Going Green, Fantasy Style

[Orc Knight]

(Or the Urban Jungle, literally)

Not sure how to start this, but it is about infrastructure. Sort of. When building massive cities for Fantasy and Role Play and you have a bunch of natural leaning sorts, the question is, how does one manage all that ugly stuff that comes with simply keeping it up and alternate power sources unlike the real world. From dwarves tapping into the geothermal and steam, which seems pretty common now, to elves using the forest to both build in and feed their enemies to in the cycle of life.

As the city is in it's own way an ecosystem, what happens when you combine them all? My own most common way is an entire swampy sewer system of sorts (even in my non-magic fantasy) with an entire ecosystem to clean and filter the water and to keep the city fed in times of need with plenty of animals (not just rats and yes, sometimes crocodiles and alligators) to hunt or farm for the people who live within them. Tree's not just for looks but for keeping the air good and the locals being able to live on them and providing alternate roads and routes then just what's on the ground. And if they are fruit and nut bearing, a crop every harvest. An entire city with solar power gathered by plants that have been bred to be phosphorus and glow at night for the night pollinators. Animals and beasts used to keep the streets cleaned and the more natural predatory races to keep certain prey animals in check that inevitably come with the city.

And if the city also happens to be a Genius Loci, it could in essence, use it's very nature to keep itself going. A natural city, of sorts, that knows it's own wants and needs. Just idea's of sorts, though some I use, obviously. Any other idea's for these sorts of cities?

 

[Scribble]

This is a very interesting idea!

Equilibrium is essential. How does the city react to what it might perceive as an attack? Interestingly, what would it do if it perceived that a certain segment of the population posed that threat?

Climate stability is essential. What happens if outside forces threaten the balance? Is this a city in a giant glass ball? What if it decided to seal itself off from the world? What of the people inside?

Write this world please, I want to read it

 

[Orc Knight]

I've actually wrote the world. Or more, in the process of writing and working on it. Given the amount of magic in the world and the interaction of the natural world and civilization often collide, so they have to cooperate. I'll start hitting the questions next.

1. Several of the cities in question have been under actual attacks and can call on an array of natural defenses. From vines and tree's growing exceptionally to protect buildings to setting loose the sewer predators and other predators loose upon those who make it into the cities. Dryads and the like often uproot the tree's and reform them to bodies to move for more defensible positions and nymphs and their like can be used as fire brigades. The actual Genius Loci city, the Emerald Green, actually moves itself when in danger, be it deeper in the jungle or further up and down the river it's on. Others like Val Royale have other protections like the ocean itself and actual krakens.

2. Unfortunately, there's always portions of the cities that are considered a threat. Most the time, it's a matter of letting nature work itself out. Even in a Slum Lord fight. As long as a sort of balance is kept, the cities are usually fine with it.

3. They've all survived the worst sort of unbalance, with actual undead not only upsetting the balance, but before that a decade of winter and a decade of summer. It eventually get's righted, as nature tends to do.

4. No.

5 & 6. Turn once again to the Emerald Green, which does seal itself off from time to time, but it's buried so deep in the jungle that it's hard to find. Mostly if the trolls and the city want to be left alone, it seals up it's borders, moves itself and then settles elsewhere. Which makes it incredibly annoying if you borrowed a book from it's library and you want to get it back. The people inside live on as the city does it's best to provide for them.

Feel free to ask more if this doesn't cover it.