“By harnessing the electrical current generated by the cheek-based spark pads, it is possible to create a temporary but effective charging system utilizing these coils of copper wire surrounding a steel coil—we can further improve this by smoothing out the natural variances in voltage and amperage through using electrolytic canisters and carbon resistance tracks. While hardly useful near Canal City, it could allow for use of some vehicles deep within the underground when access to the grid isn’t available…” —Professor Shen Virtanen, Canal City University
«Coils surrounding a coil? Should the second one be “core”?»
The general level of understanding in the underground is a strange mix of several real-world eras. The original pokemorphs of legend did what they could to bring with them knowledge of the lost world above in order to better prepare their descendants for a life of limited space and resources, but that information was encoded on ancient human data-storage-and-retrieval artifacts that have long since been lost to time. All that’s left is the information that could be transcribed into book form. Thus, literacy has been entrenched within the culture below, and books are common. But as the centuries have passed, some scientific knowledge has been continually used and kept in circulation. Anything that is useful spread. But some was simply relegated to the dustbins of ancient noble vaults or lost completely—and some was dangerous enough to be sequestered away. As such, the world can seem surprisingly anachronistic: some things are archaic, some are modern, and much lies between.
The general atmosphere of a large settlement is determined by what they found useful at the beginning and then built upon. As you move out to smaller settlements this is a fairly steep drop-off in the level of technology employed due to the cost of maintenance in both the resources required, and supply chains to move them.
Animal husbandry does exist in the underground; feral pokemon are used as livestock or labor sources, although no purely domesticated breeds exist. Keeping feral pokemon around can get very exciting if they are mistreated or decide they are done.
The underground treats a lot of technology as a gift from the ancient ancestors, so care and gilding are often used when things are built. If you need a good example of the level of decoration involved, take Victorian-era steampunk design but replace steam and brass with electricity and cables as a starting point.
This document is a general overview with a few specific examples. Details for Canal City, and Basalt City are available in their respective articles.
Energy and Power #
Electricity is a well-known force, especially among electric types. As the key methodology for generating electricity remains mixing magnetic fields and rotational movement, electrical systems are probably the most widespread technological infrastructure in the underground. Canal City has hydroelectric power from the dam that created Reservoir Lake, carefully maintained and controlled by the noble houses for the city which has since far outgrown the original capacity of this system. Basalt City takes advantage of incredibly heat-resistant pipes to directly boil water in their magma rivers into the steam that runs their geothermal power plants. Their generational capacity gives them the excess to cover Canal City’s deficits—and make bank doing it—as well as sell power to several outlying settlements. Scrap Town had the most mysterious situation: massive substations at key points throughout the city, all wired in to some ancient source that has yet to be found; those that have tried all fell deathly ill before they could figure it out.
Smaller towns tend to get by with what they have available. Those created as an offshoot of a larger settlement will generally feature a long-distance mains cable routed to a central power hub that can charge electric devices and provide a place to do more power-intensive tasks such as crafting or metallurgy. Many independent towns are built on underground rivers so that water wheels can scavenge some electricity or even straight mechanical power from the motion. Treadmills for the same purpose are not unheard of. In the few towns that have cause to exist without a river or a wired line, electric types themselves can provide a small amount of power for critical uses at the cost of exhaustion. It’s rare for any small town to have electricity run to most of its buildings.
On occasion, coal and steam engines find use, but the constraint of the caves means the buildup of toxic smoke forces these uses to be either temporary or emergency. The air circulation through the underground means unhappy people will come searching for new sources of air pollution.
Battery technology is quite advanced, with life expectancy rated in years and energy density equivalent to our LiPo technology. While usage is widespread, the creation of these energy cells is a Canal City secret. Human artifacts can contain even more efficient energy cells that can be carefully removed and wired to other devices at some risk to the tinkerer.
Transportation #
As pokemorphs are a fairly active lot, walking is the primary mode of transportation. In the larger caves, flying types can stretch their wings, and those that know the move Fly can really let loose. Through major canals and underwater rivers, water types can simply swim to their destination, and they can do it at incredible speed if they know Surf. But not everyone can use such specialist transportation and not all caves are conducive to it, so many other modes of transportation are available.
However, due to the nature of the cave network, many of these are limited to the cities themselves or carefully dug and graded routes. Raw caves range from rough to downright gnarled and are generally intraversable to vehicles, especially with larger pokemorphs aboard.
Personal Travel #
The most popular form of transportation everywhere is the electric moped. A simple two-wheeled vehicle running on inflated tires made out of a mushroom rubber, mopeds can carry up to two average-sized pokemorphs for several days of travel on a single charge. The second seat can be replaced with a small cargo platform to haul goods to and fro as well. These are found all over in designs branded by different crafters, built from motors, batteries, and other components available from Canal City industrialists.
The electric quad is the larger cousin of the moped. Found outside the large cities, along the outskirts of larger caves and along routes that have already been graded and cleared. Running on four wheels gives them a bit more stability and the larger frame and motor allows them to utilize a trailer: you will generally see these moving goods between established locations that trains do not service.
For nobility there are also fully enclosed vehicles: longer, four-wheeled, climate controlled boxes of luxury that keep the nobles satisfied and isolated from those beneath them—on the thoroughfares of the cities they reside in at least.
Finally, seen everywhere, but especially where charging is unavailable, the trusty bicycle is still alive and well. Cheap, reliable, effective. Tuk tuks, motor-assist-optional passenger-carrying trikes, are also quite ubiquitous.
Canal City makes such extensive use of gondolas and small barges for moving people and goods that we’d be remiss not to mention them here. They’re quite the exception as most underground rivers are not calm enough for boat traffic.
Long Range Travel #
Canal City and Basalt City both flaunt their wealth by moving people and product on electric rail, making the most routine trips and deliveries painless. Specialized cars are built for various purposes to a rail standard worked out among the early underground trainmakers.
Another show of wealth, as well as an attempt at unity between the two cities’ noble families, is the prototype hanging monorail that runs the tunnels between Canal City and Basalt City. It keeps the floor clear and the vehicles well away from any non-flying ferals.
Communications #
Radio communication runs into a significant issue in the underground due to the density and composition of the strata. Inside the cities, however, AM radio is used for news and entertainment, and a repeater station connects Canal City and Basalt City, allowing the two to share some stations.
There’s also a bustling amateur scene of ad-hoc radio operators. Electric types are especially common among them. This activity is strictly licensed around Canal City.
For speedy communication, the well-off (or pokemorphs hired by them) sometimes carry pagers with them. These are small boxes that fit on a belt and can provide a short, simple message broadcast one-way from a base station.
Wired telecommunication is limited to telegraph lines run along the train tracks.
Most communication in the underground is written. Newspapers broadcast facts and opinions to the masses, and letters are the main way to communicate between individuals. The mail carriers have formed an independent guild of their own, and are one of the few groups that have access to the nobility on the regular. They deliver letters, packages, and newspapers from whomever requests it to anyone that can be located, for a nominal fee. They are incredibly neutral in all things, and to be a part of the mail guild is to remain apart from all of society. Their vital function gives them solid protection from all ruling bodies.
Mail carriers are not to be messed with. The security forces from all cities, big and small, will intervene harshly should any misfortune befall them
- Mail carriers cannot be player characters—they’re just too far set apart from everything that happens.
Another useful, if limited, communication method comes from psychic types that have the move Psychic. They’re capable of sending telepathic messages that bypass the fickle needs of radio signals (and the even interference in a Mystery Dungeon). However, the amount of strain long-range communication puts on the user means this maneuver is only useful in dire emergencies.
The strange vertical structure complex that came to be called Scrap Town came with a full telecommunications suite, although time has worn it down and some floors have lost the infrastructure to support it. They have both audio and video phones, and happily enough, the phones themselves have are labeled with number allowing for those high enough in society to keep a list of known numbers and reach out as needed. The leaders of the gangs can even get their hands on portable phones that will work within Scrap Town’s influence, although they are much more limited than radios for range and cease to function at all past the outer cave that contains the city.
In reality, Scrap Town isn’t the only place with advanced information infrastructure, it’s just the place where the average citizens can make use of it. Canal City has a complete intranet infrastructure throughout the noble and upper distracts, which is used primarily for handling information storage and retrieval, remote monitoring of some of the city’s infrastructure, and as a method for Nobility to be “in the know” without ever leaving their villas. Access to this network is strictly controlled.
Entertainment #
One of the most popular forms of entertainment is the live show. Some performers put on shows at venues, some out on the street. There are storyteller groups, musical bands, physical tricksters, and more. Stage plays, especially those about the legendary first pokemorphs or famous individuals being shown in a heroic light are always crowd pleasers.
Among groups and individuals, sports competitions and board games are also quite popular. Simple physical games such as tiddlywinks, ring toss, and u-shows (derived from horseshoes) are taught at an early age. Games of fantasy set in mystical, heroic times bridge the gap between group story telling and games of chance.
For nobility, games on tactics and strategy are also common, ranging from Checkers and Chess to full on hex-grid war games.
Gambling is also a form of entertainment, although games of chance with a bet are frowned on in Canal City. There’s Basalt City for that.
Weapons and Armor #
For the majority of the population of the underground, nothing can quite beat having a knife and a dagger on them at all times outside of a city. Melee weapons tend to rule the day given the twisty nature of cave passages, though proper short swords are reserved for those trained to handle them in close quarters. Even inside of a city, it is not unusual to see a utility knife or a noble with their blade.
Most pokemorphs have their own built-in methods of both causing and resisting damage, so there hasn’t been much in terms of advancement in everyday carry beyond what can be used without hindering these natural abilities. Electric types, for example, tend to favor metallic weapons that can be used as conductors while fire types prefer weapons that can withstand their high thermal output. One of the most popular forms of weapon mastery is simply martial arts done “open hand.” Fighting types have a natural knack for this, but anyone can learn to move their body in a way conducive to survival.
Nobility often engage in structured duels and so usually have training in some of a number of different sword styles, although foil and longsword are the two most popular. As with other facets of education, nobles also tend to be well-trained at personal martial arts, as part of their noble tutorship curriculum.
Armor generally consists of chainmail or metal plate artfully worked into clothes to provide protection without sacrificing style. Laminated plates and high-tensile-strength materials are the other common armor components. Generally armor follows the “rule of cool” more than practicality for most pokemorphs. As simple as this sounds, armor is effective against most forms of non-special attacks, providing either a limit to internal injury or preventing worst-case injuries.
Now, that isn’t to say there aren’t other weapons available, only that they are not commonly used for one reason or the other. Firearms are of particular note here. The underground has semi-automatic pistols, bolt action rifles, shotguns and other weapons common in the 1910s here and there, but large-cavern open combat where they would find their place is rather uncommon—and the one time they were deployed by both sides in both sides of an open conflict the devastating results were so etched in the underground’s memory that even the nobility frown upon their use. Ammunition is strictly controlled, and explosives are mostly constrained licensed mining engineers.
Chemical warfare is considered dishonorable, although assassinations through poison still occur despite this.
Medicine and Treatment #
Medical attention in the underground is actually quite advanced, given the number of healing moves that can be learned by pokemorphs and the widely-available library of care information available. Even heavy internal injuries can be treated in hospices by trained medical staff, and the care available at even small towns is enough to keep permanent disability at bay assuming injuries can be treated quickly enough. Medicines for common colds and flus are available as concentrations of natural apothecary supplements from well-known underground flora. It helps that pokemorphs are quite a bit more durable than typical humans, as well.
Canal City has access to very expensive medicines that were formulated before the arrival of the pokemorphs, including Potions, Cures, and Revives that are frighteningly effective. Due to this, they can command a very high price. These kinds of medicines are generally only available to the upper echelons of the cities, though the Guild distributes some for emergency use by their members heading into Mystery Dungeons for artifact retrieval.