Got the idea for this from The Night Land and Mortal Engines
The Sun and the Plane of Night
In this era, only one Sun breaks the endless expanse of the Night. The Sun is always overhead, and yet it moves, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. All civilised peoples follow the Sun, bringing their Cities with them, for to fall behind is to perish in the Night. The darkness harbours a heart-stopping cold, but also monsters guided by Evil Forces. These ancient powers have long pursued the Sun, and while they cannot harm it, they delight in destroying any of its followers who might stray beyond the circle of Day.
The Sun’s Movements
To be ahead of the Sun’s path is to be in Dawn, where crops are planted, and to be behind the Sun is to be in Dusk, where they are harvested. If you stand and watch patiently, the plants visibly grow in front of you, and if a man lives to old age, he will see ten thousand harvests. While Dawn is a place of fog, Dusk is a place of constant heavy rains.
Far Dawn to far Dusk measures about 120 miles, and Twilight is an indeterminate region stretching another 120 or so miles in each direction. The Sun usually moves slightly slower than walking pace, but sometimes flies swifter than a galloping horse, or pauses for a while. A slow Sun that travels straight leads to a rich and easy harvest, but when the Sun travels fast, especially when it changes its course, poor crops and famine result.
The Sun typically floats only two or three miles above the land, and there are legends of it settling briefly on mountains to commune with the prophets of yore. Nowadays it skirts around high places. Those who scale mountains to look down on the Sun tell vague and varied tales of what they see, but in any case this is a blasphemous act that none dare boast of doing themselves, and which often leads to madness.
Gossamer-tendrils can sometimes be found hanging down from the Sun, but these fall only in the scorching-hot region of Noon. Noon is the exclusive preserve of the Dwarves and their forge-wagons, as well as the Thri-Keen sacred Warriors of the Sun. Ordinary Men only ever see tendrils fallen to earth, those which the Thri-Keen who live in Noon did not keep for their own purposes. These are considered a good omen: all civilised men love the Sun more than their own lives, for the Sun brings life to all save the Evil Forces of the Night. While the tendrils bring good cheer to those who see them, they also set those who see them running for cover, as even the fallen gossamer carries a great power of lightning which kills anyone it touches, and tends to set things on fire. Copper rods are commonly employed to divert their energies safely.
Time-Keeping
About eight meal-times go by from planting in Dawn to harvesting in the Dusk, and this period is called a “Week”. “Days” don’t exist - the only Day is whatever region the Sun is gracing with its presence. But along with Weeks, people do refer to “Sleeps”, a vague stretch of time usually covering three meals. People tend to rest at random times, with different work teams, soldiers and families having their own cycles of sleep and wakefulness.
There are no stars or moons, and the only firm time-keeping is done with devices issued by the Cities. Longer time-keeping units such as “years” do exist, but are of interest only to administrators and scholars, as they have no impact on the life of ordinary folk. Weeks and Sleeps are the only common frames of reference.
Cities of the Unending Journey
The Cities of the Unending Journey carry all the hopes of the civilized races. Though Men are the main population, a caste of Dwarves maintains the engines and tank-tracks which keep every city moving fast enough to keep up with the Sun. Thri-Keen sacred warriors dwell in the scorching heat of Noon. Halfling alchemists fuel the engines with synthetic oil processed from certain crops. Elven hunters roam Twilight, slaying the edible beasts of the Night.
Humans make up the majority of craftsmen, farmer, labourers, and petty craftsmen. Black humans are the urban administrative class, but it is the generals of the Thri-Keen who hold ultimate power, when they choose to wield it.
All Elves are albino, all Dwarves have wrinkled leathery grey skin, and the Thri-Keen are insectoid. For the other races, there is an ethnic gradation, with the dark-skinned living close to the sun, while those with paler skin live further away. People of each shade of skin tend to congregate in their own Cities, as the difference in skin reflects tolerance of ambient temperature, not just resilience to sunburn or reliance on closeness of the Sun for good health. Cities are mostly ruled by the darker-skinned, and only blacks may be ordained as high-ranking priests.
Those with paler skin are seen as tainted by the Night, and race riots sometimes result. Elves are especially mistrusted, but when things turn ugly, they flee as easily from Sun-dwellers as they do from Night-monsters when hunting in Twilight.
There is a strong trade of seeds taken from the harvest to the sowing-grounds of Dawn, as well as between the Elven scavenger-hunters and the Cities, and the Dwarven forge-wagons and the Cities. Elves are not permitted to enter Cities, but do not wish to live so close to the Sun’s heat anyway.
Cities commonly ally themselves in pairs, with one sowing crops in Dawn, and the other harvesting those crops in the Dusk. But whenever the Sun changes course, this can lead to conflict over farmland ownership, as no-one wishes to be left scrounging a weak crop in Twilight.
A City is simply a collection of structures, driven by a common set of Engines, which claims the dignity of multiple Tiers. The largest City at present has seven Tiers. New cities are built sporadically, or abandoned if too many perish at the hands of famine or the Night.
Wars of the Day-Dwellers
The Thri-Keen fight with gossamer-wrapped pikes imbued with lightning, their own bodies share a fraction of the Sun’s warmth, and they have certain other weapons besides, such as throwing-stars and their claws. The other races fight with spears, axes, bows, and other mundane weapons. Only black humans may own swords and metal armour. The dwarves have a small number of bolt-throwing leather-bound cannons.
Conflict between Cities is common, but is almost always focused around the mass theft of grain, cattle and other goods, as well as the pursuit of blood-feuds, assassinations, and duels. Any conflict that goes beyond these petty concerns risks causing the Thri-Keen to intervene, at which point they may decimate both sides.
Most full-scale battles which occur are against the monsters of the Night, when incited by the greater minds among the Evil Forces. Sometimes the Day-dwellers see a strange ruin in the Twilight, which is close enough to search without freezing, but far enough from the sun that the Forces of the Night direct their hordes to fight over it. At other times the Sun itself may travel into a dense bank of fog, and take a long time to burn it away, leaving a window in which the armies of the Night may even enter the region that would normally be Dusk and Dawn.
The Sea Reavings
The worst such battles always occur on the ice seas. The lands over which the Sun travels are usually icebound flatlands, which thaw ahead of the Sun’s approach, ready for planting. The Sun avoids mountain ranges. When it travels over the ice of the sea, crops cannot be planted, and only the Elven huntsmen are able to procure new food. Worse yet, the ice melts all the way from Dawn to Dusk, forcing everyone to travel in the Twilight around the Sun, where the monsters of the Night attack in full force.
The Thri-Keen show their worth at this time more than any, as they can no longer stride beneath the Sun but instead roam the Twilight perimeter, scattering the monsters with their arrival. Yet even they must flee when one of the titanic Evil Forces approaches makes its presence felt, for their psychic power can turn friend to foe. Fortunately, most of the Evil Forces are too heavy to walk the ice, especially where it is weakened by the Sun; they are heavier than the Cities.
Every time the Sun passes over the icy sea, a long period of terror and famine results, and only a fraction of the Day-Dwellers survive, having abandoned most of the cities. The heat and the fulgurine gossamer-tendrils make it very hard to sail ships beneath the Sun, in Dawn, Noon and Dusk. Yet the Dwarves always run a few ironclad crafts there, carrying whatever goods or machines are too valuable to risk in the monstrous sieges prosecuted against the Cities in Twilight.
Goods and Supplies
-Wood is very rare, as trees only grow in small gardens laid out inside Cities. Paper is extremely rare, so vellum is often used for writing.
-Mining is confined to only the most superficial deposits, though sometimes the Dwarves use high explosives for rapid excavation. Most metal is obtained from scrap, and either way it is highly rare and valuable.
-The standard materials for structures, clothes and miscellaneous containers are bones, tendons and leather.
-Grain grows swiftly enough to be harvested 30 hours after planting, though more time allows for a richer harvest.
-Water can be collected from Twilight in the form of snow, or from the heavy rainfalls of Dusk.
-Cattle fall into two categories, those which can keep up with the Sun by themselves, and those which must be brought along in Cities and cattle-wagons.
-Hunting largely takes place in Twilight, targeted at the large creatures of the Night.
-Weapons: because both wood and metal are rare, most weapons are made of bone, and arrows are never cost-effective to make except to carry enchantments. Slings are more common, using stones instead of leaden bullets. Incendiary grenades and flamethrowers, both fuelled by the oil from certain crops, are more prevalent than archery.
The Sun and the Plane of Night
In this era, only one Sun breaks the endless expanse of the Night. The Sun is always overhead, and yet it moves, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. All civilised peoples follow the Sun, bringing their Cities with them, for to fall behind is to perish in the Night. The darkness harbours a heart-stopping cold, but also monsters guided by Evil Forces. These ancient powers have long pursued the Sun, and while they cannot harm it, they delight in destroying any of its followers who might stray beyond the circle of Day.
The Sun’s Movements
To be ahead of the Sun’s path is to be in Dawn, where crops are planted, and to be behind the Sun is to be in Dusk, where they are harvested. If you stand and watch patiently, the plants visibly grow in front of you, and if a man lives to old age, he will see ten thousand harvests. While Dawn is a place of fog, Dusk is a place of constant heavy rains.
Far Dawn to far Dusk measures about 120 miles, and Twilight is an indeterminate region stretching another 120 or so miles in each direction. The Sun usually moves slightly slower than walking pace, but sometimes flies swifter than a galloping horse, or pauses for a while. A slow Sun that travels straight leads to a rich and easy harvest, but when the Sun travels fast, especially when it changes its course, poor crops and famine result.
The Sun typically floats only two or three miles above the land, and there are legends of it settling briefly on mountains to commune with the prophets of yore. Nowadays it skirts around high places. Those who scale mountains to look down on the Sun tell vague and varied tales of what they see, but in any case this is a blasphemous act that none dare boast of doing themselves, and which often leads to madness.
Gossamer-tendrils can sometimes be found hanging down from the Sun, but these fall only in the scorching-hot region of Noon. Noon is the exclusive preserve of the Dwarves and their forge-wagons, as well as the Thri-Keen sacred Warriors of the Sun. Ordinary Men only ever see tendrils fallen to earth, those which the Thri-Keen who live in Noon did not keep for their own purposes. These are considered a good omen: all civilised men love the Sun more than their own lives, for the Sun brings life to all save the Evil Forces of the Night. While the tendrils bring good cheer to those who see them, they also set those who see them running for cover, as even the fallen gossamer carries a great power of lightning which kills anyone it touches, and tends to set things on fire. Copper rods are commonly employed to divert their energies safely.
Time-Keeping
About eight meal-times go by from planting in Dawn to harvesting in the Dusk, and this period is called a “Week”. “Days” don’t exist - the only Day is whatever region the Sun is gracing with its presence. But along with Weeks, people do refer to “Sleeps”, a vague stretch of time usually covering three meals. People tend to rest at random times, with different work teams, soldiers and families having their own cycles of sleep and wakefulness.
There are no stars or moons, and the only firm time-keeping is done with devices issued by the Cities. Longer time-keeping units such as “years” do exist, but are of interest only to administrators and scholars, as they have no impact on the life of ordinary folk. Weeks and Sleeps are the only common frames of reference.
Cities of the Unending Journey
The Cities of the Unending Journey carry all the hopes of the civilized races. Though Men are the main population, a caste of Dwarves maintains the engines and tank-tracks which keep every city moving fast enough to keep up with the Sun. Thri-Keen sacred warriors dwell in the scorching heat of Noon. Halfling alchemists fuel the engines with synthetic oil processed from certain crops. Elven hunters roam Twilight, slaying the edible beasts of the Night.
Humans make up the majority of craftsmen, farmer, labourers, and petty craftsmen. Black humans are the urban administrative class, but it is the generals of the Thri-Keen who hold ultimate power, when they choose to wield it.
All Elves are albino, all Dwarves have wrinkled leathery grey skin, and the Thri-Keen are insectoid. For the other races, there is an ethnic gradation, with the dark-skinned living close to the sun, while those with paler skin live further away. People of each shade of skin tend to congregate in their own Cities, as the difference in skin reflects tolerance of ambient temperature, not just resilience to sunburn or reliance on closeness of the Sun for good health. Cities are mostly ruled by the darker-skinned, and only blacks may be ordained as high-ranking priests.
Those with paler skin are seen as tainted by the Night, and race riots sometimes result. Elves are especially mistrusted, but when things turn ugly, they flee as easily from Sun-dwellers as they do from Night-monsters when hunting in Twilight.
There is a strong trade of seeds taken from the harvest to the sowing-grounds of Dawn, as well as between the Elven scavenger-hunters and the Cities, and the Dwarven forge-wagons and the Cities. Elves are not permitted to enter Cities, but do not wish to live so close to the Sun’s heat anyway.
Cities commonly ally themselves in pairs, with one sowing crops in Dawn, and the other harvesting those crops in the Dusk. But whenever the Sun changes course, this can lead to conflict over farmland ownership, as no-one wishes to be left scrounging a weak crop in Twilight.
A City is simply a collection of structures, driven by a common set of Engines, which claims the dignity of multiple Tiers. The largest City at present has seven Tiers. New cities are built sporadically, or abandoned if too many perish at the hands of famine or the Night.
Wars of the Day-Dwellers
The Thri-Keen fight with gossamer-wrapped pikes imbued with lightning, their own bodies share a fraction of the Sun’s warmth, and they have certain other weapons besides, such as throwing-stars and their claws. The other races fight with spears, axes, bows, and other mundane weapons. Only black humans may own swords and metal armour. The dwarves have a small number of bolt-throwing leather-bound cannons.
Conflict between Cities is common, but is almost always focused around the mass theft of grain, cattle and other goods, as well as the pursuit of blood-feuds, assassinations, and duels. Any conflict that goes beyond these petty concerns risks causing the Thri-Keen to intervene, at which point they may decimate both sides.
Most full-scale battles which occur are against the monsters of the Night, when incited by the greater minds among the Evil Forces. Sometimes the Day-dwellers see a strange ruin in the Twilight, which is close enough to search without freezing, but far enough from the sun that the Forces of the Night direct their hordes to fight over it. At other times the Sun itself may travel into a dense bank of fog, and take a long time to burn it away, leaving a window in which the armies of the Night may even enter the region that would normally be Dusk and Dawn.
The Sea Reavings
The worst such battles always occur on the ice seas. The lands over which the Sun travels are usually icebound flatlands, which thaw ahead of the Sun’s approach, ready for planting. The Sun avoids mountain ranges. When it travels over the ice of the sea, crops cannot be planted, and only the Elven huntsmen are able to procure new food. Worse yet, the ice melts all the way from Dawn to Dusk, forcing everyone to travel in the Twilight around the Sun, where the monsters of the Night attack in full force.
The Thri-Keen show their worth at this time more than any, as they can no longer stride beneath the Sun but instead roam the Twilight perimeter, scattering the monsters with their arrival. Yet even they must flee when one of the titanic Evil Forces approaches makes its presence felt, for their psychic power can turn friend to foe. Fortunately, most of the Evil Forces are too heavy to walk the ice, especially where it is weakened by the Sun; they are heavier than the Cities.
Every time the Sun passes over the icy sea, a long period of terror and famine results, and only a fraction of the Day-Dwellers survive, having abandoned most of the cities. The heat and the fulgurine gossamer-tendrils make it very hard to sail ships beneath the Sun, in Dawn, Noon and Dusk. Yet the Dwarves always run a few ironclad crafts there, carrying whatever goods or machines are too valuable to risk in the monstrous sieges prosecuted against the Cities in Twilight.
Goods and Supplies
-Wood is very rare, as trees only grow in small gardens laid out inside Cities. Paper is extremely rare, so vellum is often used for writing.
-Mining is confined to only the most superficial deposits, though sometimes the Dwarves use high explosives for rapid excavation. Most metal is obtained from scrap, and either way it is highly rare and valuable.
-The standard materials for structures, clothes and miscellaneous containers are bones, tendons and leather.
-Grain grows swiftly enough to be harvested 30 hours after planting, though more time allows for a richer harvest.
-Water can be collected from Twilight in the form of snow, or from the heavy rainfalls of Dusk.
-Cattle fall into two categories, those which can keep up with the Sun by themselves, and those which must be brought along in Cities and cattle-wagons.
-Hunting largely takes place in Twilight, targeted at the large creatures of the Night.
-Weapons: because both wood and metal are rare, most weapons are made of bone, and arrows are never cost-effective to make except to carry enchantments. Slings are more common, using stones instead of leaden bullets. Incendiary grenades and flamethrowers, both fuelled by the oil from certain crops, are more prevalent than archery.
