#piltover.

[citywatcher]

Actually something that probably never gets old is Piltover-Zaun relations and how the two cities are struggling to understand each other.

Caitlyn (and Vi) will be some of the first to admit it: Piltover is scummy. Piltover literally looks down upon Zaun, and the conditions of the two cities makes it easy for people to take advantage of Zaunites. This has been a thing since the opening of the Sun Gates (the canal in Janna’s lore), and won’t stop any time soon.

What Caitlyn will refuse to accept is that the authorities have done nothing to ameliorate these circumstances. Every time there is a situation in Zaun, the police make sure to handle it with care and ensure that Zaunites aren’t harmed (especially because a bunch of crime that trickles down there is instigated by Piltovans who probably exploit Zaun). This kind of social upheaval is difficult:  Piltover in my headcanon is a parliamentary republic with a semi-presidential system. What that means is that there is both a president and a prime minister + cabinet. The president is the head of government, and the prime minister is the head of the cabinet. But although it looks like a democratic system, most of the seats in parliament and the cabinet are occupied by conservatives who are backed by the various Piltover clans, and often the president and prime minister are elected because they are popular with the aristocracy.

This means that although Piltover is dominated by the middle class, the clans still control much of the politics. Still, it’s nowhere as authoritarian as Noxus, or even Demacia, where the nobility is even more prominent.

The clans are invested in getting a leg up on each other, moreso than advancing their policies to help the lower class and funding projects to help Zaun. While there are plenty of people within the clans that would like to do that, especially as public awareness for Zaun’s poor living conditions grows, it’s difficult to actually push the clan leaders to do so.

I think some of the clans are turning liberal, however. This would include Jayce’s clan, Clan Giopara.

Anyways, the point here is that the police have to follow the ordinances made by the government and the majority of law enforcement still has to be in Piltover - they’re not Zaun’s babysitters, even though Zaun law enforcement is almost nonexistent. They still have to help the citizens of Piltover, because that’s their duty, and Caitlyn can’t just tell the commissioner that they should focus their efforts on Zaun because the clans won’t allow it. After all, the police is the buffer, so to speak, that keeps all the clans loosely in line. Else, Piltover would have a lot more in-fighting. And if the top is unstable, it trickles down towards the bottom.

[citywatcher]

I want to talk about what exactly hextech is and what it can do, so that I don’t have to wonder what kind of technology would be available to Piltover every time a situation comes up.

Riot tells us that the power Piltover inventors use comes from certain crystals, so you can’t just use any kind of magic. I think these crystals are a blank slate, so to speak, because hextech is so flexible that artificers can use innumerable methods to craft what they want to make. Harnessing the power in these hextech crystals is like taking a paintbrush to a canvas - limited only by your imagination.

Hextech is used in Piltover to illuminate streetlights, replacing gas lamps in the efforts to make Piltover more environment friendly. In wealthier districts, it can be used for heat and electricity to power running water. 

I want to set the limit of technology in Piltover to telegraph lines, which were constructed in the mid 19th century. Communication can be done with a variant of Morse code. The walkie-talkie devices that I currently headcanon Caitlyn’s officers to have are some kind of technological anomaly, or maybe I’ll just retcon them later.

Now what you can do with the crystals’ magic is craft them to have some kind of elemental purpose. Fire for gas and heat, electricity to allow running water, water for sanitation, air for wind turbines, etc. So long as hextech can be used as a substitute for anything that can be found in nature, whether it be one of the elements or something runic or arcane, hextech can become that. Hextech cannot be used for abstract things like mind reading, or forseeing the future, or resurrecting the dead.

I hope that makes sense, I can’t think of everything I’d like to say here so I might add more

[citywatcher]

How Your Muse Might Fit in Piltover

(I have no context for this post. I decided to write up some large post because I found a lot of motivation from the Phoenix Wright soundtrack and I don’t want to put it to waste.)

It occurs to me that every time I consider a muse from another city-state meeting with Caitlyn, they’re going to travel to the city. It’s more likely that people travel to meet Cait than the other way around (although there are some exceptions). So this always leads me to thinking why a muse might want to visit Piltover. I’ll categorize this post into sections based on the differenf factions.

Freljord: A pretty tricky region, in all honesty. Freljordians are a very insular type and big on tradition. The modernity of Piltover would be daunting for a people who I don’t see bringing any technology back to the Freljord. If a Freljordian were to visit Piltover, it would be to one of its trading posts, exchanging goods only found in the north for crops that couldn’t grow in the Freljord’s climate. Champions like Gragas and Braum are most likely to fall under this category.

Out of all the rival factions, Ashe is the only one that could feasibly travel to Piltover, probably to recruit allies. Since the Winter’s Claw and Noxus are possible allies, an alliance between the Avarosen and Piltover wouldn’t be too far-fetched either.

Demacia: I’m curious to how Demacians see outside nations that aren’t Noxus. New lore Demacia is a staunch anti-magic society, but how would they see technology? Does it fall under magic (hextech does have some magical qualities)? Do Demacians fear what they cannot understand? I imagine that the more traditional Demacians, like Garen, wouldn’t be so keen on visiting the city, but more curious souls, like Lux and Quinn, would. I also think Jarvan IV would look towards the city as a possible ally, or at least travel to it to learn more about other countries. After all, a prince has to learn some international diplomacy.

Noxus: Yikes. A country that is actively trying to conquer Piltover would not have its citizens welcomed inside its walls. That being said, there’s plenty of opportunities for Noxians to come into the city without being detected as such. Katarina and Talon could sneak in and conduct business. Darius or Swain would have a harder time, unless this would be in the middle of some wartime negotiation. Maybe the legend of Urgot might interest them, seeing as they thought they had got rid of him?

Ionia: The island nation is only a couple of weeks away by sea, and I think there’s a decent diffusion of Ionian culture into Piltover. Again, most Ionian champions could come on the guise of being allies. From one nation that resists subjugation to another, they could definitely sympathize with Piltover’s current situation. Representatives of the government like Karma and Irelia would have an easy time in Piltover. Wanderers like Yasuo wouldn’t frequent Piltover as much, but if they were in the forests outside the city, it would be more plausibie.

The possibility of someone like Zed or Kayn coming to Piltover is interesting to me. I’m not sure what they’d want, but there’s a lot of potential for them. Does the city’s technology interest the Order of Shadows?

Bilgewater: Probably the most feasible region to interact with Piltover, outside of Zaun. Bilgewater would be a frequent trading partner, and the seafaring people of Bilgewater might often stop in Piltover. This makes Miss Fortune, Twisted Fate, and Graves possible regulars in the City of Progress. I’m not sure the priests and priestesses of Nagakaborous would mesh well with the Gloriously Evolved, but it’s definitely an interesting clash of ideals.

Shurima: Not an interaction you might expect, but because Noxus has conquered most of the regions in Shurima near Piltover, that means there’s high traffic in Shurima at the moment. Obviously Ascended beings like Azir, Nasus, or Renekton wouldn’t waltz into Piltover any time soon, but ordinary travelers like Taliyah or Sivir might have passed into Piltover on their way going into or out of Shurima.

Targon: What are you guys doing off of your mountain?

[citywatcher]

What other firearms exists in the Piltover Police Department and which other weapons is Caitlyn proficient with? How heavy duty does the arsenal get and how technologically advanced are their more prototype stage weapons?

Disclaimer here. I’m not very knowledgeable when it comes to firearms.

I do think that the hextech rifle Caitlyn possesses is a combination of an assault rifle (like the AK-47) and a sniper rifle, in that it has longer range than the average rifle but fires shots off more frequently than a sniper rifle. So she’d be able to wield either of those effectively, as well as pistols and handguns.

The force would mostly use carbines (a bit shorter than a rifle) that could fire repeating shots before loading. The historical example I’d give you would be the Spencer carbine that they used in the Civil war.

Outside Cait’s weapon, the police doesn’t have much heavier firepower. Any weapons that could be more destructive (like Jinx’s rocket launcher) would be made in laboratories and not given to the police, but with the use of hextech they can be made more diverse, like Cait’s rifle holding a net inside of it.

I’ve headcanoned that with some hextech enhancements the police could have flamethrowers and ice guns (bullets made with ice instead of lead, I guess?), and probably shoot electric charges too. But those are costly and only the top wardens would receive them as rewards for their service.

[citywatcher]

I do not believe Piltover has capital punishment. It might make an exception for crimes committed in times of war, like treason, but that’s it. (I headcanoned the same for Ionia, so maybe I might just like to see human rights in my Runeterra)

Crime went down during Caitlyn’s early years as warden but that doesn’t mean that there are few criminals. On the other hand, the wardens were able to apprehend the ringleaders of several large crime rings, which in turn dissuaded lower-scale crime from happening.

So there is a sizable amount of prisoners in Piltover, due to Piltover’s successful reduction of crime. The majority are kept in Eagles’ Bay, although there are a fair amount of prisons in the Zaunite provinces (like Cape Argo and Del Nova).

Because hextech is such a valuable commodity, smugglers and others who participate in the illicit manufacturing and distribution of hextech receive hefty prison sentences. They usually range from twenty years to life, and include large fines that would be about $75,000 in US currency. And that’s just the minimum.

[citywatcher]

A project I’ve always wanted to do: the districts of the Piltover-Zaun metropolis. It’s difficult to convey depth on a topograhical map, but my idea is that the district of Zaun isn’t completely south of the divide, and neither is the district Piltover all north. Rather, Piltover sits on top of Zaun, and they both take up the space around the Sun Gates.

The districts north of the strait have English and Irish names as their inspiration, while the districts south take from Italian, Greek, and Eastern European cultures.

Placed in order, the districts are as follows: Pine Hills / First Kinsmire / Second Eagles’ Bay / Third Port Harrington / Fourth Piltover / Fifth Zaun / Sixth Del Nova / Seventh Cape Argo / Eighth Vadesz / Ninth

The entire metropolis is referred to as the city of Piltover, though when people think of Piltover they think of the district that shares its name. It’s by far the most populated and busiest of the districts, but the city itself is quite large and has a variety of backgrounds.

[citywatcher]

Piltover has an army. It’s usually forgotten in the shadow of their much more powerful navy. It’s not very large (7,000?), and it’s not even outfitted with the most modern hextech, but it’s there and regularly maintained.

Most cultures value soldiers higher than those who do not produce their own crafts (merchants, traders, etc) in their social hierarchy, but Piltover is a different case. Soldiers are low on the social ladder, compared to scientists, engineers, chemists, inventors, politicians, merchants, and sailors. If you were in the army, it was most likely because you didn’t have the cleverness to join one of the guilds of the great Houses, the education to enter a field of science, or the wit to become a trader/merchant/sailor.

Now that Noxus is knocking on Piltover’s door, however, the army has become less of a joke. It’s led by a Field Marshal and its presence is usually north of the city borders, patrolling the Riverlands. The insignia is a brass gear etched onto the side of their faded blue uniforms, and they’re oufitted with tech similar to Snider-Enfield rifles and Enfield revolvers. Natives of Piltover usually refer to the rifles as ‘marks’ and the revolvers as ‘sidearms,’ though Piltovans could carry any kind of secondary weapon in the sidearm slot.

[citywatcher]

The reason why I think stewards are native to the region of Piltover rather than a Noxian installment is because there are a couple of places on the map where there are stewards NOT under Noxian control

Quilletta’s title was Steward even before the Noxian conquest when it was passed to Invetia. So all the cities around Piltover are stewardships, with some exceptions like Noldrum where there’s a Lord Brannin and Stonewall where there’s a Councilman. These titles don’t make sense in the big scope of things, but I’ll just say that nobles in the area give themselves their own titles and move on.

Noxus took some Shuriman cities on the coast, too, and replaced the titles of Hagyett/Hagya in those cities:

with - you guessed it - Stewards. Some Shuriman rulers bent the knee and were allowed to rule their cities, while others were replaced. I don’t know why Noxus chose to change the titles of the Shuriman cities, but probably because steward was a Common Tongue word, or easier to pronounce. It made things universal across the empire.