ormos
The City of Gold
The city of Ormos puts heavy emphasis on wealth, appearance, and status. These borders between social classes or parts of the hierarchy are physically present within the city, with it being split between the Overside and the Underside. Each side is further divided apart, with the Underside being vertically separated (rich on top) and the Overside having various rings around the centre (rich in centre).
Ormos is known as the City of Gold due to its value of wealth and its deep underground mines that produce much of Aklaesia's gold.
Overside
The overside is a prestigious city, with a culture heavily focused on wealth and family name. They value public appearance / presentation at high regard (eg. being polite and forming social alliances), and thus also have a prominent artistic scene.
Aristocratic families
Due to it's highly wealth-centric culture, Ormos is ruled by three main aristocratic families:
The Oriel house (___ - 200y BC) - House of the Arts / House of Jewels
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Visual arts, architecture, fashion
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Includes managing the architecture and visual appearance of the city, feeding into the cutural value of appearances and image.
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The family is split into 3 families, each run by one of the children of the previous head of family.
- The first house is sort of the "main" leader of the family. The brother than runs this house is the one who rules over the entire family. They manage more of the political side of things whilst the second and third houses do more of the actual architecture.
- 👑 Ashlar Oriel is part of the second family
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Erwin house - House of gold
- manage wealth / trade (most direct connection with the underside mines)
- Elston Erwin
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- manages politics and social relations
- international relations with neighbouring countries / kingdoms
- (including overseeing the police, managing permits, etc)
- Emwhytte Chalor
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Erwhytte, Emwhytte, Elston, Ivrine
All 3 families own a third of Ormos's wealth. They all oversee law and order within the city together.
Landmarks
The overside is organised into distinct rings, with the outermost being filled with lower-class and travellers, and the innermost being for the wealthiest.
- At the centre of the city is a large building with a tower in the middle, split into three sections- this is where the three aristocratic houses live and where the elevator to the underside lies.
- Although smaller schools are present in each ring, next to the city centre is ==The Academy==, the school that the most prestigious students attend. The Academy's students range from aged 11-19, and is split into three schools: arts, gold, and politics, each overseen by one of the three houses. Students engage in general education until year 4, where they choose to continue their studies in one of the three schools.
- ==The Oriel Gallery== lies next to The Academy's School of Arts. Named after its founder, the gallery showcases artworks by Ormos's citizens as well as selected students from The Academy. To have one's artwork featured in this gallery is an achievement of high honor and prestige.
Visual appearance
One of the first things you may notice upon entering Ormos is its beautiful architecture. Filled with shades of white marble, golden rims, and teal crystals, the city is a sight to behold.
Underside
The underside is basically HSR's underground or Arcane's undercity. It's filled with crime and is mostly ruled by street gangs.
There's a set of 3 vertical elevators in the very middle that allows access between the over and underside. It can also be used to move between levels within the underside, though most people just use stairs since it's hard to access (at the very middle and often overrun by large gangs). The elevator is mostly used by miners to transport tools or goods to and from the overside.
It has a mostly vertical layout. Different "classes" is based upon this verticality. The richer people (although still poor compared to the overside) live closer to the surface. The worst slums are at the very bottom, within what is known as "The Hollows". This is where 🐍 Alyssa Dolion and 🥀 Emara Dolion are from.
The centre of the underside is a tall elevator for the miners which leads up to the overside. This is how people travel between the over and underside. Although, within the underside, regular citizens can still only use the bridges and stairs; the elevator is just for miners and oversiders.
Known gangs:
Travel between sides
The main connection between both sides is through the elevator in the centre of the underside. Oversiders can enter as they wish (although most do not wish) but to enter the overside from the underside, you need a permit (The entrance is guarded by overside forces). Permits are similar to ID cards. Anyone born in Ormos overside has a permit. Those entering from outside receive traveller's permits.
There are a few other illegal exits into the overside that undersiders use to escape.
History
The separation
The underside was originally just a mining operation. Due to Ormos's underground being highly rich in ores and minerals, this was their main export and way of making money. Mining was often seen as a lowly job, only taken up by the poorest to make money to survive. Small shacks were built in the underside for the miner's to make extended stays. This expanded as the poorest looked for longer and longer shifts to make more money. New miners struggling to find work joined since there were barely any requirements and application processes; basically anyone could get in.
As more miners joined, competition increased and sparked small bits of crime from desperate people wanting money. The guards were initially sent down to help with this, but many were never caught. As time passed, criminals on the run began fleeing down to the underside to hide. People who wanted freedom from the arrogant aristocratic folk also came.
Population grew, and some began raising families in the area with neighbours providing cheap (but questionable) healthcare and resources in place of being shunned in the overside. Street gangs began popping up, and eventually, the overside stopped sending guards down here as it was deemed too dangerous. They would only come down if mining operations stopped. Any undersider who wished to escape to the top would be treated as criminals and street thugs.
Fall of the three families
At the time of the war, Ormos was once an oligarchy run by 3 aristocratic families. They rose to rule as the three richest families in the region- basically the rich get richer, poor get poorer.
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