Llithirhos
The city of splendours, the city of joys! Bring forth your secrets - see all our new toys!Llithirhos is a sprawling fey city in the First World, well-known for the antics that take hold within its ever-shifting borders. Mortal visitors must ever be aware that they are in a fey city when they set foot on its brilliant purple stones: the rules here are different, and failing to pay attention to them could be deadly or worse.
Prismatis Grove by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Time has little relevance in fey lands, so establishing when Llithirhos came to exist is somewhat a difficult task. It has, however, existed long enough to be featured in myriad mortal tales as a place of wild fancies, where mystical markets sprawl the tops over mountainous mansions and vibrant circuses jaunt jauntily through the berry-coloured clouds...
..and as a place of despair to those who enjoy its offerings too much, or fail to remember their etiquette, or simply end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. The fey are not known for their mercy. Nor their empathy.
The city is overseen by the fragile beauty of Countess Gwystelle, better known as the Countess Prismatis. A powerful nymph bard, the Countess Prismatis has eyes and ears everywhere across the city (literally; her Eye-Lights stand on most streets). She frequently appears mid-conversation to join interesting banter, much to the chagrin of her dark-feathered guards, and reigns in a manner that can only be described as chaotic.
Districts
Yellow or red? Hah! I'd sooner be dead! The streets of Vitellary, the Halls Lateritious - think more of the shades that seem so mysterious!Setting up any form of district in a fey city is an impossible task, and yet the Countess has set out to do the impossible. While the centre of the city is an iridescent jewel of rainbows and gardens, the outer districts are each vaguely colour-coded to assist mortal visitors in finding new, innovative ways to get themselves trapped. Simply watching them get lost for years was boring, apparently.
Within each vague district are ever more streets, roads, trails, and the like, each with their own colour-names. The more mainstream colours - pink, red, and the like - tend to be literal tourist traps, designed to ensnare visitors unfamiliar with Llithirhos into misdeeds.
The most infamous of these is the Red Road, where the entire street is enchanted with layer upon layer of illusion and crammed full of feyfolk all too eager to call a mortal on any mistake they make. Simply bumping into someone and apologising is enough to get one in trouble on the Red Road.
In general, the rule of thumb with Llithirhos is that the more obscure the street-name in Common, the more likely it is to hold businesses of some form of legitimacy. The fey, being generally ostentatious, do also prefer streets in bright colours: the Taupe Tramway, while being one of many streets that can be ridden through in the city's dubiously-functional tram network, is generally more of a domain of mortals or those wanting to hide.
the Red Road by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Tourism
Step foot into a dream more real than any dream!Despite the dangers that abound for mortal visitors, Llithirhos is nonetheless considered a prime place for adventurers, desperate protagonists, lost children, suspicious stepmothers, and other forms of trope-adhering mortal to visit at some point in their tale. Though not as strict in its purpose as the Nameless Market, Llithirhos contains an utter wealth of knowledge, information, and magic that is rare to find elsewhere. Beyond that, too, Llithirhos is famed for those that live there. Many a powerful fey has means of being contacted within the city; some of the various Courts even set up embassies. To mortals, this is an absolute boon.
Witch's Way by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
For example, let us look at a classic tale. If a wicked stepmother were to want to find a despicable fey patron to aid in cursing a baby, she would usually have to wander for months in dangerous circumstances, potentially putting her relationship and access to the child in question at risk.
If she can visit Llithirhos, then a significant portion of the travel time and expense is cut out. This works both ways: heroic fey dreaming of adventures will actively wait near quest halls in Llithirhos to pester adventurers into letting them join (or otherwise help the poor lost bastards out).
Even fellow mortals have cottonned onto this system of networking. A good number of mortal witches have shunted their covens to Llithirhos, preferring the access to alchemical ingredients the fey lands offer.
Other mortals do also move for less nefarious reasons, but there's only so much anyone cares to know about them.
Geography
Ever-shifting, ever-moving! Do you remember your way back home? Can I take you home?As mentioned, Llithirhos's geography is particularly varied. Streets may go from being somewhat regular (if coloured bizarrely) to spiralling into the sky, plunging into deep waters that are as breathable as air (or not), or may simply end with no real resolution to where they go. Some transform as one walks along them: what seems to be a pleasant forest path may become a two-dimensional paper landscape that then transforms again into a voxel-based three-dimensional pixellated forest. It can be challenging to navigate, even for natives.
There are few constants that must must ever be remembered when it comes to Llithirhos. The first lies near the city, not within it. Bordering the city is a forest that must never be entered without a very good reason: Medellwyn, the Reaping Forest. Those who enter rarely leave, and those who leave are irrevocably changed from who they once were.
The border between these two realms is another rare constant: It is always a shimmering iridescent wall that whispers to those that come near, warning them of what they approach. Only the foolish tend to ignore that sort of warning.
The second is the city's own voice. Just as Medellwyn talks to its visitors, so too does Llithirhos, though with more subtlety. The City of Whispers knows well its audience: it sends visitors dreams, illusory guides, and outright whispers to suggest paths of action to them, ever designed to keep them entertained and intrigued by the city's endless sprawl. It's said the city sometimes alerts the Countess to events before her own magic can.
Friends Forever and Ever by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Rainbowed Reaches by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Alternative Name(s)
the City of a Thousand Lights, the City of Whispers
Type
City
Population
Ever-shifting
Inhabitant Demonym
Llithirhoswyr; the Rhospetals
Location under
Owner/Ruler
The Circus
By flyer or by folly, mortal visitors to Llithirhos will always be offered tickets to the circus one way or another. Which circus depends entirely on the moods of the city at the time, but there's always one going on somewhere, usually towards the city's rainbow heart. Naturally, fey circuses are somewhat more interesting than those put on by the boring folk calling themselves clowns in the Material Plane. Why don't you come along and see what we mean, dear visitor? Don't forget to bring something to pay for your ticket!
Chlorochrous Cobbles by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
So... how do I get to Llithirhos, anyway? Do I just start knocking on trees?
Pixie's Watch by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Oh, to be young and foolish. All roads can lead to Llithirhos. All one needs to do is listen for its call. Give me your name, and I shall lead you there myself...
The temptation, the danger, the promise and the lies. Its everything a fey city should be, ever shifting yet eternal, yet unpredictable as the dastardly beings themselves. I adore it, yet would be ever cautious of its existence or any opportunity or invitation to such a place. It reads exactly like I would picture a fey city's tourism pamphlet to in some ways which is fantastic. A city of infinite possibilities and woven as if of dreams, yet hints and prods for the astute reader to remind them.....Nightmares are dreams too, just of a different sort. The question is, how good are you at telling the difference? I love it, you continue to inspire and entertain, and your imagination and being so humbly invited into its weird and wild corridors continues to provide joy and amazement. Most certainly I have to tuck this one into my collection, and hope that in doing so I do not become lost upon the endless streets!