City of Darek

Darek in a Nutshell
The City of Darek is a vivid place with a glorious shiny side, but internally it is one of many contrasts. Imagine it really is build in three layers at the bottom end there are scums where all those live that are unfortunate enough to be living amongst normal citizens, at the upper end there is a glorious, but strict area for nobles and mages. In between these extremes lies the city itself, by the nobles it is called the lower city. Here the life of all normal citizens happens.

But there are places that don't fit clearly into the "harmony" of a single district, so they were separated over time as districts: Banks, Temples and the red-light district. Interestingly Darek's Redlight-District is almost a city itself as it also has three layers from the streets of urchins to the Paradise Gardens.

How the city works
In theory the whole city is run by local authorities. In Practice every level has its own actual government and a local cabal - that can be a bunch of gang leaders or nobles depending on where you are. Each of these organizations is more or less honorable (depending on what defines honorable) and more or less powerful, but usually all of them are at the brink of war with each other.

How the world works
It's a world full of magic and strange stuff. Note that there is even stuff you might consider magitec. This includes flying ships and artificial limbs, gadgets of wierdness.
In terms of magic priests, wizards, adepts (self-enhancing dudes/dudettes), alchemists and wierd nature and spirit freaks all exist in ... not exactly harmony.

What's in for players
Well in a city where everyone wants to backstab his neighbour for social advancement there is a lot of backstabbing or grave-digging for money available. Don't forget that it's an old city and a city that is build upon lesser cities. who knows what's below. So there is an options to explore and sneak around.
It's not about kicking some doors in and killing stuff. It's about doing stuff and using your brain. You want to stay alive, don't ya?