Deep Imaskar

Inheritors of the legacy of the ancient and mysterious Imaskari empire, the modern people of Deep Imaskar live to preserve their history and bloodlines at all costs. Deep Imaskar, a settlement over 4,000 years old, was built to be impenetrable, undetectable, and eternal. It was constructed at the height of Imaskar, and, at first, it served no purpose but to preserve the lore and ways of the Imaskari people.

Since the city's founding, its people have adapted to their unique surroundings. The city, built deep in the Underdark, had limited space in which to grow, so the Imaskari altered its dimensional properties to expand the amount of available room for construction. Lacking any possibility of harvesting resources from the environment, they brought with them magic devices which could generate food and water. To combat the psychological effects of life underground, they altered their society, embracing concepts of asceticism, meditation, and order.

Too few of the Highborn Imaskari came to the city; within a few generations, it became apparent that their bloodline was in jeopardy. The more numerous Mulhorandi had a larger population suitable for breeding, but the Enlightened Ones had to adapt. They began to study the science of genetics, learning, in their own frame of reference, about the nature of heredity. They realized they would have to make up for their relatively small gene pool through artificial means.

Early on, they discovered the secret of cloning; though early experiments had major drawbacks, notably extremely poor health and longevity of clones, the science was later perfected. In short order, the entirety of Highborn Imaskari society became clones. Another adaptation was necessary to prevent runaway population growth. It was forbidden to procreate, except in special circumstances wherein multiple subjects contribute their chromosomes to process for additional genetic distinctiveness.

While the Mulhorandi society below changed, albeit slowly due to limited resources and little need for technological advancement (since their basic needs were automatically provided for), the Highborn society slowed as it approached "perfection", and ultimately became static. For the last 3,000 years, the people of the Upper City have literally been the same 960,799 people, with those who expire for any reason being replaced by a clone. Theirs is a stratified society, wherein every citizen has a distinct rank, and with it a set of rights and responsibilities. Absolute deference is expected from a citizen's lessers, whereas only professional detachment can be expected from one's superior. A Highborn Imaskari does not question the Order, for it is right, and eternal.

In recent times, the Mulhorandi of the Lower City have grown to incredible population, and their technology has advanced far beyond any expectation of their Enlightened overlords. Food, goods, and new construction have become

more and more scarce, causing increased unrest. Even as the ruling councils of the Order consider a policy of culling the population, their entire civilization has come under a startling new threat: a man, claiming to be the emissary of the gods, has begun to demonstrate what seems to be divine magic. He has attracted a major cult following, and represents a dire threat to the Order.

It is into these unsettling circumstances that any visitors to Deep Imaskar delve.

The actual cavern in which Deep Imaskar is built is a near-perfect sphere, far too small to contain the city. This is not to mention the total absence of breathable air, potable water, or soil. The city and its environs are entirely artificial; the very fabric of the Prime Material Plane is altered in the vicinity to produce a livable space.

The city consists of a lower city, that which is built on a solid foundation, and an upper city, which is built on innumerable platforms of force that defy gravity.

The Lower City

The Lower City is built on the lower half of the sphere in a geodesic pattern (specifically, a Rhombic Triacontahedron). The actual foundation is artificial, projected some distance from the actual cavern wall; in the unlikely event that someone tunneled into the cavern, it would be nigh impossible to penetrate the foundation from outside.

Though the actual shape of the lower city is a hemisphere, this has been altered to avoid the inevitable problems that gravity would cause. The magic of the city warps the hemisphere into a flat plane, making the land more comprehensible to human eyes. What's more, though all intersections are either five-way or three-way, all city blocks are square; the dimensional properties are distorted to allow this. It can be disconcerting to one attempting to map the city from the ground level. This magic becomes less potent as one gains altitude, and the true shape of the city can be visualized.

Because of the nature of this shape, strict building codes limit the height of structures based on their location; those closest to intersections are shortest, and those furthest from them are tallest. Because of this, and the tendency of building density to increase over time, the city blocks take on a pyramidal shape.

The environment of the Lower City is complete with artificial sunlight, celestial objects, and weather. For the most part, it matches the desert environment in which old Imaskar was based. In "summer", the days are hot and dry, and the nights are cool. Dusk and dawn are marked by breezes which occasionally carry sandstorms. In "winter", there is more precipitation, marked by a brief rainy season, and temperature variations tend to be more extreme. There are those among the folk of the Lower City who believe that the Enlightened Ones control the weather, and use it to punish or reward them. This is not entirely untrue.

Again, all of these effects fade as one ascends into the Upper City. It can be somewhat unsettling to watch the stars of the night sky resolve into the many sparkling lights on the floating platforms of the Upper City.

When the city was first built, a core was rapidly constructed by the Highborn to house the initial settlers. Its construction was similar to the cities of old Imaskar, mostly small domiciles made of bricks of mud and straw (all fabricated, of course). Large community centers were built of the same cement the Imaskari used to construct pyramids in the old lands.

Over time, the construction came more under the control of the Mulhorandi themselves, who grew their city under the watchful eyes of their Highborn masters. They grew to understand architecture on a level that surprised the Upper City dwellers, building taller and more sophisticated buildings from what materials they could wrangle the ancient fabrication devices to produce.

Today, the Lower City boasts towers hundreds of feet tall, pyramids and other voluminous structures of gigantic proportion, and a well-designed sewer and water delivery network. While the latter development seems unimportant, it was, in fact, an astounding development; prior to the water system, almost 60% of Mulhorandi workers, mostly women and children, were employed as water porters. Within several generations, this enormous portion of the working public found other purpose, jump-starting a massive rise in education, public services, and even leisure time, leading to a significant increase in quality of life.

Despite the many and varied modes of transportation in the Lower City, 97% of all transit is conducted on foot. Most Mulhorandi commute 20 minutes or less to their workplace, since city blocks tend to contain homes, businesses, and services in a small area. Many do not need even set foot outside, since most buildings in a city block are connected through tunnels and bridges.

Other forms of transportation include air skiffs, simple floating platforms in the style of the Upper City which can fly at great speed, and various wheeled vehicles from automated chariots to bicycles. Even palanquins find occasional use among the more old-fashioned folk.

The Upper City

The Upper City is different in almost every possible way from the Lower City. The most obvious difference is the foundation; the Upper City is built upon thousands of platforms of force of every possible size. The platforms defy gravity, and maintain an absolute position, which can be altered at will. The city can be reconfigured, but usually conforms to a static design.

Every single platform in the Upper City has a serial number, which uniquely describes the platform, its purpose, and its location (in various configurations). The platforms themselves are colloquially known as "pods"; the word is used mostly by lower-ranking Highborn and most all Mulhorandi.

The Upper City has a radial pattern, in which the greatest density of buildings lie in the center. At the outer ring of the core are massive residential structure, housing thousands of identical "pods" in which the bulk of the Imaskari Highborn live. Outside of this ring are many large platforms containing vast parks of vegetation and water masses. Beyond that are long tails which spiral away from the center, containing low-density housing for the upper classes of Highborn society.

Commuting is accomplished through a network of modular platforms, each essentially a small, comfortable room, which ferry folk along designated routes to and from the city core. The flying taxis link together automatically, forming trains which undulate through the complex skies of the city core like snakes navigating the surface of a river. Given the rigid daily schedules of the Highborn, it is usual to see a few, well-appointed pods flying in from the outer spiral, joined quickly by a mass of smaller, more uniform pods in the outer habitat ring, which hurtle toward the city core and disintegrate as quickly as they formed, with the original, fancier pods heading straight for the Adminstrative Complex at the highest point of the city center.

The city core makes the greatest use of the third dimension; the taller structures center themselves upon the plane of the Upper City, with the tallest ones toward the center. The city flattens as it extends outward, giving it an appearance, especially at night, not unlike the Milky Way Galaxy.

Mulhorandi (Slaves/Lightless)

The people of the Lower City are the Mulhorandi, descendants of a people who were physically transported from a distant plane shortly before the construction of Deep Imaskar. The term "Mulhorandi" is used only by Faerunian students of Deep Imaskar; it is virtually not known to the city's residents (either race).

In fact, the term is doubly inaccurate, since a significant fraction of the original settlers were, in fact, ethnic Imaskar of the low cities, a race native to Abeir-Toril. The difference between the races is entirely eliminated in the modern age, but traces of the old race still live on. The planar nature of the modern Low City dweller is slightly out of attunement with the Prime; effectively, the Mulhorandi have very mild outsider traits.

The native word for their people is Khemeti, though that word has seen little use until very recently, with the rise of the messianic cult of the Prophet. Even more unknown is the native word for the indigenous people of Imaskar, ''sam-as'sam.

Few in either city refer to them as Citizens. The Lower City folk have taken to calling themselves re'unni'', or "Children of the Sun", and those of the Upper City have begun using more colorful terms to refer to their unenlightened neighbors.

Highborn Imaskari (Enlightened Ones)

Lower City

Upper City

The Highborn live lives of peace and order. A complex legal code governs every aspect of their lives, and they follow it, almost entirely without protest or ill will. Their society is rigidly stratified, with all people assigned a very specific role, with a clear chain of command. What's more, every Highborn Imaskari lives an unlimited number of lives, as his memories are transferred to a clone host upon his death; even death does not change their circumstances.

The code of laws is written in the Lex Principis Aeturnum, a collection of crystals containing the complete legal code of Deep Imaskar, as written by its founding members. The information encoded in the collection of 28 crystals would fill hundreds of volumes, though the ruling council has the ability to read the information in its compressed state. Other citizens trust the interpretation of the council, or that of the lesser-ranked members of the Pillar of Law, since an ordinary citizen could hardly hope to interpret the code.

Mostly, it is irrelevant; the legal code describes every facet of Deep Imaskar, down to how its buildings are constructed, how clothes and food are fabricated, and how people speak to one another. It is the law, the language, the culture, and the way of life of the Highborn; the rare new citizen learns it all in childhood.

The resulting situation is this: the Upper City is divided into seven strata, or "ranks", each with a proscribed number of members. In the unlikely event of a permanent death, a vacant position in the hierarchy is filled by promoting lesser-ranked citizens, and bringing a new citizen into the world at the lowest level. In modern times, this is happening much more often, with racial violence and ethereal invaders wreaking unprecedented havoc on the Upper City's otherwise near-zero rate of unnatural death. Prior to this period, the leading cause of permanent death was genetic failure, something that happens only rarely to the oldest of strains.

Every citizen, save for the Ordinator, also belongs to one of seven Pillars. Each Pillar comprises 1/7th of the total population, and is led by a single member of the Ruling Council. The Pillars are Law (legists), Order (ordinals), Longevity (geneticists), Industry (industrialist), Health (healer), Lore (lorekeepers), and Conservation (conservators). For more on the Pillars, see Pillars of Imaskar.

Government

Laws

The ancient Imaskari Empire once ruled all the lands between the Methwood to the Katakoros Mountains. They were a race that despised all mention of gods and overestimated their own power. This was the essence of their downfall. When the empire of Imaskar fell due to the slave rebellions of the Mulhorandi and Untheric peoples (aided by the incarnations of their gods) a single noble house escaped. A powerful lord by the name of Illphemon abandoned the falling empire, leading his entire house, retinue, and servants into a large cave. After entering he sealed the cave behind them. This began the last great city of the Imaskari. It was he and his apprentice sons who designed and created the epic seal that protects the city. Ilphemon's progeny ruled the city for many centuries as monarchs. However, this began to present a problem. Due to the limited noble blood these rulers became progressively madder as inbreeding became ever more dominant. The people suffered for many years under the mad kings. The city was freed by a woman knows as Chaschara, who instead of claiming the throne, set up a counsel, elected by the people. This counsel established new laws as well as began selective breeding programs to help to try to build a viable population.

The culture of the Deep Imaskari is greatly affected by the idea of genetic heritage. Every person's family tree is closely monitored and breeding is often a matter of state.

Because no true familial bonds are created, the individual feels more responsible to the state than to his or her kin. When a person comes of mating age, he or she is carefully screened for genetic abnormalities. This screening is done through psionic divinatory means, as well as transmutive skin samples which are analyzed in labs. They understand genetics, (cross pairing) but have not yet discovered http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA|DNA.

If a citizen is deemed viable, they are paired with another viable citizen and allowed to copulate. When an embryo is conceived it is carefully removed from the female and grown in an incubation cell. This is to keep every viable citizen in full capacity to work, as well as to remove the pain and inconvenience of childbirth. Every viable citizen is required to mate when called upon by the counsel.

Once every two years those considered non-viable are allowed to compete in a competition which tests both strength of mind, body, and magical prowess. The winners of this completion are then allowed to select a mate from the roster of viable citizens. This, it is hoped, will compensate for any mistakes or oversight by the counsel.

Children are raised communally in schools, where they are taught the values of the state and tested on for psionic power. Teenagers are given entrance exams to see where, as adults, they will be best fit. These communities are the way in which division of labor is regulated. Some examples of this include child care, civil authority, counsel membership, sanitation, etc. This assures that each member of the whole is placed best to benefit society.

The Seal of Deep Imaskar while created by Illphemon, has been maintained by successive generations, even as much of the knowledge of its creation had been lost. The community that maintains the seal is called the Illphemons.

The Seal itself is a circle measuring 2,000 ft in diameter. With Tens of thousands of smaller protective cycles laid over the larger. The wards protect the city from notice and intrusion of the outside world. The most noticeable effect being that it has an overwhelming Suggestion which causes anyone of Faerun (or adjoining plane) who even thinks about the fate of the ancient Imaskar Empire to believe it has been annihilated. Secondly, it casts light which allows for the growth of plants. Although part of the seal has recently been broken allowing a trickle of Imaskari out into the Underdark. It is still very much intact.

Theories abound about how the seal functions. The most popular being that the city itself is in a pocket plane.

The city itself is quite beautiful, meticulously planned and manicured. The citizens are quite fond of gardening especially of hybridizing plants. Strange new species of plants have been developed and flowers of all kinds bloom in abundance. Amongst these exotic plants is the most remarkable plant of all, called the Tree of Life, it is the primary source of water. Its fruit is much like a water balloon, and contains about 8oz of water.

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