Nexis

City of the Returning Sun

“We are but a few fortuitous discoveries away from rising
out of this red dust and soaring in a sunny, sandless sky!”

• Bala Pramoda, The First Enlightened 

DESCRIPTION

Nexis is defined by its Pseudosun at the centre of the city. It rests atop the back of a Simian Atlas, which provides enough natural light that the city can grow luxurious agricultural products like fruit, vegetables, hops, cotton, sugarcane, among others along a pyramid of farms. The rest of the city lives and works in a spanning ancient ruins beneath the farms.

• Pseudosun: Home of their god, The Returning Sun, the Pseudosun is a source of light and warmth that makes it possible to grow crops throughout the Bright and Veil. Inside the massive Simian Atlas is the temple where the Clerics and Brightbringers hear the ambitions of The Returning Sun and transcribe its burning will into actions and decisions.

• The Farms: A pyramid of fertile land neatly organised into plots of plants tended by the poor farmer serfs of Nexis. The farmers and other poorer people who live topside have to contend with difficult temperatures, demanding working conditions and the stress of ensuring that their crops remain healthy and valuable until they are ready to harvest, preserve, and trade.

• The Dome: Stretching across Nexis, a barrier that protects the city from Sandstorms, Reliquary Synth attacks and rogue Terras or Calls.

• The Barracuda: A large, advanced ship from The Before that was supposedly used to travel between worlds. It remains suspended, nonfunctional, above Nexis by The Returning Sun, where it’s used as the home of The Enlightened. The Enlightened are nobility and often also dedicated researchers who benefit from the luxurious technology of the ship to support their research, and their lives, removing them and their families from the inconveniences of the hardships of normal Samsaran life.

• The Stacks: A ruin of The Before beneath Nexis, where all the common Nexans live, work, and trade. Each family has their own compartment in the grid-like ruins, which are continuously being further cleaned out and connected to The Returning Sun.

CULTURE

“You toil your labours - under the sweat of brow - for future Nexans. Burn away your desires for comforts, for possessions, for drift! By your labours our Enlightened search for a better path for our children!”

• Brightbringer Isaak

Nexans are a highly divided people. Generally, they value innovation and discovery, exemplified by The Enlightened. Nexans are interested in Reliquaries, and pay substantial drift for them in the hope that they will impress The Returning Sun, ascending to The Barracuda.

• Their god: The Returning Sun is known to be a more intense and ambitious god than the others. Clerics and Paladins with Attogen Attuners from The Returning Sun remark that their visions can sometimes be so intense that they are painful to interpret and transcribe. Most people see The Returning Sun as an indifferent shepherd focused on the prime of his flock - The Enlightened. Nexans dream of opportunities to impress The Returning Sun and earn his praise, as they know the rewards will cascade upon them and their families for generations. The Returning Sun is said to value ambition and hard work. It requires significant water to remain active via the Pseudosun, but produces Ventus Vials as a by-product of this activity. As such, Nexis needs approximately twice as much Ice as the other city-states. The Returning Sun is tended by his clerics and monks, though an order of paladins known as the Brightbringers enforce his will and focus upon the people of Nexus. They ensure that the laborers don’t miss quotas, and that all is ready for the Icehaul each cycle, so that the work of The Enlightened can continue. The aim of The Returning Sun is clear -- to find a Reliquary that will cease the Sandstorms and expose Samsara to the sun, again.

• Beliefs and values: Nexans are focused, logical and direct. Below are some examples of typical Nexan beliefs / values:

• Sacrifice is necessary in order to get results.

• Not everything needs to be equal for it to be fair.

• Work twice as hard today for the generations of tomorrow.

• The work of The Enlightened is more important than anything else; they will save us.

• We work for the future. Vajra works for the present. Kishmet works for the past.

• Appearance: Nexans tend to dress either very nicely or very pragmatically. Most Nexans are Simian, and their typical appearances reflect that, with clothes that leave the arms and shoulders exposed, and padded gloves that cover the knuckles. Human Nexans are usually darker, and often their skin contains blemishes from the UV radiation of the Pseudosun.

• Accent or dialect: Most Nexans speak with cultured, formal accents and eloquent speech. They tend to be verbose, but direct. Nexan farmer serfs often have their own dialect, though this is poorly documented and understood outside of these communities. Nexans never curse or swear, (an old decree of The Returning Sun) and instead say a mixture of different words.

WORK AND LIFE

“Yeah life’s hard. And I don’t get a lot to nothin’. But Imma thinkin it’ll be worth when ma daughter can head the dome without payin’ an arm fer Ventus, yeah? Them Enlightened know what they doin’ an Nexis’ll be the better fer it, ‘ventually. Them Vajra en Kish be still playin’ in the sand en we’ll be flyin’” as he points up to The Barracuda, unmoving above the farms.

• Nexan farmer serf

While Nexis focuses on the Icehaul like the other city-states, it’s primary directive is providing resources to The Enlightened and the clergy of The Returning Sun for their Work. These resources are used to find, research and test reliquaries to help Nexis.

• Icehaulers: In Nexis, Icehaulers are celebrities and entertainment. Like a popular sports team, everybody has a favourite Icehauler and most know their names and stories. The Nexan Icehaul is complicated mainly by The Assembled along the Walk of Spines, or the ever-growing Gasfields that threaten to separate The Land of the Returning Light from Martyr’s Plateau. However, thanks to their higher supply and mastery of Reliquaries, the Nexans usually have the most powerful Icehaul caravan of the three city-states.

• The Enlightened: The Enlightened hold the most important role in Nexis. Their task is to find, acquire and understand Reliquaries that could help secure a better future for Nexis. First and foremost, they search for a Reliquary that could end the perpetual sandstorms of Samsara that blot out the sky and block the sun. The Enlightened live in luxury on the massive Ark, The Barracuda, with their families. The Enlightened are a group of the most intelligent people in Samsara, but some also consider them the most arrogant and ignorant. The Enlightened are the official leaders of Nexis, but don’t typically make decisions outside of Reliquary activities.

• Brightbringers: The name of the clergy of The Returning Sun. The Brightbringers interpret and enforce the will of The Returning Sun. While The Enlightened are the official leaders of Nexis, the Brightbringers are the ones who really create and enforce the laws by voicing the will of The Returning Sun. The Brightbringers are strict, dedicated and direct. They heavily follow their tenets to serve The Returning Sun and impose its will upon the people for the better of Nexis.

• Farmer serfs: The poorest class of Nexis are the farmers who tend the fields beneath the Pseudosun. These people toil to grow the crops that Nexis trades for Anthra, food, medicine, resources, and Reliquaries. However, a significant portion of these crops go to The Barracuda to support the Work of The Enlightened, too. The majority of these farmers aren’t pleased with their situation, but accept that it’s necessary, temporary servitude, in order to guarantee a better future for future Nexan generations. 

• Secondary and Tertiary goods: The rest of Nexis live in The Stacks, a ruin of The Before that has been cleaned out and occupied in the last centuries of Nexan life. Life in The Stacks is busy and structured, but complex. All goods that enter and exit The Stacks are tracked and meticulously analysed, thanks to their built-in systems and Reliquaries mastered by specific administrative (or analytical) professionals. Unlike Vajra or Kishmet, it’s unlikely that a Nexan son or daughter will perform the same profession as their parents. The ambition of the Nexan people often leads to problems that require direct intervention from municipal authorities.

• Health, Education & Wellbeing: Education in Nexis is taken very seriously. They have formal programs to instruct and delegate people living in The Stacks, guiding them to a profession. Health is largely taken care of by Refabricators, PRs which cure disease, heal wounds and even regrow lost limbs. However, nearly half of the Nexis population cannot afford to use these, and rely on herbal remedies and more subtle medical Reliquary interventions from medics. In The Stacks, every neighbourhood has a Productivity Coach, who pays regular visits to families to discuss and evaluate their quantitative output and see how it can be improved.

• Leisure & entertainment: During the haul in the Bright, the Barracuda hangs a holographic screen of light that shows a map and key statistics about the Icehaul that people use to watch, discuss, or even bet on outcomes. Often, there are competitions about which of the miners can haul the most ice, or who can drive the fastest on the sandsled, or who can take out the most Assembled. Nexans are a people of rigorous record-taking and get easily excited when records are broken or anomalies are observed in the haul. When the Icehaulers return, The Twins (two Bardic Icehaulers regale the story of the haul the following Veil.