Hubris

Description

Isolated by two of the larger of the frozen lakes in the Cold Desert, Hubris has a fluctuating population from a couple hundred to just over ten-thousand. This is due to the extreme seasons that this area of the world endures every year. For eight months out of the year the city and its surrounds will be covered in violent blizzards and snowstorms with gale force winds. This season is known simply as Frost. For the remaining four months of the year the land blooms into quick life, before the snows returns. This season is known as Thaw. It is during Frost that the vast majority of Hubris falls into cryogenic sleep. The technology was discovered by the first colonists and has come to be well utilized and preserved by the White Wardens – a caste of Hubrites who stay awake all through Frost to make sure the catacombs and their sleeping occupants are not disturbed. Led by Thaleon Zarrok, the White Wardens are well respected by the Hubrites, but to outsiders they are brisk and to the point, almost to the point of rudeness. These Wardens are also the ‘priests’ of the local religion, which only true converts may hear the name of. The Wardens hold a strong belief that the Sun is where all power resides and goes back to. As this is not technically untrue, the Order of Truth has seen fit to let the White Wardens continue to practice their beliefs, but their relations are uneasy at best.

Details

Rulers:

Thaleon Zarrok; Level 5 (Level 6 with all tasks involving the numenera); 1 Armor.

Population:

200 in Frost, 10,000 in Thaw

Capital:

Hubris

Region:

The Beyond

Hubris Hearsay:

A Wayward Merchant

A merchant has entered the city on mysterious business and seems to be very interested in the way the cryogenic technologies of Hubris work.

Cold Hearted Bandits

A band of Snow Lopers have been observed to be acting as what can only be described as bandits. They are using numenera weapons to hunt down merchants traveling to the city. A White Warden has posted a reward for their removal.

The Weird of Hubris:

Flickering Belief

The Ja’maraj has been observed to blink erratically as of late by a few individuals. However it is only these few who report it. No one else has ever seen the great crystal waver in its constant brilliance.

Voices in the Dark

A fissure in the Southern Wall has opened up recently and anyone who shouts an honest question at its entrance will hear a response in an alien language. No body has yet returned after entering the fissure.

Snowglobe

A miniature blizzard has been noted to never recede, even at the height of Thaw. It resides a mere three miles east of the Sun Dome. Anyone to enter it has related that it feels as if Frost never ended inside of that area. The blizzard itself takes up a very small space of only about three hundred feet.

Points of Interest:

The Sun Dome

Arguably the center of the city, the Sun Dome is warm and exceedingly bright, even in the darkest months of Frost. A large glass dome houses hundreds of smaller building inside of it, but for the better part of a year those same buildings remain empty inhabited only buy the White Wardens. At its center resides the Ja’maraj; an ever glowing crystal the size of a Jiraskar. Not only does the Ja’maraj emit light for the Sun Dome, but it also gives off a pleasurable heat. Some in the city even theorize it is somehow related to the Warming Column to the north.

The Catacombs

Running beneath the city for hundreds of miles the catacombs are the home of those who wait for Thaw in cryogenic slumber. Thousands of souls will wait out the bitter cold of Frost in their icy tombs, while a few brave (or just very well paid) individuals will wait out the long moments in the near perfect dark, running the ancient coolant machines and preforming upkeep on the pipes that fuel the sarcophagi of the citizens of Hubris. A thin mist creeps along the ground of these tunnels as the temperature inside is only slightly warmer than those above.

Whitefield

Surrounding the Sun Dome is dozens and dozens of miles of empty field kept under a near constant layer of snow, but when Thaw begins the snow melts and gives way to the pale, white stalks of grass that grow beneath. It is on this field that the citizens will hold the annual Thaw festivals and conduct their business before Frost begins again.