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[Paid Members] Just Passing Through - People of the Wasteland - Port Erroneous

Port Erroneous is a city divided into two distinct worlds. The Old City, walled off and nearly inaccessible, is a fortress shrouded in mystery. Its rulers, known as the Yellow Kings, are seldom seen and never venture beyond their fortified walls. They are considered both rulers and priests, worshipped by some as the last true connection to the Relinquishers who abandoned Zalgul-3 five centuries ago. Those who live inside the Old City are privileged and secretive, rarely allowing anyone from the outside to enter. The Enforcers, the city’s heavily armed guards, are the only ones who sometimes cross into the outside world, but their presence is always a bad omen—whether they’re quelling a rebellion, executing harsh judgments, or asserting their dominance through acts of violence. For the majority who dwell in the shadow of the Old City’s towering walls, these moments are a reminder that they live in a world ruled by forces they cannot understand.

Surrounding the Old City is the Hive, a sprawling, ramshackle slum that houses the desperate masses clinging to whatever hope or protection they believe the city offers. Built from rusted scrap, scavenged materials, and the debris of countless failed dreams, the Hive is a chaotic labyrinth of narrow alleys, makeshift homes, and bustling black markets. Here, survival is the only law, and the people who live in the Hive are hardened by the daily struggle against hunger, violence, and disease. Despite this, many remain convinced that being near the Old City grants them some measure of safety from the horrors beyond Port Erroneous, whether that safety is real or imagined. The Hive is a pit of filth, crime, and despair, yet it teems with life and commerce, offering just enough opportunity for those who dare to hope for a better life—or at least a way to scrape by.

The Old City, with its ancient mek-steel walls and towering sky-docks, is almost a different world compared to the vile and pitiful reality of the Hive. Few outsiders have ever set foot inside its gates, and those who claim to have seen it often speak of immaculate streets, strange machinery still in operation, and the whispered presence of technology beyond anything the rest of Zalgul-3 can imagine. In contrast, the Hive is a seething mass of desperation, where life is cheap and the struggle to survive is constant. Yet, despite its squalor, the Hive is kept alive by the allure of the Old City—a distant, elusive hope that somehow, within those forbidden walls, lies the answer to escaping the hellish existence that defines life on Zalgul-3. Whether through faith in the return of the Relinquishers, loyalty to the Yellow Kings, or simple stubbornness, the people of Port Erroneous endure, balancing on the knife’s edge between ruin and salvation.

Creative Team

Writing and Design DMDave

Cartography Watabou

[Paid Members] Just Passing Through - People of the Wasteland - Port Erroneous

Comments

It'll be retrofuturistic a bit. I've been on a bit of wasteland/Mad Max kick lately. Also looking back through Dark Sun.

DM Dave

It at first glance reminds me of the ruins of Khara Khoto, also known as the "Black City," especially as it is on the Silk Road (commerce and safety real or imagined) Well done. It's too futuristic for me, but neat. It also gives me dune feels.

The Humble DM


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