Nexus

General Overview

Nexus stands at the meeting of the Gray and Yellow Rivers, where they flow together into the Yanaze. It is the largest city in the East and one of the most important trade hubs in Creation, drawing merchants, mercenaries, scholars, pilgrims, criminals, and opportunists from every direction. Vast wealth flows through its markets, but so do disease, exploitation, and violence.

To outsiders, Nexus appears to be a city of free enterprise and limitless opportunity. In truth, it is ruled by one of the most ruthless and tightly controlled oligarchies in the world, enforcing order through mercenary armies, secret police, and an ever-changing web of laws designed to favor the powerful.

Brief History

Nexus is built atop the ruins of a First Age city known to scholars as Hollow, once a great university city and the capital of the River Province. During the Usurpation, Hollow was shattered in the wars between the Solars and the Dragon-Blooded, leaving behind slagged ruins that still resist demolition.

After the Great Contagion, survivors and refugees reclaimed the abandoned streets and canals. Over centuries, scattered townships fused into a single sprawling metropolis. During the reign of the Scarlet Empress, an enigmatic figure known only as the Emissary appeared and proclaimed the authority of the Council of Entities, establishing the brutal political order that still rules Nexus today.

Six great tombs of the Anathema still stand across the city as grim monuments to its First Age past and as constant reminders of the price of defying the powers that rule Creation.

Districts and Notable Sites

Nexus District

The commercial heart of the city, Nexus District is a maze of canals and crowded islands packed with markets, warehouses, banks, counting houses, inns, brothels, and pleasure halls. It is the only district most citizens travel outside their home ward to visit, and its major routes are heavily patrolled.

• The Big Market — Nexus’s primary wholesale exchange and transport hub.
• The Little Market — Retail markets, taverns, and entertainment.
• Yinhang Square — Location of the Guild’s towering headquarters.
• The Night Market — Illicit trade in forbidden goods after dark.
• The Harlotry — The city’s most infamous red-light district.
• Coffleblock Market — Slave markets and holding pens.
• Council Building — Where the Emissary makes official pronouncements.

Nighthammer

The industrial engine of Nexus, Nighthammer is filled with foundries, smelters, manufactories, and dockyards. The air is thick with ash and metal dust known locally as “Nexus snow.” The constant pounding of hammers gives the district its name.

• The Arsenal — The city’s primary weapons manufactories.
• Ironmarket — Trade in weapons, tools, and raw ore.
• Nightside — A sprawling tenement ghetto near the docks.
• Sijantown — Embalming houses for shipping the dead to Sijan.
• Lookshy-town — The Seventh Legion’s embassy and purchasing quarter.

Cinnabar

Cinnabar is Nexus’s cultural and educational center, home to schools, monasteries, libraries, theaters, ballrooms, galleries, and parks. Its streets are well-maintained and patrolled by mercenary guards who enforce decorum as fiercely as law.

• Livery Square — Mercenary barracks and parade grounds.
• Parko Llana — The city’s largest public park and gardens.
• Nexus Military College — Neutral ground for mercenary officers.

Sentinel’s Hill

A high ridge overlooking the city, Sentinel’s Hill is home to the Council Tower and the private estates of the city’s rulers and elite. The pulley-car lines climb its slopes, connecting the commercial districts below with the seat of Nexus’s power.

• Council Tower — The seat of the Council of Entities.

Firewander and the Ruins of Hollow

Firewander was once the center of ancient Hollow and later a reluctant part of Nexus. It was devastated when raksha detonated a Wyld-weapon in the old provincial capital. Beneath the modern city lie vast ruins of the First Age, much of them still unexplored.

• The Tombs of the Anathema — Six towering sepulchers marking the graves of slain Solars.

Government and Law

Nexus is ruled by the Council of Entities, an oligarchy that governs through decrees known as Civilities. These laws are designed to maximize trade efficiency, tax revenue, and political control, often at the expense of the city’s poor and powerless.

The Emissary serves as the Council’s public voice and enforcer. Cloaked in white and masked in silver, the Emissary delivers rulings, negotiates treaties, and issues threats on the Council’s behalf. Real enforcement is carried out by mercenary companies hired on long-term contracts to act as the city’s police and army.

Civilities change constantly, creating a legal environment where bribery, political connections, and insider knowledge are often more important than innocence.

People of Import

The Rulers of Nexus

• The Emissary — Masked herald and enforcer of the Council of Entities.
• The Council of Entities — The secretive oligarchs who rule Nexus.

The Council

• Thalevar, August Councilor of the Eclipse — Overseer of docks and waterways.
• Ephiselle, the Midnight Queen — Master of spies and informants.
• Pellicia, the Dawn Sergeant — Commander of Nexus’s mercenary armies.
• Brueghel, the Evening Master — Keeper of archives and licenses.
• Hayle, the Midday Husband — Patron of arts, entertainment, and public health.
• Master Gen, Minister of Ways — Overseer of taxation and tariffs.
• Kratz the Astrologer — Prophet of famine, riots, and price shifts.
• Udelph the Doctor — Arbiter of feuds and public harmony.

Mercenary Commanders

• Dragonlord Johoda — Commander of the Hooded Executioners.
• Jurgen Icefist — Commander of the Bronze Pioneers.
• Dageru Yohotima — Commander of the Nightarrows.
• Kemetu of Nighthammer — Commander of the Iron League.
• Master Fedekiro — Commander of the Iron Brotherhood.

Culture and Life in the City

Nexus is a city of extremes. It offers wealth, education, art, and power to those who can seize them, but it is also infamous for disease, crime, and brutal inequality. Entire districts function like separate worlds, and most citizens rarely leave their home ward without armed escorts.

Life in Nexus rewards ambition and ruthlessness. Those who cannot compete are crushed, enslaved, or driven into the undercity. For those who survive, the city offers influence beyond imagining.

Relationships with Other Cities

Nexus stands at the crossroads of eastern trade and has bound much of the Scavenger Lands together through commerce. The Guild maintains its greatest headquarters here, and mercenary companies from across Creation compete for Council contracts.

The Realm has repeatedly failed to bring Nexus under its control, while Lookshy maintains a powerful diplomatic and military presence in the city. Sijan’s funerary economy and Thorns’ shadow loom constantly over Nexus’s politics.