Aurrian Cities are identified by a letter grade, not a real name. Every two hundred years, they are re-ranked based on livability and environment, though this really only affects mid-tier Cities; Cities A and B are unlikely to ever go down in tier, and “punishment tier” Cities, U through Z, are almost completely forced by the Guard into their positions.
Heavenly Tier
A - Sometimes even in the modern era considered a “Holy City”, A takes up most of the space on a temperate island within the Grandis subcontinent. It was founded by explorers from the west long ago and free from the conflicts within other Cities, flourished and became Aurra’s new capital. It is the smallest City, with ornate architecture with form consisting of a colorful fusion of every Earth culture, and aside from the palace, it also has famous religious and cultural landmarks, including a grand opera house and Aurra’s senate chamber. Visitor visas are restricted and only in rare circumstances are people who have lived fewer than ten lives permitted to live within its alabaster walls.
B - The only other City on Grandis, which covers most of the island. It has no central cultural theme, rather incorporating the latest skyscraper designs to blend ultra-modern glass towers and light together into a skyline that looks like it belongs on Earth. Aside from a multitude of parks, it is also famous for its canals and water taxis. Despite its bold architecture and cleanliness, the City, surrounding A, also acts as the capital’s central defense, and disguised anti-aircraft towers cover the tops of buildings.
C - Promoted into its place during the previous re-ranking ceremony in 1900, C became an overpopulated and dense megatropolis with tall metal towers and neon-lit streets. Located in a large, dry basin and surrounded by a wasteland of mountains and storms, C alternates between dark, rainy nights and long arid days. Despite its rough exterior, it has lavish apartments, many entertainment venues, and a strong if not sometimes enigmatic scientific community. Recent rumors have come out that it may be having technical difficulties with its transfer system.
D - The most populated Heavenly Tier City, one of the largest in Onasia, and that continent’s central transportation hub. It is a vital City that is home to Onasia’s main port of entry, on the northern coast. Modeled after the Mediterranean cities of Earth, it primarily emulates old Italy, with buildings in warm neutral colors and narrow, cobblestone streets. It also runs the only train to the far northern City of I, which runs underground and the sea the entire distance. As the gateway City of Onasia, it is of vital importance to the stability of the continent.
Upper Middle Tier
E - The second-most northern City, sitting at the top of Onasia, E has a wide sunsphere and sits atop a large, metal rich island. Surrounding the City are vast quarries and mines, making the City the largest exporter of non-synthesized, raw Aurrian ore and other precious metals. Closer to the City center, companies that own and sell these metals across Aurra have brought their workers and owners great wealth, which is reflected in their modern glass and steel towers. Despite the City’s latitude, its architecture takes cues from African architecture, with bold, sweeping facades.
F - The City of history, where most of the buildings are at least 200 hundred years old and made of stone and brick. Among the ancient structures is Onasia’s oldest municipal building, the original palace from long ago, when F was Aurra’s capital. It now serves as one of Aurra’s largest museums, holding thousands of important historical artifacts, books, and scrolls. Other elements include the stone wall surrounding the original, smaller City, and Onasia’s largest military academy, on the outskirts. The City has the largest independent military presence in Aurra, but has always had a contentious relationship with the Guard, and few military graduates go onto ultimately join them.
G - The largest commerce and trading hub in Onasia, also seen as the gateway to East Onasia as it has direct connections to J, V, and X, along with F. An expansive City with a Scandinavian design sense, its buildings vary between clean modern structures to traditional boxy architecture painted in bold primary colors. Inner city transportation is primarily served by a complex network of electric trains. Its tallest, most iconic building, has a giant clock face near its top and a gold exterior trim.
H - The highest tiered City on Mightoria, H becomes a resort City during the summer as visitors flock to its expansive beaches to swim in purified, temperate shallow waters along an extensive coastal shelf. Farther away from the beaches is Aurra’s largest non-alchemagi focused institution, Aurra University, which also has many classes dedicated to Earth studies. The buildings in H represent a large fusion of many western Earth cities, and mirror San Francisco and Sydney more than anywhere else.
I - The original site of the ancient City of J until it mysteriously vanished many centuries ago, I spends much of the year as a winter land, its warm lights suggestive of the many communal indoor activities that go on all day, every day. The third smallest City past A and Z, I only has a few skyscrapers, giving the Icelandic-like metropolis a stronger resemblance of a close-knit community than most Aurrian Cities. Its residences are often designed to emulate warm wooden cabins. Avalanches from nearby Mt. Ultimaeus, Aurra’s tallest mountain, periodically threaten I.
J – The largest Aurrian City, where about 15% of all Aurrians are living at any time. This sprawling megatropolis covers a wide, flat, fertile, and temperate plain, and is seen as the “middle of Onasia and Tillethy.” Support for the Guard is down the middle, and the City has as many armories and fortifications for independent military as it does for the Guard. This melting pot City is also the home of the largest alchemagi academy in the eastern hemisphere, Vidian School of Alchemagi. J mixes together a large variety of building design from nearly every Earth city.
K – Emulating the buildings of nobles and the great arcades, museums, and theaters from Victorian era London and Paris, K is an island City with ports to the west and east, with cultural centers in the middle. Also home of the famous and lengthy Rose Street, lined with restaurants and shops. K is perhaps best defined by its many famous residents, many of them in powerful political families. K has historically had a closeness with A, across the ocean, and influenced the direction of Aurra’s government.
L – On the east coast of Mightoria, just south of the equator, is one of the continent’s most important Cities. Utilizing a unique blend of classic Arabic and German architecture, L holds Mightoria’s largest port, and is the launching point for many Guardsmen troop movements. Primarily, the City is Aurra’s trade and commerce capital. Synthids might make Aurra’s economy much smaller than Earth’s, but it does still have one to manage, and L hosts the headquarters of many banks and trading guilds.
M – Surrounded by forests protected by its sunsphere and built near Lake Salis, M’s claim to fame is Aurra’s most famous alchemagi academy, Evirtide. Its pedigree matches A’s academy, but it educates ten times more students, many of which find work as alchemagists in the Guard or independent militaries. M has a style based off of many East Asia countries, including Japan, China, Korea, and Thailand. Evirtide itself has the appearance of a classic Japanese castle. Few of the students, however, remain in the City, and without a primary industry, M remains not quite prosperous as many outsiders would believe.
Lower Middle Tier
N – Sometimes known as the “completely average, middle of the road” Aurrian City, the standard model by which all other Cities are judged, whether with a higher or lower letter grade. With some minor specialties in education, N features some lingering Roman architecture built long ago, and is still known for its rivers, aqueducts, and public baths. N is one of the ancient Cities, founded close to and shortly after D.
O – Home of Aurra’s largest scientific community, much of it serving the Guard in researching new technology. At the center of the research are methods to create new portals to Earth and improving and maintaining existing sites. The City utilizes modest East Asian and American building styles, but has usually built more utilitarian buildings as it instead focuses on developing laboratories and factories.
P – A Mightoria port City specializing in lumber, with thousands of mills and tree farms. Nearly all of the trees were imported from Earth long ago, as they are heartier than both native Aurrian variants and synthesized lumber. Many of the shorter towers are made of fire resistant lumber and green roofs, giving the City a natural appearance. P has improved its standard of living so much in the last century that it is likely actually a functioning upper tier City.
Q – An arid City spanning from east to west within an island desert in Tillethy. River and major roads connecting the Cities of U and F pass through Q, which is the second smallest of all middle tier Cities. Historically, it took its architecture cues from Egypt, but within the last one hundred years, its newer buildings closer emulate those of India’s cities. Q is primarily known for its industry in dyes and fabrics, exported from factories with long, hard working days.
R – The southernmost City, R suffers from poor weather and dark, cloudy days. Sometimes, storms from the icy wasteland of Subarctica reach its shores and suddenly bring in heavy wind and snowfall. Despite these conditions, R is fully controlled by the Guard, and remains its primary ship-building site and naval station, with dozens of ports able to deploy hundreds of warships to destinations across the world. To weather storms, the buildings are rugged cement block structures, with little personality.
S – Also controlled by the Guard, S is one of Aurra’s most important Cities, as it is the primary exporter of raw and refined synthids, used to synthesize matter from energy, providing over 80% of food and material. Heavily defended against attacks from both the air and sea, S has many mega-project digging operations tearing apart its synthid-rich land. When its vast quarries are depleted, they become parks, lakes, or tiered neighborhoods. Hundreds of polluting factories and refineries pollute what would otherwise be pristine buildings modeled after Moroccan and Greek architecture.
T – A Tillethian City covering an isolated island, T is the lowest ranked “non-punishment” City, though it has taken strides to improve its living standards in the past few decades and now has a number of above average neighborhoods. Purely a residence City with a commercial downtown area, T is one of the very few Aurrian metropolises to have genuine suburbs, and overall, in layout and design, could be easily confused for a standard American city.
Punishment Tier
U – On the same long body of Tillethian land as Q, U has harbors to the north and south that often serve the Guard, which the City supports but isn’t controlled by. U is the primary supplier of aircraft and airships, and also serves as a launching area for extended campaigns, with several large fields filled with hangars and mooring stations. As the first “Punishment City”, U employs forced labor but only once or twice a week, and has several reformation centers.
V – There are no other Cities quite like V. With an oversized sunsphere which has a distinctive industrial hum, V—by far—produces the largest protective space in Aurra. It needs this space to cover its swathes of farmland, and small satellite urban centers, and even villages, in between. There is enough farmland across V’s fertile plans to provide Aurra with 20% of its total crop and nearly all of its fully organic, non-synthesized food. Though some of its farms utilize forced labor, those seeking reformation hours often elect to be transferred to V, just for the chance to work outside on a farm. Numerous guilds control the farms and manage exports, many of which go to a separate harbor in the east.
W – Arguably the most unique City in all of Aurra, W is the only one that doesn’t have a central sunsphere. Instead, it is a fully subterranean complex below a mountainous island, and only uses much smaller sun lamps to cover entrances, ventilation ports, and cracks in the “ceiling.” The City is both wide and deep, and its top layer, just below sea level, rests under an enormous skylight built into the mountain, the City’s only window to the sky. Despite the darkness of W and its industrial towers, building interiors tend to be extravagant, often with greenery to make up for the lack of outside parks. The fact that these indoor parks and luxuries exist but are not visible in one sweeping view of W has led to some contentious relations with the Guard’s Tier Review Board, which attests that the City is trying to pull itself into a higher tier, which would cause the Guard to lose a punishment City.
X – A densely packed urban jungle, isolated in East Onasia, built near an inland, unprotected, acidic sea. The largest of the punishment Cities, X is often seen as Aurra’s dumping grounds, as it has little commerce or industries to speak of—and therefore little forced labor. Instead, it relies on many small reformation centers to rehabilitate those judged to spend a lifetime here. Much of the punishment itself is said to just be having to live in a “forgotten” City, provided only the bare essentials by the ruling Guard—who they themselves were often selected to be tossed aside for poor performance or mistakes made, and may not feel inclined to fully defend the City should it ever see conflict.
Y – An isolated, defended City in Tillethy’s southern seas, Y is an ugly, concrete metropolis with slave labor, war machine factories, prisons and reformation centers, and a heavy Guard presence. Outside of forced work conditions, or factory work with little pay to create its tanks, weaponry, ship hulls, or other materiel, Y is usually of little value to the Guard. The only places with decent living conditions are the military ports, which can rapidly deploy naval ships across Tillethy. Longstanding rumors have also pointed to Y being the site of occasional dangerous science experiments over the years, sometimes involving people.
Z – The prison City, and second smallest, having about twice the population of A. Prisoners, whether sent here to be born and live out a life sentence by a Hold judge, or placed here from elsewhere for committing grievous crimes in Aurra, are only allowed to leave upon death. Not everyone is a prisoner; Z is segmented by walls, and has a fairly decent town for the staff. Nine other blocks cover the crescent-shaped dark and desolate island, with Block 1 being a village designed like a smaller Y, where well-behaved prisoners get small apartments and an open sky. Blocks get worse as they go higher in number, as does reformation techniques, many of which border on torture to “cleanse” the soul and serve as a deterrent for behavior in future lives. Block 9, which takes cues from Dante’s ninth circle, is kept cold and is from the outside thought of a dark pit, the end of Aurra.