City Musings: Monsters?

[sythyry]

There have been extensive mutterings and murmurings that I should construct a city, in which we -- wrongfolk, monsters, angels, and other undesirables -- can live as we wish. I certainly haven't decided not to, though it's probably a terrible idea for a great many reasons.

Still ... how do we wish to live?

Specifically I am thinking about the monsters -- Vae, of course, and the Elfimel. And hCevian, of course, though his case is less troublesome, mainly because he is nearly impossible to exclude from a city. But the other monsters cannot.

We could be an ordinary city. Primes inside, monsters outside. Vae is certainly used to this. The angels will be unhappy, but the angels are here as refugees anyhow.

Or we could let those four creatures inside the walls. It's not as if walls keep us safe from Vae anyhow, and the angels are not very dangerous. This will probably cut our prime immigrants by half.

Or we could, I suppose, try to allow other monsters inside the walls as well -- mherobump and taptet and other generally safe ones. This isn't that extraordinary, though few cities make much of a point of it.

Or, say, we could have a "Monster Ghetto". Monsters may come to a certain portion of the city, inside one set of walls, but outside of another set. The inner city is, of course, reserved for primes alone, just like a normal city. But, unlike most cities, monsters can come inside of some walls. And I'm thinking of, e.g., trying to make sure that some important cultural areas are in the monster ghetto -- like the museum and theatre districts, and the governmental areas, and the best shopping, if I can manage that. The inner city could be mostly for prime homes. That would be unusual.

[Poll #1726949]

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Having a 'primes only' area seems like it'd cause more trouble than it'd solve. The worst thing you can do is invite monsters in but make them feel oppressed, after all -- you're better off keeping the troublesome monsters (like the ones compelled to murder primes) out entirely.

OTOH, maybe you could, uh, compartmentalize the city to limit the damage caused by any particular outbreak? Split it into sectors with mini-walls between them? Then the 'really nervous primes' could have their own area, but the 'easily exploited taptet' could also have an area that they could seal off from primes. Presumably there'd be some sort of city guard who could walk through the walls regardless, to prevent people from abusing that sort of thing.

Alternatively, have something like the suppression field you saw in Hanija, to cut down on unauthorized powerful magical effects? Or emergency buttons scattered around that people could use to keep anyone from hurting anyone for a while until someone could come sort out the altercation. Other ways of keeping people safe from each other without literally walling them off.

Hmm, a perpetual spirit tether on the whole city, so that nobody could (permanently) die without permission? n.n