SETTING - Dorchacht

[moustre]

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AEFENGLOM | DORCHACHT | NORTHERN OUTPOST | THE UNDERGROUND Dorchacht Formerly "The Black City" Teleporter Waypoint: From Aefenglom's Coven to Dorchacht's Coven and vice versa. Status: Unrestricted. Instant travel is permitted freely between Aefenglom and Dorchacht for all citizens and Mirrorbound. The City Surrounded by a deep river-fed moat and then a massive onyx wall, dotted along its length with small slit windows for archers, the city of Dorchacht was built similar to a fortress. Both to keep the Cwyld out, and to keep its people in. One massive door grants entry into a city that could, on a good day, be described as dreary, with barred windows and wards and reinforcements engraved into every door and along the insides of the walls themselves. Of course, that was before the uprising of Septeril (OOC Date: September 2019). These days, Dorchacht is less gloomy. The bars have been removed from windows and doors, opening up the city and its people to happier days. The control runes on the walls and buildings have been scrubbed clean. The architecture remains bland and utilitarian, but shows many more signs of decoration and frivolity - window flower boxes are highly popular, along with wreaths and banners containing the triple stars of the Resistance. While many buildings were burned down in the uprising, most have been rebuilt stronger and more aesthetically pleasing, with more of an eye toward pleasant living and dispelling the dreariness. One can find radios in every home and business, near about, and while they used to play enchanted lullabies meant to calm and subdue, now they play a variety of music, much of it inspired by trends in Aefenglom and trends put forth by Mirrorbound, only pulling out milder magical lullabies at night and during the full moons. The cuisine is still somewhat bland and practical, but shows more variety as trade and agriculture improve. Many more frivolous items are imported from Aefenglom, and tentatively from elsewhere on the continent. Meat is uncommon and more expensive but as livestock grows healthier and easier to keep, it may become a bigger thing in the future. Sweet pastries are a huge hit with the people, and a few new patisseries have popped up in the year since the uprising, along with many more small businesses as freed Monsters try to make their livings. Currently, Dorchacht is ruled by three prominent members of the Rebellion, who lead the new Coven of Dorchacht - two Witches named Bryn and Hilda, and Morgana's formerly enslaved Bonded, a fearsome black Dragon she called Fafnir, but whose name used to be something else entirely. The Dragon is widely regarded in Dorchacht as a symbol for how they broke free of Morgana's control and how they suffered for it, losing their voice for quite some time, though according to most, their voice is returning as their body heals. Staunchly allied with Aefenglom and the Mirrorbound, their Coven has been forged anew, the Witches of it vetted. ▪ The New Coven The New Coven is located in a repurposed mansion seized from one of Morgana's people - perhaps even Morgana herself. Large and spacious, with an actual yard, this is where Witches learn practical forms of magic (mind control magic is no longer taught, and one can be punished or permanently barred from the city for practicing it outside of specific approved circumstances), and Monsters can come to learn to control their instincts. Several rooms of the mansion are dedicated to different parts of Coven business, including a sparse library that contains the little they managed to salvage. The New Coven building also contains the teleporter device in the main foyer. ▪ The Old Coven The Old Coven is a much larger, grander compound, but now is burnt out and in ruin. A few Witches maintain it to some extent, but much of the destruction it suffered has been left. This compound now serves as a museum and a place to remember the fallen Witches and Monsters of the Resistance - plaques engraved with names are placed all over its halls and rooms where freedom fighters died. Anything that speaks to the old Coven's knowledge that could be salvaged - books, artifacts, etc. - have been removed. ▪ Orphan Row Once the main blocks where orphanages served as cover for hellish breeding houses, Orphan Row has been torn down and rebuilt kinder, friendlier, and overall a more pleasant place to be, even compared to Aefenglom's orphanages. Parentless young Monsters and humans both live in the new group homes and attend small schools set up wherever the space can be found. Many of the buildings even share a new playground. Caretakers can often be seen taking the kids for trips around the city, exposing them to the new Dorchacht as it changes and grows with the intent to prepare them for lives of freedom, where they can truly be and do whatever they want. There is also a concentrated effort to have the kids adopted out to newly forming families around the city. ▪ The Slum The darkest corner of Dorchacht, the slum is a set of adjacent neighborhoods tucked into a back corner of the city, up against a section of the wall where the mind control runes remain. They are rarely used, but remain as a precaution in case of a violent uprising from the people within. The whole section is cordoned off with wards and guarded 24/7 by members of the Resistance, though citizens in good standing may come and go if they consent to being monitored. In a sense, it's a lighter security prison. The people within do not lack for the necessities and are allowed visitors, but they aren't allowed as much freedom as the rest of Dorchacht. This is because this section is where the remaining loyalists to Morgana Drummond, those who want to return to the old ways of Monster slavery and Witch superiority, are forced to make their homes. Many have committed serious or violent crimes against fellow citizens as well. History Dorchacht was once known as The Black City outside its imposing walls. Its known history is very short; the former ruler, a powerful Witch called Morgana Drummond, erased all records of the city before her, and used powerful forbidden magic to remove any memories of before or elsewhere from the citizens' minds. Under Drummond, Dorchacht was blanketed with a thick fog that blocked out the light of the twin moons - and the light of the sun, covering Dorchacht in a perpetual, foggy dreariness and oppressive atmosphere. Under Drummond, Monsters were seen as dangerous and inferior beings, and kept collared, leashed, and shackled by human or Witch 'Masters'. Magical mind control and compulsion methods were widely used to keep the Monster population docile and brainwashed, obedient, so they could be bought and sold like property. Drummond's Coven of Witches kept the human citizens in line as well, so most went along with her cruelty, lest they be whisked off to be executed or experimented upon like many Monsters were. Dorchacht was Morgana Drummond's dark utopia, ruled wholly by her iron fist. Dorchacht pre-revolt, under the rule of Morgana Drummond. The people of Dorchacht were not all complicit in Drummond's horrors. A Resistance whose members marked themselves with three stars operated in secret, in the city's sewers, for years before Mirrorbound ever learned of Dorchacht's existence, freeing Monsters from auctions, dispelling mind control runes with graffiti, and building networks of escape routes for those who found trouble with Morgana's people. When Mirrorbound came as dignitaries in Septeril, following a shared dream that left many Dorchacht citizens in strange comas, those who came in secret as spies and saboteurs began a violent revolt that helped to distract Drummond and tip the scales in favor of the Resistance. While the Mirrorbound could not stay to witness the end of the fighting, the tales are widespread and easy to hear in the city itself these days: the fighters drove Morgana Drummond and some of her supporters out through the gate into the Wilde, and seized the city for themselves, liberating Monsterkind from their shackles and humans from their fear. With Morgana's rule behind them and the reign of the Circle of Three begun, Dorchacht is growing and beginning to prosper with its people freed. The fog is gone, allowing Monsters to go through the natural lunar cycle as those in Aefenglom do. The mind control runes have been scrubbed from the walls and replaced with more normal wards against Cwyld. Bars and chains have been removed from windows and doors. The triple stars of the Rebellion are everywhere, worn openly on clothing or painted on signs and buildings. There are efforts put toward proper education, agricultural independence, trade with others, developing a culture of their own, and exploration into the Wilde. Of course, Dorchacht is still no utopia. While many of Morgana Drummond's followers died in the fighting, and some left with her, there are those who still prefer the Old Ways, who maintain that humans and Witches are superior beings and Monsters are dangerous if left unchecked. Those who express these views openly and cause trouble are often shunted away to a poorly kept, barricaded corner of the city where the control wards have been left on the wall, and are used sparingly. Guards man the barricades constantly, and contact between the people housed in this slum and those outside it is monitored. Some punishments for certain criminals may still be considered draconian: hands chopped off, tongues excised, all to ensure that those who approved of Drummond's horrors can never be a danger to the city's Monsters again. Dorchacht was never built on peace, but they show progress toward it.