What If Metropolis • Travelogue

Moriana a beautiful city, with large Alabaster gates, with serpentine structures on either side.

It has glass exhibitionist housing, each adorned with tentacle furniture, taking the deep-sea creatures, mainly the octopus and incorporating it into daily life.
The city itself is a bluish pink, an aquatic themed city far from the ocean its almost as if the city worships and fears the sea creatures, or this is what you could believe from the front half of Moriana.

The backside of Moriana is a deep brown with an almost wastelandish feel to it.
There’s rubbish everywhere, scrap metal rotten wood and decomposing housing structures.
Despite its appearance and possibly deadly placement of some things, this side of the city is the most alive.
The pipe works and machinery in constant life, the constant sound of water in the creaky pipes and the whirring and turning of gears in different places.
The dust and soot everywhere from working people striving to keep the perfect side of Moriana alive.

If you were to ever visit Moriana you will notice several items that will draw your eye.

The statue in the centre of the city is a large statue of Medusa, with six snake heads and holding a pot pouring water.

The Glass houses often compared to Aquariums the houses show off what the inhabitants of the city believe to be the best of their belongings, they use this to show their culture and beliefs.
Although these are houses, they are rarely lived in. All necessities are there but they are underground. A kitchen is too messy to be left on display, a bathroom and bedroom are rooms requiring privacy.
The current houses feature a lounge of sorts, an interesting light fixture, a carved banister and a table which can hold what they want to show off, the main thing is a sculpture of a woman, presumably medusa before the snakes on her head.

The glass itself appears to be rather thin and the inhabitants of the city insist it will shatter with a single tap, they believe the glass is the delicate line keeping us from perfection, yet they wish to keep this thin veil up as it is also the line of dreams, they feel that shattering this will destroy any wishes the city has, and if this happens the city will plunge into a dark time, with the inhabitants turning to stone and the world around the city ceasing to live.

The Dancers that seem to always be dancing on shifts. A group of mainly female characters dance around the glass houses at most hours of the day, late at night one or two dancers with a lamp can be seen moving gracefully though the city’s pure side. Some have equated their dancing to swimming as their movements and graceful and smooth much like a ballet dance from mermaids.

If a dancer is disturbed and stops the inhabitants get rather stressed out as they believe the dance appeases the gods and stopping such an act will bring down their wrath, but they’re fine to have others join in, if small children show the desire of joining the dance the ‘shift’ dancers will swoop by and pick them up as to join their own dance as an extension of themselves.
As the city seems to be rather close knit this is alright as the child once worn out or no longer wishing to dance will be guided back to the parent or location they are staying by a local or the dancer themselves once they are done with their shift.

The Scenery from looking out of the town is a sheer cliff and high mountains, you can see seemingly endlessly on a clear day, but the cities you can see from here appear grey as if stone which reinforces the cities belief of Medusa being the original inhabitant.

The city appears to have a religion based off ancient Greek legend Medusa, with their own spin.
They believe that medusa used to show off those that she turned to stone even if only to herself, they believe that Medusa was a beautiful woman with a heart only for herself, she wanted to be seen as a queen, and for that the gods cursed her with snakes for hair and for that those who look upon her turn into stone.
They believe that this stone was alabaster and that some of the statues around the city were once real people as they have a striking resemblance to some of the towns oldest bloodlines.

The city has a few locations to rest, the most expensive locations are the glass houses themselves, despite their sacred place in the cities beliefs they are lent out as temporary homes for the prestigious and rich.
Those who are unable to afford such ludicrous prices should expect to stay in a bed and breakfast in the underside of the city, the darker messier side would make this much less appealing but the inhabitants are kind and do provide some rather nice food and comfy beds that look rather odd.

The city has no form of pubs or restaurant, shops sell food in only natural packaging as to reduce all waste in a hope to keep the purity of the city.

If you are okay with the above and wish to visit Moriana you would have a difficult time trying to find it without being told.

The city is hidden amongst the mountains rather high up.
These mountains have been mined dry of their recourses and appear to have a coating of dirt giving the valleys a brown appearance, a gross looking place to pass though to get to be greeted by a brilliant gate.

You need to cross several rivers and travel up through the mountains to reach the city.
when you get close to the city after crossing the last river, you will be led by little lights that the inhabitants have left out to help each other go out for water to refill the statue for when it dies up in the hottest of summer days.