"Right. So, you're telling me that the Street is all bad news? There are no nice parts of town at ground level?"
"Not except for the Square, which is that big park that the Citadel sits in the middle of. There are some good shops and restaurants for maybe a block around there, but it peters out pretty fast much beyond that. There are some other parks on Street-level that are pretty nice, but you wouldn't want to be there after dark." She smiled. "That isn't to say there aren't nice people on the Street, though. I know a lot of them just in my own apartment building."
— Kathryn Kitaen & Michael Perelli in Welcome to the City
On Kate's suggestion, they went to the Square for lunch. After grabbing a couple of sandwiches from a local deli they sat down in the shade of a willow tree at the southern end of the park, near the large white fountain with the statue of Thomas V on horseback that was one of the classic "postcard images" of the city. In the background rose the towering edifice of the Citadel, which at a height of 1500 meters reduced the skyscrapers around it to mere dwarfs. Michael let his eyes wander over the titanic structure — the broad, sloping base; the central spire, tapering up to a summit shaped like the hood of a cobra lily; and the two minarets to either side, their faceted domes glittering like two enormous diamonds. In the center of the "hood" at the top of the main spire was a huge elliptical half-dome of what looked like silvered glass, and it reflected the noonday sun in a dazzling contrast to the muted light grey stone that made up the rest of the building.
— Welcome to the City
Background
The Citadel sits in the middle of a square-mile quadrangle called, appropriately enough, the Square. It's a mixture of park, open lawn, and manicured gardens, a little bit like the Mall in the District of Columbia. People come here to relax, socialize, picnic, and rally for social and political causes. At the southern end of the Square is a large fountain with a statue of Duke Thomas V on horseback, commemorating the exploits of the man widely considered Metamor's greatest leader of all time. Horse-King, Fulfiller of Prophecies, Liberator of the Giantdowns — the passage of time has made him a legendary figure, far larger than life.
Features of the Square
- Fountain and Statue of Duke Thomas V
- A large fountain with a statue of Duke Thomas V (as a human) on horseback, commemorating the exploits of the man widely considered Metamor's greatest leader of all time. It's also makes of the most iconic views of Metamor City; standing to face the statue one can see the Citadel behind it.
- The Standing Stone
- Also called the Gray column, and the Stone Sentry. It is a dark gray column of stone over twenty feet tall. It stands in park at one of the edges of the Square. The stone bears no writing or inscriptions but shows clear signs of having been deliberately carved into it’s present shape and then erected there. It has no magic in it except for a faint preservation spell that is regularly renewed by a mage from the Keep. The columns exact age is unknown to anyone but it does predate the Seuilman empire. Some say it’s as old as the Citadel itself (and they've been saying that since the Citadel was a Keep). Most likely it was erected by the tribesmen who lived in the valley for millennia before the Seuilman arrived.1
- The Citadel
Sources
Original MK2K Bible entry- Geography, MK Wiki entry- Metamor Valley
Author's Notes
text
