The age of Rumor City is honestly unknown. Time flows differently in this dimension. The only real way anyone tracks time in a historical sense is the train number that has dropped people off. The first train held the shapers of the city: Tolland Handsome, Avery G. Guy, and Porter Robinson. These were the people who stepped off that train together onto a blank canvas, ready to paint their future. The Second train then came in to support the Firsts. Some of the noteworthies are Rosie, and Hock.
Now to be clear, the sequence of trains – First train, Second train, Third train, so forth – does not dictate what era the people walking off come from. A Knight can walk off the train next to a modern scientist, an Astronaut with a Victorian noble, etc. Instead the train number merely dictates the approximate amount of time someone has been in Rumor itself. The longer they’ve been here, the greater chance they have of being unstable in the sanity department. While this isn’t the case for everyone, there’s a rumor that the longer one remains in the City, the more it begins to affect their mental stability. (And let’s be honest with magic being a thing, how safe is it to have insane people wandering around who can wield it?)
OOC notes: Basically, you can be from any era you want and be from any train number you want OTHER than the First train. That is saved for the founders of the city and some other lore stuff you can explore in world. The train number has no reflection on your character’s backstory.
Trains & Time
The current train’s number is 69. Those arriving on this train are brand new to the world that is Rumor City. They tend to wander, or stumble, out of the train station in a daze and an overwhelmed expression on their face. Usually those fresh off the train get scooped up by someone: a faction, bounty hunter, gang, or a lonely person without friends, and then there is the Hotel right there happily sweeping newbies into its safety at no cost.
The timelines crossing and crisscrossing are not the only thing that is odd about Rumor. On the surface Rumor looks like a fairly normal city – if you squint. However, like time never changes so too the weather. The morning smells like fresh rain but no rain has fallen, and the sun rises at 8 am and sets at 8 pm. It seems that whatever created Rumor to feel like a real city didn’t quite know what to make of weather. For those who are always too cold, or always too hot you’ll be happy to know that Rumor sits at a happy 20 C or 70 F and no there is no thermostat to change it.
Since time doesn’t make sense, and weather is nonexistent in Rumor, it comes as no surprise that there are no animals, nor can anyone become pregnant. That means that meat, leather, milk, and all sorts of other resources are tricky to find. Fortunately, those that have come on trains before you have started working out solutions to these issues. A great example of this is eggs. Eggs are completely absent, but locals have learned to use plant-based egg substitutes.
Survival
Those brave enough to wander into the Wilds have found resources aplenty, only after a few trial and errors, and even a few revivals. Simply put, resources are not easy to come by. Everything sold here has been made from entirely alien resources unlike anything used on Earth. In a city where basic necessities can not be found naturally, those who have learned how to imitate them guard their secrets vehemently. They make a hefty profit from these secrets. Same with any other echo that learns of a new raw material that can be used. Hoarding secrets is a crucial skill if one it is to survive.
Speaking of survival skills in Rumor, it is suggested to not look too closely at the mechanics of the city. Experience has proven that the more someone tries to apply the laws of natural science, or other conventional rules, to Rumor, the more insane they become. So for those of you who are philosophers or sciency types it is recommended you avoid of at least the topic of Rumor itself. Don’t be too concerned though! There are plenty of other avenues for your skills!
OOC notes: Things are weird in Rumor, and there is a scarcity of resources. There are storylines set up for you to explore the scarcity or to solve a particular scarcity. As a note, pregnancy is not allowed in Rumor, so babies can not be sought a resource.
Death
Now, with the basics covered, let’s consider what happens when you die. Notice how I didn’t say 'if'? Because it is 'when'. Existence in Rumor is often violent and is a genuine struggle. It is likely that you will die eventually, you won’t be gone forever though. As it was mentioned there is a Hospital where your essence is collected and puts it back together as an echo. Now that hasn’t always been there, but how rebirth worked without it hasn’t really been spoken of much so it’s a bit of a mystery to many.
So for you? You get to wake up to a happy hospital staff helping you get back on your feet.
There are also cases of a true death. Honestly, no echo in Rumor City knows what causes true death or what happens to the soul that experiences it. There are theories, just like when you were alive there were theories about what happened after death. Some think that an echo can only be ‘recycled’ so many times before the essence is just too thin to gather up enough to build an echo. Others believe that it is when an echo has redeemed themselves, they are able to leave Rumor City and move on to something better. Yet others still think the echo just finally reaches oblivion.
The true death of an echo it is a rare occurrence. Such events often elicit a primal fear in all the echoes in the city. From the upper crust of society like Rosie, all the way down to the newest arrival. It is a reminder that even Rumor City isn’t forever.
OOC notes: If you would like to permanently kill your character, you can. This would be your way of going about it, and you can come up with whatever you think would best fit your character. Going up, going down, ceasing to exist. What happens after your character’s essence is gone is entirely up to you.
