Songbell Summary

Apr 28, 201816 min read

Deviation Actions

Anniverse

rollingpoly

Published: Apr 28, 2018

1.2K Views

🕭A city named for the carillon topping the castle at its center.🕭

🕭Background🕭

Originally the capital of the Ayarana Kingdom, Songbell, known at the time as Sasaka City, led a small human empire. Behind its walls lay a mecca for all things innovation and engineering. Despite its prosperity and wealth of knowledge at the time though, it was devastated by an unknown disaster, the details of which have been lost to the sands of time, destroying most of the town and the last of the royal family.

Cutting off the main city and their main source of information, the rest of the empire eventually fell to invading forces, emboldened by the fall of the capital city, thought to be totally destroyed beyond worth of even pillaging. Miraculously, among all the rubble, the castle and its automated carillon remained standing. Its automated bells chiming at daybreak gave hope to the survivors, who reconstructed the wall and used whatever materials were left to rebuild from the city center outward. They never made it to their original size though, and so the now-renamed city is separated from the outer walls by vast fields.

Today, they have become a trading hub, primarily due to their ability to recycle and upcycle various materials to create new items from junk, and were one of the earlier human settlements to make "peace" with Annies. (They aren't at war, and both roam the city, but there's still some tension at times.) It helps that those who need something made or fixed can typically find someone for the job if they look hard enough.

Oddly enough, they largely escaped the direct effects of the meteor shower, but suffered a minor food shortage from the decrease in trade that followed the destruction of other towns that they have since recovered from. Occasionally, they send recollection parties to the ruins to collect usable materials that they can recycle to create more items at home. Sometimes, researchers from the university or other towns will follow in hopes that they'll happen upon some great discovery among the ruins, or just to help with the recycling process.

🕭Temp & Climate🕭

There is a very moderate climate in Songbell, with an average yearly temperature of 22.372°C. It gets occasional snowfall in Winter, although it usually doesn't amount to too much.

🕭Flora & Fauna🕭

Inside the walls, the fields are mostly populated with a sort of grass, with the inner city mostly being populated by Maple and Oak trees of various kinds. They also grow a lot of wheat in the farms, and whatever vegetables happen to strike the town's fancy that year. (They often keep all crops necessary for pasta and marinara sauce around.) Residents often import various plants for their own use, and there's a famous "Sakuya Garden" just outside the city.

Most animals in the city are raised in captivity, such as cows, chickens, house cats, dogs, and so on. Various species of birds (mostly pigeons), insects, squirrels, mice, and feral cats roam the city proper, and the farmers tend to chase them back in if they go after their crops. The river running through a portion of the town generally uses gates to keep aquatic lives out of the city's systems.

🕭Location🕭

In the plains to the west of Asterglean. A river splits into the town. Verletzen is a few days further westward.

🕭Special Occasions🕭

Rebirth in Song Festival
Celebrates the re-naming/reconstruction of the town for two days. Unrestrained partying.
All employers must allow their employees to take a day off during at least one of these days.

Junior Mech-Meister Competition
For students of all ages.
Participants separated into grade brackets are assigned a task and have to build a machine that can complete it.
Prizes are usually academic in nature (eg. scholarships).

Mech-Meister Competition
Open to everyone. Periodically held, typically with a much more difficult challenge the town is trying to solve.
Often has a cash prize.

MechanArts Showcase
A day where people show off mechanical creations focused more on looks than functionality.
People can use tally sheets to vote for a particular creation, and prizes are distributed to participants.

Graduation Week
All schools graduate during this week, including the college.
No two ceremonies are allowed to be held at the same time so everyone can attend any ceremony they wish.

🕭Architecture & Buildings of Interest🕭

Most of the houses look like DIY projects, thrown together from whatever was around. Despite their exteriors, houses tend to have separate rooms for everything, including a separate bathroom. Each house tends to have some form of workshop corresponding to whatever the resident does. Each house receives heat (via magic) and water from a central system managed by the town. Houses built for temporary residents tend to be built in Victorian fashion.

Architecture varies; Some of the outermost buildings are Victorian, the few surviving buildings are a mashup of medieval and Gothic Cathedral, and most of the city looks more or less like a DIY project. Buildings may be made out of varying combinations of stone, wood, and metal. The city grew radially during reconstruction. It currently has enough buildings for 5 times its population. Occasionally, you'll come across open "courts" where you commonly find small gatherings occurring.

Castle of Smiths / Angel Bells Carillon
Main government building / the carillon the city is named for.

Perimeter Wall
Wall covering Songbell's border, separated from the city by a substantial stretch of field.

Cogmate University / Cosmos Spyglass / Shaft Library
Multi-disciplined higher-learning facility and research centre / observatory with rotating telescope located in the outskirt fields to avoid the city lights/
multi-leveled, multi-purpose, multi-genre library extending underground.

Grand Skybridge Airport
Omnidirectional launching / landing platform for airships.

"BuyBuddy" Commons Exchange
Tracks exchange rates and prices for the town, and provides services to resolve economic disputes.

Odd Jobs Inn
Want-ad centre and short-term hotel. Frequented by passerbys looking for some quick cash.

Innovation Arena
An arena built like a reverse-bunker where people can test more volatile creations.
Rarely used for actual public events (though equipped for such things).

Merchant's Corridor
Flea market for traveling merchants. Permanent residents are encouraged to just rent storefronts instead.

Warehouse Corridor / Cold Storage Building
Group of buildings with various sizes of lock boxes available for rent.
One uses magic pumps and water to provide refrigeration for frozen items.

Snow Angel Ice Cream
Year-round ice cream establishment with its own freezer. Famous for its variety.
Its most popular flavor is "Oatmeal Cinnamon".

DIY Kitchen
Restaurant (set up more like a food court and hibachi grill combined) where they provide the ingredients and cookware, and you do the cooking. You can cook for yourself or sell to customers for a price you choose.

Chime Square Amphitheater
Indoor amphitheater with soundproofing in both directions. Built so sound carries from the stage as well as possible. Has its own (quieter) carillon for accompaniment.

🕭Government & Laws🕭

Songbell is mainly inhabited by humans. Annies are just seen as more people, though often there is a slight air of cold formality between a human and non-resident Annie.

The town's three head figures are equal in power and choose their predecessors, but if they do not perform their jobs well, the community can petition them out of power. People are not required to sell to everyone, so rude customers may be denied service. They do not allow residents, permanent or otherwise, to have slaves. Those who live outside the town and do have slaves may not visit for more than two days and one night (so they can gather supplies and be on their way), and most locals will refuse to sell to them.

The internal police force has magic sleep pistols in order to take on magic-using adversaries without having to resort to lethal force (though uncommon Annies and above can typically resist shots from only one of them). Consecutive hits will strengthen their effects. Often, at least one Annie is registered as a stand-by enforcer for cases where these guns aren't enough to take down a pursuer.

They keep a minimal city exit fee (that can easily be earned back by signing up for a day of street cleaning or the sale of a couple good apples) that is only in place to discourage residents from expanding beyond the wall.

The government mostly keeps their hands off of trade, but they do not tolerate factually-incorrect advertisement. Stealing, murder, and the like are also illegal. Community service, fines, jail, and exile are the usual punishments. Capital punishment is never dispensed.

There are some basic safety laws in place to prevent people from performing dangerous experiments in public. There are also special areas where testing inventions are not allowed period. Because of this, most with more... ambitious projects rent space in the Innovation arena.

🕭Trade & Specialties🕭

Songbell can take a lot of junk and recycle it into usable raw materials. There are a lot of artisans, metalworkers, and machinists that (try to) make a lot of products to sell to traveling caravans. They often export a lot of pipes, tools and assorted artisan crafts. Occasionally, the city will pay someone to assist another town in a project on their behalf, though some sign up for the project, anyway. The specific products being exported at any time depend on the interests of the inhabitants at the time. Many travel to the city to get custom jobs or attend the college, known for many non-magical disciplines. Scientific research and book reproduction takes place here, too.

🕭Population🕭

10,000 (Estimated 1% or less are Annies).
Temporary residents (those that stay in the town longer than one month, typically students and research participants) typically never exceed 2,000, usually around 1,000. (At least half of them are human at any time.)