Crowdsourcing the City of Wonders

[Martin]

Would anyone  care to share or speculate on details of the places  in the City of Wonders before it sank under the Mirrorsea Bay.

Has anyone run a game where people visited here or plundered it with Harrek?

What cool and weird things are there? 

What strange and fabulous plunder did they steal?

Edited April 17, 2019 by Martin

[7Tigers]

You have the "When the Wolf Pirates Came to the City of Wonders" by Phillis Ann Karr in "Gloranthan Visions", a collection of Gloranthan short tales that was part of Hero Wars: Roleplaying in Glorantha boxed set.
Perhaps it will be reprinted in future to come Glorantha fiction line...

 

[Martin]

yes i have that thank you

[metcalph]

43 minutes ago, Martin said:

Would anyone  care to share or speculate on details of the places  in the City of Wonders before it sank under the Mirrorsea Bay.

Has anyone run a game where people visited here or plundered it with Harrek?

What cool and weird things are there? 

What strange and fabulous plunder did they steal?

The following is from the Guide:

Quote

The city is visible, but encased under
a transparent globe of power, and only its
largest landmarks are discernible. The Towers
of Water, which are one end of a magical
underseas walkway, appear to be blue or
silver to unaided vision. The Golden Dome
used to glow, but is dark now, and looks like
tarnished gold. The Whirlwind Bowl is empty
now, and no contests fill it with cheering
spectators. The sinuous, rolling buildings of
the Stygian Basement show nothing but the
usual shadows which haunt its upper surface.
The rest, once alive with lights and sounds,
is a wide expanse of low buildings broken
by architectural oddities, all of the same dull
stone, apparently abandoned.

Some residents continue their life,
apparently undisturbed by the absence of
Belintar. Some of the residents include the
Innocents’ Band, the Sisters of Freedom and
Liberation, the Constant Guard, the Silver
Dog, the Red Shift Servants (although the
other shifts have all gone), and the Fleet of
Blind Fishermen.

Twelve people can gain access to the City
of Wonders: six rulers of the inhabitants and
six rulers of the magic of the lands around
the City of Wonders.

p251

 

 

[Martin]

yep got that too Peter :) , what i am looking to do is detail the places and wonders

[7Tigers]

For some non canonical info by Eliane Jaulmes and Philippe Sigaud:
The City of Wonders in the Kethaelan government:
http://kethaela.en.free.fr/index.php?phase=display_article&style=3&article=249
Key political figures in the City of Wonders:
http://kethaela.en.free.fr/index.php?phase=display_article&style=3&article=252

 

[Martin]

3 hours ago, 7Tigers said:

For some non canonical info by Eliane Jaulmes and Philippe Sigaud:
The City of Wonders in the Kethaelan government:
http://kethaela.en.free.fr/index.php?phase=display_article&style=3&article=249
Key political figures in the City of Wonders:
http://kethaela.en.free.fr/index.php?phase=display_article&style=3&article=252

 

thank you I have those too :)

[Wrestlepig]

One thing I'd associate with the City of Wonders would be Luck, since Belintar was big on that rune. Have it as a somewhat-otherworld place where stores have just what you need, you keep finding coins in the gutter. However, the more ruined the district, the more Bad Luck can be a factor as well.

[metcalph]

The City of Wonders could be laid out like Belintar himself.  Not in the sense of the Man Rune but from the Prince of Sartar webzine

 

[David Scott]

Greg drew sketched two maps of the City of Wonders (maybe more?) I received them in the early 90s. Both were very different, but both were hex based in their shape. One just a single hexagon, the other six hexagons surrounding central hex. They were part of his Epic system playtest where you got to visit the city of Wonders with Tarkalor.

The seven hex map is more complicated. 13 horizontal streets and 13 +/-2 vertical avenues. Many streets are named Hell, Bison, Deer, Horse, Lion, Potters, Sherman, Rory's, Ken, Hal's, also an East and West Boulevard in the centre and Engine wall the most southerly. Avenues are named Gold, Dave, Ray, Tom, Charlie. One of the avenues is street of Wonders with Theatre of Drama, Little Zoo, with a market and fish market at either end. Four diagonal boulevards, converge on the hexagonal towered court (open space) in the centre which has a hexagonal building in the centre. The boulevards are Corn,  Skull, Fleet and Sea (magic aqueduct). Other features are The Castle, university, Justice Hill, High appartments, underground temple, sea temple, earth temple, garden, rich market, navy market, guano beach, docks and warehouses, tricksters theatre, bill's bar, garrison. 7 spires is just off the coast. This very clearly a map that has been used and annotated for adventures.

The single hex map is made up of slightly more water than land. City blocks are made up of poor, fair and best part of town. Labelled areas are the Sea Bazaar, Sailors Market, Fish Market, Temple to the sea, Warehouses, Imperial Fleet yards, docks and warehouses (walled), separate warehouse district. The water section has undersea triolini structures and an underwater drill field. Rising up from the Triolini area is Seven Spires alongside which the Royal Barge is anchored. The two sea hex corners are water towers which appear to allow sea creatures to use the towers as lookouts as they are filled with water. This to me is clearly the second map. redrawn to be more sensible.

I would imagine that any modern version of this would look a bit different, but is more likely to follow the second outline.

All of this is moot as Harrek destroyed the City of Wonders, its ruins for ever sealed.

[Job]

7 hours ago, David Scott said:

Greg drew sketched two maps of the City of Wonders (maybe more?) I received them in the early 90s. Both were very different, but both were hex based in their shape. One just a single hexagon, the other six hexagons surrounding central hex. They were part of his Epic system playtest where you got to visit the city of Wonders with Tarkalor.

The seven hex map is more complicated. 13 horizontal streets and 13 +/-2 vertical avenues. Many streets are named Hell, Bison, Deer, Horse, Lion, Potters, Sherman, Rory's, Ken, Hal's, also an East and West Boulevard in the centre and Engine wall the most southerly. Avenues are named Gold, Dave, Ray, Tom, Charlie. One of the avenues is street of Wonders with Theatre of Drama, Little Zoo, with a market and fish market at either end. Four diagonal boulevards, converge on the hexagonal towered court (open space) in the centre which has a hexagonal building in the centre. The boulevards are Corn,  Skull, Fleet and Sea (magic aqueduct). Other features are The Castle, university, Justice Hill, High appartments, underground temple, sea temple, earth temple, garden, rich market, navy market, guano beach, docks and warehouses, tricksters theatre, bill's bar, garrison. 7 spires is just off the coast. This very clearly a map that has been used and annotated for adventures.

The single hex map is made up of slightly more water than land. City blocks are made up of poor, fair and best part of town. Labelled areas are the Sea Bazaar, Sailors Market, Fish Market, Temple to the sea, Warehouses, Imperial Fleet yards, docks and warehouses (walled), separate warehouse district. The water section has undersea triolini structures and an underwater drill field. Rising up from the Triolini area is Seven Spires alongside which the Royal Barge is anchored. The two sea hex corners are water towers which appear to allow sea creatures to use the towers as lookouts as they are filled with water. This to me is clearly the second map. redrawn to be more sensible.

I would imagine that any modern version of this would look a bit different, but is more likely to follow the second outline.

All of this is moot as Harrek destroyed the City of Wonders, its ruins for ever sealed.

Are you willing to share a higher resolution map? These maps are a tad small.

Edited April 18, 2019 by Job

[jeffjerwin]

There's the whole question of the Lhankor Mhy library and whether Loon or Dream Island was connected to the guy. After all that was where he consummated his relationship with Elasa.

There is thus a pre-Belintar stratum of sacredness to waterfowl, mystical truth, and dreams.

I suspect Loons are illuminated Keets, of course.

[David Scott]

9 hours ago, Job said:

Are you willing to share a higher resolution map?

The original distribution forbade it. These are small images for the purpose of illustration.