The Pit
The Pit is divided amongst two sections that bear the name. The City, the capital of Southern Turas, as well as obviously the massive divinely created and ever maintained gaping maw into the ground that descends well into the Abyss. The city itself, aside from its unique construction regarding the massive, yawning bridges that traverse over the chasm and the fact that residences, businesses, restaurants and government buildings are at times mere meters from a pit dropping off into the hellish realm of The Abyss, is rather normal. That is aside from of course being home to the Abyss Watchers, the pseudo-chain gang prison military unit tasked with overseeing the protection of and prosecution of military action around and inside the Abyss.
It is difficult to separate the history, culture, and being of The Pit as a city, from all of thos attributes or those attributes it helps provide the citizenry as also the yawning, ever hungry maw that lies just outside their windows and businesses, seemingly waiting, intent, eager to swallow up their homes as if a mouth on the surface of the earth. As such, The Pit as a geographical and divine phenomena is just as important as the Pit as a capital city of an Imperial continent.
For the city and portal to that hellish place both exist as a reminder, a constant monument to the moment an old world was shattered. Like a knee driving up into the downward force of a back being lowered, here was the place that the deathblow was struck. In that way, The Pit has a great many tourists and pilgrims who travel from far and wide to see the yawning abyss, the hungering maw. To see the place where the Fool-Saint A'akaro Yvsa plunged into, forever condemend to a history of mockery and what ifs, of shaken heads and whispered prayers. For if he had just stood once more, for if he had harnessed the hatred all knew he had at his potential, for if he had sacrificed what it took to stand once more, he might have risen higher than their god himself. A terrible, beautiful, radiant angel of hate, a true saint of The Empire.
Yet he did not. He refused, he maintained his delusion of morality. For this sin, for this lack of will, for this lack of strength, for this refusal of hatred, would bring his demise. And thus is the city of The Pit forever marked as the site of the death of the last great hero, of the final delusional fool, of paradoxically, the man who could have saved the world, but chose not, could not, would not. A place of sanctity and heresy. A divine, physical reminder of what happens to those who defy the will of Harbinger.
Demographics
The demographics of The Pit are actually rather varied. In many ways Southern Turas is considered an extention of the godless peninsula especially in some cities, and The Pit is one of them. Seen as a worthy place for the unclean peoples to reside as in the event of a mass casualty event resulting from a demonic incursion, there's really no loss of notable life to be reported and compensated, as it's just the bottom of the barrel of Imperial society. In fact some decent paying jobs are enlisting in the Abyssal Watchers Plane Defence Force organization, a group of conscripts that work for but are not members of the Watch. For some the price of belaying marriage, children, and freedom really to join the Watch is too large a price, but a tough and brutal role as essentially cannon fodder for demons and the somewhat compensatory paycheck is worth it.
All that to say, while humans, elves, and dwarves still hold a good share, there are much more tiefling, aasimar, fey based species and more here than in a typical normal Imperial city. As such the city itself has fostered a rather accepting culture amongst the different species, of course paired with your crushing brutality from guard and rogue civilian contigents who prevent any major form of bonds between the clean and unclean peoples. Indeed as well there is a more slum-like area that sees a large majority of the unclean peoples shoved there together.
Government
The government of The Pit as a city is somewhat unique amongst Imperial society as it is not governed by a mayoral body, Imperial noble family, or even religious oversight, but instead by the military council of the Abyssal Watchers, headed by Marius Urtain, Abyssal Commander of the Abyssal Watch. Commander Urtain has under his purview what leaves or enters the city, curfews, search and seizure laws, business operating hours, nearly all facets of life at his command. The city guard are essentially an extension of his will and therefore that of the Abyssal Watchers and obey his commands to the letter. Seen as a tactical necessity in the event of a large scale demonic incursion, the centralized nature of power in The Pit allows Urtain to act with no uncertainty when action needs to be taken, and this style of leadership has saved The Pit many a harsh suffering on many occassions.
Defences
The defenses of The Pit are not to be scoffed at, circling around the massive hole in the ground is essentially one massive ring fortress. Turret emplacements, arrow slits, detonation charges, mounted anti-air and anti-ground troop flak and artillery cannons point downwards, essentially like some inward pointing porcupine. Tripwires of monofilament hydrasine wire, refined from Artelas Stone, mines, auto activating traps of spikes, flames, and other magical inundations. The trek up to simply just the fortress walls themselves is grueling and has served plenty sufficient for years now to stymie any would be demonic incursions.
And if the men and women of the Abyssal Watch are called, they shall answer, for if the fighting reaches their walls and halls they take up arms with fearless courage. Well trained, those that survive long enough, hardened, and immune to the vagaries of the horrors of demonkind, these relentless, battle tested warriors know no limit as they fight for each other, and their home behind them. Renowned for their morale of nearly infinite depth, no matter the losses, no matter the personal suffering and pain, the soldiers of The Abyssal Watch are nearly a breed unto their own when in their element.
Yet even if the demons reach the walls, they will contend with the second of many more obstacles. Artelas Stone infused and coated heavy stone bricks, massive in size will blunt their claws and teeth and shirk their acid spit and fiery dispositions. They will then have to climb, or burrow, both of which bring death. For the climbers, the free release holy-oil coated swinging scythes with slice them to pieces or at least send them plummeting to the ground in search of safety. The burrowers will find no greater luck as they burrow under the immense walls to find a deep, deep wall of stone descending hundreds of feet into the earth. Forced to surface at this 'Burrow Line', their heads will be lopped off, boiling pitch and tar, acid, holy water and oil and more will be sent down the burrow to boil alive any would be infiltrators.
Industry & Trade
The Pit is a heavily importing city due to its greatly militarized focused on guarding The Pit itself. As such, it has not developed an entirely robust factory industry or trade base, aside from of course, demonic parts. Indeed, The Empire and its research guilds and Assembly orders jump at the chance to jockey and compete for competitive and lucrative contracts to study the maimed, hacked, burned, and mangled demonic forms that can be recovered in the cleanup period. This is quite valuable and has seen greater anti-demon defenses be returned to The Pit later in forms of new and advancing technology and methodologies to counteract their foul quarry.
Infrastructure
The infrastructure of The Pit is normal for its roads and such, yet utterly unique in many ways due the unique challenge that is presented by having a city be placed around and over a massive gaping void to another, hellish, dimension. While you can go around the circular city, those that need to travel fast, government agents, military and police contigents, etc may utilize specialized mana-lev platforms that quickly and safely operate to cross the gap to checkpoints where they can offload. For your average citizen though, massive, yawning bridges cross the gaping maw for all to use. Very large, wide, and sturdy, reinforced at multiple points and even patrolled by guards, the bridges see very much foot traffic across a day, with some of them being taught and large enough to provide space for small to medium cars and such.
Furthermore, the sewage and underground construction of the city is built entirely around the obvious lack of earth in the void, creating a circular system called 'The Loop', where pipes and other things flow in one concerted direction before splitting off at a point lower in latitude and distributing waste and such downstream at a unified plant outside of the city.
Districts
The districts of The Pit are somewhat similar, aside from a unique district near the center that doesn't subscribe to the uniform four district and a central Imperial District. That is simply because the center of where the Imperial district would be is the hole to the Abyss. As such, the entire city is essentially one massive concentric ring around the maw of the abyss, with the districts conforming to that shape.
Founding Date
34th of Pae, 3 PFE
Type
Capital
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Additional Rulers/Owners
Owning Organization
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