NCH

New Crobuzon Hero

Living in New Crobuzon

New Crobuzon, the biggest city in Bas-Lag is 11 miles from east to west and 8 miles north to south. Sitting on the rivers of Canker and Tar where they join to form the Gross Tar. The city is northeast of Rudewood.

Days of the week

  • Shunday
  • Chainday
  • Dockday
  • Skullday
  • Blueday
  • Dustday
  • Fishday

Money

  • Pennies (similar to Stivers)
  • Stivers (at least 20 Stivers to a Shekel)
  • Marks
  • Shekels (1 Shekel = price of the ingredients for a good meal for 2). Made of brass.

Drugs

  • Dreamshit
  • Shazbah
  • Tusk
  • Very-Tea

Languages

  • Ragamoll. The common tongue. The language of New Crobuzon is a dialect of Ragamoll
  • Hotchi
  • Fellid Vodyanoi
  • Southern Vodyanoi
  • High Khepri
  • Stiltspear
  • Teshi

Maritime Languages

  • Salkirkaltor
  • Salt
  • Sunglari
  • High Kettai

Getting around town

The streets are so crowded that there are only a few methods regularly used to travel:

  • Walking
  • Carriage
    Cabs waited all along the iron fence. A massive variety. Two-wheelers, four-wheelers, pulled by horses, by sneering ptera-birds, by steam-wheezing constructs on caterpillar treads... here and there by Remade, miserable men and women both cabdriver and cab.
  • Train

The ever present, slow moving dirigibles are not used by normal citizens, but the upper classes and the Militia.

The Militia also use the pods on the skyrail. All skyrails start at the Spire on top of Perdido Street Station.

The Militia

Citizens of New Crobuzon in particular, but even the farms and other settlements throughout Bas Lag, live in a constant state of fear of the Militia.
They are a cross between secret police and the military, and will use any method to achieve their ends. They have been known to use Thaumaturges and Remade.
Anyone can be a Miltia member - teenagers to old ladies. The only identifying mark of a Militia member, is the hood - which is pulled over the face to hide their identity when they are making a raid or arrest.
There are various official buildings of the Militia as well - to have them accessible to the general public if they wish to report a crime. The omnipresent dirigibles that drift around New Crobuzon skies mostly contain Militia and are capable of dropping numbers of them by rope as the need arises. Other dirigibles are used for various government purposes.
The Militia should be treated as a "Hunted" that increases effect within certain areas, or if there have been notable crimes happening.
After the Construct Wars and during the time of the war with Tesh, the Militia cease to be undercover and patrol with uniforms, like regular police. However - there may still be undercover operatives.

The Government

The parliament buildings are all located on Strack Island where the rivers Tar and Canker join to form the Gross Tar.
There are four major political parties: Fat Sun party, Three Quills party, Diverse Tendency party and Finally We Can See party. Life in New Crobuzon follows a fairly rigid class structure and political members come from the upper echelons of society.

The Sufferage Lottery
Not everyone gets to vote in New Crobuzon. Every election a lottery is held to determine which citizens are entitled to vote. Note - only middle class citizens are likely to ever be put into the lottery.