The city was forged on the back of a giant crab. They manipulated the beast to scuttle along the coast. The city traded and thrived. Many years passed and the crab died. The city fell to ruin and the people diminished. But now it moves again with eyes of glass and mandibles of steel. The hulking beast’s lights come on the horizon once more. It will not fall again. It is hungry.
[Honestly I wrote this after seeing the concept art for sunless sea’s Hideaway/ the Tumtem, without any context (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CupGmdsWcAAC0rD.jpg). I know now about the Hideaway/ Tumtem storyline which is great in it’s own right. But I wanted to think more about my concept for the crab city and what happened there. I’m also open to names. Crab city or ocean city or steam crab city just feel too blunt and obvious, so more poetic suggestions in line with the Fallen london style would be appreciated.]
edited by Matt Riddell on 10/13/2017
The Risen-Shell
When Tumtem perished, Hideaway should have become a ghost town. Instead, it has been transformed. Bone Men from the Chelonate carved and worked the crustacean’s flesh, while industrialists from the Iron Republic designed horrible machinery of chitin and bronze. Once, Hideaway roamed the zee-floor, trading with the ports it chanced to pass. Now the Risen-Shell stalks the deep, exacting tribute from the unlucky cities in its path. Bold or foolish zee-captains are permitted to dock at the sprawling fortress atop the carapace, but may not set foot off their ships without a bribe for the shell-pirates. Earn their trust through service and loyalty, or their respect through bravado and force, and you may even be permitted into the secretive undercity which lies within the shell. Will you seek to profit from the Risen-Shell’s banditry? Tip the balance of power between the bone-men and the industrialists? Put a blemmigan ashore?
[I like the sound of karkinos. Cancer got me thinking though. A group of crabs is a cast or a consortium. What about The Cancertium? Is that a bit on the nose?maybe Karkitorium, Carcinostrum? I do like the Risen-Shell as a casual unofficial name. Just how the zailors or inhabitants refer to it.]
[quote=Matt Riddell][I like the sound of karkinos. Cancer got me thinking though. A group of crabs is a cast or a consortium. What about The Cancertium? Is that a bit on the nose?maybe Karkitorium, Carcinostrum? I do like the Risen-Shell as a casual unofficial name. Just how the zailors or inhabitants refer to it.][/quote]Karkinos is definitely a good name for a fortress-town. The Risen-Shell could refer to the crab as a whole, with Karkinos built atop and into its shell. Like how the station at the Grand Geode is officially called Zelo’s Town, and the two names are mostly interchangeable.
Consortium feels better suited for a group of people than for a physical location. Perhaps the governing body of Karkinos refers to itself as the Chitin-Consortium. There, the bone-men, industrialists, and pirate warlords hold their court, each faction grasping for leverage over the others.
