My LOST CITIES headcanons:
The world pretty hard to wrap my head around as I get older bc I’m noticing so many more holes in the world building. I doubt Shannon was obsessive over it since her focus seems to be relationships/character-driven stories.
Since the lost cities are so spread out and therefore aren’t culturally attached to climate, different elven cultures (there aren’t from what I’ve seen), or land their biggest marker of cultural identity is family and ability.
They love to dress for the occasion. Each city has their unspoken dress codes and rules which help anchor the places they’re in since their architecture is pretty monotone in material (crystals).
Capes are strictly formal wear, but variations have been adapted for everyday/semi formal occasions.
Trees are abundant in the Lost Cities. Some look oversized and prehistoric, some are very colourful, some look like they were manicured and shaped but it’s just yeh unique way the leaves grow.
They don’t have pictures. Or much tech in human standards. That’s why abilities are so important to them. You can’t take a picture with your loved ones on the go, you have to ask a telepath to conjure up some mental image onto a sheet of paper.
Foxfire was long ago founded by the Vackers, which is why Fitz has such an attachment to it. It’s also in Egypt. Like the ancient cities along the Nile, the school is divided across a river. On the right is the ‘living side’, the side of the light. Where students who are past the first few years go to. They have their abilities and they can pursue a higher education. On the left is the side of ‘death’ (traditionally but it’s a bit morbid for elves so they bury that information up). An abandoned library, the lower levels where kids are discovering whether or not they have abilities, detention, and staff grounds (because as much as they’re in denial about it, elves are elitist in action and maybe subconsciously promote their species’ superiority). It’s easier to forget and not even be aware of all the kids that are forced to leave the school once they discover that they’re talentless if the students are physically separated from them.
While they don’t have the same tech as humans: based on fossil fuels and dependent on the internet and screens, they have their own technology. Using cosmic power (suns, stars, light) skilled technopaths create the cogs that keep their world running. They don’t create energy, they just transfer it along. Interior lights are crystals that help move the solar energy indoors, for example.
Pathfinders aren’t knock-off wands. Looking like human compasses, elves have to have the right crystals and know the right coordinates to light leap. The crystal inserted spins once you calibrate it to the right coordinate and follows a beam of light to your destination.
Their cities are a little haunting compared to human ones. All elves are rich and have giant estates, so what are cities for? Commerces exist but public places are rare. If they want a large open space to hang out with friends, they literally have forests attached to their homes. Businesses, commerces, libraries, jurisdiction, conservatories are all there but there’s no chaos. No alleys, no cars or bikes or public transit, no buskers or street performances, no squares or sport areas.
Their council buildings and tribunals are opaque, unlike the rest of their crystal architecture. A deep almost-black shade of green that absorbs light instead of reflecting it.
Another point to their species’ self appointed superiority: gates. Why do the Vackers have a gate? There’s no paparazzi. Elves aren’t violent. Everyone should be welcome? Or understand their boundaries? So what are they keeping out of their home? Or what are they preventing others to know about?
Their architecture and landscapes defy gravity and logic. Entire cities underground beneath the cracks of the earth. Castles built over voids. Caves that glow from within. Buildings built upside down over the water, the ground not existing in some areas. Houses seemingly imbedded into cliff-sides, their entrances impossible to reach unless you’ve mastered levitation.
Elves have an obsession with light. It’s what keeps their society running. Why they love glitter and shimmer. Why everything is crystal. How they travel. What powers their homes. What symbolises their species and intelligence.
Some abilities are special, some are more special than others. In a society where everyone is equal, there is a clear hierarchy that is never addressed because mass communication done on scrolls is published by the elite. The regular elves with no abilities are at the bottom of the chain, mixed family elves next (ability and talentless), talented, the nobility, the council. With the control of their limited media, the knowledge of this segregated society isn’t common. People didn’t even know what Exillium was.
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2087
