physical abilities to ward off invaders. They also have a surprising aptitude for customs enforcement - if only in the form of opportunistic extortion.
An exception to the normal mold, the
Sidereal Order seek to protect the Citadel of Sorcery by means of advanced divination. More a secret society of mystical intelligence operators than fire-crazy spellswords, the Sidereals are masters of scrying upon past and current events in order to perceive potential threats and investigate conflicts. Other orders are wary of them, as it is not unknown for the militant third tier orders to pull the occasional coup against a second tier one in hopes of gaining access to more mana and research materials. The Sidereal Order reassures its contemporaries that they are more interested in what lies beyond the Citadel’s walls than within.
The fourth tier consists of those magical orders, covens, and individuals who have either not yet acquired a tower of their own, or who have acquired a tower but have not yet secured their hold over it and the surrounding territories. The former are tolerated by the higher tier orders simply because the effort of removing them is too much, or because they can serve as useful test subjects. The latter are looked upon warily as potential rivals, and they see regular efforts to undermine their attempt to join a higher tier with their new acquisition.
Who is the Chief at the head of all this? Their representative is no ruler at all, in truth, but a construct forged from the heart of the Omphalos. None can claim with any credibility to be its creator, but the
Keeper is essentially perfect for the job. It is a shapeshifting paragon of magical communication methods, able to poll representatives from the Citadel's constituent orders at any time on the rare occasions when diplomacy demands collective decision-making. It can withstand artillery fire unscathed, but is otherwise limited to the abilities of an exceptional mortal human. If the Keeper is destroyed, it will reform within the Omphalos within a month's time. In the absence of consensus it will default to whatever decisions will best preserve the Omphalos from total subjugation, and in fact it may well be playing the orders against each other to prevent any one group from having total control.
But that last one's just a conspiracy theory.
