Sombra City UPDATE

The province consists of a large population of people with its biggest groups being 8% human, 12% elf, 20% dark elf with 50% being some class of vampires. The lowest population of people would be the werekin only having a population of 0.1% as most have been killed or left the area.

The goverment of the province of Sombra City is a Oligrachy being run by the Burache family in the current years of the city. The governing of the city is split between the familiy with the Patriarch of the family being a govenor of sort that awnsers back to the Flock and Crow in Flock territory. While also being the political head of the family he controls the military and is in charge of the defense of the province being so close to the Empire and using the old defensive line established during Primordial War with modernized defenses which make this inpeneratuble line made even more impenirable of a defense which is why the Shadow theater of the war, the front in the Sombra province, has been drawn to a stalemate as both sides have dug in and neither can breka the others line. For descison making in the area their is the Council of Twelve this has the two heads of the family representing them, except for the Bulrache family being the main figure head and defacto rulers of the province they have four representitives that being the two heads of the familiy and two of their direct spawn, those of the Ultimo class, one of these extra two poeple is a very important to the history of Sombra city being the man who toppled the throne, the son of the former captain of the Crimson Blades Vlad Alvedaro, the disgraced son who had been banished only weeks before the 'murder' of his father. He had been banished

The city has a great defensive position that they have is one of the best in the world only being beat out by the fortress cities and the capital cities of the major factions as they modernized the greatest position of the world that has been around since the Primordial War. The Western Line as it was called is a multilayered defensive wall built along dense forests, steep valleys, and gorges, the line used to be large castle walls with positions for many deffenders to arm the wall and with seige weapons made to strike down monsters, but Sombra has modernized. They have replaced stone with steel in these walls adding in well built pill boxes and machine gun nests ready to rain hell on a advancing infantry. Morters and artillery are in the back helping to bomb any attempts at a closer front line. Anti air guns hold the back lines with larger Sky Shredder cannons made for knocking Empire war zepplins out of the sky. This line is staffed by fully vampire regiments meaning they almost never sleep, and even if a defender catches a stray bullet their coffins are stored within the walls so that by the next day they are back in action. This would be hard enough to push through if it was just one line but this defensive design has three more lines behind it with altered designs so that if the enemy learns the layout of the first line and somehow breaks through, their same strategy will not work again. Thats not all in recent years with naval power growing in the Empire's favor they have developed the Western Line's concept into a sea defense meant to keep harbors safe and help regulate trading vessels passing through the area to prevent spys or unwanted goods from passing through.

Meanwhile on a smaller scale the city is divided among the diffrent families white the country side being divided the families vassals. Each family has control of a district of the capital which takes up around half of the province on its own to name who controls each area. The Burache controls the Capital district, the area of the city where all of the families have their residences and where members of the diffrent families will meet to make desicions it is a heavily protected community gaurded by both vampire and humaiod defenders to prevent all from being swayed by the same province and to prevent a thing like the lynching of King Julio from happening again. The next district is the docks district governed by the Ruinbra Family, they command all trade, fishing, and shipping that happens in the area with their familiy and thrulls being made up of vampiric merfolk in their group to help out. This family tends to run rackets of extorting people for taking on bad prices for goods and peddling their own created drug, Ocean's Bliss, a potent stimulent that a member of Ruinbra made for sailors in the region to be able to sail all day after being dranken from a vial. But it was found that if sailors just injected the liquid instead of injesting it the effects are far more potent giving feelings of bliss and eratic energy making them feel invincible or like a child again. While still selling it for its intended commericial use they on the side will sell syringes full of it for more elicit uses. The next zone, The Carnival Zone, is a place of wild celebration and eternal parties and this is the place for tourists to travel to. The Vespleste Family is in charge of this zone ith their duties to be encourage tourism, upkeep of monuments and well under the district are the drug labs which supplies the drugs for the rest of the city with help from Flock chemists to ramp up production. This important role is a well kept secret with all who work their having magic to keep the to secrecy as the Vespleste family is parinoid that if the other families find their labs they will try and steal their secrets, as The Vespleste holds the secrets to several drugs such as their well known drug, Crimson Rose, a depresent that acts like a more potent alchohol and is even enjoyed by vampires as its puts them and others who take it into a dreamlike blissful state while depressing all motor and brian functions, while some vampires use it recreationally it tends to be used for the darker deep of incapacitating people before vampires feed on them to prevent tehir struggles or cries for help as vampires find those distatseful, they also produce other kinds of more normal drugs for medicenal purposes and some more standard use aphrodisiacs used primarily used in the next zone. The next zone is called the the Gem Flower district, a red light district full of brothels and more predetory buisnesses like loan offices, where you can sell your body, blood, or freedom in exchange for money, ghoul yards, where you can sell the rights to your body after your death in exchange for items or money now, and wolf dens, a buisness in which the few werekin operate who act as mercanaries for hire or if you pay them enough seeking strength and power you can be turned into a werekin yourself. The family who runs this is the Sangator they are in charge of running the red like district managing prostitution and all illicit activity in the area they are known to be some fo the cruelest vampires, while working with many diffrent people, this vampire family loves displays of actions they commit and this gruesome view is the reason for the name of this zone as all around the area are beautiful bunches of flowers that grows in columns with the surfaces of the flowers being a strange crystaline substance, but if you were to tear away these beautiful flowers you would find their source, that being the drained bodies of the families victims their blood now a work of art as their body hidden in this crystal shell of flowers is perfectly preserved and mummified in a horribly gruesome display. Things like this are common as these gem flowers are not their only morbid activities that this family commits. They host 'Garden Parties' and at these events people are slaughtered and their blood is then used to make morbid art around the city for the viewing pleasure of all. Many who visist the city do not know this horrible fact on these things and often marvel at the beauty of the display not knowing the true meaning of its horror or the fact that if they wind up in a wrong place at a wrong time they may join the display. The final zone is the Slum zone, a area ruled by the Noxviern family, they have little control in the city and just are supposed to watch over the area as the other families do not trust the Noxvierns due to their alliance with the Empire. In the area they try their best to make life better like the familes decendent King Julio once had. They have began to police the area doing their best to protect their citizens from the other vampires but they have to few members and to little power to truely act as many of their people have to live in fear of beig called upon or snatched by the other families.

Sombra City holds many valuable assets that are seen as very valuable trade comodities, some of these products include the cities drugs such as Ocean's Bliss, Crimson Rose, Midnight Rage (This is one of the only drugs produced by a non-vampire faction in the city, being made by the Harvesters. This is a group of humanoid scientists who wish to strike back at the Empire being made up of angry citizens with scientific backgrounds, defected flock agents, and a small amount of exiled Empire chemists. This group, using some samples the Flock defecters had, was able to make a very unstable and rudimentery cursed blood agacent drug that enhances physical strength greatly temporarily putting people on par with more high ranking vampires, but it has some major down sides as it causes massive exhastion to the body and bouts of illness as the body rejects the substance from the system.) The area, for all its doom and gloom, is the largest producer of musical instruments in the world as well they have produced some of the greatest types of music which many vampires have spent eternities crafting or some of the older ones bringing tunes from their original home worlds with one of these types of music called Jazz being very popular in the region. The last main asset of the are many cultivated deadly plants, as vampires being undead are immune to the plants poison effects. They sell the plant's extracts for whatever people need in either political (poison for poisoning) or medicanal ways. They have many diffrent buyers with products flowing through out the world through the Trader's Union.

The city has many factions running its always moon shrouded streets of the city from the families to the smaller street gangs you have plenty of colorful charecters to meet. To start out these list of factions we should start with the ones who truely rule the city those being the great vampire families, those being the Noxviern, Blutrache, Ruinbra, Sangator, and Vespleste families. Each serves their seprate roles in this corrupt society. The Blutrache family is a crime family dressed in a goverment suit, they are less likely to get their hands dirty breaking faces down on poorly lit decripid streets, but their hands aren't free of crimes, as you don't have the last king's killer on your pay roll without dealing in shady buisness here and there. They stick to more white collar crimes by engaging in heavy goverment corruption and embezzeling plenty of funds themselves which they use to fund perosnal expenses or hire out a mercanary group or two to stamp out any issues they feel to be below them. Though for more personal problem they have their own special group of enforcers to bring justice to the city, that being the Crimson Fangs, a group of vampires led by the disgraced son of the last true captain of the Crimson Blades they took part of their name as a mockery of what the group is and once was planting themselves as being the new rule of law in town. They deal with issues relating to the families, weather that be hits or mediation they are the ones who get down in the dirt to do it. Next up the Ruinbra, this family being in the dock regions has closest ties to the Trader's Union. This means they are rather intrested in expanding their power in the Masquarade as the buisnesses of Sombra City are rather on a small scale meaning the buisnesses have little to no seats in the Masquarade, The Ruinbra family has entwined themselves in this as while most buisnesses are part of the Trader;'s Union and stay out of polotics the family gets certain buisnesses in their land to give the family kick backs and benifits in exchange for 'protection' and getting more resources and oppurtunities to grow than the competiotion. With this hold on the companies they also get these companies to on the side peddle the Ruinbra family's drug of Ocean's Bliss to make the family even more profit. One asspect that is a horrid side of this families dealings is that of dealing lives with how they are active members and supporters of the slave trade, many slave trades exist aroud the world with a more concentrated side being found in the Empire. That is because the Flock is mostly against it , though it was in more of a political move than anything moral as well as the fact the main groups traded make up a large amount of the Flock's population. But Sombra City is a exception as it is a integrel part of their province due to a need for a blood, and with this need for this trade the Ruinbra family is the one to handle the dealings of this dirty buisness, though the next family is also deeply involved with the trade as well. The most violent family of the bunch, The Sangator Family, holds onto the rather perosnal buiness of human-trafficing, prostitution, and the running of brothels. They keep a iron grip on the industry being very innvolved with each and every venue with obvious favorites to those run by members of the Sangator family. Mnay of the performers of non-vampire varieties would usually be anywhere but in these places as crowds to be literally out for blood. Why do some work the stage you may ask? Well that is because many don't have a choice either being far in debt to the family weather due to being addicted to the drugs they get their workers addicted to or people taken from their homes in the country side and forced to perform usually being told that if they due, even if they are killed, their families will be ampliy repaid. Though that is a bit false as the families are paid, but it is no where near what these stolen people are told to expect. These vampires are also big buyers in the slave trade as many of their patrons crave a taste of the exotic, both literally and metaphorically, they work with the Ruinbra family to aquire many warm bodies for theeir stages and clubs not viewing these people, as well people, but as more refreshments for their guests, walking aorund the clubs you'll see people in chains drugged into a almost vegitative state just being fed upon until they drop. If one of these salves gets lucky they may end up not as feed but as serving staff at these clubs though that is only slightly safer, as if a vampire wants you they mostly have a free reign of you unless your claimed by any of the family's Ultimo. This area is a area many are told to stay clear of due to the dangers it poses, and many who have taken these warnings lightly have found out their meaning teh hard way. The next family, the Vespleste family, has focused its efforts into building a drug empire to rival that of the cursed blood market in Flock territories. While yes they keep a apperance of being a group of the most approachable and likeable family being the people who run the Carnival District where tourism is proritized and saftey of these guests is a chief concern, but bellow those streets full of partying and marry making are miles and miles of interconnected drug labs producing a litany of the city's many diffrent drugs. They are masters of their craft with production on massive scales producing anything the other families need, as while many can make their own product by themselves, none can match the speed and sheer scale of production which the Vespleste family has. Though they are rather paranoid about the other families wanting to out grow them with reasonable right to worry as many families are forced to rely on the Vespleste's supply and they don't like having to rely on anyone. This is why the labs location is a closely held secret with any who work their forced into magical secrecy so they may not share its locations to those they are alligned with. The Flock tends to be very friendly with this family on a level that is just a bit lower than the Blutrache as well they are a big help in producing one of the Flock's most sought after drug, the highly coveted substance known as Cursed Blood and with these massive labs they can produce alot, as due to devoting many rsources to the war many of the Flock's own labs have to be reduced, but Sombra City being tucked away from the full force behind its impregnable defenses is not that restricted. For this fat the Flock and the Vespleste family made a agreement which has lead to half of the drugs being produced being Cursed Blood and a higher amount of Flock presence in the above ground areas of the city. Finally, The Noxviern Family, a family whose name bears disgrace and a stigma to it due to their old patriarch King Julio Noxveirn. This family is in charge of the slums of the city as this was deemed the least impactful area to manage which scored the Noxviern's as its stewards. People refer to them as the Kind Crooks, as while tehy are still a gang who runs the streets, they tend to be more caring for the civilains they watch over. Loan sharks and other predetory buisnesses for the desprate are all around the grimy streets of the slums but on every other corner you'll see the Bloodhounds, this areas scrappy police. Sure they tend to be corrupt but that tends to be corrupt in more inner family polotics with little to no influence from the other families in their ranks they do what they can to keep peace in the chaotic slums. They tend to monitor other vampires and make sure they aren't feeding on members of the public and they cut down on influence from the Harvesters as while they are for the people the group inspires violence and the Noxviern family fears if they allow their people to form a armed revolt that the other families will come down brutally hard upon the people of the slums. The family is the most genorous of the bunch doing what they can to help those in the most impoverished states as they don't want those people being drawn to more dangerous families like the Sangator family, as these families attempt to lure in the desprate with promises of money or assistance in gaining higher status in life. So, while not being the most upstanding group they tend to be your best bet if you are looking to survive.   There are two other players in the city who are far much more minor in scale being non-vampires who hold little to no power in the city but play a role all the same with that role to annoy the greater powers of the city. The first of these groups were already mentioned, that being the Harvesters. This group is seen to some as heroes and to others lunatics who will bring the wrath of the vampires upon them worse than it already is. The Harvesters where outfits resembling scarecrows and have a goal of 'culling the feild' as they say, which in reality means they wish to kill all vampires or at least break the vice like grip they have on the city. They do this by random acts of violence and sabatoge usually high off their knock of curse blood that they produce targeting vampire clubs, clubs in the Gem Rose district, or slave trades at the docs. Their goal is nobel but due to their brute force way of getting it done as well as alot of members acting like thugs around the city robbing and mugging to "Fund operations"  doesn't leave a best impression of them. In many peoples minds. This isn't helped by the heavy propogada campaign underway by the families to villainize them totting them as empire funded terrorists who want to slide SOmbra back into a backwards and unknown town like it was before the families took charge. This has caused the group a uphill battle for public opinion and well its a losing one. The next small faction in the city is the only large group of werekin in the city made primarly of werewolves, The Wolfpack. While the name implies only werewolves that is not the truth as werekin have hundreds if not thousand sof difrent supspecies as they are all humanoid animal hybrids from wolves, to bears, to praying mantises, to sharks you can find all sorts of wonderful kinds all around the globe. The Wolfpack is a more neautral force in the city only being around to stay as they are just acting as mercanaries, as while vampires dispise them due to a feud that has been fought the Bloody Years of vampires and werewolves feuding over land, food, and territory. While vampires eventually won out the vampires, while they never will admit it, are still scared of the were wolves and werekins as these creatures stand on par with vampires which is why they have many hired from the Wolfpack as bodygaurds or just muscle for protecting their property. One well known one is body gaurd of head of the Ruinbra patriarch, a vampire by the name nickname of Goldentooth, this body gaurd of his is a weremantis nicknamed 10 arms due to having ten limbs, six of which are mantis claws. The wolf pack operates out of the slums and well they are the rivals of the Havesters as their work often comes into conflict with the Wolf pack ususally being hired to fight off the harvesters from ruining their vampire events. This has lead to a small scale gang war in the slums with scraps often breaking out between the two parties with the Bloodhounds tending to be a third party who tries to break up the violence and they tend to be at odds with both groups as the Harvesters hate them fro being vampire scum and the Wolfpack hates them for what they feel is being to tolerant of the Harvesters.

Tourism is a big market of Sombra City and the families try to keep up apperances to appeal to this flourishing market which is why the only break in the Western Line is on the border of the Neautral Frogan as the Empire, due to The Neautrality Act of 1500, are unable to march troops though their or perform military actions lest the Neautral Alliance join the side of the Flock. Many people would wonder why on Varonia any sane person would visit a place where if you take one wrong step you could be someones dinner or worse fates that lie around the city. The awnser is a simple one, the vampires make some of the best party drugs and have the most cassinos and gambling halls of the continent making them a great place to visit. Plus they have many other things to offer with many vampires putting on acts to dazzle and impress tourists who come to visit showing the incredible feats that vampires can accomplish with their abhuman abilities one famous trick was performed in the Carnival district by Turpi Alegano who demonstrated how he could throw a knife at a target from ten feet away and before it hits be able to get infront of the knife and catch it.