Kore

Approaching Kore
The two ground entrances to Kore are massive and blocked by equally massive gates. Adjoined to the outside of these gates are customs offices which every traveling party must pass through to be allowed entry. Visas are required for entry; they can be obtained via mail correspondence with the Bureau of Consular Affairs in Kore or other major cities or can be obtained on-site after heavy paperwork and official references. If references cannot be provided or the forms cannot be completed for any reason, visitors are turned away. Identification from other major cities counts as a base level visa and allows entry but only to the lowest level of access, general city entry and some specialized artisan locations (specifically those that are not owned by the Kore Department of Development or the Pyrhian Union Military). Further access levels are only granted upon special circumstances to certain types of visas.

The City
Kore is a large city suspended aloft by massive mechanical struts above and below the city. There are ten upper struts and 5 lower struts, each about 100 ft wide and thick. Many of them are partially caked in ash and home to various volcanic plant and animal life.

Like the eponymous major volcano of the region, Kore is particularly famous for its sablesteel. Harder and stronger than standard steel, this metal is unique to the region and easily recognizable by its much darker, grayish-black natural coloration. In addition to specialized materials (and items made from these materials) Kore is well known for its manufacturing plants that produce various types of automatons, some of which work in those plants themselves or regions closer to the Maw that might be too hazardous to most living creatures.

People
The population of Kore is primarily dwarves, gnomes, and deep gnomes, closely followed by humans and warforged.

Those who choose to live in Kore are generally those who have a fascination for burgeoning technology, whether it be manufacturing techniques, enchantment, or the development of new tools or machines. It is a place of artisans and researchers and engineers. The stereotypical Kore citizen can be found deep into their work or deep into their thoughts or notes about their work.

With the fast-paced development and material consumption of the city's technical trades, there also exist many job opportunities for those not as inclined toward design and development. Mining, prospecting, factory production, and basic goods and materials production are in high demand for the denizens of Kore. Those who pursue these careers can make a relatively good living when compared with the same professions in places outside the city. There is not as much of a dramatic scale of socioeconomic separation in Kore as in cities like NRC. Every community has its fair share of undesirable members of the underbelly and lower class but legitimate work is relatively available to those who seek it.

Hand-in-hand with the hard working ethos of the general populace of Kore, comes a similarly intense hard play attitude. Kore is famous for its feats of ingenuity not only in practical matters but in its matters of nightlife as well. Kore's more "creative" citizens shift their focus after work (or ignore their day-job entirely) to design more nightlife-focused crafts. Devices and garments that glow, spin, explode, and sparkle.

Languages
Common, gnomish, and dwarvish are the most common languages in Kore. A large contingent of the artisan society speaks in a hybrid dialect of gnomish and common, called gnocish. Theories as to why claim that this is just a natural transition of languages in cultures where multiple languages are known and used with fluency by all members of the society. Prevailing theories among the artisan community lean more in the direction of efficiency: by combining the aspects of the two languages, one is able to convey a point more quickly and efficiently.

Architecture
The main city portion of Kore, "The Platform", is supported over a chasm by 15 giant metal struts. Given its hard limit on development area, Kore's platform architecture houses a very densely packed and vertical city. Most of the standard 3-5 story buildings are made of fired clay/stone brick and reinforced with iron and steel, with many pipes and devices lining the exterior walls.

Sections of surrounding mountains and parts of the Sablesteel Maw have been carved away to form plateaus and landings. For the most part these surfaces support factories and other industrial manufacturing businesses, but some residential housing is located on these outskirts; mostly hunters and goat and lizard herders.

Vastar imagery can also be seen in many locations throughout the city though moreso as a form of reinforcing the hard-working ethos of the society than any form of more formal direct worship.

Geography
Kore is located in halfway width-wise through the Genfreet Mountain Range, between the Eastern and Western regions of the Pyrhian Union. Though the climate of the surrounding region is bitter and cold and windy, the closer one is to Kore and the Sablesteel Maw the warmer it gets. The city of Kore itself is relatively dry and constantly warm due to its immediate proximity to the Sablesteel Maw and constantly bustling industry.

Surroundings
Kore is surrounded on all sides by the Genfreet Mountain Range and backed by the Sablesteel Maw, a large, dormant volcano.