Nebuleon

Nebuelon, City of Artificers
Credit to Tyler Edlin Art for the image, http://tyleredlinart.com/

Nebuleon, the city of thousands of people and home to one of the most advanced establishments of magical advancement and research. Originally being a sect of nomadic sages, they settled the steep and often dangerous cliffs of Xuma'an that rise high above the lower altitude clouds as well as the more flat section above the the cliffs. The city itself is a city-state, meaning it is not ruled by any outside kingdom.

Centered atop the largest column of stone that can be found within its borders lies the University, an enigmatic and mysterious house of research on magic. From here, the University rules over the city of Nebuleon, the University itself headed by someone only known as the Director. Despite the quite obviously centralized government of Nebuleon, the University rarely over-extends its reach to harass and terrorize the people. The University itself is said to be comprised of the some of the world’s best scholars, researchers and mages though exact identities are unknown. How one is brought into the University is is also a mystery for the column holds no obvious staircase or entrance to be seen, simply sheer rock face and no bridge from the cliffedge to the University’s step. Not only this but if they do not allow some research to leave their walls, fearing that some may cause great destruction and chaos if released to the public. As such they have a large vault of hidden spells, weapons and other items hidden somewhere within.

The majority of the city lies above the low cloud cover that spans most of the extensive Xuma'an jungle floor, saving the civilians from having to constantly fight off the wildlife. It's most typically built into the cliff face itself, digging out entire city faces from the barren rock. However, the city also reaches over atop the spiraling mountains within Xuma'an to continue construction. Rather than build hard-to-maintain and not to mention expensive bridges to span the massive canyons within the city, they employ a ferry system of magic-fueled ships to carry citizens back and forth. This project is still in its application infancy as the ships' cores can only go an hour or so before needing to be recharged at one of very few larger magic crystals that Nebuleon possesses.

Society
The city's layout is spastic, jutting out of the cliffs and then diving deep within them at random intervals, really up to the discretion of those who wish to build there with little regulation. However, one may see that there is a peculiar hierarchy within its architecture. The lowest, and closest to the cloud line is the slums. Unstable wooden shacks and homes built hanging off the cliffs haphazardly. Almost as if they're not so desired, they actually lie outside of the defenses of the city, Within the "walls" of the city, would be the commons district. Here you see families of guards, merchants, etc. The common folk with decent housing. Above this, the market district. Here, you see your most construction to build flat spaces for trade, and trade houses as well as banks to conduct commerce. This is by far the most populous and busy district. And finally still, above that, upon the actual flats of the mountains, are the "nobility" so to speak. These are whoever is most luxuriously rich and are willing to pay for residential land to build upon.

It sees a great deal of trade and travel within its walls after having built a winding road upwards to its gleaming city within the cliffs. Beneath it, within the jungle, they do have patrols to beat back the wildlife in an attempt to keep the roads at least slightly more hospitable for caravans that are making their way up and down from the city. Once their magic-fueled ships begin to be developed more effectively, they hope to use them to shuttle caravans up and down the cliffs and not need to toil to maintain the roads. Nebuleon allows people to sell anything, exotic and dangerous, and yes even slaves. What they know will not sway perhaps a war in a single swoop, they allow to be sold on the streets. Powerful weapons, armor, etc. The doomsday sort of weaponry, they keep locked away within the University supposedly.