Hydra

Of all the strange places on the surface of Waste World, Hydra is perhaps the strangest. It lies on an eroded promontory in the Sea of Slime, a peninsula that had slowly sunk into the sea to become a chain of thousands of small islands. To the North, through treacherous and near-impassable swamps lies the Great Slime Jungle. On all other sides the city is bounded by the polluted seas of Waste World.

Huge bridges link the Hydran islands. Great gondolas pass along the canals and out into Hydra's mighty harbors. Enormous mushroom-like skyscrapers hang over the waters, blocking out the sun, shadowing the streets and canals below, reaching skyward out of the gloom as if stretching for light and freedom.

Above these lesser structures loom the Towers, monstrous arcologies, that dwarf all other buildings the way the trees of a forest dwarf the fungii of the forest floor. These Towers differ from all other starscrapers of Waste World. They do not look like man-made structures. They look as if they grew from the foundations of the islands like antediluvian trees, rather than were built by human hand.

The organic appearance of the Towers is no accident. In a way,they actually were grown. Each enormous building may have been built over a skeleton of plascrete and duralloy, but its walls are grown from chitin, and the engines which make life possible within it are living things shaped by the Biomancers of Hydra, rather than factory-made machines.

The Towers

Each Tower is unique in both appearance and internal structure, and each Tower reflects the nature of its inhabitants with unerring precision. The Tower of War is a squat and forbidding fortress. The Tower of Pleasure is a place of almost etherial beauty.

Each Tower is the home to a genclan, one of the genetically-altered noble houses that rule Hydra. It is at once a fortress and a factory and a shelter against the elements. Towers are as self-sufficient as starships, with their own recycling and air-purification systems, and their own sealed environments. To enter a Tower you must pass through airlocks and decontamination areas so that you do not pollute that environment.

Because of their enormous size, each Tower is a small self-contained city, with its own laws and taboos. The culture of a Tower can be as different from its neighbour as if they were separated by thousands of kilometers of Ocean rather than hundreds of meters of canal. Many people can and do live their entire lives within the security of their Tower, never leaving it even to visit the skyscrapers that share the same island. It is little wonder then that the folk of the Towers have a reputation for being inbred and introverted.

For the genclans a Tower is more than a physical location. It is a state of mind, a culture in which they have been immersed all their lives and which shapes even their smallest ideas and prejudices. In such environments people can become very strange indeed.

Scattered throughout the city are the Dark Towers. These ruined structures belonged to genclans that were all but wiped out in one of the Tower Wars or simply dwindled away to nothing. The Dark Towers are often abandoned or occupied by commoners. The ruins that surround the Dark Towers usually have a very bad reputation. Since, to force enough of the other Towers to band together and wipe it out, a genclan has to be spectacularly evil and threatening, this is hardly a surprise. Within these huge, bleak and brooding structures, the adventurous seek their fortune, looking for hidden treasure or ancient secrets. These islands sometimes become battlegrounds for the troops of other Towers.

Some of the genclans of the Dark Towers survive as renegades within the city. Such genclans usually enjoy an evil reputation. Many are roundly despised and hated by the others. Most Dark Tower clans end up on the Bridges or on the Island of the Damned.

The Islands

Each Tower generally occupies its own island and is surrounded by the lesser skyscrapers owned by its genclan. These mushroom-like buildings are home to the genclan's workers and servants and factories. Many are also barracks for mercenary troops. The power of the ruling genclan encompasses their entire island. Their laws are enforced by Tower troops. Once you set foot on an island you are most assuredly under the jurisdiction of its Tower, unless you come under a flag of truce and are protected by another genclan.

The Bridges

Some of the larger bridges are nearly a kilometer across. There is a saying in Hydra that the law stretches only as far as the Bridges. This is true. In general a genclan controls all of the island on which it dwells and enforces its own laws and customs on the folk who live there. The Bridges are something else. They are a no-man's land between the jurisdictions of rival genclans and crossing over them can sometimes have all the formality of crossing the borders of rival states.

Down through the centuries they have become freezones where the poor and those unaligned with any clan can live. They have been transformed from broad thoroughfares into warrens and mazes of narrow streets, with every inch of the structure covered barnacle-like by the hovels and shanties of the occupants. Sometimes, they become so worn out and so overloaded that they collapse into the canals killing thousands. Most people simply accept this as a fact of everyday life in Hydra. The nobility of the genclans use the Bridges as combination red-light areas and cheap flea markets. They are also neutral ground on which members of different clans can meet while being bound by the laws of neither.

The Canals

The Canals divide all the islands of Hydra. In some places they are little more than narrow open sewers. In others they are as wide as rivers and flushed clean by powerful currents. By ancient custom, passage of the canals is free to all. Some clans try to restrict trade and travel through the canals around their island but this is frowned on and can lead to war as others fight for right of passage.

The canals too are crammed with life. Tens of thousands dwell on barges in the canals. Some of these are eccentric and wealthy merchants and sorcerers whose houseboats are as luxurious as the interior of any Tower. Most are floating shanties, consisting of barely seaworthy junkboats lashed together to create floating towns. These are home to some of the poorest of Hydrans and a breeding ground for beggars, thieves and cutthroats. There is a thriving class of Canal Pirate who commit their criminal acts mostly under the cover of darkness.

The floating markets where merchants trade from their small sampans and junkboats are popular with the members of every class and genclan.

The Harbors

Hydra has three great harbors, the South, East and West Harbors. These enormous bays look out onto the Sea of Slime. Each is a mighty seaport in which thousands of ships can shelter from the turbulent oceans, and the terrible storms which lash the coasts. Around each harbor are many markets and merchant colonies. These come under freezone law, and are areas where, by ancient tradition, no Tower has jurisdiction. Since sea trade is so important to the prosperity of the city, most of the Towers maintain colonies in the islands that abut the harbor and the great wharves are overseen by mercenary guards paid for by a customs levy. Also by long tradition, the Harbormasters are drawn from the Guild of Merchants and possess no allegiance to any genclan. The harbors are one of the few areas of the city where a commoner has more power than the folk of the genclans. The areas around the harbors becoming hotbeds of mercantile activity, where every commoner dreams of making his fortune.

The Island of the Damned

This monstrous island lies just beyond the South Harbor. It is a freezone but a strange one. Since it is technically beyond Hydra it is a place of exile where many of the genclans of the Dark Towers end up. As such it has become a ferment of political intrigue as these clans scheme to regain some of their ancient power, or crossbreed with other Dark Tower clans in an attempt to create newer and more successful evolutionary strains. The genclans of Hydra look down on the folk of the Island as mongrels, and practitioners of evil sorcery. The folk of the Island return this contempt with hatred.

On the other hand, the Island is the place to find mercenaries, assassins and people with many strange and useful talents. Its folk are too hardy to be cleared out except at great cost. The one thing that can unite the folk of the Island is the threat of invasion by the Towers, and since the island is a monstrous warren of fortified buildings, and its people are fanatical in their defense, no one is likely to shift them. In theory no one is allowed on or off this island, but this law is not strictly enforced and many people come and go on strange errands under the cover of darkness.