City of RUIN Collaboration (Patreon)

Hello everyone! Time for another collaboration, this time the City of RUIN, a location in the Science-Fantasy setting by MarkDrummondJ. To bring this city to life we have created some great music by Coltrin Compositions & McRoMusic, maps by MarkDrummondJ & Zach Moeller with lore, district descriptions and notable character descriptions by Automaton James

Description
The landscape is covered in surreal landscapes, warped flesh mountains, giant cactus forests and seas of orange grass. Amongst these hazardous and ever-changing landscapes are the bastion cities. Giant cities that are characters in their own right, wildly varying in culture and construction, but providing safe harbour to adventurers and travellers. 

RUIN is one of these bastion cities, perhaps one of the oldest. A metropolis that has been razed and rebuilt many times, layers of architecture tell of its complicated history. Remnants of an ancient city stand amongst barely discernible fragments of a primordial village carved from the sides of a once active volcano. Structures have been repurposed and built upon with new technologies across many seasons of fashion and taste, creating a truly chaotic landscape of materials and shapes.

The populace of RUIN are a truly hardy sort, stubborn in their belief to rebuild and remain in their homes despite the many catastrophes that have beset the city. The original name of this bastion has been lost, buried under countless names assumed throughout the ages. For hundreds of years now, the city has gone by the simple moniker of RUIN, proud of its unique architectural language.

Lore, district descriptions and notable character descriptions by Automaton James
RUIN City Districts

The Crucible, The Sunken Market
If there was ever a melting pot of culture, it would be the Crucible. The collapsed walls around the sinkhole house a network of stairs and cable-suspension elevators providing access to the throngs of merchants, vendors, cargo, and prospective customers.

Within the cavity of the Crucible, suspension bridges criss-cross around multi-tier platforms housing established shops made from sheet metal, beams and cables. Within each tier of every towering structure, cart vendors peddle their goods, crying out prices for the various commodities and merchandise.

While The Crucible operates as a massive market, it’s also a frequented attraction within RUIN. It’s said that one could live a lifetime and not have experienced the exotic foods from every cart vendor, even if every meal was eaten there. Every day, the stock of merchandise evolves, as goods come in from the farthest reaches of the most distant Bastions.

The deeper one delves into The Crucible, the darker it becomes. As light disappears from the topside sky, an eerie glow emanates from nearby lighting cables that string down makeshift streets and high traffic areas. Some residents find comfort in the low-level light conditions, while others insist it to be the underbelly of RUIN.

Evermarsh, the Botanical District
The flooded streets of Evermarsh are knotted and tangled with vines, stargrass and lilies. Boardwalks provide traversable terrain for the less aquatically-attuned, but for the Saurian population, much of the district lies under the surface of the water.

Above the surface, catwalks connect botanical gardens contained within greenhouse domes, where tiered gardens stack upon themselves, growing a multitude of crops, spices, herbs, commercial, and medicinal ingredients.

Below the surface, much of the machinery used to pump water across the city’s aqueducts and residences is maintained by the tireless machining crew. Such work is hazardous and difficult, as those who aren’t adept at swimming and breathing underwater must take care to not drown, or be pulled into ingress pipes from the currents generated by the pumping stations.

Iron Fold, the Assembly District
At night, the sky above Iron Fold glows with an orange-red hue against the black-steel smokestacks jutting upwards. By day, a light gray smog hovers between the rubble-built forges. Flashes of light as bright as the sun cause shadows to dance across the sheet metal walls of adjacent prefab factories. Nearly all the metalwork used across RUIN is forged, shaped, or poured and cast in Iron Fold.

Much of the labour force of Iron Fold consists of the constructed, though other common residents include Dwarves and Orcs who have learned to tolerate the heat that radiates from the casting houses, forges and machining plants. The residents are rugged and thick-skinned, and sport an abrasive personality to match.

Theseum
After the cataclysms that have affected the City of RUIN, districts have been destroyed and rebuilt time and time again. The Theseum District's original purpose has been lost to ages, but speculation and legend state its purpose was heavily focused on mysticism, and powerful forces were contained within.

Each time the Theseum District was destroyed and rebuilt in its wyrding fashion, echoes of the contained power overlapped, and over time it created a chaotic, unstable focal point of unnatural energy.

Now, the Theseum District remains populated, but its difficult properties mean it's entirely impossible to know what is contained within. The streets shift routinely, but not in a manner that can be perceived. Travellers frequently turn a street corner to find themselves in unfamiliar locations, surrounded by impossible, non-euclidean architecture.

The nature of the Theseum district has deterred common business, residences and normal civics from being established. After all, who would set up shop on a street that might never be found by your patrons?

Today, the Theseum District is often used by the less noble of professions. Thievery, smuggling and illegal dealings are frequent in the district, as escaping authorities is aided by the constantly changing landscape.

The City of Ruin, to this day, has not fully explored the Theseum District. Many cases of missing citizens are attributed to the District, and in some cases unnatural creatures have emerged, endangering the citizens surrounding its shifting streets. Other notable events include finding previous inhabitants of the city lost decades before, but found as if they had only aged a matter of days since their disappearances.

Creatures of RUIN

Amperic Weavers (AKA Lectricidae Magnus)
Amperic Weavers are a pest in the city. These large spiders (adults can reach 5-8lbs), are a nuisance to the city's infrastructure.

Attracted to energy sources, Amperic Weavers produce a conductive thread from their spinnerets. They use this conductive web to link power lines heading to junctions, and feed on the energy channelled through these web lines.

This can result in disastrous consequences, as short circuits are frequent when too many Weavers are attracted to a specific power junction. When too many of these conductive webs are centralized, it presents a situation which can damage infrastructure and start fires.

Rogue Animatronics
Despite the name, these automatons and small animated devices are more often benign, peaceful entities that have lost their purpose. Their diversity ranges from all shapes, sizes, and functions. Many are non-sentient and often built for a specific purpose.

Commonly, these are custom robotics or golems built for customers to be used for a singular purpose, with the ability to sustain themselves for their expected lifespan. Often these entities outlive their intended purpose and are abandoned or discarded. As one of their main functions is to assist in their longevity to better serve their owners for long durations, even after they are abandoned they continue to attempt to sustain themselves and find new purpose.

The end result of such discarded animatronics often takes the form of vagrant, homeless, meaningless artificial creatures that’s only remaining purpose is the directive to continue their existence however they can. Sometimes, perhaps due to their previous directives or other unknown motivations, they attempt to assist the residents of RUIN in some way, as if to regain some purpose in their artificial lives. More often than not, their degradation and years of abandonment cause these well-intentioned acts to be more of a nuisance than a benefit.

R.A.C.U. & C.E.T.A.E.
RUIN has established a Rogue Animatronic Control Unit (RACU), which has been formed for the purpose of “decommissioning” such entities. Use of force is often authorized, and it is not uncommon for such violent decommissioning to happen in public view.

RACU has assisted the city countless times in the past with rogue animated entities that degraded to a point of presenting a real danger to the public, but overall operates with very little oversight or accountability.

Counter to the RACU, some citizens who have developed relationships with these entities have banded together in protest, and often shelter them or actively try to hinder the RACU squads. The Citizens for the Ethical Treatment of Animated Entities (CETAE) are labelled an extremist organization, and affiliation is widely frowned upon by many of the older citizens of RUIN.

Notable Rogue Animatronic Entity - City Guide Gatesby
Gatesby is a vagrant Rogue Animatronic android. It has survived two generations of RUIN, but not gracefully. The joints in its arms and legs have been fused together with corrosion and ill-maintained gears and servos which give it an awkward, stiff and swaying gait, but its voice modulator remains active.

Suffering from a form of circuit-and-memory-storage based dementia, it is unable to learn new information or accept any form of reprogramming. Its primary purpose, or so it believes, is to guide newcomers to notable locations in the city. Unfortunately, its available information of the city is centuries old. Very little, if any, of the information it provides to citizens is accurate, as it's so far outdated that it’s unable to provide useful assistance other than directions to the very few landmarks that remain unchanged. It does, however, provide accurate information of centuries past, which it believes is the present.

As part of its odd functionality, it can’t remember any citizens that currently reside in RUIN, so it regards all citizens as newcomers and offers it’s less-than-helpful assistance. At this time, RACU has not deemed Gatesby as a threat or nuisance worthy of decommissioning. As Gatesby is unable to remember offences committed by others, it is often the recipient of random aggression. “Gatesby tipping” has become a pastime of juveniles acting out delinquent behaviour, as well as other occasional abuses. Regardless, it greets everyone with its standard cheery, helpful attitude, and truly wishes to please and find purpose in its attempts to assist others. On occasion, members of CETAE have provided Gatesby with repairs or spare parts to assist its ability to maintain itself.

The Competing Merchants - The Automaton Feud

In the intensity of the hustle and bustle of the Crucible, two well established shopkeepers add to the tension, calling out less-than-friendly remarks to each other as they work through their days. These two personify each other’s polar opposites. The age-old feud between Wolthon Blimbit, the local robotics shopkeeper for Blimbit’s Bits and Bots, and Galva Shashma, the Golem Constructor of Shashma’s Custom Golem Constructs, remains one of the many constants within the Crucible.

Each of their creations inherits a hatred for their maker’s sworn adversary. When the shopkeeping neighbours aren’t heckling each other’s customers about their “poor” choices to problems that both their services solve, the feud occasionally escalates in the form of Blimbit’s creations sparring with Shashma’s golems, or vice versa. Infrequently, RUIN authorities have had to intervene to prevent a danger to the public.

Wolthon Blimbit - Blimbit’s Bits and Bots
Wolthon Blimbit, the sole proprietor of Blimbit’s Bits and Bots, is a dwarf of diminutive stature, even as far as dwarves are concerned. His store is across the street from Shashma’s Custom Golem Constructs. Often described as more lanky, less stocky, his strength has always shone through not in his physical build, but through his creations and tinkering.

His earliest inventions were focused on augmenting his physical capabilities, such as the metal mechanized frame which he wears proudly to this day. He builds robotic solutions to everyday problems, and programs them with personalities to best serve their new owners. Some of his best-selling bots include small package drones, mechanized cargo mules, and stationary robotic fabricators. Seldomly, he’s created humanoid mechanical automatons with a wide range of capabilities, but always at great expense to the client. While he vehemently denies wrongdoing, it’s common knowledge that he occasionally creates small, skeletal bots with makeshift weapons and tools to interfere with Shashma’s storefront.

Galva Shashma - Shashma’s Custom Golem Constructs
Galva Shashma, the Saurian Conjurer, runs the Golem Shop across the street from Blimbit’s Bits and Bots. Her ritualistic dances performed while constructing golems have entertained passerbys for decades.

Her golems and constructs are touted as the highest quality. Her ability to form magical constructs from a variety of materials, and imbue them with a consciousness, purpose and loyalty to her customers, reaches a level of renown known across RUIN.

Her Golem Labourers are known to work in locations across RUIN, such as in Iron Fold as forge hands, in the Crucible as cargo haulers, and across RUIN her bird-like parcel carriers are seen delivering packages across the city.

While she insists she has been harassed by her neighbour for decades, she has been known to create small golems and send them on a mission to wreak havoc on Blimbit’s wares, when she’s feeling especially spiteful.

The Pathfinder
There is one citizen that sells her services as a guide through the Theseum District. Her prowess at predicting the changes of the Theseum District is well known, and she is believed to have delved the farthest towards the "centre" if such a location exists. She is an immensely paranoid individual, and is often seen dodging unseen forces even outside the district, where none of the chaos of the maze exists. Questions and conjectures of her sanity have been aired by many who know her, yet no one can argue the results she produces when navigating the maze of the Theseum District.

Warpwoven Skelfs
Found often near Theseum, these fragments of wire, metal, wood, and occasionally organic material have been fused into an entity of its own. These can sometimes shape into familiar patterns, resembling insects or skeletal rodents, but more commonly are presented as an amorphous collection of small appendages carrying a larger bulk of fragments and debris. The uncanny resemblance of organic anatomy is often found uncomfortable, with objects like buttons and marbles being positioned frequently where eyes would be expected.

It is unknown what causes them to form, but Warpwoven Skelfs are known for their propensity of foraging for materials, which are taken back to nests, presumably used as replacement parts or nest expansion. While they can be dangerous in numbers, for the most part they are more a pest. Their presence, however, invokes distant memories of their larger counterparts, and the stories of their emergence from Theseum’s epicentre generations ago.

The Librarian
The grim reaper of the mind. Buried under robes and a rebreather over his face, no features can be made out other than his crooked posture. He has mastered the extraction of thought, memory, and mind. While he provides services that are valuable to all, the grim and morbid nature of this creature makes him appalling to most who witness him.

Relics
Mind Shears
One of the most notable images associated with the Librarian are the tools adorning his hands.

Articulated fingers, each with long metal needle-like tools, extend from his wrists. These disturbing appendages are used to extract valuable information directly from the mind of his patients or victims.

In the right hands of a skilled practitioner, the Mind Shears are a precision tool that have a clear purpose. In the wrong hands, they can destroy the mental faculties of anyone who they are used on

The Vault of Sorrow
A lone vessel, kept in a dark, dusty corner of the library. The Librarian offers many services, one is to ease the pain of those who suffer from their experiences and loss. Such memories can taint a vessel, and rather than spread such damaging thoughts across the Library, the Librarian designated this unlucky vessel to house the pain of the whole city. It's rumoured that reading from the Vault of Sorrow can break one's mind, but bestow knowledge of so many of the citizen's deeply buried secrets.

DOWNLOADS

Music
By Coltrin Compositions
City of Ruin
Evermarsh

By McRoMusic
Iron Fold
The Library

Maps

By MarkDrummondJ
City of RUIN
Theseum Library
Ironfold Factories


By Zach Moeller
Evermarsh Boardwalk

Credits
Please go check out the other creators and their amazing existing catalogues!

Coltrin Compositions creates background music and themes for TTRPGs of every genre! No matter what you throw at your players, you'll find thematic songs and ambiences for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror settings and sessions. Patrons get access to 2-3 new tracks every month, including looped versions and lightweight files for use with VTTs such as Foundry, as well as commercial use rights. 

https://linktr.ee/coltrincompositions

McRoMusic is a fantasy music composer that releases weekly content on Patreon, releases albums on Bandcamp and streaming services, and frequently collaborates with your favorite TTRPG indie creators. McRoMusic can be found wherever you stream music and on Patreon.

https://patreon.com/mcromusic

Zach Moeller is an illustrator who makes VTT battlemaps and art assets for high fantasy, planar, and space fantasy campaigns.

https://patreon.com/zachmoeller