Sunday, 25 January 2026

City of 100 Gods Pt.8: The Serpent of the Sky (ward 49)

This post is the in the City '26 series and continues our ongoing exploration of the City of a Hundred Gods:

Part 2... Gates and Ladders
Part 3... Further Along the Ladders

Part 6... Final Traders Wake Wards
Part 7... Artisans Quarter

I will need to return to the Artisans and add the NINE other wards I have failed to include at a later date, but I feel obliged to show my working to a wider audience than Instagram... thus this post.

Roman Serpent Carving

...this ward centres on the The Temple of the Sky Serpent: being the penultimate ward of the Artisans' District, the Sky Serpent is a god of a particular craft requiring a particular set of skills...

The Temple of the Sky Serpent

The epicentre of the Jewellers' Quarter. The Sky Serpent is the final avatar of the Great Creator, the Golden Serpent Descended from the Sky. Her avatar provided the final gift to the Artisan Priests: the extraction and working of gold.

The temple houses a great meteorite: the cosmic egg from which the Serpent Avatar hatched. Around this object priests (known as Envoys) sit upon the floor, working gold into fine leaf or thread. They gild idols of other deities, cast rings and torcs, and weigh offerings on balancing scales.

Here Priests of the Prosperous One (39) offer fruit and ballots for gold statues of themselves. Clay Firers of the Kiln (46) keep the gold-smelting furnaces alight. Serpent-helmed guard-priests keep their sharp eyes peeled for thieves, dealing with perpetrators through summary justice.

PRIESTS OF THE SKY SERPENT

The Priesthood is divided into two orders: the SERPENT GUARD and the ENVOYS. Neither are gender exclusive, and both orders shave their head completely. The Serpent Guard keeps their baldness from the skies with gilded helmets in the style of an open-jawed cobra. They may only remove them inside. The Serpent Guard carry wooden clubs banded and studded with metal.

In contrast the ENVOYS – expert goldsmiths and evaluators of precious items – always bare their heads outside, but burden themselves with the weight of their craft. They are ever-draped in chains, necklaces and coifs of purest gold. The highest-ranking envoys are so over-burdened with gold they are unable to move, and must be carried upon polished shields by their attendants.

ENCOUNTERS BY DAY (refer to "Encounters in the Artisans' Quarter"

Snake-seller
ENVOY negotiating with a PRIEST OF PROSPERITY (39)
Bead seller
Pickpocket
Idol vendor (roll 1d100 to determine which god)
Basket of 1d6 vipers. Roll a second die: odds, the basket has been overturned
2d6 Serpent Guards
1d6 bejewelled dogs from the Kennels (27)
Noble's servant accompanied by 1d4 guards
Elephant laden with treasure
Shrine to the Sky Serpent, jeweler/envoy in attendance
Roll twice, combine

ENCOUNTERS BY DAY (refer to "Encounters in the Artisans' Quarter"

Snake-seller
ENVOY negotiating with a PRIEST OF PROSPERITY (39)
Bead seller
Pickpocket
Idol vendor (roll 1d100 to determine which god)
Basket of 1d6 vipers. Roll a second die: odds, the basket has been overturned
2d6 Serpent Guards
1d6 bejewelled dogs from the Kennels (27)
Noble's servant accompanied by 1d4 guards
Elephant laden with treasure
Shrine to the Sky Serpent, jeweller/envoy in attendance
Roll twice, combine

GOODS AND SERVICES

Pythons, vipers... snakes of all kinds for sale! The perfect non-gold offering.
Turtles, terrapins, tortoises... a less salubrious offering, but cheaper. And just as tasty.
gold-leaf covered idols of other gods (roll 1d100, refence against a city ward)
Weapons gilding: can edge a metal, obsidian or stone weapon with silver or gold.
Bribes: SERPENT GUARDS (articularly THE RIGHT ONES, see below) can be paid to look the other way or hired to carry out minor crimes
Debt incursion: trade an uncertain BREAD STOCK (see this post) for gold
Gold and silver jewelry can be purchased and crafted here
Donate to an ENVOY and receive a MAGICAL BLESSING
Beads, necklaces and lesser jewellery traded for ballots and stocks
Gemstones can be authenticated, valued, bought and sold (light! sparkly! transportable stores of high value!)
fortunes told by seers n exchange for silver
Street food is mostly filled flatbreads. Snakeblood wine also available.

PROMINENT FACTION

The RIGHT ONES are a corrupt brotherhood within the Serpent Guard that has arisen due to their leader's incompetence and lack of oversight in the ward by the city's law enforcement, the guard of the SOLAR BASTION (92). These corrupt guards comprise a third of the priesthood, though only a handful occupy positions of authority.

Through a corrupt envoy known as Barca (see NPCs, below) they have cornered the burgeoning blackmarket in gold. They where no outward signs denoting their allegiance, but communicate to one another through a simple sign language system borrowed from the Priests of the Cracks (16).

ACRHITECTURAL AND LAYOUT

The central temple is the principal official gold market: a colonnade peristyle surrounding a partially covered central shrine surrounding the meteorite of the Sky Serpent.

Buildings are two-storey mudstone with sandstone coynes and wooden shutters to windows. These usually arrow lanes surround walled markets and lavish temple gardens: the High Priests occupy places more in common with noble villas than holy sites.

ADVENTURE SEEDS

Sapient python has taken over a shrine
Priests of prosperity have bene trading black market gold: SOLAR GUARD and RIGHT ONES both wish to deal with this in their own way.
The moulds used to cast gold tools and jewellery have been fashioned from corpsewax accrued from WAXTWON (29), which perhaps draws Pariahs into THE CULT OF THE YELLOW MOON
LAKULKEK, QUEEN OF DOGS is on a royal visit (she's getting some new jewellery made). Spies from the RAT KING are going to attempt an assassination.
A young envoy is determined to end Barca's corrupt reign and looks to recruit the pariahs to their cause.
Priests of the Cracks trading metal weapons at the Black Market.
SOLAR GUARD are trying to investigate corruption, but are unable to operate within this part of the city and need help.
NIRAJA (see below) needs an important shipment collected from the SALT DOCKS (36)
THE HIGH PRIEST falls to a mysterious illness, a cure must be found as the only viable candidate to replace him is BARCA!
AREKH has a "sensitive" illness (piles, erectile disfunction etc.), a reliable cure is available but involves travel into THE SEA OF TENTS
MOUKOKO (see below) has a friend who has been kidnapped and enslaved at THE SALT DOCKS (37). please help him rescue them.
THE HIGH PRIEST dies, civil war ensues!

NPCS

VERTIMOR wily, rapsy, impatient; fraik, hard-drinking, expert in toxins and antivenoms. Purveyor of snake-venom libations: 1-2 alcoholic, 3-4 as quick leaf, 5 as Sleepflower 6 as Nightmare Fruit.
BARCA Thin, bald, olive-skinned middle-aged woman. Heavy eyeliner, lots of gold. Wide smile, rarely not smirking. Capitalising on th ecoruption of the RIGHT ONES and using their influence to gain control of the ward. Ultimat egoal to channel the spirt of the SKY SERPENT into the city's titular ruler, THE GOLDEN ONE (100). Lives in a temple maintained as a luxurious villa wherein co-conspirators are entertained.
AREKH athletically built middle-aged man with upright posture, dark-skin and chiselled features. Absolutely perfect look for a strongman belies the absence of any interior life; this vacuum has been expertly filled by people like Barca to create a very useful marionette with delusions of individual agency. Arekh believes he is doing a great job at adminsitering the Justice of the Serpent. A useful – albeit powerfuk – idiot.
THE HIGH PRIEST a frail old man draped in gold, barely capable of speech. Carried aloft on a gold-plated disc by two Setpent Guarfs. More than 100 years old. Kept alive by magical snake wine.
MOUKOKO a skinny 9 year-old with a chatty demeanour and street knowledge. Will not commit crimes on temple grounds (apart from pick-pocketing). Carries an 8” long steel needle with handle, half inch diameter at base. Has used it to take lives.
ORM friendly, corpulent, utterly corrupt. Two Latrobe hammers and boiled leather armour with copper detailing. Serpent guard. Alcoholic.
NIRAJA sells snakes. Woman approaching middle-age, smiling eyes, pale blue skin. A fighter of southern traders now permanently resident in the city. Does a roaring trade in reptiles sacred to the God of this ward and her priesthood. Strong ties to Salt Docks (36)

City ‘26 Update

Since I publicised the City ‘26 challenge, I have been made aware of the following blogs taking part:

A 1920s Midwestern City: New Babylon with a beautiful map
https://crimewave.blot.im/tagged/city-26
Seed of Worlds produces Hive RT-87 a homage to Rogue Trader '87 Hiveworlds: Necromunda before it was Necromunda!
https://seedofworlds.blogspot.com/search/label/city26
Wenya Lagoon by Nova @Idle Cartulary: "Hot, wet, sweat-drenched, salty, long-legged birds, crabs, fish, mosquitos, octopus, sharks, coral, sailing ships, blue waters, mangroves, anchors, shipwrecks, tidal pools..."
https://idlecartulary.com/2026/01/03/preparing-for-city-26-week-0/
Bogblins is doing something.... more to be revealed!
https://bogblins.blogspot.com/2026/01/year-in-review-city26.html
Christopher Kurts introduces Rainbow City "a post-scarcity, anarcho-mutualist, megacity gift society " over on Playtest Dummies:
https://playtestdummies.substack.com/p/skyfield-a-rainbow-city-neighborhood
The novel gamemaster presents Myth's Landing a hub of adventure a dozen miles from the entrance to Mythbarrow, the fabled megadungeon
https://www.thenovelgamemaster.com/2026/01/myths-landing-city-26-project.html

All new blogs I’m made aware of get added to the City of Ghost mega post, and any new blogs will be incorporated into new City ‘26 posts here. Let me know if you are currently working on something!