In the heart of the war-torn Mana Wastes, a metropolis of industry, innovation, and intrigue awaits travelers hardy enough to make the journey. Beneath the towering gaze of brass spires and stone fortresses, amid a tangle of oil-slicked streets and soot-stained alleys, human inventors and their clockwork creations walk beside mutated gnoll scavengers, bronze-masked religious zealots, and fire-fleshed geniekin merchants. Many spend their days toiling without respite in grimy workshops or smoky factories. Others patrol the cobblestone streets for their fortunes, one hand firmly on their holstered sidearms, ready to confront a rival gang or runaway bounty. All the while, pistons, gears, and cogs within every machine and building turn as steadily as the hands of a clock, all maintaining the mechanical rhythm of a settlement that never truly sleeps. This is Alkenstar, the City of Smog.

Whether your character is Alkenstar-born, a first- or second-generation immigrant, or a total newcomer, it’s worthwhile to master some of the City of Smog’s basic nomenclature. The following is some basic information about Alkenstar known to most locals and visitors alike.

Alkenstar is a large city in an arid desert environment built atop the edge of the 400-foot-tall Hellfallen Cliffs. Formidable stone walls protect the city on all sides from wasteland raiders. The easiest way into the city is via the steady-flowing Ustradi River, which naturally bisects Alkenstar.

In the center of the city is Alken Falls, a massive waterfall set several hundred yards back from the rest of the Hellfallen Cliffs to the north. Thousands of vessels traverse Alken Falls each year by way of the Screw, a technological marvel that can raise or lower multiple ships at a time from one end of the falls to the other.

The wealthy districts and neighborhoods south of the Ustradi are referred to as Skyside, whereas the polluted, industrial quarters to the north are collectively known as Smokeside. Within these two major regions, the city is further subdivided into loosely defined wards.

• Smokeside is home to the quaint inventors’ neighborhood of Steamhaven, peaceful Ustradi Heights, and lively Ferrous Quarter.
• In Skyside, one can attend swanky aristocratic galas in the Capital District, peruse the many marketplaces of Auburn District, or head to Pilot’s Square to pay for passage aboard an airship or dirigible bound for major ports along the eastern Garundi coastline.
• A few city districts defy categorization into either Skyside or Smokeside, including Hellside—a shantytown that literally hangs from the side of the cliffs overlooking Alken Falls—and the monster-infested ruins of Ironside Quarter along the city’s far western wall.

Alkenstar’s major institutions include Alkenstar Castle (from which the city’s elected politicians hold court), the Temple of Brigh (overseen by the highly influential priests of the goddess of clockwork), and Blythir College (the city’s only major magical academy and a hub of higher learning). Of course, as in any city, Alkenstar’s most important cultural movements occur among its people, not its leaders. In the sky-scraping towers of Graeson’s Fingers in the Capital District or upscale establishments like the Longhorn Lounge, socialites mingle and make deals behind closed doors at ritzy soirees and gaudy galas, whose electric luxuries are made possible only by the skilled engineers at the Tinwound Hydroforge.

All the while, criminals both organized and independent haunt Alkenstar’s alleyways, sewers, and seedy taverns like the Hotfoot Hippodrome, where untold quantities of illicit wealth are pushed through the city like so much lifeblood. At popular saloons like the Barrel & Bullet Saloon, impoverished factory hands and honest laborers hold court from the fortress of a taproom table and wielding only a mug of watery ale.

Beyond the city’s walls lie the Mana Wastes—a turbulent, craggy desert irrevocably altered by centuries of magical warfare from the neighboring, wizard-ruled nations of Nex and Geb. Emigrants from either country are common in Alkenstar. Many such expatriates are wanted by talented spellcasters, and so they come to Alkenstar to exploit the region’s strange ambient effects on magic and hide from their aggressors. Others are spellcasters themselves who wish to experiment with their craft in the heart of the Mana Wastes.

Two geographical regions occupy most of the Mana Wastes: east of Alkenstar to the Obari Ocean is the arid, storm–wracked Spellscar Desert. On the city’s other side is the Western Ravage, a craggy badland which spans the many miles between Alkenstar and the Barrier Peaks.

Just 50 miles west of Alkenstar is the Gunworks, a sturdy outpost of innovative metallurgists, ambitious gunsmiths, and seasoned wasteland rangers. Here, a massive cannon called the Maw of Rovagug protects the city from roving bandits and violent monsters.

Closer to Alkenstar proper is the dwarven Sky Citadel of Dongun Hold. It was from the inventors and alchemists of Dongun Hold that the settlers of Alkenstar first learned the secrets of black powder and firearm technology.As a result of the settlements’ decades of comingling, many Dongun dwarves can be found within Alkenstar’s walls.

Though the city’s rulers prefer to believe that their laws and norms make Alkenstar a safe, orderly place to live, the truth is that power of all kinds—monetary, social, alchemical—swaps hands as a matter of course.

Most of Alkenstar’s citizenry can be divided into either the working class or the aristocratic elite. The former labor ceaselessly to produce goods, services, and wealth, while the latter live to consume these resources. Alkenstar’s best-known aristocrat is also the city’s leader, the popular and savvy Grand Duchess Trietta Ricia. Beyond politicians, the aristocratic class also consists of the city’s money movers and power brokers, including notorious financiers like Ambrost Mugland and infamous iron-fisted shieldmarshals like Deputy Anjelique Loveless. Lower on the social ladder but no less impactful are charismatic rumormongers disguised as humble workers, including the Bullet & Barrel Saloon’s own shotgun-toting barkeep, Foebe Dunsmith.

Beyond humans, dwarves, and other beings of flesh and blood, Alkenstar is home to a diverse and populous class of clockwork servants. Incapable of thought, feeling, or even (in most cases) any sensation at all, these mechanical drones serve their creators diligently and without question. Private companies and well-off individuals build or buy their own clockworks to perform repetitive labor, private security, or miscellaneous errands. Likewise, clockworks commissioned by the Grand Duchy fill less-desirable civil roles—trash collecting, late guard shifts, road maintenance—so that working-class laborers can keep their heads down and focus on the job at hand. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, clockwork inventors wage their own shadow wars and arms races to devise ever more impressive clockwork creations.

In addition to inventors, Alkenstar is home to creators of nearly every stripe, particularly alchemists and gunsmiths. Among this class of tinkers and scholars, technological news and rumors of new innovations spread at the speed of sound— often literally, considering the booming explosions that can be heard from workshops and factories at nearly every hour of the day. For example, recently, an eccentric alchemist named Vashon Gattlebee stunned onlookers at his ill-fated exhibition at Blythir College, where he showed off a devastating new explosive called pyronite. The pyronite incident, as the exhibition has become known, sent shock waves throughout Alkenstar’s scientific community, with nearly every metallurgist, engineer, and researcher speculating upon the implications of this dramatic new weapon.

The City of Smog has a reputation for favoring technological innovations over supernatural ones. This is partially as a result of the city’s origins; the expatriates who emigrated from the nations of Nex and Geb to found Alkenstar were mostly renegades and exiles. They eschewed the strong magical traditions of their wizard-ruled homelands in favor of different approaches to common societal problems. The emergence of black powder technology from nearby Dongun Hold only exacerbated newcomers’ preference for alchemy and machines over wands and spellbooks.

Another reason for Alkenstar’s relative dearth of spellcasters comes from its climate: the Mana Wastes are infamous for the devastating magical siroccos that regularly sweep across the desert—“mana storms,” in the local parlance. When a mana storm rolls in, spells and magical powers are much more likely to go awry, so wise spellcasters sheathe their wands and travelers run for cover. During such storms, a well-aimed fireball is just as likely to hit its mark as warp into a spear of ice that backfires on its caster. Thankfully, the walls around the city of Alkenstar protect those inside the settlement proper from the worst effects of mana storms. Local forecasts called whispersheets also offer reliable predictions for times of day when magic might not function as intended.

In the Pantheon Rising Adventure Path, magic is assumed, by default, to function reliably and as described in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. This means that you can play as a sorcerer, witch, or any other spellcaster without fear of being at a disadvantage. The rare mana storm might complicate matters once or twice during the campaign, but your characters will be made aware of these events well in advance, giving you plenty of time to prepare for situations that could dramatically impact your character’s abilities.

That said, your GM might have other ideas in mind, particularly if the rest of the group is interested in playing a campaign where magic is relatively rare. If you plan to play a spellcaster class, make sure you and your GM are on the same page regarding mana storms, whispersheets, and what effect (if any) these elements might have on your adventures.