“The origin city, the cradle of pokemorph civilization within the underground. It is here that untold wonders can be found, and terrible secrets are kept at bay where they can do us no harm. Canal City feeds the underground and provides its ample water supply those nearby. The nobles have overseen all of pokemorph kind from their ancestral homes at the resevoir.” -From “A Guide to Canal City”
Canal City, sometimes referred to as the Origin City, is the center of the below world. Built into the wall of the largest of the known underground Caverns which houses the massive resrvoir, the city itself is built around three of it’s namesake: The three large Canals that bring water from the Resevoir Dam’s outputs to the fields and other caves beyond.
Outside of the City are vast mushroom fields that provide much of the food for the underground. Also notable that the ceiling of the Cavern is liberally coated in moonstones, providing a dim but serviceable day/night cycle for the whole cavern.
The city proper is a combination of both it’s multi-century lifetime and the knowledge and techniques of the nobles. Electricity is available through the city, and most pokemorphs outside of the Exbow district and slums can live a comfortable, if basic, lifestyle.
Inspiration: 1910s Europe/ Venice.
City History #
Canal City was founded about 500 years ago, by the group of Pokemorphs who left the surface to live underground. This group of Pokemorphs were led by a leader so charismatic that followers were considered cult-like.
But he wasn’t popular due to underhanded manipulation: a lot of his beliefs that he shared and promoted were very popular among everybody, especially due to the circumstances that led to the Pokemorphs living underground.
Many of his beliefs stem from this core concept: all people desire to do good and are inherently good people. However, people are also inherently flawed. Problems are not solved by getting rid of bad people or fighting until the bad people go away, but with great empathy and unity, even if it doesn’t benefit you.
Although many of this very early history has long been forgotten, the tenets have been passed down. The most important is because people are inherently good, charity must be treasured above all else. Not only to be good, but to help others improve their well being so they don’t succumb to their flaws. There’s also many other core philosophies about forgiveness and mercy throughout.
These philosophies have led Canal City to prefer exiling Pokemorphs over the years instead of execution, prison, or forced labour. Many of these exiles ended up being the ancestors of many living in Scrap Town, Basalt City, and other towns today.
Over time, the philosophy as become twisted as Canal City became hierarchial. Nobles are “less flawed” than to commons which justifies they’re power, but flawed enough that commonors are expected to unconditionally forgive any grievances they may have. They also justify their power saying them giving everyone education, food, and employment is charitable, and citizens are expected to work hard in turn to be good.
The cultural of charity is still alive and well despite that. The guild’s success mostly comes from successfully appealing to the heartstrings of the right nobels of Canal City, namely by showing how much they’re improving the citizen and their lives. Many join the guild with this selfless spirit they were taught to embrace, some possibly in spite of the noble’s views of kindness. In fact, even the guild itself was inspired by returning to the core roots of these altruistic views.
There’s one other tenet that has also been passed down Canal City’s history: an aversion to human artifacts. It is unsure why this came to be, but to this day, Canal City’s central government - an organization that even many nobles aren’t privy too - care very much about upholding this belief.
Architecture #
The architecture of Canal City is like a modern reimagining of Ancient Venice. Buildings are constructed of sturdy stone with mushwood fascias or metal inlays, and most buildings out to the middle town are both artistic and decorative to show the power and culture of the Nobles within the city. Built around the Canals means that most buildings will have a dock available for the ferries to stop at as a primary mode of transportation, with electric mopeds scurrying about on smaller side streets.
Open park-like areas with benches and decorative flora are also available utilizing biolumenscent mushrooms for mood lighting as well as statues and careful rock placement.
Many activity hub areas have a nearby cafe that has an open seating area both Canal-side and streetside to better serve people coming in, and the general feeling of the architecture is storied and comfortable.
Towards the edge of the city, when the stone buildings make way for Mushwood buildings, the architecture starts to take on a bit more of a tudor-styled slant, which is an indicator that the less affluent part of the city has been entered.
Social Life #
Canal City is a city defined by order, defined boundaries, and, unfortunately, classism. The nobles, the most powerful and wealthy of the city, outright live completely segregated from the common citizen by the reservoir. The commercial and civil services make a ring around the reservoir from the east, forming that boundary. Among the citizens, they live in clearly defined districts where wealth gets you closer to the center of the city. The absolute poorest wretches symbolize this divide the worse: forced by circumstance to live in the outskirts of the city with the very infrastructure designed so many don’t even notice their plight. In a city built on charity, the cognitive dissonance of wealth inequality is resolved by simply making the poor invisible.
Despite that impression, Canal City isn’t snoresville when it comes to actual social life and entertainment. Down Canal is where most of the action happens, famous for its cafes. With the variety of brews of mushroom coffee, they create a nexus where normally segregated classes intermingle and discuss news, philosophy, and even radical ideas. It’s also a common for some to take their drinks and see the public performance arts that often play there. Even deeper in the metaphorical underground is the art scene that even outright values chaos in defiance to the city, constantly seeking the latest in the avant garde.
The rest of the city in comparison is a bit more quiet and mundane. The shopping districts themselves have a consumerist atmosphere to them and tend to attract the most tourism. Up Canal is in a way a polar opposite to down canal: A quiet, peaceful waterway overlooking the beautiful cavern farms Canal City supports. A great place to crack open a book, or simply contemplate life.
Technology #
Canal City is interesting in the fact that it charts the slow change of technology from the Founding of the First City, to the modern era. The noble district, Dam, and the inner ring are all built like venitian buildings out of materials of incredible strength and durability that cannot be duplicated. As the city built up and away from the dam, the materials changed to more current forms of concrete, mushwood, and plaster.
Electricity is fairly well available to the edge of the middle town, where underground pre-planned conduit converts to above ground hanging wires. Charging locations for electric mopeds are easily found, and electric lights help illuminate the city when the great cavern above goes dim. Electric trains connect the city to the farms outside, and the farming technology makes use of many electric-powered tools to aid in planting and harvesting. While the architecture might say early, decorative venetian, the technology available to those with means can get quite modern in the specific things that Canal City is known for.
The largest part of Canal City is of course, their Canals, which provide both available motive power to some buildings through in-line water turbines to a primary method of transportation.
Of recent note has been the addition of a new factory complex to provide for mass production of complex parts. This is designed to provide even more output of Canal City’s available technology to the underground as well provide a pathway to mass produce specific items as needed by the Nobility.
The depths of technology available to Canal City aren’t fully known, as they claim to hold the great old libraries of the ancients with all their information within the Noble Estates. However, much of this is forbidden knowledge, leading many to postulate what incredible things could eventually be added to the general public.
Politics #
Politics in Canal City is an oligarchical system: citizens for the most part see it as just another part of life they have no agency in. The main legislature and executive powers are outright a black box that enact new laws in complete shadows, usually in benefit of the nobles. The only concrete good thing that can be said about them is that their original directive is uncorrupted: even the nobles are banned from accessing human technology and they enforce the ban with prejudice.
The Justice system, on the other hand, is surprisingly meritocratic and egalitarian. The system is an adversarial system with no jury: while the two parties argue their case, the judge makes the ultimate decision on the interpretation of law. Said judge’s appointment is made within the justice system based on their ability as a lawyer previously, and the tradition is strong enough to repel any attempts of outside bribery or coercion. The nobles can simply hire the best lawyers, but even the poorest can have their day in court if they prove themselves of wit and have the facts on their side.
Education #
Canal City provides free schooling to all children through primary school. For non-nobles, additional education can be paid for either through tuition costs or work at the University, apprenticeship, or by being vouched for by a wealthy family or Noble.
Noble children are provided for full secondary education for a specialty as determined by their family. Nobles are also provided the option of private tutors within the Canal City University.
The general education level of even the workers in Canal City is fairly high as a general standard. Liteacy is nearly universal and understanding of arithmatic and some advanced math is provided to all. There is even classes available on History and Art available as the cultural capital of the underground.
Security and Military #
At one point, Canal City was the only population in the Underworld, and didn’t have to concern itself with defending sovereignty. Therefore, the military that developed in Canal City isn’t fully comparable to a modern military.
What Canal City does have is a security force, which acts as a deterrent to crime and as emergency respondant. This applies to both city security and farmland security - after all, thieving has been common throughout the years due to ever-present food supply issues. Although there is understanding that work in both these areas are distinct, they’re organized as one force.
When Canal City and the rest of the underworld went to war, they expanded the security force rapidly who then acted as soldiers. After all, the war was faught over control of the farms, and farm security was this force’s responsibility.
After the war ended, the security force has shrunk due to peacetime, although remains large due to the enlarged presence of Rogue Morphs. Training in the security force can be militaristic at times, especially as Canal City anticipates the possibility of the future war. But overall, both the “police” and “military” are mixed together under the banner of security.