Libria – Capital of Hyperion

“Libria, I congralute you.”

Hyperion – Libria

The Roman region of my Campaign Setting, also known as Hyperion, is driven by the pursuit of knowledge. Trying to do everything in their power to make life easier for its inhabitants. Creating a force of magical constructs, who serve both as its military and menial laborers.

It is ruled by a college of scientist, with at its head a ruler called the Overseer. Scientists who believe that knowledge is the highest good and that anything that stands in the way of their pursuit is folly. The “ruling class” speak plain, weighing their words carefully, as not to waste time and mislead.

After they had overthrown the last rulers, squabbling nobles who were only out for power and constantly fighting amongst themselves, the Hyperions built a city as a symbol of their intellectual prowess. This city is Libria. Libria was built at the edge of the world, right near the boundary between this realm and the Eternal realm, the massive void beyond. Its greatest feature is the cities citadel, a true display of both their scientific and magical superiority, as it was built beyond the border between the realms. While two massive chains keep it attached to the mortal realm, one magically infused gemstone keep the entire rock, upon which the citadel is built, afloat in the realm beyond. They appropriately named it: the Eternal Citadel.

The City

Libria was designed as both a city and a university. On the mainland you will find the housing districts, where the “common folk live, and on the connected island are the university districts. Some of which can be visited freely, the ones who are connected by bridges to the mainland, and some are restricted to specific academics. In order to reach these academics are granted magical keystones upon their admission to a university. Upon approaching an access point, with the appropriate keystone in your possession, a magical stone bridge will start to take form in the gap between two access points.

The districts that most people are allowed to visit are affiliated with the university in some form. Like a market district that sells weapons forged by the arcane district, ranging from cheap weapons made by students to expensive weaponry made by professors. An entertainment district, where you can find both expensive and cheap entertainment (Cheap meaning you allow yourself to become subject of a social experiment by students of the social sciences.) A judicial district and a botanical garden.

There are also a couple of isolated islands where you will find more of those arcane gemstones that keep the entire city magically powered.

Intertextuality

Creating something I always tend to reference things that have inspired me. Like the actual shape of the city is based on a caffeine molecule, science, the fuel that keeps me going late at night. The name of the city as a reference to the movie Equilibrium, a movie about exacting control and by trying to eliminate the emotional in favor of the rational. The idea of language as a means of expressing only exact statements comes from Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. References to Artificial Intelligence and the technological advancement in the magical constructs.

I’m interested in providing role-playing challenges for my players. Very different regions where what is praised in one region as a strength, might be seen in another as a weakness. All of these concepts are based on what players chose to focus their strengths and weaknesses on in the abilities of their character. That way their character might feel at home in one region and completely out of place in the next. In Hyperion, for example, people praise intelligence as the highest good and charisma as something corruptible. People who use their words to charm people into trusting them, without any truth to their character. As Socrates put it: “The Fallacy of the Artisans”