City of Ximax: Discussion

Rayne (Alýr)

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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #45 on: 16 January 2010, 12:30:23 »

This is great, Azhira! Do you want me to give you edits, or should I just edit it myself? I don't see anything that requires major changing--most of it looks like small stylistic things.


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Azhira Styralias

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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #46 on: 16 January 2010, 12:35:13 »

Go ahead and edit as you see fit. I'll work on another borough within a day or two. I wanted to make Borough 3 more of a slums as every city has to have at least one. evil


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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #47 on: 16 January 2010, 17:29:56 »

I thought I should let you guys know, classes have started for me, so I'll be getting less active here. But I'll try not to disappear again this time. buck

@Rayne:

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To the northeast, completely outside the city. It probably wouldn't be more than a few minutes walk from the city walls until you hit the ornamental gardens.

But while reading the Academy thread I found this:

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The Academy was originally in the heart of Ximax City, but due to a dangerous explosion, the city was moved northeast of the Academy.

Er...I guess there's a typo in one of them?


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Azhira Styralias

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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #48 on: 16 January 2010, 22:02:16 »

Quote from: Mina on 16 January 2010, 17:29:56

I thought I should let you guys know, classes have started for me, so I'll be getting less active here. But I'll try not to disappear again this time. buck

Please *try* to stick around, Mina. Pop in occasionally (like every day!

) so we know you still love us.


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Rayne (Alýr)

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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #49 on: 17 January 2010, 00:34:45 »

Quote from: Mina on 16 January 2010, 17:29:56

@Rayne:But while reading the Academy thread I found this:Er...I guess there's a typo in one of them?

Ah--I was wrong in describing it. The entry is correct. The Academy is southwest of the city; the city is northeast of the Academy. I was never good at directions. buck

And please stick around, Mina! Perhaps you might even be interested in writing up a borough or two? It would be nice to have you as a contributor in writing!

@Azhira: I've integrated your piece. It looks fantastic, very creative. I love your description of the temple, and you've done a great job at integrating the thief's guild, necromancer's guild, and the temple all together in a coherent way. I look forward to any other boroughs you may write!


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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #50 on: 18 January 2010, 10:38:54 »

I'm going to try to do Outer Burough 4 and Inner Burough 4 (the upper and lower housing districts).

Unless they have already been taken by someone.

Is 'burough' something in the order of suburb?


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Rayne (Alýr)

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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #51 on: 18 January 2010, 10:47:58 »

They have not been claimed, so they are yours to develop.

A borough is sort of like a district in the city. It can be a suburb, I suppose.


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Azhira Styralias

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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #52 on: 18 January 2010, 11:07:12 »

Outer Borough 2

From this borough, known as the Gate Borough, is where most traffic comes in and out of the city. This entrance is popular as it houses many of the establishments that visitors to the city most often require: stables, blacksmiths and general merchandise stores. The Ximaxian Militia keeps a headquarters here with patrols of guards in constant watch over the comings and goings through the gate. Watchtowers rise up on either side of the gate like imposing sentinels ever watching. City guardsmen are housed within the tower at all hours with guards on the ground inspecting and questioning those who come into the city.

The stables are the first structures visitors encounter upon entering the gates. The stables house horses mostly, but also cattle, goats and sheep can be made comfortable in the stables. Caravans and wagons can be made to rest within the city walls near the stables under guard watch. For a modest fee, stable hands can feed and watch over those animals in the stables while their owners do business elsewhere in the city. In addition, blacksmith shops do good business making and repairing goods such as weapons, wagon parts, and horse shoes. General merchandise vendors also find the Gate Borough a thriving place for customers as they advertise their wares to restock travelers and wagons.

The Ximaxian Militia has one of their main headquarters in the Gate Borough and are housed within a temple to the war god Armeros. This deity is known as one of the gods representing fire, warfare, conflict and justice. The temple itself, known as an Armorwain, is a grand structure made of heavy blocks of white marble with four large columns of steel along the north entrance. The Armorwain has a barracks for the Watch officers, an armory, four guard towers on each corner of the building and its own special stables for the Watch horsemen. The Armorwain functions nowadays as a court of justice trying cases and settling disputes within the outer boroughs of the city. Clerics and paladins in service to Armeros guard the temple day and night and are ready at a moment's notice to quell trouble.


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Rayne (Alýr)

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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #53 on: 18 January 2010, 11:45:57 »

This looks great, Azhira! Some little style things I may suggest: did you want me to make those changes for you, or did you want to do them yourself? They're very small, and I don't mind doing them myself--shall we do it like before?


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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #54 on: 18 January 2010, 11:51:41 »

Yup! Feel free. Same as before. heart

Are borough 2 and 3 close to each other? I'd say no, for obvious reasons. Maybe let's place these two sections on opposite sides of the city? lol


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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #55 on: 18 January 2010, 13:56:53 »

We have the Underside adjacent to both the guard borough and the governance borough. We were trying to be ironic/funny. rolleyes

I've changed the name from Gate Borough to Gate Side. Gate Borough sounded a little awkward to me, and while "Gate Side" isn't much better, I think it rolls of the tongue a bit easier. Of course, I'm still very much open to other suggestions!


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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #56 on: 18 January 2010, 20:06:24 »

Hi Ximax-developers!

I have no time to work on this as well, unfortunately, but of course I'm curious and read some randomly chosen pieces.

To your borough, Azhira:

Would people go and bring to bury their dead in such a low district, even if there is the temple of Queprur?

Why is it there?

I think this should be explained shortly. Maybe this part of the town was in former times more respectable, but has degenerated only recently (recently 10 to 200 years) . In addition, people with money , who can afford to pay for it, could have buried their dead privately, in an own place belonging to their estate.

*******
Has the town sewers at all? Strata has sewers due to the fact, that it is build on an older town (it is not really a sewer). Varcopas has some due to the abundance of water, its location near the sea and some clever dwarves. A short research (and what is in my mind from further studies), sewers were not very common. So maybe you have them just in one part maybe?

See here

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Towns were dirty places to live in. There was no sewage system as we would know it today. Many people threw toilet waste into the street along with other rubbish. Rats were very common in towns and cities and lead to the Black Death of 1348 to 1349. Towns might use pigs to eat what rubbish there was. Water was far from clean as a local river would have been polluted with toilet waste thrown into it from villages both upstream and downstream. Therefore, as people would have used this as a source of water (they had no other choice) and because people knew little about health and hygiene, disease was common. Life expectancy could be short. Life for a poor person in a town or city was described as "nasty, brutal and short".

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My two sans to the fortification walls: I think, there are some somewhere (apart from those around the gardens of the academy), maybe in ruins, maybe in an inner part of the town before it expanded. I doubt, that mages are always so strong to be able to defend a not so small town, so at some point in history, citizens might have wanted one.


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Rayne (Alýr)

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Re: City of Ximax: Discussion

« Reply #57 on: 19 January 2010, 01:21:34 »

In order to cause less stress and running around for Azhira, who I know is busy with the north, let me come to the defense of her borough:

1) The dead are not burried in the district.

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Inside, the clerics prepare corpses for burial, and inter them behind the borough walls in the massive city cemetery known as the "Cold Ground.”

Perhaps we will have a separate section of the city to elaborate on those things outside of the city walls, like tanneries, cemeteries, etc.

I would also think that the cemetery you would find all sorts of graves, but also several mausoleums or tombs built on perhaps the outskirts of the cemetery. This would be where the wealthy would burry their dead. However, this is all still outside the city, not in the borough itself.

2) Sewage: let's keep in mind that we have something of a magical city.

While I'm not sure the citizens of the city would necessarily be able to trade in their chamber pots, it's good to keep in mind that the City kind of has the magi of Ximax under her thumb. The Academy has a sewer system, designed and maintained by the water magi. No, the city will not have one of quite the same sophistication, but I don't think we should write off their influence so quickly.

And sewage might be described elsewhere, if at all. Is it important to elaborate on the sewer system? Have other cities done so?

3) I'm still brainstorming the idea, but I think perhaps it may end up being required for the magi of Academy to spend some part of their training in defense of the city (or other cities nearby) for a year or two. Therefore, I think that Ximax would always be fairly guarded. Also, Ximax isn't really in much danger, I think. Not only are there some of the most powerful magi in Caelereth RIGHT there, but we'er also in the Kingdom of Santharia! How likely is a war?