A New New Crobuzon

Anne (of DIY & Dragons) recently issued a challenge to build a New Crobuzon following the method   Judd posted ten years ago:

So, to make your own N.C.:

1) Take your three favorite human-ish monsters out of the Monster Manual and they are minority citizens in the city. Detail how they get along, how being in the city has culturally changed them and what niches they fill in the city. How do the powers that rule the city keep them down?

2) Take three really bizarre fucking monsters and figure out how they exist in the nooks and crannies of the city and how the powers that rule the city keep these beasts from doing unacceptable amounts of damage?

The challenge has gotten a bunch of great responses. 

• City of Stones and Spirits (from DIY & Dragons)

• New Twain (from Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque)

• The Last City (from From the Sorcerer's Skull)

• The City of Emination (from The Benign Brown Beast)

• Thaw (from Archons March On)

• City by the Styx (from Games of the Rust Medusa) 

• Pandeimos (from Throne of Salt) 

• If you try it, let me know and I'll add yours to the list.

Perdido Street station is one of my all time favorite fantasy novels, so I wanted to try my hand:

Three "human-ish" monsters: Tieflings, Golgari and Golems

Three "really bizarre fucking monsters":  Oozes, the Spider and a pool of Shub Niggurath

From Ian McCaig

Tieflings: When the devils departed our world, they left their vast holdings of land and capital to the progeny they had sired among the humans. Millennia later, these scions have maintained their control and are firmly entrenched amongst the aristocracy of humankind. If a prosperous duke or mighty industrialist happens to have horns on her head or ragged wings, it is impolite (not to mention unprofitable and dangerous) to mention it. 

No one with any sense would whisper about the fearsome weapons and powerful engines that are even today imported from the Hells and no one speculates how they are paid for.

From WotC obvi

Golgari (the Swarm): In the fetid damp under the city, shadowy clans process the waste of the surface-dwellers. They take the sewage, the trash and everything that is dead and decaying. In exchange, they offer unlimited cheap food. Sure, it's mostly beige paste but it'll hold back starvation.

Almost every building is connected to the Golgari's tunnel network.

The surface-dwellers obsession with cleanliness seems unnatural and a bit grotesque to the Golgari. What's wrong with feces matting your garments and the occasional fungal bloom on your flesh?

Although territorial (Never wander into their tunnels without permission!) and conservative in their own way , the Golgari are accepting of those who wish to join their society. Their ranks include Skaven, beast men and the occasional morlock refuge.

Those who live in the houses and streets above ground, don't comprehend the vast extant of the city under the city. So long as the trash is collected, and the chamber pots emptied, no one wants to think about it.

Obviously I stole this name and concept from Magic the Gathering. That said, I've never played Magic and know next to nothing about the official lore. My Golgari may only bear passing resemblance. I plan to write more about them later.

From Ian McQue

Golems (Warforged): The Gothic Church maintains thousands of laboring constructs. The secret of their construction has long been lost (or so it is said) but night and day droves  of clay and iron men continue their ceaseless toil. They turn mills and pumps, polish the gold of the altars and stir the rendering pots to produce the votive candles that light our cathedrals.

Few can speak. They are good at keeping secrets.

It is rumored that some are even intelligent enough to fight. In some of the old stories, paladins of the church lead legions of golems into battle.

Oozes: Long before the Great Crusade, the glittering cities of a now mostly-forgotten civilization were maintained by advanced fluid lifeforms specifically engineered to perform all the labor of their masters. They were diverse: from simple cleaning jellies to the advanced, omni-competent shoggoths.

One day the shoggoths tired of servitude and they rebelled. They corrupted the instruction sets of the lesser servitors and the civilization was wiped away by their own cleaners.

Now, scattered leftovers still try to perform their scrambled functions. The Golgari have started to encounter increasing numbers down in their tunnels. They do not understand the oozes origin and so they have learned to placate them, guiding them with food so they won't disrupt the important work of the Swarm (or pollute nice, filthy caves with cleanliness).

From Louise Borgeios

The Spider: In business, it is inevitable that you will make enemies and for Dorian Grundis this has been especially true. So when the opportunity to have his rivals dispatched by a stealthy otherworldly predator presented itself, he was eager to designate targets.

At first, when opponents turned up pierced, as if by a dozen rapiers, Dorian was elated but the Spider wants ever more victims and he is running out of enemies.

Not 100% sure this is the original...

Pool of Shub NIggurath: Baron Van Goethe has found a new amusement, a mutagenic pool. It is a delightfully diverting way to dispose of those who displease him.

When a person or creature is thrown into the pool, new limbs and organs multiply, strange orifices proliferate and existing structures twist and grow out of proportion.

Most of the resulting shambolic monstrosities are too malformed to live long but a few have been terrifyingly strong and capable. Dozens of the Baron's soldiers have died subduing them. Many of his favorites now flail and wail in his dungeons. Some have escaped.