The 500 Mile City
Grand Nostridan
Vast, beyond vast. Grand Nostridan is a city so large it should not exist. Once, six cities warred over the central bowl-shaped valley that lay at their shared border. In time, each came to an unlikely truce: they would unite, and the edges of their former kingdoms would become the dividing lines of a newly formed megacity. Now, one hundred years after its founding and explosive expansion, the city has grown into a nation-sized city-state, stretching 500 miles from end to end, with a population beyond counting. And has fallen under the control of six criminal syndicates and their puppet leader, the Lerin.
Battlemaps set in this location
1st District: Jalova
Jalova is the ancestral home of the Kel elves, a culture defined by it’s dignity and a complex social hierarchy. Devastated by the Fall of Wilder, all of its people became stricken with the curse that befell those of elven ancestral heritage. In the worst cases, this resulted in feral elves—unnatural, violent creatures who corrupted the Druidic magics that once granted them eternal life.
Jalova became a shadow of its former glory and was forced into vassalization at the founding of Grand Nostridan. Supported by the new city-state government, it has only just managed to survive—slowly losing what once made it a kingdom.
2nd District: Prossporo
Prossporo lies along the southern slope of the Nostridan Bowl, a district of breathtaking beauty. Its white marble and warm orange-yellow sandstone structures are crowned with gilded brass and golden domes, broken only by cascading waterfalls and arched bridges that crisscross the skyline. Prossporo is home to the Pross—a race of humanoid animals who live through cycles of rebirth, rising and falling through castes as their essence seeks enlightenment, ultimately to reunite with their goddess, Ahdieah. The district is ruled by a theocratic queen, the Exalt of Ahdieah, Madra, and her wife, Kalzeen.
3rd District: Cull
The uncivil civilization, Cull is a frontier-turned-city where the more bestial creatures, those who struggle to adapt to the structured urban life of Grand Nostridan, congregate and live by the only rule they truly understand: the strong survive. The district is a dry gulch, crisscrossed with awnings and bridges. Massive cobbled structures and scattered steel buildings give it that unique blend of wild and tamed that defines the whole culture of Cull. While it lacks much in the way of law, the few brave guardians who watch over it ensure that even those with little choice still get something close to a fair shot.
4th District: Meldwyn
The earthy highlands and unforgiving cold winds allow little more than the occasional pine tree to grow at the district’s highest reaches. Yet from the rocky soil rise massive, naturally occurring stone spires that stretch toward the sky. Steep slopes, sheer cliffs, and relentless winds that pose constant challenges to airship pilots, but still, the skies remain crowded. Meldwyn is a city-turned-district singularly focused on invention and progress at any and all cost. It is home to the prestigious academy named after Crimley Dorian, a historic inventor whose work both advanced and endangered life throughout Crudilex.
The Dorian Academy of Invention
One of Meldwyn’s most famous landmarks is the Dorian Academy, named after the figure popularly believed to be the first true engineer, Crimley Dorian. Most, if not all, modern engineers can trace their teachings or philosophies back to him. His first collected works became so influential that it was decided an Academy of Invention would be founded in a prominent, forward-thinking city. At the time, Meldwyn was merely beginning to blossom during the Everspring era but when the Academy planted its flag, that blossoming erupted into unchecked growth.
Today, the Academy accepts only those whom its delegates deem worthy, and it is said to house many secrets. Some claim Dorian’s ideals were mad, that his studies lacked moral restraint or ethical grounding. Whispers persist that he still lives, working behind the scenes within the Academy’s many layered halls. The rumors surrounding its inner workings are nearly as widespread as its influence.
“The day will come when all things are the invention of the intelligent humanoid, and our view of the gods will be one of fellowship in place of envy.”
—Crimley Dorian, Father of Constructs
5th District: Guldel
The oldest district and the first city established in what was once called Everspring, Known today as the Necropolis of Gouldel, it is the birthplace of undeath in the world of Crudilex. The city grew like an infection, festering atop the corpse of the fallen god of death, Ras—who was slain by his own Exalt and the very liches he created to bring about the end of all life.
6th District: Capital Cross
The beating heart of Grand Nostridanian politics and the staging ground for the Bluecoats military, Capital Cross is the closest thing to a downtown that a 500-mile-wide city can have. Defined by its towering skyscrapers, dense automobile traffic, long white parade routes, and tree-lined government buildings and gardens. Each district in Grand Nostridan has its own ruling body, but presiding over them all is the Lerin. When she is unavailable, decisions requiring consensus among the districts are brought to a vote and debated in the great halls of Capital Cross. Increasingly, this is how Grand Nostridan is governed, as its leader grows more reclusive with each passing year.
Lowside
The megastructures that fill the bowl of Grand Nostridan are crowned with parks and terraces, gardens and entire cityscapes perched atop their highest heights. Many citizens live their entire lives without ever wondering what lies at the bottom. When they do look down, they see only darkness, broken by the faintest flicker of lights far below, scattered through the fog, or by the gleam of water pouring endlessly from open pipes into the abyss.
But far, far beneath the city lies Lowside, a place crammed with people, homes, and factories built wherever there is space. There are no roads. There is no map. The streets are more like gutters. The suns above are distant and shine on the lowest levels for only an hour or so each day. There is no government here, no sanitation, no direction.
The skyscrapers, which rise like impassable mountains above, are inaccessible from Lowside except through sewer drains and maintenance shafts. No one should be consigned to the fate of living here. And yet, countless people do. Lowside is the runoff of life when the city has no further use for something it ends up down here.
High Edoroin
Built atop a flying mote, within the roots of a felled world tree, High Edoroin floats far above Lowside. It is the highest castle in the land. Thousands of flags whip in the wind in the high altitude over Grand Nostridan, and the proud floating island castle is an awe-inspiring sight, though few are ever welcomed within its walls.
High Edoroin is the seat of puppet power. The seat of Grand Nostridan’s official leader, the Lerin. Once a stern and commanding woman, she ruled for decades without opposition after the unification of the Six Cities. But in her old age, the criminal syndicates rose to power and gradually stripped her of influence. Over time, the Lerin was conquered politically and reduced to a shadow of her former self. Today, she is never seen outside the flying castle. In her absence, the Consulate of Districts governs the city, each representative maneuvered by one of the Six syndicates that now hold true power from the chambers of Capital Cross.