Nova Roma
Capital of the Exiled Imperium, Heart of the Riftlands
"We did not rebuild Rome. We reforged it — in starlight and sacrifice."
Nova Roma is the sanctified heart of the Exiled Imperium — the city raised from ash and myth upon the cratered ground of the Rift Scar. Founded within days of the Rift Event, it has grown over five centuries into the jewel of humanity’s survival and ambition. Its architecture sings with both classical Roman discipline and arcane augmentation, its boulevards aligned with constellations, its aqueducts thrumming with leyline resonance.
It is here that the Codex Exilia was signed, that the first mageborn was registered, that the first foreign emissary knelt. Nova Roma is not simply a city — it is the memory of Terra reborn in stone and sorcery.
Government
The city breathes under the eye of the Praefectus Urbis Riftalis, a direct appointee of the Imperator. From the Forum Aeternum, edicts ripple outward, filtered through district Legates and Arcanii liaisons. The Codex Exilia, Arcanii doctrine, and imperial whim form a trinity none dare defy
Defences
Wards line every arch and threshold. The outer walls, layered in dragon-scale and null-glyph, hum with passive menace. Watchtowers and skyward bastions gleam with the eyes of Arcanii snipers. Beneath the Forum, a Riftlock Gate slumbers — sealed to the outside, sealed against the beyond.
At any hour, three legions stand ready. They are the Imperium's final word.
Industry & Trade
In the shadow of temples and thrones, trade thrives. Artificed relics, Riftsteel arms, enchanted vellum — all flow outward. In return, the city takes what it needs and what it desires: dwarven ore, elven ink, Riftkin flora that glows and sings.
No coin changes hands without the Empire’s gaze. Even the air carries tax.
Infrastructure
The bones of Nova Roma are runed and run through with ley. Riftstone avenues glimmer under starlight, and bridges float above channels of quiet power. The city’s breath flows from an arcane engine deep beneath the basilica — a stabilized Rift-node, consecrated by twelve generations of Magisters.
Districts
- The Forum Aeternum – Seat of thought and law; its marble echoes with senatorial debate, trial, and decree.
- Riftwatch Quarter – The arcane heart of the city, where leylines converge beneath spiraling towers.
- Legionary Quarter – Iron-drummed, incense-laced; the cradle of discipline and bastion of order.
- The Sanctum Vesta – Where divinity is debated, sacrificed to, and enthroned anew.
- Portum Flammae – Choked with spice, steel, and smoke — the city’s beating mercantile artery.
- Subvalis – Beneath, in shadow and stone, the empire’s least are watched, counted, and occasionally heard.
Points of interest
- The Basilica Imperii – Cathedral of state and sanctum of law.
- The Oculus Tharaxis – A temple to the Rift Moon and all its unknowable promises.
- The Scriptorium Eternum – Repository of chronicles, memory, and forbidden truths.
- The Crucible of Aegis – Training ground where arcane duels are both test and theatre.
- The Crimson Steps – Bloodstained site of the first mageborn rebellion — now a place of silent pilgrimage.
Architecture
Stone whispers in this city. Columns reach like orators. Domes swell like prophecy. Riftglass windows shimmer illusions of old Terra, while walls weep runes beneath the touch of wind.
Every building is a sermon in brick.
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