What if? Metropolis: Travelogue

Travelogue

When arriving at the city known as Brancusi, there are a few things that really stand out and catch the visitor’s attention. The first would be the scattered bronze and marble statues of the heads of the Gods around the city. These range in sizes from on top of a podium to the size of a building. The people within the city are extremely religious and they worship these statues and treat them with the up most respect. Keeping them clean and have a constant shine, these extremely old pieces appear to be no older than a few years. These statues are not of what you would imagine a God to appear as though. The structures of the faces resembles almost alien like creatures combined with abstract faces. The eyes being the largest feature of the face, with the most sacred of these statues it could be said that they eyes look deep into the soul of those who stare at it deeply enough.

From a distance the first thing that you would notice is the row of assorted coloured flags. The flags are all in a round line around the city forming a complete circle. They are all on a pole and are attached from the top and bottom as almost a sail style. On the flags are different patterns and mixtures of colours to help the city’s elegance stand out.

The next feature of the city that you would notice when entering is the sheer size of the towering buildings. They appear to be pyramids on top of one another going from large at the base to smaller the higher up it gets. The colours of these towers rarely changes from one to another, the most used colour scheme is a pale blue with gold highlighting. The only difference between the many towers is the shades of blue along with the highlighting and the size. These buildings are the main structure of the city as residents do not live in houses, rather they live in apartments within these towers. Unlike most societies with the top apartments being the most expensive and desirable, the lower levels of these buildings are where the higher classes would be living in. This is for several reasons, one due to the structure of the tower with the larger apartments being at the base to help create a stable structure. Another reason is due to the size of the towers, meaning to travel to the highest apartment is seen as a task that the upper class should not take part in. These buildings all include incredible lighting at night time as well which compliments the beauty of the city. Each level of the towers have lights facing upwards and the apartment above, due to the structure of the building and the varying sizes this created amazing lighting and shadows which appear to be touching the sky.

When walking through the city and exploring the streets it is almost inevitable that you will arrive to the cathedral in the exact centre of the city. One way or another, no matter what path you travel down, if you follow it for long enough you will always arrive at the cathedral. The city was laid out in this way as a sign of respect to the Gods and to help promote worshipping to allow the city’s residents to be to pass into the afterlife and not to be condemned. The cathedral is huge in size, clearly standing out within the city from an aerial shot. It is lined with statues of the Gods but rather in bronze the ones that line the cathedral are all made out of pale marble with gold detailing.

The location of the city is placed at the bottom of a valley, surrounded by grassy mountains which turns into dense forests, then into rocky mountain tops. The location of the city is very useful for the residents as the Rocky Mountains supply the city with fresh spring water every day, filtered through the rocks filling up springs dotted around the city at the bottom of the valley. This layout also provides residents of the city endless activities. When in the grassy hills there are flat plains which are ideal for children to play games and for sporting events.

Once you scale the grassy hills you then enter the forest which has endless hiking trails which leads to hidden sanctuaries with amazing wildlife and scenery that will please any visitor. If you are lucky enough when following these trails you will find the main trail, referred to as ‘The View’ as at the end of the trail you will arrive at a part of the mountain the sticks out almost as a balcony. From here you will have a full view of the city and can bask in all of its beautiful buildings and statues. When and if you make it past the hiking trails you will arrive at the thrill seekers paradise. The Rocky Mountains that range from small easy to scale cliff faces to steep and dangerous walls that could make an experienced climber doubt himself. Many of the residents take part in rock climbing activities because the residents try to incorporate the surrounding areas as much as possible to show the Gods appreciation for what they have provided them.

 The city is very recluse and can be very reluctant to accept visitors as they worry that their traditions and monuments would be disturbed or damaged. Due to its recluseiveness they will regulate the amount of visitors that come and go from the city to not disturb the balance. The waiting list to visit the city to view the beautiful statues and surrounding areas can be up to several months.

The most beautiful time of day is around sunrise. The sun rises from the back of the valley so the light shines upon the whole city creating intricate shadows from the tall and odd shaped building with a combination of flags and the hills from the back.