So I apologize for not having read the full forum – I’m a relatively recent player of the game (to give some context, I’m in the latter stages of exploring the Forgotten Quarter and just gained access to the Shuttered Palace), so I’ve only skimmed over many of the posts in order to avoid spoilers. So apologies if I miss critical clues that show up later, or if I repeat something that’s already been beaten to death.
I very much agree with OScarletO – London in the late 19th century was less a capital of a military empire and more the capital of a commercial empire. The centrality of the Bazaar and the role of the Masters as industrial age monopolists cum pagan gods in London should drive this point home. The key points for stolen cities to me should be:
- Commercial capitals of the world at that time – the Royal Exchange ruled the global economy as it existed in the 19th century.
- Among largest cities in the world (if not the largets) – More on this later, but London, at 3 million people, was bigger than any other city at the time.
- Cosmopolitan – London in 1860 was home to Irish, Chinese, Indian, and Jewish immigrant communities, in addition to the in-migrants from the countryside. In addition to those who lived there, the boat and train traffic brought an immense number of visitors to the city.
- At the peak of its glory – London remained a world capital for the next half century, but one could easily argue that 1860 was midsummer for London.
With that…
The Fifth City –
Obviously, it’s London, but a bit more than that. It’s likely blatantly obvious that the Traitor Empress is Queen Victoria, and that the price for the city was Hesperidian Cider for Prince Albert, who in real history died of typhoid in 1861, after which Victoria went into a period of immense grief that abated somewhat but generally persisted her whole life. I think if the real Queen Victoria could have sent London a mile beneath the earth to save Prince Albert’s life, she would have considered it.
The Fourth City –
As I said, I’m less far into the game than many of you, but the arguments for Xanadu over Karakorum make little sense to me. Xanadu, from what I’ve read, was more of a summer capital and almost a state retreat, a bit like Versailles, whereas Karakorum was the thriving center of the Mongol empire. (Also, the silver tree fountain should ice it, IMO.) I’d speculate that within the game, Kublai Kahn sells Karakorum to the Bazaar and moves the full capital to Xanadu, but like Amarna, it doesn’t stay there long. In any case, Karakorum was a highly cosmopolitan city (Ghengis Kahn went out of his way to make sure that all religions were welcomed, and maintained various quarters of the city for different populations). It was rolling in wealth, much of which derived from the Mongol Empire’s ability to connect the trade centers of Han China, Eastern Europe, and the Near East. I feel like so many bricks are laid out by the game, this one’s a no-brainer. Yes, by my own criteria, it was not that large a city, but the city is quite evidently Mongol, and none of the central Mongol cities were large. If there is an alternative, for my money it’s Dadu, on the site of modern Beijing (in fact, as I research writing this, I’m starting to lean that way a bit).
Besides, we have from the Forgotten Quarter the terrified temple denizens cowering in fear in “the last days of the Third City,” which doesn’t sound much like a relocation of the capital. Karakorum, in contrast, was sacked and violently destroyed in 1370, two years after the palaces in Dadu were razed by Ming forces, as the last days of the Mongol Yuan Empire faded and were replaced by the Ming Dynasty. What else happens in 1370? Let’s just say a certain widow mysteriously went missing, with rumors that her child went on to become the second Ming Emperor. Not a bad trade for a city.
The Third City –
Yes, I know the Third City “had five wells,” and Hopelchen means “city of five wells.” Yay, Hopelchen! There’s just one problem – Hopelchen is the modern name for a town of 7k people and a municipality of about 30k. Yes, the plentiful cenotes in the area probably give the village of Hopelchen its name. There’s just one very major problem – there’s no history, ruins, or other indications of any major city near Hopelchen village or in Hopelchen municipality. There are some very minor ones, but they’re generally a minor temple or pyramid, not one of the major cities of the area. The closest you get is the famous Chichen Itza ruins, but that site has another major problem. It has very well know, well documented cenotes – exactly two of them. If “five wells” were a bit of a red herring to throw everyone off, it wouldn’t be alone – there’s also the “writing system of beads on a string” which of course sound a lot like Quipu, the Incan number system of knots. (Just for the record, the peak of Incan civilization is very much in the wrong time.)
There are, however, a few cities that might fit the bill.
Teotihuacan – The collapse comes maybe 100-200 years earlier than the “1000 years ago” clue we’re given, but the city was the first truly dominant multi-ethnic city with massive trade, administrative, and religious complexes in the region, and was reportedly the largest city in the world at that time. No other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican city reaches its size. The pantheon is particularly appealing (For instance I’d equate the Great Goddess with Mr. Veils and Isis, but more on that later). It has the additional “feature” of experiencing a catastrophic collapse between 650-750, going from the pinnacle of Mesoamerican civilization to a backwater in less than a century. This is easily my #1 choice, which was originally tempered by the theory that there were no major writing systems in Teotihuacan, but I’ve since found articles claiming that the pictographs around the site actually represent glyphs that anticipate the more sophisticated Mayan systems that follow. No word about five wells, but there’s a massive tunnel network underneath the city that includes some underground springs (can’t find how many). Teotihuacan is a later name for the place, meaning “birthplace of the gods.”
Tikal – The most dominant of the Classical Mayan cities, and the only one to approach Teotihuacan in population, reaching around 100k. It grows for 1000 years and becomes a center of learning and culture, but falls in the 9th century as part of the Classical Mayan Collapse. The Mayan cultures have the neat feature of revering the jaguar and having some sort of jaguar god or priesthood (hellooooo Dutchess!), but aside from importance, Tikal doesn’t have much that matches the third city. It did have a specific number of reservoirs surrounding the city. Ten of them.
Calakmul – The rival city to Tikal, about half its size, and eventually overwhelmed. All the same things as Tikal, just half as much. Including the number of major reservoirs – 5. (!!!) Yeah, I know, but I still have trouble seeing the Masters taking a second fiddle city, or Failbetter Games picking it out of the numerous other great candidates in the area.
Others, including Coba, Monte Alban, and Chichen Itza, just fall way too late.
The Second City –
Amarna is tempting, but it was just the in existence for the period of one single Pharaoh, after which it was abandoned. Furthermore, if the First City truly was “young when Babylon fell,” we have a very tight chronology. While Babylon bounced back a number of times, usually I see the “sack of Babylon” refer to the end of the Amorite period, which puts it around 1500 BCE. If the First City was young then, that doesn’t give much time for it to get a bit older, get stolen, then for them to come back around for Amarna in 1330 BCE or so.
All that said, I can’t exactly say why, but all the stuff I see gives me the feeling of Upper Egypt, not Lower Egypt, so if not Amarna, I’m much happier to go with the dominant city of middle and late period Egypt, Thebes. We have a massively wealthy, diverse city with a complex pantheon, and a definitive sack date of 661 by Assurbanapel. I haven’t found much to go on here, but between Amarna and Thebes, Thebes would be far and away the more tempting buy for the Masters, with its superior wealth and millennia of royal history. As for being close to the entrance to Hell, the Valley of the Kings is right around the corner.
The First City –
I’ve been working on this too long, so I’ll just point to my favorite candidate – Gezer (Gezer - Wikipedia)