Chapter 73: Growth

La Guardia had grown from its original few hundred square feet to a square mile. The cities of Orana were larger, it was in part due to the dangers of smaller communities and because gods or other powerful rulers could maintain massive cities at relatively low logistical cost. A square mile was a normal-sized city for the world but capital and major cities could reach a massive four square-miles and those capital cities that rested in emperor kingdoms could reach an incredible ten squares-miles in total size. Those were known as god cities, whether the ruler of the city was a god or not.

Although impressive to the denizens of Orana, to Scitus a ten square mile city was an ant compared to those of his world. In his world, there were only four cities, separated by artificial forests and entire oceans and even parts of the oceans had become part of the four cities.

Scitus did not plan to build such massive planetary cities but he did plan to make large cities to house more people and accommodate their needs. He was prepared to build the most complex city his world had ever even dreamt of let alone those who lived in Orana. With the help of magic, there was no limit to his imagination.

The city was protected by a massive stone wall, which had been built by the Duergar, many goblins and minotaur but had been mostly completed by Scitus. once the basic form was finished, Scitus used his god energy to duplicated and place the walls until the entire city was protected. The city was then further segmented into five areas, each one separated by a large protective wall. The centermost region, where a castle would be built, was a large circle district while the other four areas were equally separated by a wall. From above, the city looked like a circle with a cross and the cross held another circle at its center.

The foundation was still incomplete but when Scitus proposed his plan to the Duergar, their eyes widened with complete befuddlement and incredulity. ScItus's city, when complete, would almost appear to be a living organism, its walls would move the cities buildings would shift and trade places with different buildings, or at least this was what he hoped to accomplish. He wanted to create a shifting city so that when invaded, the city would become an inescapable maze. The defenders of the city would have training and knowledge for navigation and guerilla warfare and when sending men out to war the city would form a large main road for faster movement out of the city. there would also be a cultural benefit. Eventually, those who were housed closer to the castle would appear to be nobility of some sort, the land value for places closer to the castle would rise and quickly form an aristocracy versus the poor but if the buildings shifted than it would lessen the impact to a degree. Scitus wanted houses to be a status symbol but not of wealth, he wanted houses to be a status symbol of service, whether it be entertainment for the people, or being a foot soldier, the greater and longer a person did something that provided a need for the people, the larger they would be permitted to build their house.

At that time, all the buildings were a combination of stone and wood, all of which were completely identical to one another, the citizens were all assigned a house in which their families could live. All the houses were small and only large enough for a family of four, those with bigger families were not afforded a bigger home. "everyone will have the same starting point but where you end is determine by you, your family, and your peers, in that order of importance."

“in your world, people were strongly individualistic right? ” Seresa asked one day while Scitus was writing some papers for Maximus to read. “then why do you want others to be important to our success?” Scitus smiled as Seresa’s curiosity. “Individualism has enormous advantages to society, it promotes competition and leads to innovation but it has its downsides. In extreme cases, entire segments of society can collapse because no person gets their way, it can also cause societal strife from the constant bickering without ever finding a solution. Likewise, collectivism has benefits such as the belief that your failure is also everyone else's failure which puts pressure on a person to improve themselves. The problem with this is that it leads to cult-like mentalities or even a societal dead end because at some point their simply no growth because everyone is forced to be identical to everyone else, which does increase efficiency but not innovation. We need both, which one we need more and how much is too much I do not now but starting in the middle never hurts "

To Scitus Individualism was the most important aspect to a person it was the ideal he was raised with and he found it hard to question it but nevertheless, he could see good in the collective ideals and the bad in the individualistic ideals. He was trying to build a society and culture from scratch and he knew it wouldn't be perfect and he knew that it might have been completely and utterly flawed and that even if it worked for humans, it may not work for all intelligent organisms, even so, he knew that promoting Altruism was overall good to society even if it did have some massive weaknesses and he believed altruism lied somewhere between collective thought and individual thought. The collective side to know when self-sacrifice was necessary and the individual ideals to know how to help. "Altruism only works if the vast majority of people are altruistic, its probably impossible to reach that point but I'll at least build the foundation and make failsafes against corruption and dangerous future leaders"

Scitus planned to use Spatial magic and potentially even pocket dimensions to make large buildings in a smaller amount of space, houses from outside would look bigger or smaller depending on the owner's discretion and the inside could also be changed.

"That kind of magic exists but its more predominant in other continents", Sia had explained that spatial magic wasn't often used in the Ferren continent and so it wasn't as advanced. Sia had only studied Ferren style magic and anything else was mostly foreign to her, she couldn't help Scitus but Scitus was undaunted and began to form his own spatial magic calculations, he didn't know when his formulae would be completed but once he did he would quickly start using it in his city.

"what does Ferren magic specialize in, then? " Sia smirked and then shook her head, "war magic" she calmly said but there was a cold undertone in her words as if filled with discontent. "the Ferren continent for long time belonged to monsters but about 10,000 thousand years ago a massive war was started by several hundred gods and they invaded the Ferren continent and reclaimed the land, the war lasted for 6,000 thousand years, that time was known as the reclamation era, some monsters call it the blood war. After that was the very short Old god's era which lasted 3,000 years until the New Gods Era began 1,000 years ago after the rise of Miar the fall of Mern and Onias coup. Ansil around that time was already becoming a greater god after several gods befriended him and decided to follow him. there is actually one more, greater god, but he lives far away from here, Ortan, He lives at the border of the Gioran continent. There is another holy land close to there but it's been claimed by an emperor. Emira, the only female Emperor in current existence."

"You are technically considered part of the new gods era even though you arrived less than a year ago. A typical era lasts 5 to 10 thousand years."

"why is that the metric of eras?" Scitus asked curiously as he wrote in his plans for the coming battles and aftermath. "A powerful beings reign typically lasts 5 to 10 thousand years, though emperors tend to pass this limit. After that period of time, there is usually a massive shift in everything. Oh, I should mention that there are two kinds of Eras, world eras, and continent eras. The current world era we find ourselves in is called the foreign gods era. You being one such foreign god, this era started about 10 thousand years ago. Before that, all gods were born here and died here. Anything beyond that is kind of lost to time so we only know about the foreign gods era, at least that is true in the Ferren continent, other places may have more in-depth information"

"so you don't know what the era before that monsters era is?" Sia smiled gleefully before quickly stiffening her expression, she was happy to answer with her own ideas and theories. Sia had learned many things but had never been able to share them but finally, someone will hear her ideas.

"There are some rumors but no one believes them."

“sure.” Scitus put his pen down and gestured for Sia to sit down. She politely declined and began her tale with bright shining eyes.

“Long ago.”

Sia quietly began her tale, every word filled with fascination and a tinge of curiosity. "long ago, 100,000 thousand years ago there was an Era unlike any other, The Goblin Era. At that time the mortal species completely abandoned the Ferren continent after a great tragedy and in that time the goblins rose and rose until they built great kingdoms all across the Ferren continent."

"kingdoms with towers that touched the sky, magic that rivaled gods, weapons that terrified the world and knowledge that even the true gods would covet." Sia turned to Scitus and intensely started "I'm sure you've noticed that Seresa has been looking more human lately." Scitus quickly nodded with a confused look. "during the goblin Era, all goblins looked completely human, though with elf-like ears and slightly smaller statures. They were called Halflings. Half-human, half-goblin; in some stories, it is said that a single goblin during that era could easily kill a dragon." Scitus couldn't believe such a fancifully story, all of it was too fantastical to him. Even he, a god, didn't think he could easily beat a Dragon level existence especially an older one.

“and so the goblin era continued for 55 thousand years and for 35 thousand years after, the gods from other continents never dared to enter for fear of facing annihilation. ” Sia smiled as her eyes sparkled with fascination, “imagine that, a force so powerful that gods feared to enter”

"But you don't believe that kind of story do you?" Sia said with a half-hearted smile. However, Scitus's quick response brought a smile back on her face. "all stories have a grain of truth. A story like that doesn't spontaneously come into existence, nor does it become popular and spread around."

Scitus put his pen down and looked at Sia, "once this war is over, we should investigate the land of the old kingdom, you once told me about. Perhaps we'll find more there." Scitus believed that the stories were likely inflated over time, creating a near unrecognizable history but if there was some truth to it, it would benefit Scitus. furthermore, if he learned about what happened during the monster era, he would have a path towards the unification of the Oasis.

Sia stood up from her seat, she wore a stern expression that was like an impenetrable surface. No man or woman would able to read her but such a hard and stiff expression had lately become hard to maintain and only a moment later as she turned around, her regal sternness melted into a childish smile filled with excitement for the future.

"Sia," Sia stopped without turning back. "thank you for helping us," Scitus said as he thought of all the things Sia's has done for the kingdom. Scitus couldn't read her expression, her back was turned to him but he noticed her clenching her fist as she walked out of the cottage. "I'm going to check the battlefields," she said as she swiftly left.