Motometro
The Striding City
A bipedal automaton able to navigate the obstreperous landscape of Lume, Motometro is, in essence, a city on legs. This mobile township is a relic from the age of the Schism, and home to the race of learned Slenders. Assisted by its qualified occupants and caretakers, it traverses the Continent, sourcing supplies and interacting with various settlements for the purposes of trade, research, diplomacy, and to recover resident Slenders required to work on site.
The story of its origins are still unclear, even to those of us who call it home. Motometro was reputedly built from appropriated Deumana devices in order to house the Slenders, and the storehouse of knowledge their former rulers charged them with. Its construction was performed by the Gardeners and Frost Giants, and overseen by the Slenders, who were still adjusting to their new-found autonomy. It was the platform - with the Slenders serving as the voice - which the Giants used to convey their message of liberation to the other fledgling Races. Partially due to this, and also owing to their altruistic nature, the Slenders aboard their Striding City are a sight welcomed by all but the most hostile inhabitants of Lume.
The Strata of Motometro
This towering construct is divided roughly into three levels: the above deck city affectionately referred to as the Works, the Plumbing midsection that contains the maze of machinery powering the city, and the Shanks, two enormous legs entirely dedicated to propulsion.
The Works
The top-side of Motometro is a sprawling amalgamate of architecture spanning the many cycles since the Schism. Roughly 1000 spans (or 800m) in diameter, this roaming metropolis boasts lanes and tiers of workshops and studios, residential and commercial areas, an observatorium, and of course, the Great Library itself (the latter being where this compendium is written). From here the Slenders ply their respective crafts, living out the majority of their lives consumed by their chosen pursuits. Visitors to the city are restricted to this level, unless accompanied by a responsible resident. The perimeter is ringed with balustrades, and armed with multiple cranes for convenient transportation of goods. This level is by no means cut off from the machinations below; elevators ferry occupants and small stores between the levels, the Library has storerooms that permeate the city's crust, and to visit Motometro, one must enter from beneath. Residents also utilize the machinery of the ‘Plumbing' to power their workshops.
The Plumbing
A maze of pipes and access tunnels filled with the whistle of steam and splatter of lubricants, the ‘’’Plumbing’’’ is the mechanical core of the city. At its heart resides a gyro that assists in minimizing the rocking movements of the city's rolling gait. The complexity of its many controls required the builders to equip Motometro with limited sentience to manage its intricate sense of balance and locomotion. A crew of technicians is still required to oversee details and provide navigation, and this layer houses some of the more technically-minded residents. The team works in shifts, attending the cognitive core to provide coordinates and supplement its logic with reasoning.
The Shanks
Linked to the ‘’’Plumbing’s’’’ furnaces and chambers of impossible clockwork, are the ‘’’Shanks’’’; colossal hydraulic legs that propel the Striding City. Fashioned from separate bipedal machines, the mismatched legs are strung with hydraulics that produce a surprising gentle ride. The remaining span of Motometro’s underside is riddled with broad, prehensile pipes and chutes that conveyance minerals and resources for sorting within the Plumbing. The Striding City can be said to graze’' across the Continent. the great ‘’’Shanks’’’ fold down, lowering the city so prehensile chutes can siphon necessary minerals from predetermined areas. The Slenders are careful when performing this operation, first scouting the location, and replacing mined spaces with unwanted materials from onboard deposits. Motometro settles to feed only in arguably barren landscapes, and well away from communities and forested areas, specifically during diplomatic engagements. For this reason, among others, the Slenders prefer to navigate the Verge Plains and outskirts of the Inland Forests, the ground-shaking footsteps providing plenty of warning for any stray creatures who might happen to be in their path.
