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The section presents the nomadic city as a prerequisite for modern society, powered by Originium, whose greatest contribution is evading Catastrophe at high speed. Yet not all peoples live in them: settlements exist in Sargon's coastal rainforests, Kjerag's plateaus, and Ursus's tundras, and the text cautions that claiming all lives are bound to nomadic cities would be too hasty. Even so, civilization's most dazzling achievements—Victoria's Londinium, Columbia's Trimounts—are nomadic cities. Some researchers suggest industrial emissions atop the cities may speed Catastrophe formation, though no definite causal link is proven.
Nomadic cities belong to Terra's nations; even Siesta is arguably part of Columbia. Operation exceeds any single person or organization, so cities operate within preestablished spaces under their country's direction. They migrate along fixed loops with stopping points, dictated by local geography. The Command Tower on the core plate controls the city and monitors Originium fluctuations to plan migrations. Regional forms vary widely— aquatic devices in Iberia, hills and ropeways in Shangshu, linked cities in Kazimierz, burdenbeast-towed trailers in Sargon, extended mining platforms in Columbia, and scattered "nomadic towns" in Minos and Siracusa—differences driven by environment, politics, tradition, and Originium industry development.
Structurally, cities have three layers: the Living Deck, Support Deck, and Power Deck. Plates are the basic unit, joined by rigid mechanical connections with hydraulic hooks, anchoring pipes, and passageways; universal linking parts handle misalignment, sometimes leaving only cables. Power Decks carry grounded mobility structures, typically giant caterpillar treads. Citizens live atop the Living Deck, where drawbridges connect misaligned plate edges; below the surface, tunnels, pipes, and basements form a "cobbled construct composition," and in laxly regulated old cities a maze inhabited by drifters. The Support Deck holds noisy energy and circulation machinery; the Power Deck holds power plants and transmission gears, closed to residents while moving.
Construction is fixed-style (assembling a Power Deck at a safe site) or mobile-style (industrial docks in places like Victoria); many small cities began as modified mobile facilities such as mining platforms.
The first modern nomadic city is credited to the Seven Cities' Federation, a loose alliance of independent cities threatened by expanding great powers after Terran Calendar year 700. Researchers united in 747, and in 797 three mobile plates assembled the first city. But the Federation had exhausted its resources; the city and its builders were partitioned among the great powers, who built their own nomadic cities and used them to seize more territory. The Federation faded into a name.
The nomadic city is a prerequisite for modern society; without these constructs powered by Originium, we might have no means of protecting property from Catastrophe. Yet not all people live in nomadic cities—in Sargon's coastal rainforests, Kjerag's snowy plateaus, and Ursus's northern tundras, fixed settlements hold significant inhabitants, so many would argue nomadic cities are not entirely necessary for survival.
The nomadic city's greatest contribution is evading Catastrophe at high speed, but not all inhabitants frequently need this. A man of Kjerag who has never seen a Catastrophe might believe his goddess Kjeragandr superior. Since we do not know how many miraculous places like Kjerag exist, saying all lives are invariably bound to nomadic cities would be too hasty; before the rise of the Originium industry, the people of Terra migrated endlessly and still thrived between Catastrophes.
On the other hand, the most dazzling parts of civilization are owed to nomadic cities. Victoria's Londinium and Columbia's Trimounts symbolize local apices of civilization and dwarf nearby fixed towns. Some researchers suggest that emissions from high-concentration industry atop nomadic cities might speed up Catastrophe formation, though no concrete academic study shows a definite causal link.
Nomadic cities are owned by the nations of Terra; even the relatively independent Siesta is arguably part of Columbia. Operation and maintenance is a constant headache, since a city is beyond any single person, company, or organization. Every city operates within a preestablished space, according to its affiliated country's direction and support capability. Long-distance travel is difficult, so for stability cities migrate along fixed loops with suitable stopping points, moving periodically to evade Catastrophes. The Command Tower, on the core plate, is the control system's center and the primary hub for monitoring fluctuations in nearby Originium concentrations, working out migration plans based on observed Catastrophe-related weather patterns, real-time data, and past experience. Day-to-day operations require great expertise.
When asked what a nomadic city is, people give different answers. Iberian coastal cities have special aquatic devices below them. In the Yanese hinterlands of Shangshu, people build mountains and hills atop city plates, fastening ropeways between them. In Kazimierz, several nomadic cities link into one grand, united city. In Sargon, the Lords Ameer direct burdenbeasts to tow wooden trailers through mountain passes, also considered a type of "nomadic city," while some Columbians have discreetly extended mobile mining platforms into very small "nomadic cities." In Minos and Siracusa, small-scale "nomadic towns" dot the landscape, utterly different in management structure from the colossal cities under the Dukes of Victoria. These differences stem mainly from natural environment, regional political systems, historical traditions, and local Originium industry development.
Despite regional peculiarities, the basic structure is mostly the same: three layers—the upper Living Deck, middle Support Deck, and lower Power Deck—with elevators at plate edges moving personnel and goods. The plate is the basic unit; joined plates form larger towns or cities. Every city has a core plate, housing the Command Tower on top and the main Originium Power Plant below. Plates link mostly via rigid mechanical connections; hydraulic hooks and anchoring pipes at the Support Deck joints keep plates steady and maintain power links. Grounded mobility structures—most commonly giant caterpillar treads—sit in the Power Deck. In rugged land, edges may misalign, and in extreme circumstances plates might totally separate, linked only by cables. Some cities feature artificial landscapes of vast scale, such as the manmade sea in Dossoles, filled with water drawn from the northern ocean.
Most ordinary citizens live on the Living Deck's surface, among building complexes with roads, bridges, parks, and green spaces; simple drawbridges commonly connect imperfectly aligned plates. The underground part holds support systems—tunnels for cables and pipes, foundations, basements, emergency evacuation spaces, and base soil layers. Though surface buildings endlessly shift and remodel, what lies below keeps its history, producing a "cobbled construct composition." In cities with lax regulations, this disorderly maze has become a paradise for drifters and vagrants, spawning urban legends.
Maintenance crews ride elevators down to the Support Deck daily. To them it is like a giant manufactory, echoing with rumbles day and night. Here originates the city's energy circulation: Originium boilers, electrical supply stations, and water circulation systems transport supplies upward through pipe networks. Packed with noisy machines and giant reinforcement structures, it has few living facilities. Newer plates include emergency evacuation designs; older plates' Support Decks mainly serve as transportation hubs.
Power Deck workers have plenty of free time until the city moves, when they may work around the clock. When moving, this deck is the most clamorous place; when stopped, only a few guards and service crew remain. It is a mechanical kingdom of transmission gears connected with caterpillar tracks, Originium power plants, fuel storage, and conveyor belts. These consume tremendous Originium, so spacious distribution channels are critical. No one may reside on the Power Deck while the city moves; most passages require access privileges, since cramped spaces with unceasing machinery easily lead to casualties.
Building a plate from scratch requires a meticulously devised plan, in two categories. The fixed style, most common, needs a place safe from Catastrophe during construction: set up an assembly site, ship in Power Deck components; once complete it can move itself, and middle and upper decks are laid down one by one. All components must be prepared beforehand, depending on highly-developed industrial Originium production lines—hard for less industrialized areas. The more advanced mobile style, common in places like Victoria, uses special plates joined into a large "industrial dock" where new plates are manufactured; with low risk and cost, it is now the most efficient method. Many cities began "casually" as modified mobile facilities like mining platforms. Catastrophes remain frequent, and nomadic cities prove their worth daily, leading more people to see them as the ultimate expression of civilization.
Most history textbooks credit the Seven Cities' Federation with first putting the modern nomadic city into practice. The Federation's origins remain unverifiable. The historical "Seven Cities Area" neither belonged to nor bordered any modern nation and was unrelated to the later Federation. The "Seven" is merely metaphorical; it was a loose alliance of several independent cities and regions, and it is unknown how many polities joined or left—the ill-fitting word "Federation" conceals a much-flawed existence.
The Federation's most united period fell between Terran Calendar 747–797. Around the year 700, all nations sought to expand borders, no longer satisfied with evading Catastrophes within their own lands. Since naturally habitable areas were scarcer than anticipated, countries annexed unincorporated settlements, and independent city-states faced unprecedented crisis. Many refusing cities joined the ancient Seven Cities' Federation—a desperate attempt at mutual support by the weak. Their leaders concluded that defense alone would not save them, so they needed a new paradigm to change the weave of the world, while struggling to stall enemies.
The project "the Nomadic City" was launched, meant to bring a new technology allowing Terrans to break free from regional limits. In 747, researchers from all independent polities first came together; from then the nomadic city was no longer a mere invention but an ideal motivating all who fought for the Federation. This hope propelled the project fifty years. In 797, three mobile plates assembled the first nomadic city—theory became reality, and this huge "landship" seemed about to bear suffering peoples toward a land of life and liberty.
But reality was cruel. In the final years, survivors threw everything into the last constructions, but decades of struggle had exhausted the resources needed to actually move the city. The participants and the city itself were partitioned among the great powers, who then built their own nomadic cities from the Federation's research. The cities' mobility enabled the great powers to seize even more territory. The Federation, though not immediately dissolved, suffered a slow death, forever barred from its goal. Today the name "Seven Cities" refers only to the physical place, not the lofty ideals of its dreamers.
EPIGRAPH
Rim Billiton's barrenlands, locked in the throes of the dry season, welcomed the first early rays of sunlight that traversed the mountains. Those fowlbeasts that frequent the barrens showed up, as they always do. As they flew towards the rising sun, seeking out oases for food, they sang the only music to grace the wildlands. In the distance, a towering snow-capped mountain threatened to scrape the sky, to the extent that it delayed the sun's glorious rise by several minutes. A convoy from a nearby nomadic city rubbed shoulders with the fowlbeasts at the waters of the oasis. This convoy filled their cisterns with water, completing the final preparations before the departure of the city. The city in the distance resembled a group of immense yet silent metallic lifeforms, lazily reclining on the boundary between the grasslands and the desert. One must by no means underestimate these silent giants, who look like great boulders towering above the land, for once their hearts begin to beat, they let forth the most majestic roars across all Terra. At nine in the morning, maintenance staff who had been on leave for several months all returned to their posts, performing their final inspections on the valves and pipes; children carried sundry goods back home with their parents, preparing for the next several days of hustling; city defense crews sporting earmuffs made their way around the many ramshackle sheds set up against the city's outer walls, telling the barrenlanders to begin packing up. The sunlight grew ever stronger. The most pleasant time of the day has passed. As the fowlbeasts gradually disappeared over the horizon, the city plates close to the route gave several loud blasts of their horns, the shapeless waves of sound echoing back and forth across the barrenland. As the fifth roar swept across the skies above the plates, a tremendous blast emanated from the bottom of the first plate, shuddering as its powerful boosters began to activate, kicking up enough dust to blot out the entire convoy. The heart of this metallic lifeform was pulsing once more. The plates slowly lurched forward, true to the "nomadic" in the name—they carry not only the day-to-day livelihoods of the average resident, but also the form of civilization that we have passed down from generation to generation.
—Victorian bestseller A Heart of Metal, Chapter One
The nomadic city is a prerequisite for the existence of our modern society. If we did not have these great constructs advanced by the power of Originium, we may not have any means to protect our property from the relentless onslaught of Catastrophe, even to this day.
A settlement outside a nomadic city. Drawn in a village on the northern outskirts of Boschendal in 1086.
However, I must emphasize—not all people live in nomadic cities. In the coastal rainforests of Sargon, on the untrod snowy plateaus of Kjerag, across the vast north-ern tundras of Ursus, these settlements come in all different shapes and structures, with significant inhabitants. Given these examples, there are many who would argue that the nomadic city is not entirely necessary for survival.
Ultimately, the greatest contribution of the nomadic city to civilization is its ability to evade Catastrophe at high speed. However, not all inhabitants of this land have frequent need of such a thing. Should we speak with a man of Kjerag who has never seen a Catastrophe before, he might rightly believe that these nomadic cities are inferior to his goddess Kjeragandr—after all, in his mind, it is Kjeragandr who guards Kjerag from looming Catastrophes.
Before we delve deeply into the truth behind the many mysteries of the land, we still do not know just how many miraculous places like Kjerag there are, so to say that all lives are invariably bound together with nomadic cities would be too hasty. After all, in the many long years before the rise of the Originium industry, the people of Terra had to migrate endlessly about, following the ancient wisdom. But in the intervals between Catastrophes, they still managed to thrive in their own way.
However, to look at it another way, the most dazzling parts of civilization really are owed to the nomadic cities. Whether Victoria's indomitable Londinium, or
An urban road in a nomadic city.
Trimounts, the heart of technology of Columbia, these cities symbolize their local apices of civilization, and they, as nomadic cities, dwarf nearby fixed towns. As night falls, one can see their lights from tens of miles away, a sight that never fails to leave onlookers gasping at the majesty of Originium industry and nomadic city alike.
Not everyone holds admiration for them, however. Over the past few years, some researchers have analyzed observational reports from Catastrophe Messengers to show that the emissions from high-concentration industry atop nomadic cities might be speeding up the formation of Catastrophes. Despite this, at present there remains no concrete academic study to show any definite link of cause and effect between the two. How industry influences the formation of Catastrophes still requires further research.
Nomadic cities are owned by the various nations of Terra. Even the relatively independent city-state of Siesta is arguably a part of Columbia.
The operation and maintenance of a nomadic city is a constant headache for its managers. A city is far beyond the capability of any single person, company, or organi- zation to deploy. Generally speaking, every city operates within a preestablished space, according to its affiliated country's direction and support capability.
Naturally, it is very difficult for a nomadic city to range over extremely long distances. Crossing mountains and large rivers are tough challenges for these lumbering- ing beasts. For the sake of stability, nomadic cities migrate along fixed loops, and upon these looping paths suitable stopping points are set. The cities periodically move to evade Catastrophes, as dictated by the realities of local geography.
The Command Tower, positioned on the core plate of a nomadic city, serves as the center for the city's entire control system and the primary hub for monitoring fluctuations in nearby Originium concentrations. This body is responsible for working out migration plans based on the observed pattern of local Catastrophe-related weather, real-time monitoring data, and past experience.
There are many varied aspects behind the basic operation of a nomadic city. Besides those pertaining to Catastrophe monitoring, those that help maintain day-to-day operations within the city include, but are not limited to, city maintenance, engine operation, route supervision, local liaising, and so on. These tasks all require a great amount of expertise to carry out.
■ A command tower atop a core plate. Similar designs are relatively common on newly-built Ursine cities from the past few decades. Published in Ursus Construction Daily in 1092.
When asked "what is a nomadic city?", people in different regions will give different answers. The nomadic cities of different regions have all sorts of wondrous modifications and configurations to suit their local environments. And so, the different regions of Terra will not always mean the same thing when they say "nomadic city".
On the Iberian coast, the cities have special aquatic devices installed below them. In the Yanese hinterlands of Shangshu, the people love to build mountains and hills atop their city plates, fastening ropeways between them. In Kazimierz, we may witness several nomadic cities linking together to form one grand, united city. In far Sargon,
the Lords Ameer direct burdenbeasts to tow wooden trailers though mountain passes, which could also be considered a type of “nomadic city”. Meanwhile, there are some Columbians who have already circumvented federal supervision to discreetly extend their mobile mining platforms, turning them into very small “nomadic cities”—although most times they themselves would rather not admit it.
An early concept art for an amphibious nomadic city displayed in the Iberian Urban Planning Exhibition Hall before the Profound Silence.
Those listed above represent just a small portion of the various forms of nomadic cities I have seen.
Big or small, united or independent, the outward appearances of these cities are varied and diverse. For example, in Minos and Siracusa, all manner of small-scale “nomadic towns” dot the landscape. They are relatively independent, but remain related in some form. In terms of management structure, these scattered groups of small nomadic cities could not be any more different from their colossal counterparts under the jurisdiction of the Dukes of Victoria.
The main causes behind these differences, besides the incredible differences in natural environment, are mostly distinct regional political systems, historical traditions, as well as the development level of local Originium industries.
Although each region’s nomadic cities have their own peculiarities, their basic structure remains mostly the same. A nomadic city is normally divided into three layers: the upper Living Deck, the middle Support Deck, and the lower Power Deck. There is a considerable distance between the Living Deck and the ground. Elevators built into the edges of the plates are used to move personnel and goods into the city.
The plate is the basic unit that comprises a nomadic city, an absolutely essential part. When plates join together, they form larger nomadic towns or cities. Every nomadic city has a core plate, which houses the Command Tower on top of its upper layer, and the main Originium Power Plant in its lower layer.
According to maintenance staff, the way that plates link together is mostly via rigid connections with mechanical structures. The area where the Support Decks of two nomadic plates join together is equipped with hydraulic hooks and anchoring pipes, which help keep the plates steady and maintain power links. Additionally, passageways are installed between them in case they are needed in unexpected situations.
Grounded mobility structures are installed into the bottom Power Deck of all plates. As the city moves, these structures ensure that the main body of the city can move independently. The most commonly used variant of these structures is giant caterpillar treads.
Living Deck (Surface)
Living Deck (Underground)
Support Deck
Power Deck
■ A vertical cross-section of an average nomadic city.
The assembly of the plates can be greatly affected by geographical conditions, and it is extremely difficult to ensure that all plates are always able to connect at certain angles, so universal linking parts are used at the edges. In areas where the land is rather rugged, it is possible for the edges to be less than perfectly aligned with one another. In extreme circumstances they might even totally separate, with only cable connections to link them.
Some nomadic cities are built with artificial landscapes, which make statues and commemorative monuments both seem miniscule. Hills and artificial seas may also be the masterpieces of local residents. And yet there are cases where people have pushed things too far. The manmade sea in the Bolivarian city of Dossoles was filled with water drawn by the locals from the northern ocean. Though it is a famous land-mark, considering the vast waters just outside the city, this sort of extravagant artificial scenery feels somewhat comical.
Inspection Gate
Locking Device
Subway Layer
Vehicles and Cargos
Pipes
■ An average plate's connection socket.
If a man of the ancient past were to find himself in the present, and visited the bowels of these great metallic beasts, he would certainly gasp in admiration at the effort invested by generations of artisans in the construction of these cities. Also, they would offer us their thoughts on these giant creations from a different perspective.
A nomadic city's Living Deck.
The majority of ordinary citizens of nomadic cities live on the surface of the Living Deck.
To them, the Living Deck is made up mostly of building complexes, their distinct forms dictated by the differences in social status of the people. For example, the roads and bridges extending in every direction, and the parks and green spaces full of tourists puttering about. Since the edges of the plates typically don't align perfectly, simple drawbridges are the most common method used to connect them.
The underground part of the Living Deck is mainly support systems designed to service surface facilities. Here, the most commonly seen installations are tunnels for electric cables and water pipes. Some nomadic cities in the north also lay pipes for central heating. Apart from these, the foundations of residential buildings, basements, emergency evacuation spaces and base soil layers can be found here as well.
What's interesting is that despite the endless shifting, remodeling, and extending of buildings on the upper level of the Living Deck, the parts below the surface tend to keep their history. The vestiges of every new building project are never fully wiped away, so what remains is a "cobbled construct composition" phenomenon: Go into a multistory building's basement switchboard room, open the back door, and you'll find a sewer tunnel running under a street. Follow the tunnel until the end and turn right, and directly in front of you will be an underground parking lot.
In some nomadic cities with lax regulations, especially in those old ones, the disorderly maze that is the lower part of the Living Deck has become a paradise for drifters and vagrants. They have adapted to this environment, developing their own way of life quite different to surface residents, becoming the source of many urban legends in the process.
A nomadic city's Support Deck.
The lives of nomadic city maintenance crew are rather monotonous and regimented: riding the elevator onto the Support Deck every day to begin work, and returning to their homes on the Living Deck to rest after a hard day.
To them, the nomadic city's Support Deck is like a giant manufactory. No matter if the city is moving or still, if it is day or night, rumbles always echo down here.
This is where the city's energy circulation system originates. Thanks to the pipe network connected to the entire Living Deck, the Originium boilers, electrical supply stations, and water circulation systems are able to transport fundamental supplies and energy to the upper layers.
The Support Deck is packed with incredibly noisy machines and giant reinforcement structures, which occasionally give off the pungent scent of industrial materials. It is difficult to call this a suitable place to live and rest, so this layer usually comes without many living facilities. Machine dispatch operation rooms, sentry boxes, and other installations necessary for manufacturing are the most commonly seen.
Additionally, the Support Decks of some newly-constructed plates are designed with emergency evacuation in mind. Consequently, any available space is often occupied by emergency exit passages, elevators connecting to the Living Deck, and emergency shelters. Typically, these facilities remain unused, and the emergency exits to the Living Deck are usually temporarily blocked.
As for older plates, the Support Deck usually only maintains the most basic functions of a transportation hub, controlling the operation of elevators and ports leading in and out of the nomadic city.
Unlike the maintenance crew, busy the entire year, the workers on the Power Decks find themselves with plenty of free time. At least, until it is time for the nomadic city to move, in which case they may have to work around the clock.
To them, when the city is moving, this deck might be the most clamorous place in the entire structure. But once the city comes to a stop, the only people remaining are a few security guards and service crew. If one were to simply stamp one's foot while walking through its corridors, the sound would echo all about.
The Power Deck is a mechanical kingdom consisting of transmission gears connected with caterpillar tracks, Originium power plants, fuel storage, and conveyor belts. All plates contain massive Originium power plants, taking up a large amount of space in the Power Deck. The power plant in the core plate, where the command tower is located, is notably larger. These giant power plants consume a tremendous amount of Originium, and keeping them supplied is a top priority. As such, spacious distribution channels are critical installations.
When the city is moving, no one is allowed to reside on the Power Deck. All workers must commute from the Support Deck and return there if they need to rest between shifts. The vast majority of passages leading into the Power Deck require access privileges to enter. After all, in these cramped spaces, the unceasing caterpillar tracks and mechanical transmissions are all too close, and a little inattentiveness can easily lead to casualties among the crew.
Nomadic cities are not built in a day. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say, they are perpetually being built.
Normally, when we say “build”, we refer to people doing everyday renovations atop the Living Deck, which naturally never ends. But if you want to build a plate from scratch, you must begin with a meticulously devised construction plan. From the many cases I have seen, the building of nomadic cities can be divided into two categories: Either the fixed style, or the mobile style.
The fixed style is the most commonly seen, because its base requirements are rather simple. You need only find a place where no Catastrophe will strike during the construction period, set up a large assembly site, then ship in the various components needed for a Power Deck. Once that deck is complete, it is capable of moving itself. From there, the various installations of the middle and upper decks are laid down, one by one.
According to experienced city builders, the primary challenge of this method is that all components must be prepared beforehand. Because the manufacturing of these components depends on highly-developed industrial Originium production lines, it is undoubtedly a hard task for those areas considered to be less industrialized.
The other method is rather more advanced, and is comparatively common in places with well-developed industry such as Victoria: Some cities have many special
A Columbian mobile pioneer platform. With any luck, constant modification and expansion will grow it into a so-called nomadic town.
plates joined together, forming a large “industrial dock” where the new city plates will be manufactured. With its low risk and cost, this method has risen to become the most efficient way to construct a plate.
Naturally, there are still many “nomadic cities” whose constructions were rather “casual”. Many of them started off as mobile facilities, such as mining platforms, that were modified and expanded over time before they are considered cities. According to public information from local governments, a considerable amount of medium and small-scale nomadic cities started life in this way.
Every nomadic city is the product of an incredible amount of labor and care. Whether regarding its construction or operation, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people will have contributed to its completion. Day after day, year after year, people create and maintain these giants, all for the sake of a better life upon this land. All for a chance to pass down this civilization of theirs.
Catastrophes remain as frequent as they ever were, and nomadic cities prove their worth ever more with each passing day. This, in turn, allows more and more people to believe that these cities are the ultimate expression of civilization, the great force that will push us ever forward.
Who built the first modern nomadic city?
The majority of history textbooks and materials will credit the Seven Cities' Federation as the first to put the idea of the modern nomadic city into practice.
The origins of the Federation remain unverifiable to this day. Perhaps it began with seven cities coming together to form an alliance, or perhaps some settlements took up a fanciful name. There indeed was a “Seven Cities Area” in history, but despite the “Area” in the name, it neither belonged to nor shared a border with any modern nation and was not related to the later Federation in any way. Besides, the “Seven” in the Seven Cities' Federation is merely metaphorical. It was actually a loose alliance of several independent cities and regions, and it is unknown to us just how many polities joined or left this alliance over time. Apparently, the ill-fitting word “Federation” cannot conceal the truth of its much-flawed existence.
The Seven Cities' Federation is known to us not because of any astounding political impact, but rather because it created one of the most important constructs in the entire history of Terra—the nomadic city.
The most definite timeframe in history that we can give is the fifty years between Terran Calendar 747–797, when the members of the Federation were at their most united.
During the period following the year 700, right around when Iberia discovered Bolívar, all nations were desperately seeking opportunities to expand their borders. They were no longer satisfied with evading or relocating from Catastrophes within their own lands. However, naturally habitable areas were scarcer than anticipated. As a result, each country opted to annex unincorporated settlements, extending their sphere of influence and creating more open space for future development.
Naturally, the independent city-states across the lands were in an unprecedented time of crisis during this period—the great powers began to exert immense pressure upon them, one by one, in every form imaginable, in an attempt to directly obtain the cities' infrastructure as new footholds.
Of course, there were many independent cities who refused to submit, and one after another, they joined the ancient Seven Cities' Federation. It was a final, desperate attempt at mutual support by the weak before being swallowed up by the more powerful nations. Their various leaders came to a consensus: Simply standing on the defensive would not be enough to protect them from the rolling stone of history about to crush them. Even the combined might of the Federation would be insufficient to launch a counterattack powerful enough against any one great power. And so, to save themselves, they had to create a new paradigm, one to change the weave of the world. But before they could approach this new paradigm, they had to struggle to stall the enemies.
Under these circumstances, thanks to the proposals of several scholars, the project known as "the Nomadic City" was officially launched. It was designed to bring a brand-new technology onto Terra, which would allow the Terrans to break away from the limits of their regions and live their lives freely on this vast land. The members of the Federation provided mutual assistance to one another, trying to delay attacks from the great powers while deploying their best researchers to put all their efforts into this grand plan.
It was in the year 747 when the researchers of all the independent polities first came together for this purpose. From then on, the nomadic city was no longer merely a simple invention, but an ideal that motivated all who fought for the Seven Cities' Federation. Its very existence gave meaning to all those who suffered and sacrificed for the sake of their cities, urging them all to fight for a better tomorrow.
It was this inextinguishable hope that propelled the project for fifty long years. In the year 797, three mobile plates came together to successfully assemble the first nomadic city. Theory became reality, and this incomparably huge "landship" seemed as if it was about to bear all suffering peoples towards a land of life and liberty.
But reality was cruel. In the final few years of the project, the survivors of the Federation threw all they had into the very last necessary constructions for this new city. However, the constant struggles that had plagued the Federation for several decades meant they had long run out of resources that would enable the city to actually move. The participants in the project alongside the city itself found themselves partitioned between the great powers. And subsequently, all nations began to construct their own nomadic cities relying on the Federation's research.
By the time these new nomadic cities were constructed, the Federation builders' hopes for the city as a tool to stop expansion were long gone. In fact, the mobile nature of these nomadic cities enabled the great powers to seize even more territory. Although the Federation was not yet completely dissolved, it suffered a slow death, forever barred from reaching its goal. Once more, it became a federation in name only.
Nowadays, the name "Seven Cities" still exists, but only in reference to the physical place, rather than the lofty ideals of its dreamers in the past.