Capital Station
Capital Station is the largest transit station on Numlle, capital world of Usus. With dozens of different levels and over a thousand platforms, Capital Station is virtually a cosmopolitan city in and of itself. On and between the platforms are shops and establishments catering to any need the weary sojourner might require, from food and drink through legal counsel. The traveler uninterested in any of these goods and services is, of course, free to ignore them and make his way efficiently between the stations pertaining to his trip.
Altogether, between all its platforms, common areas, and retail space, Capital Station covers an area of almost seven square kilometers, divided among its thirty-eight levels. Its décor is eclectic, reflecting its gradual expansion over the six centuries since it was first constructed, but there are some common themes. A motif of three squares touching at a corner, which figured prominently in its original ornamentation, is repeated in many places and patterns throughout the station, and much, though not all, of the station follows a similar gold and brown color scheme. Another recurring pattern in the station is that of lines of circles inlaid in pearl or some other material of nacreous appearance.
Politically, Capital Station is officially an independent borough, which pertains to no ward (and which therefore is almost a ward in and of itself) and which contains only one precinct. The current burgomaster of Capital Station is a cronene named Cor ADarel, who despite his frequent appearance of being harried and disorganized always manages to keep things running. The station's single precinct also has its own provost, who in practice, since in this case the borough and the precinct are more or less synonymous, generally functions as little more than an assistant to the burgomaster. The current provost, however, a crubbich named Rogan Maffran, resents her relative powerlessness and does her best to try to discredit ADarel and gain more influence herself... thus far with little or no success.
Layout
Despite its size, Capital Station is entirely underground or surrounded by other buildings, with no part of the station visible from the exterior except for some of its entrances. Although the original core of the structure, known as the Old Station, is mostly regular in form, comprising two rectangular levels each with five platforms on each side, subsequent expansion quickly destroyed this regularity, and the full station today is a sprawling labyrinth virtually innavigable without a map to anyone not already intimately familiar with its haphazard layout. Its numerous levels are connected by stairways, by elevators, and in some cases by translocation booths or other more esoteric means of transit. The station is so large that an entire self-contained tram system exists just for patrons to get around within the station.
Entrances
There are nine main entrances to Capital Station, letting onto multiple levels. The Silver Stair on the north side of the station is generally considered the main entrance, but it is no longer actually the largest, having been surpassed by the eastern entrance known as the Semicircle. Not so large as these two entrances but rivaling them in traffic is the Corridor. The most popular entrances to be visited by tourists, though not as frequented by regular travelers, are Capital Cave, the Water Entrance, and the Maw, in that order. The Arcade, the Eastern Stair, and Woodbridge round out the list of the main entrances.
In addition to these main entrances, there are a number of smaller passages and side doors that let out on out-of-the-way parts of the station, some of them inside hotels and other establishments. These entrances see little use, and in many cases those who know of them intentionally try to keep them a secret, the better to reserve them for their personal use.
Platforms
According to one count, Capital Station has 1,423 platforms. The number may vary slightly depending on whether certain divided platforms are counted as separate platforms or as parts of a whole, and whether certain disused platforms are included. Nevertheless, the number is certainly well over a thousand. These platforms vary widely in shape and size; the largest, sometimes known as the Strand, covers more than six hectares, while the smallest, Platform 92J, covers scarcely twenty square meters.
The platforms are referred to by a somewhat arcane system of numbers and letters. Like many similarly byzantine codifications, the platform numbering started out completely logically, and in fact the twenty platforms of the Old Station are still simply numbered 1 through 20. This simple system was carried on until there were ninety platforms, at which time the authorities apparently decided that bringing the numbers into triple digits could be confusing. Accordingly, the succeeding platforms were numbered with decimal places after the numbers of other nearby platforms (or in some cases after whatever numbers were in little use), starting with Platform 57.1. As the station further expanded, this system was extended to include two decimal places, with Platform 63.01 the first platform so designated. Later administrators found the decimal system unwieldy, however, and turned to a system of appending a single letter after the platform number instead of a decimal point. All the two-digit platforms were renamed by this system (Platform 63.01 becoming, for instance, Platform 63A), as well as some, but not all, of the one-digit platforms. Many people continued to call some of the renamed platforms by their former names that they were more used to, however, and some of these old names persist to this day. In addition, some unusual or heavily trafficked platforms took on nicknames—the Strand, for instance, started as Platform 24.1 and is now technically Platform 24H, but it's seldom currently called by either of those names.
Despite this seemingly chaotic onomastic riot, there are some patterns to the names that can help in navigation. Platforms with the same number (excluding letters and decimals) are usually, though not always, close to each other. To a lesser degree, platforms with nearby numbers are likely to have nearby physical locations, particularly if they don't have decimal or letter parts. Also, platforms with smaller numbers are often, though not necessarily, closer to the Old Station. While these rules of thumb are rife with exceptions and deviations, it's substantially easier to learn these exceptions than it is to try to memorize independently the location of each station, and as bewildering as the platforms' enumeration may be to those unfamiliar with the station, experienced travelers can generally find a station with little difficulty, though some lesser known stations that especially depart from the general guidelines will no doubt give them trouble.
Transit lines
Trains and other forms of transportation leave Capital Station for destinations all over Numlle and beyond; so large is the station that some of the lines have multiple stops within the station, to save travelers the trouble of walking all across the station. Most of the local lines in Capital Station complete their entire course underground or within buildings, never emerging onto the surface, but there are also a substantial number of surface routes that dive indoors to make a stop at this station. A number of train lines on other worlds of Norg, or even other planes altogether, make stops at Capital Station, entering the station through a portal and leaving by another (or by the same one, if the stop is at a bay platform.) Indeed, for many travelers to Numlle, Capital Station is the first part of the world they see.
In all, 1,302 different train lines stop in Capital Station. The number of lines doesn't match the number of platforms for several reasons. Many platforms serve two or more lines (one on either side of an island platform, for instance), while, as previously noted, many lines stop at two or more platforms within the station. Furthermore, there are a few platforms not currently in active use. Another reason for the disparity, however, is that some of the platforms serve other modes of transportation than trains. While most platforms do indeed serve train lines, others serve buses, or sky shuttles, or more esoteric forms of transport.
Commerce
Capital Station holds over thirteen hundred retail and service outlets. These include four hundred and eighty-six restaurants and cafés, one hundred and thirty clothing stores (including establishments specializing in particular items such as shoes or hats), one hundred and eighteen gift shops, ninety-three specialty food stores, seventy hotels, sixty hairdressers and other cosmetological establishments, fifty-two magic stores, forty-one bank branches, thirty-five spas and massage parlors, thirty-four bookstores, thirty stationary stores, twenty-six jewelry stores, sixteen cosmetic stores, fifteen gyms, fifteen brothels, thirteen toy stores, and eight pet stores. Many of these sites belong to chains found throughout the world or the empire, but others are independent establishments found only in the station. Capital Station even contains a large mausoleum, the Ashen Palace.
Security
The station government employs a skilled security force to keep order in the station, employing about seven hundred guards who patrol the platforms and the rest of the station's spaces. About two hundred of these guards are entrusted with full law enforcement powers, able to make arrests and to use lethal force if necessary. The rest of the security guards are unarmed and not authorized to make arrests themselves, but can make note of troublemakers and can contact the armed guards if necessary. Many of these guards also have talismans or magical abilities that allow them to immobilize offenders nonlethally. Their vigilance is supplemented by monitors in most stations and corridors that allow the guards to keep an eye on them without having to physically be there.
The proprietors of many of the station's retail establishments also employ separate security forces of their own. These guards vary in their experience and effectiveness, but some of the wealthier establishments have security staff as capable as the best of the station's guards.
While they do their best to maintain order in the Station, the security is not omnipresent, and even through their monitors they can't catch everything. While it's not much more dangerous than anywhere else on Numlle, the station isn't free from crime. Vandalism is an everpresent problem, and some of the less used platforms are marred by graffiti. Unattended luggage may very well be stolen. Worse, travelers have been robbed in the Station, or kidnapped and sold into slavery or put to other unsavory uses. For the most part, though, these have been people traveling alone and venturing into unfrequented byways of the Station; those who keep to the main thoroughfares and who look like they're confident and can take care of themselves are unlikely to run into trouble unless they're obviously carrying a great deal of wealth.
Residents
The station provides enough varied establishments that someone could conceivably live there and not have to leave the station for necessities. And there are, in fact, those who do just that—like any city, Capital Station has permanent residents. There are many hotels in the station, but these establishments are required by law to only allow any given individual to stay there for three nights at a stretch, intended primarily for the convenience of long-distance travelers who must wait a few days for an infrequent train. Employees of the station or of certain establishments therein, however, are legally permitted to reside in the hotels permanently. Relatively few actually choose to do so, most finding lodging outside the station and commuting to work (there is, after all, no easier workplace to commute to than the largest transit station in the world), but there are some who do avail themselves of this option and make their homes in the station, some of them never leaving the station at all.
These legal residents of the station are, however, far outnumbered by those who squat there illegally. Some do so by getting around the hotels' three-night limit by technicalities, either moving to a different hotel every three days or spending one night in four elsewhere before checking back in the next day, perhaps staying with a friend in another hotel with the understanding that the favor will be returned in a day or two when their three days are up. (Both of these practices are officially forbidden, but the injunction is seldom enforced; the security guards have better things to do than keep careful tabs on the comings and goings of every resident of every hotel.) Others simply defy the legal limit, either bribing the hotel management or convincing them some other way to let them stay on and hope the law doesn't catch up with them.
There are also those that live in the station outside the hotels, making makeshift shelters in abandoned or little-used stations or in untrafficked, out-of-the-way corridors.
Most long-term residents of the station have developed systems for avoiding security, and even if they are turned out of their spot they're likely to simply move to another part of the station. (Sometimes the security guards escort violators completely out of the station, but they rarely think it worth their time to do so... particularly since those they expel can and do just come back in as soon as the guard's back is turned.) The maintenance tunnels are a spot that many squatters find especially congenial; the security guards seldom if ever go there, and neither does anyone else unless it's necessary to repair some problem with the transit lines. To avoid even this eventuality, many residents of the maintenance tunnels have learned to effect these repairs themselves, becoming in essence an unpaid maintenance crew, or rather a maintenance crew that performs repairs in exchange for their lodging. The station's administration is aware of this arrangement, and, while not officially condoning it, does nothing to stop it.
Notable residents
Although Capital Station has a relatively small permanent population, there are some among its inhabitants who have achieved a certain level of notoriety. Caroc Durapel, owner of the Exllus, of which he also occupies one of the luxury suites, is perhaps the wealthiest person living in Capital Station, or at least certainly the one who has the most wealth that's public knowledge. Hauelin Rearse, an undead employee of United Fealty, is less notable for his employment than the length of time he's lived in the station, and the stories he has to tell about its early days. Beredine Crous is a self-styled detective better known for her amiability and colorful personality than for her actual competence at her job; she tends to be serially employed by many different companies more in the expectation that her presence will be good for public relations than because they actually expect her to do any useful detective work.
Among the illegal squatters in the station, too, are some who have become relatively well known. Melzo and Mace are a pair of rogue artists, their relationship somewhat unclear, who roam the Station ornamenting it according to their own eccentric preferences. Lonely Loe looks like a typical old homeless woman, but has a surprisingly deep knowledge of æalogy; she is reticent regarding her reasons for living on the platforms of the Station. While the presence of the ghost called Tllane may not precisely be illegal, he certainly can't be counted a legal resident either.
Some station residents have made their mark by more unsavory means. The Wallwalker is a notorious thief who somehow has the power to pass through solid walls, along with what she's wearing and carrying. She apparently can see through the walls as well, given her usual modus operandi of popping out of a wall when someone passes nearby, snatching some item on their person, and disappearing back into the wall with it. Exploiting her marks by other ways is so-called Blue Azzica, who seduces male travelers to manipulate them into a situation in which she can rob them blind. Most dreadful is Gullet, a shapeshifting thing whose true form is unknown but which often takes the form of a young boy... only to change into an amorphous blob to envelop and devour those who come too close.
Sites of interest
Many of the shops and services in Capital Station have gained worldwide renown, including Redruff Chocolates, the Cerulean Depths, and Qerotico's. The station also boasts some more unusual establishments that have made names for themselves in part by their very uniqueness. The Pitiless Pit is an arena where fighters of various sorts engage in combat, while spectators can gamble on the outcome. Its current champion is a suilpesh named Oc who particularly excels when the use of magical powers is allowed; in purely physical fights, her supremacy is challenged by a quidjic named Toly. The Second Hand is an agency that hires out skilled "assistants" to fill a broad spectrum of purposes, up to and including accompanying their employers on dangerous endeavors and fighting alongside them.
Not all the notable sites in the station are associated with retail. The Capital Station Library is the largest library on Numlle not associated with a university, and scholars often visit the station for the sole purpose of perusing its stacks. The Capital Station Museum focuses largely on the history and workings of the station itself, but also has wings devoted to other subjects.
Partially surrounded by the Station is a large area of enclosed greenspace called Harmony Park. While not formally a part of the station, Harmony Park is often considered to pertain to Capital Station for all practical purposes. It is not, however, under the Station's administration, but is the jurisdiction of the bordering precinct of Templetown.