The Arcana Check

Behold! Every single one of my hand-drawn Magic Cards!

Do they all look great, not really! Did they save me a lot of money, you bet! And they were a lot of fun to make, too!

Sorry, I just got home from work and reblogged a bunch of garbage to the wrong darn account! Peace be with you!

Sorry, I just got home from work and reblogged a bunch of garbage to the wrong darn account! Peace be with you!

So! I’ve been a bit obsessed with this book, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Link to PDF ; Link to Youtube Audiobook). In short, it’s a book about Marco Polo trying to describe all the surreal cities he’s seen to the Emperor Kublai Khan.

Beyond that, it’s a book about how hard it is to use language to describe a city. And if YOUR’RE the sort of writer who’s always looking for ways to paint a picture of a fantastical city, it’s a great read/listen to get the world-building juices flowing!

For our purposes, however, I’ll go through and oversimplify summarize each city in case any of you would like to drag-and-drop one into your own setting! Here we go!

CHAPTER 1/9: Diomira, Isidora, Dorothea, Zaria, Anastasia, Tamara, Zora, Despina, Zirma, and Isaura.

Moriana: A city of Facades. You approach the city by a path along rivers and through a narrow mountain pass. From the front, you see alabaster gates, coral columns, serpentine pediments, and gorgeous, aquarium-like mansions filled with the shadows of chandeliers and dancing women. If you walk in a semi-circle, you'll see nothing but sooty planks, refuse, and rotten beams holding up the facade. It is an entirely two-dimensional city, like a sheet of paper.

Clarice: The tormented city. To put it short, the city exists in a perpetual cycle of catastrophe, recovery, and decadence. Some terrible plague, earthquake, or invading force levels the city and the survivors are forced to scavenge to survive. Using fine porcelain pots to collect rainwater, royal gowns to bind wounds, inlaid furniture burned for warmth.

Over time, Clarice recovers! New populations move in, and the city is rebuilt to its former splendor. But the artifacts remain. Museums are built to collect and catalogue what remains of the "Old" Clarice. This lasts until the next catastrophe hits - people/languages/cultures come and go, but the city's nick-nacks and doo-dads are merely shuffled around.

Eusapia: Ho boy. People in this city are very happy and care-free. There is an identical copy of the city deep underground where Eusapia's dead are brought, mummified, and propped up in a sort of pantomime. Many of the dead are sat around laden tables of food, motionlessly dancing in ballrooms, or hanging around dark and dusty barbershops.

Indeed, the dead citizens are presented as their most idealized selves. The city of the dead contains far more musicians, actors, and big-game hunters than the living city ever had. The dead city is maintained by a secretive fraternity of hooded monks (some who may be undead) who deliver news from one city to the other. For it is the city of the living that strives to emulate the ideal, posthumous city. But neither city can tell which is which anymore.

Beersheba: The triplet city. Here, they believe that there is a wonderful version of Beersheba high up in the sky. A city of pure gold built in the clouds that every citizen dreams of as they accumulate wealth in effort to make it there! They also believe that deep underground, there is an infernal version of Beersheba where the hated filth, grease, and excrement accumulates.

Both mythical cities exist, but not as imagined. Underground, Beersheba hosts the world's most ornate sewer system! Designed by the greatest architects of antiquity, unbreakable pipes and priceless computers automate the city's plumbing, like an incredible cathedral of steel and ornamentation. A city exists in the sky as well, but it is more like a massive cloud of smog, litter, and potato skins. It soars through the sky as a symbol of the miserly Beersheba: a city that is only free and happy when it shits.

Leonia: The hidden city. Every morning, the citizens of Leonia enjoy brand new clothes, brand-new furniture, and brand-new... everything. At evening, everyone's belongings are given to garbage men who dutifully take it to the dump.

So! I’ve been a bit obsessed with this book, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Link to PDF ; Link to Youtube Audiobook). In short, it’s a book about Marco Polo trying to describe all the surreal cities he’s seen to the Emperor Kublai Khan.

Beyond that, it’s a book about how hard it is to use language to describe a city. And if YOUR’RE the sort of writer who’s always looking for ways to paint a picture of a fantastical city, it’s a great read/listen to get the world-building juices flowing!

For our purposes, however, I’ll go through and oversimplify summarize each city in case any of you would like to drag-and-drop one into your own setting! Here we go!

CHAPTER 1/9: Diomira, Isidora, Dorothea, Zaria, Anastasia, Tamara, Zora, Despina, Zirma, and Isaura.

Esmerelda: A city where the streets are criss-crossing, stratified, and completely chaotic. Thanks to all the canals, bridges, catwalks, and dead-ends, the shortest path between two points is "tortuously" complicated and will invariably require you to mount and dismount several boats. Maps of the city use all sorts of multicolored, textured, and invisible inks to illustrate these roads.

Phyllis: A beautiful, rich city that becomes only more plain and invisible to inhabitants, the longer they stay. "Happy is the man who has Phyllis before his eyes each day and who never ceases seeing the things it contains." But if you stay here, you'll only see it as a collection of routes, memories, and destinations. You'll see less and less of the physical city over time.

Pyrrha: A city with high walls on a bay - that you have not gone to. This city has many different names: Pyrrha if you've never been there; Getullia if you passed through temporarily; Odile if you were born there but never want to return; and so on. Each name corresponds to a different city that are all the same one.

Adelma: A cursed city, where everyone resembles someone *you* know who has since died. Walking down the street, you'll spot a lady who looks for all the world like your deceased mother, a beggar who looks like a neighbor of yours who took their life, a fishmonger who looks like your grandmother. The inhabitants wear veils and visitors are encouraged to do so as well, since *you'll* appear as a dead loved one to *them* as well.

So! I’ve been a bit obsessed with this book, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Link to PDF ; Link to Youtube Audiobook). In short, it’s a book about Marco Polo trying to describe all the surreal cities he’s seen to the Emperor Kublai Khan.

Beyond that, it’s a book about how hard it is to use language to describe a city. And if YOUR’RE the sort of writer who’s always looking for ways to paint a picture of a fantastical city, it’s a great read/listen to get the world-building juices flowing!

For our purposes, however, I’ll go through and oversimplify summarize each city in case any of you would like to drag-and-drop one into your own setting! Here we go!

CHAPTER 1/9: Diomira, Isidora, Dorothea, Zaria, Anastasia, Tamara, Zora, Despina, Zirma, and Isaura.

Octavia: A city built between two steep mountains, over a deep chasm. The city is built on a web of ropes, chains, and catwalks - not on top of it, but hung below. Dangling from the web, there are rope ladders, cable cars, and buildings designed like hanging sacks. It’s a nice place to live, but the inhabitants know that the net will only last so long.

Ersilia: In this city, the citizens tie strings from one-another’s houses to represent their relationships. You might tie a red string to mark a relationship of blood, a black string to represent debt, or a striped string to represent influence. And so on. Eventually, the strings become so numerous that the inhabitants can no longer move among them and must move away - leaving behind only the strings and their supports. They always try to make *new* Ersilias with more organized strings, but the countryside is littered with these abandoned spider-web cities.

Baucis: An unreachable city built on towering, slender stilts in the middle of the wilderness. Nobody has visited this “flamingo” city, so we can only guess why they’ve built it this way. Maybe they hate the earth? Maybe they respect it too much to touch it? Maybe they love it so much that they try to view as much of it as possible from their vantage point?

Leandra: A city with two kinds of gods: The Penates and the Lares. These two gods exist in homes - the P’s stick with families and move with them, and the L’s belong to the houses. The two kinds of gods are hard to tell apart at a glance, but they form friendships and get in terrible fights as you would expect.

Both gods believe *they* are the true gods of Leandra and criticize everything the citizens do. The Penates champion the grandparents and wish the best for their children, while the Lares bemoan “lazy” housekeepers and hope to see the environment in good condition.

Melania: A city of roles and dialogues. Walking around, you’ll meet The Soldier, The Prostitute, The Miserly Father, The Amorous Daughter, or The Foolish Servant. Return in a few years, and some individuals have died, but others have taken their place. The Soldier has become The Hypocrite and the Foolish Servant has been replaced by The Astrologer.

So! I’ve been a bit obsessed with this book, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Link to PDF ; Link to Youtube Audiobook). In short, it’s a book about Marco Polo trying to describe all the surreal cities he’s seen to the Emperor Kublai Khan.

Beyond that, it’s a book about how hard it is to use language to describe a city. And if YOUR’RE the sort of writer who’s always looking for ways to paint a picture of a fantastical city, it’s a great read/listen to get the world-building juices flowing!

For our purposes, however, I’ll go through and oversimplify summarize each city in case any of you would like to drag-and-drop one into your own setting! Here we go!

CHAPTER 1/9: Diomira, Isidora, Dorothea, Zaria, Anastasia, Tamara, Zora, Despina, Zirma, and Isaura.

Olivia: A city of sarcasm. If one enters this city expecting a rich, wealthy city - with splendid palaces and gardens - they’ll instead find a downtrodden, destitute city of beggars and soot. If you expect a violent, subjugated police-state under the heel of a cruel tyrant, you’ll instead find a calm, bucolic town where the wind carries with it sudden bursts of laughter from all directions. Rumors of what life’s actually like in Olivia are never wrong - it’s the city that lies.

Sophronia: Like most cities, this one has roller-coasters, circuses and carousels. Sophronia also has banks, factories, schools and palaces. One-half of the city is permanent and the other is temporary. When the season’s over, the city’s banks are dismantled, the factories are loaded up on to wagons, and the ruling lords climb up and into their caravans. The citizens return to their carnival games to wait until these travelers return and “a complete life can begin again.”

Eutropia: This city consists of several, identical cities, scattered over a rolling plateau. Only one of these cities is inhabited at a time. Every few years, however, when Eutropia’s inhabitants get bored or frustrated with their lives, the people decide to move to the next city over. There, they take new homes, new jobs, new families, and new social groups. Although they worship gods oftrickery and chaos, Eutropia is much more stable than any other. The actors may change, but the roles never do.

Zemrude: A city of tall palaces, glittering fountains, and emblazoned flags. It is also a city of rancid gutters, dark cellars, and litter-strewn streets. The optimist enters the city with their head held high - focused on the former city and unable to comprehend the latter. The pessimist walks through Zemrude with their head low - eyes running along the drainpipes and only going lower, lower and lower.

Aglaura: (This one’s tough) The oldest city. A city that has been written about since the dawn of language. It has been compared and contrasted with cities that have long since been destroyed and rebuilt. A writer comes along to praise the virtues of the Aglauran spirit! Centuries later, these virtues become antiquated and new writers and virtues must be employed.

It is a dull, lifeless city that can hardly be said to exist. Lost to language.