Welcome to Vuldecia City...

The cool breeze sweeps down over Dutchman ave. and ruffles the feathers of a blue bird.

The small winged bird perched on a lamp post takes flight into the crystal night air. Phern sits on the cobblestone ground next to Tim, who was 36 years of age when Phern was born. He tells her of thieves and lords who live in the dark pathways of The Deeps. He shows her, with his scarred hands, where his friend was once stabbed and the tattoo designs of the Rat King. She sits quietly, fascinated by the tales of such a world that sits on the edge of her city, a place she is forbidden ever to enter. Her questions are detailed and direct, her words float out of her thin lips and seep heavily into the cool air. A world exists in her head of beasts and heroes who lurk in the depths of The Deeps, something far more interesting than the world she lives in now. Tim does nothing to extinguish this flame of interest in the young girl who he visits every night, food for stories, that's the deal they have met, the unspoken agreement. Dutchman is flooded with light as the door to Phern's home is swung open and her mother's booming voice fills the alley. 
"Phern, get in here this instant, tomorrow you have to run some errands and it's far beyond your bed time!"
Tim disappears behind the brick wall and Phern yells back, ensuring her prompt arrival. With a quick farewell to her aged friend, she trots back to her home, to sleep in a warm bed. This is Tim's signal to begin his long trek home.

The small sapphire bird lands on a perch outside of Castle Nirvana, its black eyes scan the land for a succulent worm to take back to its nest. Inside of Nirvana, two women argue in hushed voices outside of a wooden door.

Ruby's words are quick and direct, a sharp whisper in a long marble hallway.
"It's really your turn, last time I had woken her the entire castle was at my throat, it's like the flip of a coin; she's either extremely happy or superbly angry."
Opal tried to object, but Ruby silenced her with a swift exit, slamming the iron door behind her. Opal clenched her teeth and slowly opened the wooden door painted purple, peeking her head inside. Neura was still sound asleep in a large feathery bed, her dark skin so smooth like rolling hills. With the most calm and soothing voice she could summon, Opal whispered into Neura's ear,
"Lady Neura, the council is beginning shortly... Lady Neura?"
Slowly, Neura's eyes opened, light blue orbs scanned the servant's face for a brief moment and a soft smile came across her face. 
"Hello Opal, I thank you for the wake-up. How long do I have until the council is joined and they begin discussing meaningless matters of no importance to me?" Her cynical humor was comforting to the servant maid and she giggle a bit, relived to see her pleasant side.
"I believe it will begin in five minutes my lady, would you like me to prepare a dress for you?"
Neura smiles and put her hair about her shoulders in a rather average style. "No, that will not be necessary, I will go wearing my night gown. If they are to wake me from a pleasant sleep, they will see me as I feel fit." 
Again this soothed Opal's nerves even more, and she smiled as Neura rose from the bed and carelessly through the white hallway. 
"Please escort me Opal, I seem to have forgotten how to locate the council room." A coy smile tugged at her dark lips. 

The blue bird takes flight from Nirvana's walls with a writhing worm held tightly in it's sharp beak. The light night wind takes the small feathered creature to its nest in a tree circling the Sun Shrine.

Tim emerged from a patch of thick bushes into a large clearing, the moon hangs high above the Sun Shrine, a place that was once beautiful but from lack of upkeep, it had been reduced to a field of piled junk and broken stone. Grimy water sat idle in a fountain that use to spray clear water into the air, and the warm orange and yellow stones that composed the center statue were now brown and green, chunks of which were missing. In the silver light of deep midnight the shrine took on an eerie presence. Here, at the Sun Shrine during the moon's reign, Tim found peace and sanctuary. He moved over to the statue's base and sat below a stone sun, most of it's rays broken off and scattered across the field. 

Neura and Opal arrive before the massive iron doors of the Council Room, ten minutes late.

"Thank you for escorting me, you may retire to your chambers now." Neura gave a gracious bow of respect to Opal and entered the circular room with the tall dome ceiling. Opal peeked inside before the doors shut and Neura was enclosed.

She made her way to her seat, around the large circular table, everyone's eyes were fixed on Neura as her bare feet pattered against the black marble and her white night gown trailed behind her like an elegant dress. She sat, and smiled as the man who was speaking began again. 
"There's still the issue of the Sun Shrine being polluted, this city must be maintained and kept as beautiful as possible." He frowned as most of the twenty-person council sighed.
A large man stood from the table and spoke in a boisterous tone.
"We can't worry about beauty right now, Reath, right now we have to conclude the affair of the Dukes." he smirked at his opportunity to embarrass Neura, he turned a sharp tongue onto her. "Lady Neura, how do you feel about your father becomming a Duke? Surely you must have a say in the future of Vuldecia."
Neura spoke without a second of thought, turning to the blond princess, Vioca, as she stares back into blue eyes.
"Perhaps we should ask the king what his next decision will be... Princess Vioca, may we please hear what the king has to say on this matter? After all, you are the only person he allows to see him." All eyes turn to Princess Vioca with her golden blonde hair and dark brown eyes.
"My father did not discuss with me any plans about the council this evening, he is feeling rather ill and requested to be left alone. He did however mention the importance of militant action taken against The Deeps, there seems to be resistance coming from those cavernous regions." Her dark eyes scanned the room as talking began to boil loudly over the conflicting views of the council. Neura sighed and stood, being unnoticed she exited quietly, choosing not to endure another evening of pointless verbal warfare. It always seemed to be caused by one of Vioca's irrelevant ideas. 

In the chilly night air, the small blue bird feeds a squirming worm to its one surviving hatchling and rests down for the night.
 

In the center of the grand city, Phern sleeps soundly on the steps of Fountain Gigas.

The fountain is made from a solid stone, carved from the depths of the earth. The shape of the water-construct is that of a massive hand, stretching forth toward the sky- grasping for something that will never be there.As the water pours from the fingertips of the stone hand, Phern sleep sheepishly on the cool stone. 

In Castle Nirvana, a young woman, deep in sleep, tosses in her feathery bed.

The silk sheets cover her eloquent, curved body and her fair ebony skin reflects the soft light of mid-day as it filters through the wide window in Nirvana's East wall. Through her mind and in her dreams, she sees the same imagery she's grown accustom to viewing, the same dream that has plagued her for years. In her dream she sees a large woman bursting through a thin wooden door, her broad shoulders tear the iron lock from the wall and send scraps of metal joints flying off from the door; she could see the individual metal pieces as they scattered through the room. The woman is repeating something under her breath, but it is inaudible, there is no sound in the world of dreams. She scrambles to a small wooden table in the corner of the room and grasps a ring of thick metal keys. Without a second of thought, she exits the room and goes onto the street. The young woman doesn't recognize the dark, unwelcoming view of the grungy land as the thick key-holder frantically runs. Her and a small dog cross paths, both on their way with an important task, they collide. Dreams are fluid and there are gaps in time, the dark skinned woman doesn't notice much detail, but when the thick one falls, the ring of keys explodes, and small metal shapes scatter into the shadows. As the big woman makes impact with the cobblestone ground, this is when the sleeping girl wakes. 

Phern opens two brown eyes onto the azure sky.

"How long was I a'sleep?" She turns her young face to the fountain hand and in the silence, receives no reply. "Hmm." Phern lifts herself from the stone steps and wanders into the sunlight, onto Salamander- the street of vendors. It is lined with people and their carts, pushing and shoving their products onto the helpless customers who have nothing to give but their money. She quickly grabs two apples and runs as the apple seller erupts with anger. 

Back home, she sits at the wooden table, her mother turns from the stove to Phern, sighing deeply. 
"Phe, why do you insist on living like a delinquent? We're not poor, and the neighbors have begun their gossip. Kathy-Vhey has been telling everyone that you've been sleeping out in public again; we can't have people thinking that you're homeless!" Phern's mother gazed over her shoulder to her daughter until the silence was painful enough for her to turn back to the dinner that was cooking. 

Phern sighs, just as her mother, and moves to the window. There she sits, watching the sun decline under the horizon, waiting...

After the sun had fizzled into nothing and the sky was dark with diamond stars hanging in the deep night, after her and her mother had eaten their dinner, an old man appeared from behind a brick wall toward the end of the way. He waved innocently to the warm window which Phern sat patiently in. Excusing herself from the house, she slowly made her way to the end of Dutchman Ave. grasping the two red orbs in her small hands. When she reached the man she had given him the apples and smiled. He returned the friendliness with a smile of his own, filled with fatigue. His beard grew like roots out of his jaw and his clothing was almost as dirty as his face.
"How's life in The Deeps, Tim?" Phern giggled.

Dreamer, come.

The empty landscape of untouched earth stretches onto the horizon into the hazy sky. Centered within this lonely place falls a seed, soundlessly onto the hard soil. As soon as the seed came, it had gone, sucked down into the dirt without a single trace. So it was, barren and empty, motionless and lonely, with a single seed buried deep within the crust. 

A single night passed.

When the morning sun broke the clouds and scattered the shadows, it dawned on a new land. Through the silent night, a city was born; Vuldecia. The streets writhe with life and boom with noise, for the streets are the veins, and the people the blood. The city is alive; born in an evening. 

The city exists within no time boundaries, within no space. The laws are limitless yet impossible. You are a guest, enjoy your stay.

The city is round and on it's North-Eastern wall there rests the castle of the mighty, the home of the elite. The palace of black and white marble, Nirvana, stands gloriously above all else... for it must, it is the law, nothing else can surpass the might of Nirvana and it's royal family. 

In the lowest part, the Deeps.

Here, on the opposite side of Vuldecia, far away from Nirvana, here are The Deeps, where money is a myth. It is dark here and dirty there. The Deeps are deep, below ground level, on the same plane as the sewers. 

We neither start with Nirvana or The Deeps, we start here... in the center.

In the center of City Vuldecia, there is a fountain that sprays crystaline water into the air. On the ledge of these fountain steps sleeps a girl, her hair the color of the blackest night. She slumbers in the center of all life, the heart of the city, the core of this grand illusion. She is Phern, and she will bring the end to all life in this place.

Welcome to...

     ...the city of dreams...

      Vuldecia