"The labyrinthine streets before you are brimming with beasts of all shapes and sizes. Their otherworldly gurgles and groans fill your ears, and their reek fills your snout.
Sinister towers silently loom, their windows like eyes of something hungry and cruel. As strangers enter buildings through toothy maw-shaped doors, you can’t help but wonder if they’ll be coming back out again.
Strangely, the city itself doesn’t look entirely constructed, but rather grown - chitinous architecture appears to have erupted from fleshy ground. A shopkeep lances a boil on the wall outside her front door. You could swear having seen the building wince, ever so slightly.
Dirty, glass-covered walkways span between buildings, and warped bridges arch over sickly canals. The same putrid liquid gurgles from the fanged mouths of grotesque fountains. These are surrounded by bizarre gardens of nightmarish plants, whose ill-pruned tendrils choke anything nearby - perhaps in a literal sense, if the vine-wrapped corpse you just passed is any indication.
It’s dark, and hard to discern the time of day; the sky is a vile green, boiling with clouds. It’s humid, and moisture seems to cling to buildings and people alike. Steam billows from grates underfoot, and a luminous haze of arcane smoke seems to hang in the air. The glow of lamps and signs pierce the murky gloom.
Tents, carts, and kiosks line the streets; beggars, buskers, performers, vendors of all colors and flavors and smells peddle their wares and services. In some cases it’s hard to tell what’s being sold. The windows of shops and restaurants are all densely festooned with anything that might draw one inside.
The smells are palpable. Each passage seems to assault one’s senses in a new way - strange musks, the scent of bizarre cuisine, otherworldly drugs, blood, death, filth.
Carriages pulled by immense, deer-like abominations known as miggwitches can be seen. The beasts, despite their docile nature, appear to have reins attached to their genitalia.
Similar sadistic indulgences can be seen all around. A well-adorned (and well-fed) creature on a palanquin hauled by servants passes by. Someone is walking someone else on all fours with a leash. Someone is picked up by their neck scruff and dropped into the toothy maw of something much bigger.
In every direction, the city throbs with dark desire; everywhere you look, the city hungers."
A City of Monsters, Magic, and Madness
Nodd refers to both the city and the gray expanse surrounding it, known as the Doldrums. Beyond the Doldrums is utter blackness, simply called the Abyss. It is not currently understood where or even what the greater realm of Nodd is; the further you travel away from the city, the greater the stories seem to vary. Those who have traveled the furthest have either never returned, or have inexplicably ended up at the city once again.
Arcane energy - called "gloam" - is both generated and consumed by the city itself; it manifests as spells, architecture, objects, plants, beasts, and even citizens.
The City is watched over and controlled by the Council of Nodd, a secretive establishment made up of mysterious figures. The council has a number of attendants that enforce laws and keep watch over Nodd’s citizens.
Citizens of Nodd
Nodd is a city of monsters, and is fantastically diverse. An endless variety of exotic, dangerous, beautiful, and mundane creatures liven its streets; if you’re an outsider, encountering another of your own kind may be a rarity. Oftentimes a single individual of a species will find its way to Nodd and blend into the madness with no effort.
Nodd's variety of inhabitants means a variety of sizes are involved.
Microcitizens - usually referred to as "micros" - are those deemed too small to use most of the city's amenities.
Macrocitizens - macros - are the opposite. For micros, this begins somewhere around one foot in height; for macros, anything much beyond fifteen feet begins to be problematic.
Due to a punishment administered by the Council - a practice simply referred to as "Shrinking" - convicted citizens may find themselves released into the city a mere four inches in height. Many citizens are micro for this reason.
Microcitizens may have a challenging time surviving in Nodd, and are subject to various forms of abuse and objectification, such as culinary use (in which case they're referred to as "tenderlings") and research fodder. Often, a micro will try to establish a relationship with someone trustworthy of average size, and seek shelter, protection, and sustenance from them. Some average citizens repurpose closets, wardrobes, or spare rooms as micro apartments or townships. The specific locations of these tends to be kept between micros and their keepers, lest someone be tempted to sell a large quantity of healthy micros for some unsavory purpose.
Macrocitizens are less at risk for mistreatment, and may themselves be a source of fear for average-sized citizens. Destructive or feared macros are known colloquially as "kaiju", and their destruction is often not contained or discouraged by the Council, unless of course it gets out of hand. Most macros can be easily contained by powerful spells, and strive to keep just within the Council's tolerance.
Depending on size, there may not be many accommodations for macrocitizens that are not custom-built.
Architecture
Like citizens, animals, and plants, Nodd's architecture also spawns from the city's needs. While legally considered inanimate, even Nodd’s buildings are living things. Old, abandoned buildings are culled during The Pruning, and new architecture spawns during Sporefall.
A freshly spawned building is called a “sporeling”. These tiny buildings are widely accepted to be exceptionally cute.
Buildings grow, age, occasionally fall ill, feed, and defecate (if an insider offers you "gutter grog", by all means refuse). Buildings vary in their level of awareness; those that seem a bit more conscious may occasionally exhibit mood shifts, or may misbehave in various ways. Those that are unable to be dealt with are generally euthanized.
Buildings may become possessive of their occupants, and a particularly possessive building may lock doors and windows in an effort to keep their owners at home. Some may utilize fixtures such as showers or ovens in an attempt to kill any guests they deem to be a threat, rationally or not.
Free housing is available to citizens, and even the most basic accommodations tend to be on the luxurious side.
To differentiate from the Arcane Houses, one does not generally refer to one’s “house” in Nodd, but one’s “chambers” or “home”.
The Pruning & HearthHunt
Every turn, old, vacant buildings are destroyed during The Pruning. During this time, the Council sends forth destructive forces to clean up old and dilapidated structures to make room for new growth.
HearthHunt precedes this event. This refers to citizens exploring abandoned areas of Nodd to scavenge usable artifacts left behind before The Pruning takes place.
Architecture becomes especially anxious during this time, and may trap hearthhunters inside in an effort to make themselves appear occupied and wanted, and therefore safe from culling. The buildings may also attempt to spawn desirable items and amenities such as banquet spreads and opulent furnishings to lure in potential owners - but these items are usually what hearthhunters mean to take before abandoning the building to its fate.
Some buildings don’t lure hunters in an attempt to be owned, but simply out of spite in their final moments. In either case, this makes the HearthHunt a sport rife with peril.
Economy
Nodd's currency is gloam, the same as its energy source. One can use a mage kiosk - machines accessible all over Nodd - to exchange immaterial currency for a cartridge of raw gloam, and vice versa.
Necessities in Nodd are expensive, whereas luxuries are relatively easy to come by if not forced upon citizens. This isn’t to say the wealthy don’t have access to indulgences the poor do not, but simply that substances, pleasurable services, and indulgent products are far more affordable than a bar of soap (one that doesn’t intoxicate you, at least).
It is hard if not impossible to remain sober in Nodd without wealth; the Council prefers all its citizens be intoxicated, such that they’re more driven to cause chaos. Only the wealthy can afford to be sober, abstain from sex or violence, or even dress modestly - though certainly not all choose to live this way once they’re financially secure, and most continue to mindlessly indulge.
While it is possible to sustain oneself without sex or violence, it generally takes great creative or intellectual effort to do so. Artists, entertainers, and inventors may be able to generate enough gloam to afford food, medicine, and self-defense spells if their creations and performances draw enough attention. Some may prefer to invest in the talents of others, and serve as an agent for up-and-coming mages.
While specific factors are unknown, it’s widely accepted that a citizen stops being resurrected if their gloam balance remains low or stagnant for too long. This is a constant looming threat to citizens, and encourages all to behave chaotically regardless of their financial needs or material desire. This also means that simply being wealthy may not be enough to assure survival should something unfortunate happen to an individual.