Toronto

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Toronto</default></title>

<image source="image"></image> <header>Basic Information</header> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> <label>First Appearance</label> </infobox> Toronto is a real city in Canada, and the temporary setting for arcs 4 through 7. The Lord of the city is Conquest.

Geography/Description

It is here that the majority of Blake's friends and family live, only two hours from Jacob's Bell.

Residents

The Toronto Council are the major practitioners and Others who oversee the city, with the Lord being Conquest.

• Conquest
  • his servants and slaves
• Sisters of the Torch
• the high priest

Points of Interest

University

Full name of the university is not specified in story. Home to Isadora, and often visited by members of the Sisters of the Torch and the Cult of Dionysus.

Hyena's Park

A large park where a dangerous Goblin called the Hyena resided. Many of it's victims are forced to roam the woods, in pain and anger. It's original name is unknown.

Sisters of the Torch Demesne

The Demesne of the Sisters of the Torch is located in Toronto and serves as the meeting place of their group, with Elder Sister at the head.

In appearance it appears to be simple and restrained modern elegance in design, a "church without religion", of cherry wood with traces of gold, water running along gutters on either side of the hallway glowing with reflected candlelight.<ref>The Sisters had no such delusions, and the architecture seemed like a pointed statement to that end.  Not a homage to the past, whatever their

traditions.  Only present and future, here, in a church without 

religion, cherry wood with traces of gold, water running along gutters on either side of the hallway, almost gold as it reflected candlelight. - excerpt from Void 7.10</ref> The number of candles make it seem like it's daylight inside and the temperature matches.<ref>I wanted to think that the simple and restrained elegance of it seemed more imposing than Conquest’s alien realm, but that wasn’t quite true. I felt like, if the Elder Sister somehow became Lord, like she’d planned, then it would be. It was hard to breathe in here, and that had nothing to do with the ridiculous number of candles that made it seem almost brighter than daylight. - excerpt from Void 7.10 </ref>

Astrologer's Abode

A squat one-story building on the outskirts of the city.<ref>Our first stop put us outside a little building on the outskirts of Toronto.  Between picking up Maggie and then making the trip, we had a long enough drive that we had to stop for lunch on the way.

[...]

The building was only one floor, squat, with a sloped roof.  The snow heaped over it had greater dimensions than the building did.

I knocked.

The Astrologer answered. - Excerpt from Void 7.10 </ref> Cramped and musty, filled with old technology and notes.<ref>We sat, in chairs or on the edges of desks, where we could find the room.  The room wasn’t much larger than my parents’ one-car garage had been when I’d been growing up, and it was chock full of computer towers, shelves and boxes.  Where those things alone didn’t take up enough space, the place was further littered with errant books and stacks piles of paper, a lot of it from some old fashioned printer where the paper connected as a series of sheets, end to end in one long feed with holes at the side so the machine could manipulate it better.  The printouts themselves were faded, featuring reams of calculations, and many piles had words written on the sides in marker.

[...]

The computer monitors, even, were old CRTs, some black and green.  The place smelled like tea, ozone and mold.  The whole setup, including the vaguely rounded pile of snow above the building, struck me as being a kind of high tech hobbit hole.

[...]

“I like it,” I said.  I wasn’t lying.

“I do too.  Aesthetically.  In terms of usability, though, a lot of it’s grandfathered in.  My mentor was cutting edge, but cutting edge then is archaic today.  I’m not sure if it’s easier to let go of the sentimental attachment or wizard up

some kind of power up to the equipment.”

[...]

Diana reached backward and grabbed a scrap of paper, scribbling her email down. “Don’t feel offended if I take a few days to reply.  My modem only does twenty-eight kilobits a second, and I only have so much patience.”

I don’t think anyone present wasn’t horribly affronted by the idea. “Like I said, grandfathered technology and sentimental attachments,” Diana said.

- Excerpt from Void 7.10 </ref>

History

Past

Rose Thorburn Senior visited the city a few times, and was well known there. Her bloodline carried with it permissions to be in the city.<ref>"Even having you here, I feel like we’re hurting ourselves.”

“But?” I asked.

“But your grandmother has visited from time to time, and I can’t refuse you and yours an invitation, now that her titles have passed on to you, along with the according rights.”

- Excerpt from Void 7.10 </ref>

Toronto Arc

This major city served as the battleground during the contest between Blake Thorburn and Conquest.

Their combat on the spiritual plane caused chaos and destruction on the real city.

Others started flocking to the city as a result of this chaos.

With Conquest bound the problem didn't go away, and probably got worse with no ruling Lord. So many problems surfaced that the Sisters speculated it might be demonic influence.<ref>“Define ‘greater good.’ Because we’ve had anonymous threats to our families. Others are settling in the city, and you’ve brought nothing but pain and chaos with your arrival in the city. To me, that kind of endemic problem suggests demonic influence.” - Excerpt from Void 7.10</ref>

References

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