Ophai

Ophai
Faction	House Serpens
Planet	Hroa

Back to Hroa.

Location

Ophai is located on a narrow high altitude plateau, flanked by both sides with peaks of  the Monolith Mountains, built on top of and in the walls of the canyon network that cleaves the mountain range. The network of canyons spiderweb into the mountain range and look like a shattered mirror that spreads from the main canal. Due to a permanent low pressure zone in the mountains, the canyon is subject to extremely high wind speeds.

The high plateau surrounding the city consists off jagged rocky terrain that further inland, in northerly direction, turns in to the obsidian sand desert.

Dense forest looms on the southern side of the Ophai bordering the Monolith Mountains filling the occasionally very deep valley that gradually sinks in to the sea.   

Architecture

The city itself follows the canyon ridge with both sides being connected with high-arching bridges that span the width of the chasm. Buildings less than 20 stories are uncommon, with the highest buildings centring around the edges of the ridge, and then gradually lowering the further from the centre of the city one travels. 

Large portions of the high rise buildings use transparent materials for their exterior shells, to allow inhabitants to enjoy the scenic view.

To accentuate the vertical aesthetic of the city, Ophai architecture frequently includes long, vertical lines. Rooms have unusually high ceilinged windows that are perhaps narrower than usual, but also taller. 

The city consists of four vertical districts, those being top, high, mid and ground level, but unlike a mega city, the scale of Ophai is small enough that even the ground levels receive frequent if dim, natural light.The city boasts an extensive underground infrastructure network that follows this trend of high ceilings in the interior design. 

Compared to other Hroan cities, the districts of Ophai are small. Instead, Ophai’s structure looks as though its builders set themselves a challenge to build as much city in as little space as possible. 

While sky side of the city has more vertical aspects to the building the underground part of the city has more horizontal one. Underground the city extends further from the canyon and comprises mainly from research, storage and testing facilities. 

On the canyon edge on both sides the underground structures are utilised as massive wind farms, taking advantage of the unusually strong winds in the mid to lower section of the canyon. 

A labyrinth of channels, cracks and canyons that spiderweb out of into the mountain range like shattered mirror has given rise to a form of extreme sport as the uplifting air currents and mind bending wind speeds allow long range gliding with type of a wing suit amongst the sharp edge pathways.

High Rise District

Star Crown of the North

Constellation plaza is a large open air space build between several of the tallest buildings in Ophai. From the middle of the plaza rises a fountain resembling the silhouette of a crystal cathedral. When viewed from above, this fountain sits on a star map of Imperial Prime surrounded by a representation of the sector. This map is made from black obsidian class with marble inlays that connect every Imperial planet controlled by the houses minor and major to the crystal fountain in the middle. A seal of every house is made of gold and then is placed on the plaza’s map for their proper place. 

From this plaza, the top floors of many buildings are accessible, with some reaching 50 floors above the plaza, even though the plaza itself is located hundreds of floors above the surface. 

When the light illuminates the plaza it is transparent enough to let some of the light through it, giving the scattered light an orange to ember colour. 

Pinnacle of Autumn Light

After the Star Crown Plaza was finished the district was renamed, to reflect the changed scenery, and subsequent remodelling of the area has taken an interest enforcing this aesthetic. 

Many of the buildings have a more natural facade facing the city that is left in the relative shadow of the upper deck during the afternoon to early evening, giving parts of the district a look as if one would be travelling under the canopy of autumn trees.

The other end of the Goldenlight Boulevard shopping district ends in a massive amphitheatre-like indentation that is set in concentric rings that sink into the second-level floor of the city.

Neo Light Corridors

Out of all of the high rise districts, this is the most populated one, and provides ground level access to the mega spires towering above, as well as the Goldenlight Boulevard’s lowest levels. Many of the buildings from the Pinnacle hang in ledges over parts of the Neo Light Corridors giving the space a more cavern like feel to its aesthetics. Hundreds of panels redirect the natural light to the space so that it resembles that of a series of open windows, or an opening in a cave roof.  

Star Crown of the South

Mirroring the North Constellation plaza, this plaza is built similarly, but with a blue, crystal-like semi-transparent material. Unlike the North plaza, in the middle of it stands a representation of the oracular council.

Seven sigils embedded into the plaza floor represent each of the six psionic disciplines, and the Noble House Serpens. As the light passes through the plaza, it sifts through the blue to violet range. 

Violet Sphere Valley

The buildings are built to form a bowl shape, which then refracts the lights in the district to create a halo-like effect surrounding the district.This effect is most prominent if you view the city from directions of east or west. 

Twilight pillars

The natural light that passes this far is either very early morning light or very close range of ultraviolet light, that does not provide nearly enough light in the visual range to be much of help. 

Stone Maze South, North and Midtown

Only the very early morning light falls on this part of the district directly; any other time, a faint glimmer of daylight might pierce the barrier of buildings or reflect from one of them, but this general lack of natural light is replaced with artificial daylight. Despite this area being the largest in surface area, it has the least amount of open space and many of the structures are completely sealed of, do to most of this district level being built in to military fortification standards. 

Security personnel patrolling the district use projectile weapons, as the building material is fused with silicon structures that reflect and scatter light, making use of laser weapons risky. 

Midcity Commercial District

Golden Light Boulevard

Golden light boulevard is forty stories high commercial valley where the other end cuts in to the Autumn Light pinnacle as a high end shopping district. Travelling alongside the boulevard from east to west it changes from extravagant towards common goods until ending at the border of low cost housing and development district in the edge of the city. 

Ophai Research, Learning and Development Districts

Extending to the very borders of the city, districts like this are comprised of small size development spaces for theoretical sciences and small scale programs that research things that can’t cause damage to their surroundings or danger inhabitants health. This area houses a large percentage of the city's workforce.

Both the south and north sides of the city have districts like this. There is no access to the underground city from the districts 

Biodiversity Research Dome

This is more like botanical garden then anything else and is used more like park and relaxation facility then to do any actual research. 

Sky boulevard

Numerous bridges that connect the shout and north sides of the canyon. 

Caverns of commerce

Underground market district (tech market)

Stasis vaults

Numerous long term storage facilities  

Gallery of Wind

Power generation

Halls of study

Numerous research and testing chambers  

History of Ophai

2208 to 2210

Ophai was established during The War for Human Prosperity as a military bunker, it’s location chosen for it’s defensibility.

2250

When the war ended, the bunkers were repurposed to house informational network hubs, using highly advanced psitech.

2279

As the settlements of Hroa grow larger over time, the Ophai information network stations matrix expanded with it, with the needed power requirements to match. Off-site power generation was deemed too vulnerable for safe operations.To rectify this, internal power generation facilities were built utilizing the natural high wind speeds of the canyon within the city limits.

2279 to 2289

First, large scale surface districts were built to house the workforce needed to work and maintain the facilities. These were built on the surface, as it was more cost effective than building underground. The canyon formed a natural division of the workforce and jurisdiction between the two noble families in the region.

2300

Ophai was granted city status. During The Golden Age, general outlines of city, that can be still seen in the modern day City of Ophai, were established.

The Scream of 2665 caused massive damage to the Ophai’s information network and the underground facilities, as the meta-dimensional energy fluctuations from the psitech machinery caused the bedrock to melt which resulted in magma then pouring down into the lower section of the underground tunnels.

This formed a large underground chamber consisting of an obsidian floor cut through with patterns of red glass, with the surface being perfectly smooth to within a micron of variation.

The chamber was rediscovered during The Second Civil War expansion project (2946) and condemned due to it emanating a faint energy field that affected the use of psionic abilities.  

2665

In the same year of the Scream, rebuilding of the information networks started, using more conventional tech as a backbone infrastructure. Over the following century, the system was overhauled and re-established to function like the original psitech network.

2800 to 2820

During the First Imperial Civil War, large scale expansion of the military bunker system was undertaken, with additional buildings carved into the Monolith Mountains, and reinforcements of the existing city’s infrastructure were undertaken. Underground housing complexes and markets were built to help support the added infrastructure and population. 

2850 to 2950

As the hostilities continued, the fortification of the surface districts expanded.

This fortified the ground level structures to a military level standard, and laid the  foundations for the future city of Ophai that would be built on top of it. 

2800 to 2950

Every surface level building was connected to the underground complex, providing escape routes in case of an attack. 

2952

After reunification of The Empire and establishment of the Major and Minor Houses, construction of Ophai accelerated. The lingering presence of the metadimensional anomaly that had infused the stone with psionically reactive material under the city began to attract researchers of psionics and psitech. 

2955

The Bio-dome of Cloudgarden Biopsionics Research Facility was built on the outskirts of the city, housing research into practical applications of bio-psionics to natural biological organisms.

2975

Due to limited building space, city districts were built vertically on top of each other. The formation of the high rise district began to take shape, and the general building style began to incorporate more and more elongated spire-like construction. 

2975 to 3010

Vertical expansion continued, adding second and third levels to construction throughout the city.

3010 to 3075

The addition of synthetic workers allowed cost effective expansion of the surface city, resulting in the halting of vertical construction as the city expanded into a larger area.

Additional districts were added on the periphery of the city. However this extension of the city was never built to have  the same infrastructure that connects the older districts in to the underground city. 

3112

Star Crown district, named in honor of the former House Velan Emperox, and also the top most district of the Ophai, is completed, giving the City Of Ophai its recognisable silhouette.    

3193

During the War Against the Artificials large portions of the south side of Ophai’s districts was badly damaged do to escalated hostilities with the Artificials. 

The rebuilding and maintenance of the damaged buildings and infrastructure is still ongoing.

The War left large parts of the underground structures and the lower districts sparsely populated due to a very high ratio of artificials to humans in pre-war Ophai.