Helocytus: Difference between revisions
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The Tree is home to millions of residents of nearly every known sapient species, and plays host to further tens of millions of bio-drones of every shape, size, and function. Enormous transit-pedes skitter up and down the boughs of the tree-city ferrying along hundreds of the diverse and colorful residents of this place, while sleek organic shuttle-flies zip deftly through the space between branches to swiftly navigate private passengers around the city’s hanging heights. The Tree is a constant buzz of activity, but don’t be fooled by the crowds: many of the strange creatures and odd simulacra of “people” making their way across the branches are only mindless bio-drones, bio-engineered beasts of burden with no capacity for higher thought or emotion - hulking monsters, skittering insects, and faceless humanoids, all born of the blood of their parent masters and bonded to their service without capacity for question or sentience, like so many extra limbs.
Life for the city’s residents is an idyllic experience of stunning cloud-top vistas upon hanging branch oases, each like its own island paradise in the sky. Water and oxygen flows through the limbs of the Tree providing fresh sustenance for all, with lakes, springs, and waterfalls forming on its mountainous bark and massive leaf structures with fresh air being plentiful even among some of the highest branches. The Tree itself consumes the waste and pollutants of its residents and visitors, absorbing and consuming the matter naturally,
Though a popular destination for foreign travelers, first-time visitors to the Tree often find their first experience at the great port city of Helocytus to be an awkward adjustment. Though amenities, utilities, and services are plentiful, the nature of life among the Veins requires an open mind regarding the nature of technology. Conventional electronics and machines are a rare sight here, for everything on the Tree, as with much of Helocytus, is provided for through bio-engineering and organic constructs. Electrogenic organ cables like those found in eels carry electricity where it’s needed to interface with the electronics of foreign devices for the convenience of visitors, soft-skinned bioluminescent bulbs provide light, fine micro-hairs in shielded organic receptors reminiscent in appearance to gorgonian coral capture and project wireless signals used by communication devices, chameleonic chromatophores on screen membranes act as high definition image and video displays, and more. For every technology, there is an organic alternative.
At Providence, wealth and influence is a descent into power, rather than the ascending heights of mighty towers and penthouses on so many other worlds. The upper reaches of the Tree are reserved for the docks, berthing limbs, visiting ship crews, military forces, and lower class labor stratas of the tree city’s population. The people here at the highest heights of the Great Tree are the diligent and faithful many who serve the city with pride, and are often among the least biologically modified people to be found on Helocytus. Below this level, visitors find the commercial and trade districts, a colorful and lively place where people and cultures blend, a major attraction for tourists to the city and center of business for merchants. The colorful light that filters between the branches and through the many enormous and varied colored leaves here makes for a beautiful and unique experience for all. This layer of the Tree is also the number one destination for medical tourism in the sector, with all manner of medical services, bio-engineering, and gene-editing available to visitors here. Further down the Tree, the primary residential districts can be found, as well as the city’s administrative centers and the major headquarters for many major sector-wide Vein industries like the New Eden Gene Bank. Lower down around the base of the trunk of the tree city, the Vein elites make their homes in guarded estates. Many different Vein clans have centers of operation and residence at this level for their leaders and highest offices, as Providence is host to the seat of government for the entirety of the Children of the Vein. This layer of the city is restricted to outsiders, not only for the security of the residents at this layer, but also for the safety of the visitors - biologically unmodified individuals are prone to attracting the hostilities of much of the extremely deadly wildlife that roams freely around the tree’s base, while native residents that have undergone extensive treatment and modification with Vein clinics are largely left undisturbed.
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Finally, within the deep, dark depths below the city lies the secretive Forbidden Citadel of Veins, from which the Hemispheres Logos and Pathos govern the Children of the Vein. Little is known of the Forbidden Citadel, but it is said to be from here which the Veins have the closest access to GOD, and the paths to the subterranean citadel are patrolled by wandering, terrible, eldritch creatures from the deepest depths of the planet.
Between its many mysteries and marvels, Providence remains a popular destination for travelers all across Beacon Space. It is a city of rare beauty and ingenuity, a wonder among wonders, the Great Tree of Miracles, making every visit a rewarding experience for all.
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