Umbilicus

This article is about the location on Plex. For the anatomical feature, see navel.

The Umbilicus is a location on the living world of Plex that for some reason seems to be a disproportionately common arrival point for newcomers. Located in a relatively flat and fleshy part of Plex's surface, the Umbilicus appears as a great circular pit, some three hundred and fifty meters in diameter. Spiraling ledges form paths down the sides of the pit, although these are not "natural", but were formed by Plex's inhabitants cutting into Plex's flesh and inducing cicatrization to make the modifications more or less permanent—although given Plex's healing abilities, the paths must still be maintained and regularly rehewn.

The Umbilicus was originally so called not just because it bears some resemblance to an umbilicus, or navel, in the anatomical sense, but because some of the first settlers there thought that it really was an umbilicus, that this part of the world was originally the navel of the creature that would become Plex. Later, as Plex was more fully explored, this idea was cast into doubt; the world of Plex bears many strange features that are unlikely to correspond to any organs or appendages it had prior to its teratization. Recently, however, some divinations and investigations of Plex's interior in the vicinity of the Umbilicus have lent credence to the proposition that the original explorers were right after all, if more by luck than through real insight; the evidence increasingly suggests that the Umbilicus actually is, or was, Plex's literal navel. (If true, this of course necessarily implies that Plex's original form was a creature that had a navel, which presumably means it was a placental mammal. This is compatible with the hypothesis that Plex was once human, but of course does not necessarily imply it.)

Geography

The great hole in Plex's surface that is the Umbilicus is very close to cylindrical, though its outline is not a perfect circle. The eased edges of the pit give way to nearly vertical walls that drop about half a kilometer to the pit's bottom. Said bottom is lumpy and irregular, full of fleshy knots and knolls, though on average its elevation tends to rise toward the center. Oil collects in the lowest crevices, forming long, thin ponds and pools of irregular outline, including a ring around the rim of the Umbilicus's base called the Moat.

The otherwise flat surface of the Umbilicus's sides is broken by the helical paths carved into it, often known as the Threads. There are two broad primary Threads, almost directly opposite each other and both curving counterclockwise as they descend, but a number of narrower paths also split off from or join them. The two primary Threads and a few of the secondary Threads are referred to by names of their own. The primary Threads are called the Upper Road and the Lower Road. Despite their names, there is no appreciable difference in altitude between them; in fact, the top of the Lower Road is very slightly higher than that of the Upper Road. The names came about because originally the intent was that the Lower Road be used for traffic going down into the Umbilicus, and the Upper Road for traffic coming up out of it. This distinction didn't take, and now people travel in both directions on both Threads, but the names stuck. Other Threads well known enough to have names include the Spar, which connects the Upper and Lower Roads about halfway down; the Ghost Road, which goes up to a now-abandoned meatmine rumored to be haunted; the Stone Road, an early attempt at creating a firmer surface by petrifying part of Plex; and the Third Road, which splits off the Lower Road just above the Spar and continues downward to the Umbilicus's floor in between the two major Threads. Where the Threads reach the base of the Umbilicus, bridges provide dry crossings of the oily Moat. In addition to the Threads, the sides of the Umbilicus also bear the openings to a number of meatmines, which are the destinations of several of the secondary Threads. One circuitous Thread, the Meander, connects a number of meatmines, but others are reached by smaller, nameless Threads—or by flight or by somehow scaling a pathless part of the Umbilicus's vertical face.

Perhaps the most prominent feature of the Umbilicus's walls is the Bilefall, a cataract of yellow-green liquid about seven meters wide that emerges from a horizontal gash about halfway up the wall and plummets into the Moat below. Cut as they are into the flesh of the walls, the Threads are sufficiently recessed that the Bilefall does not fall upon them, though some prefer to use umbrellas when they pass behind the Bilefall to protect themselves from stray droplets. The Bilefall had its origin about five hundred years ago when a group of meatminers accidentally cut into some large duct deep within Plex, and the fluids from the duct leaked out through the mine tunnels until they emerged in the Umbilicus. For some reason, the breach in the duct and the tunnel through which its contents flowed did not heal as damage to Plex usually does, but in fact the tunnel slowly widened over time, though it eventually seems to have stabilized and has not appreciably grown in the last two centuries. Despite the name, the liquid of the Bilefall is not in fact bile; while its composition is not an exact match to any known bodily fluid, it is closest, oddly, to cerebrospinal fluid, though with a few extra compounds that give it its cholic color. Although the Bilefall ends in the Moat, its liquid does not mix with its content; heavier than and immiscible with the oil of the Moat, the fluid of the Bilefall sinks to the bottom and drains away through subolear channels.

Surroundings

The Umbilicus lies in a relatively flat part of Plex's surface, with no major hills or ridges nearby. In its immediate vicinity is little but pink skin covering a thick underlayer mostly of muscle, broken only by the occasional hair or cilium or scraggly bit of flora. A few hundred meters further out, there is a little more variation. About a third of the way around the Umbilicus, in the direction of the Upper Road, this fleshy expanse extends for many kilometers, forming what is called the Barebelly Plain. The Umbilicus itself is often considered to be within the Barebelly Plain, but if so it's near the edge. In another sector the hairs grow larger and more numerous until they form into a dense forest called the Middlewood, where bushy ciliary arbuscles serve for undergrowth. In the final tertiant, in the area called the Pustulance, the hairs grow individually stouter, though not nearly as dense or tall as in the Middlewood, and the cutaneous ground is submerged under several decimeters of sweat and dotted—and in places nearly covered—with huge blisters that under pressure may burst and release a mildly acidic, foul-smelling serum.

As such a societally central location on Plex, the Umbilicus is a crossroads both literally and figuratively. Four main roads lead away from the Umbilicus, all joining the circular Rim Road that embails the pit's top (and that also connects to the Upper and Lower Roads). The White Line goes through the middle of the Barebelly Plain, while the Coastal Road roughly follows the border between the Barebelly Plain and the Pustulance. The Shadow Road and the Golden Trail both pass through the Middlewood, but almost at right angles to each other. There are also three major subcarnal roads with embouchements the bottom of the Umbilicus: the Red Road beneath the Barebelly Plain, the Dower beneath the Middlewood, and the Nevermind Way beneath the Pustulance. A fourth, "natural" tunnel called the Urachus also descends from near the middle of the Umbilicus's floor, topped by a valve that keeps out the oil but that determined explorers can push through. Where the Urachus ultimately leads remains a mystery; weird and dangerous creatures lair within, and no one is known to have followed it all the way to whatever lies at its other end.

Magic

The same integrative magic that works elsewhere on Plex also functions in the vicinity of the Umbilicus, but there also seems to be some extra rhegus here with additional effects. People and beasts alike in the vicinity of the Umbilicus heal faster from both wounds and disease, and require less sustenance. Some have learned ways to focus and heighten these magical effects to not only further accelerate healing but enable regeneration of lost body parts and and even resurrection, though since these channeling methods only work in the immediate vicinity of the Umbilicus they are of limited use.

Spells and powers involving growth and transformation—especially transfigurement and transevitation—are also easier to bring about in and near the Umbilicus. The details of exactly how these magics are affected, however, and how this can best be taken advantage of, remain murky to most; few have made a detailed study of this phenomenon, and those that have have generally kept their discoveries close to their chest.

Life

While the ollies and partenets of the Barebelly Plain sometimes wander near the Umbilicus's verge, there are no organisms larger than a rat found within the Umbilicus itself. There are, however, plenty of smaller ones. Various molds, polypores, and other fungi, as well as an assortment of slime molds, grow on the walls of the Umbilicus, and serve as fodder for centipedes, springtails, and numerous types of slug and snail that graze on them. These in turn are preyed upon by geckos and small bats. There are also many fossorial animals that live within the surrounding flesh and occasionally emerge from their burrows in the Umbilicus, including caecilians; creatic mole rats—not the giants found elsewhere in Plex but smaller types very similar to the pantach naked mole rats —; and diverse varieties of meatworm. Apparently unique to the Umbilicus—at least in the wild—are the flightless and near-featherless bellybirds that creep along the pit's walls.

The Moat and the other oilpools in the Umbilicus's base harbor endemic life of their own. Some of these fauna are oddly similar to those found in tide pools on watery worlds, including the oil urchin, the zincfish, and the sea-anemone-like buttonflower. Others are more distinctive, like the spidery dridget and the feather limpet.

Resources

What the Umbilicus is perhaps best known for is the fact that it is the most common place where new exiles to the prison world appear. However, there are other resources harvested from the area besides potential recruits and allies from the newcomers. By volume, far and away the largest "export" of the Umbilicus is plexmeat, flesh of the world itself carved out from meatmines. While meat can be found all over Plex, the fact that the Umbilicus's surroundings are nearly solid muscle along with the vertical faces of its walls making for the easy excavation of mine entrances make this a particularly convenient place to obtain it. Additionally, many hold that the plexmeat from the Umbilicus has a particular—and pleasant—flavor and texture. It's also widely believed that the unusual magical effects active in the Umbilicus infuse the meat here as well and make it especially salubrious, though there's no hard evidence of this.

But plexmeat is not the only material resource obtained from the Umbilicus, though it is certainly the one gathered in the greatest quantity. Chemicals with medicinal, tinctorial, or psychotropic properties are extracted from some of the fungi that grow on the pit's walls. Telesmata related to healing and transformation are produced in and near the Umbilicus with the aid of its local rhegus and sold elswhere. Some of the animals of the oilpools are exported as rare and exotic culinary delicacies, and bellybirds have become popular pets across Plex, to the extent that there are now several times more bellybirds in captivity elsewhere than there are in the Umbilicus itself.

Structures

A number of structures have been erected along the Rim Road around the edge of the Umbilicus to serve (and exploit) the new arrivals there and to take advantage of the available resources. Most of these locales are jointly run by two or more of the neighboring bosses, who coöperate on these ventures not out of any spirit of camaraderie but in order to prevent their rivals from gaining an uncontested foothold in the area. These establishments include the Placement Agency, the Central Hostel, the Garrison, and the Umbilicus Bloodrail Station.

Standing near the upper terminus of the Upper Road, the Placement Agency is the most ornate of the Rim Road buildings, decorated with stately pillars and statues. Newcomers looking for an entry into what passes for society on Plex are directed here to meet with agents of various bosses interested in recruiting new agents and attracting useful people to their territories. Nearby is the Central Hostel, a ramshackle structure that has had wings and stories added on at different times, and looks it; no visible effort went into matching its various parts to each other. It provides a place for new arrivals to stay until they can find a more permanent place—but the lodging isn't free, and those who don't have suitable payment may go into debt and end up effectively indentured servants to some boss or another; in this way the Central Hostel is perhaps as much a recruitment center as the Placement Agency is, but in a more subtle and more insidious way. The forces of the Garrison keep some semblance of order in the area of the Umbilicus, although there is a danger of its becoming a source of conflict itself; one boss in particular, Rags, has managed to gain an outsize influence over the Garrison, and the other bosses with territories near the Umbilicus are worried and considering how to wrest some of that power from her. Umbilicus Station is part of the bloodrail network that serves as a form of rapid transportation around much of Plex; it is one of the largest terminals of the rail system, and a number of vendors have kiosks within where they hawk snacks and other goods to travelers.

Other Rim Road locations are more or less independent of the bosses, or at least not directly and overtly run by them. The Codmarket is a large open-air market, a sprawl of tents and stands, that extends for some distance into the Barebelly Plain. The Turris Novatorum is a tower whose inhabitants devote themselves to studying and making use of the magical effects of the Umbilicus. Last, the Welcome Center, a large, rectangular building, provides new arrivals with information about Plex and gives them counsel on where to go. While it's funded mostly by charitable donations and not under the official oversight of the local bosses, the guides here are not above taking kickbacks to funnel their advisees into service to a particular sponsor.

Only one real building is sited within the Umbilicus itself: a tall but narrow black tower called the Splinter near the center of its floor. The Splinter has been there for hundreds of years, and no one now remembers who built it or why, but whoever it was, they seem to be long gone now. The tower today is uninhabited, even by squatters, because the word has gotten around that those who spend too long inside it tend to disappear.

Government

Since the signing of the Omphalodic Treaty four hundred years ago, all of Plex within a kilometer of the Umbilicus, including the Umbilicus itself, has officially been neutral territory, under the dominion of none of the bosses who claim neighboring territories. For some time immediately prior to the treaty's introduction, the Umbilicus was the site of intense warfare between competing warlords all of whom coveted the location mostly for the possibility of recruiting the many new arrivals who showed up there into their own forces and for its magical effects. Wearying of the unending conflict, three of the bosses, Crystal Maggie, Airon Arion, and Guhundurata Vong, convened and forged an agreement to designate the Umbilicus and its environs as a permanent no man's land, not to be claimed by any boss or ruler. They strongarmed the bosses of the other two nearest territories, King Skeleton and Lepidonald, into going along with their plan, and then the five of them signed the treaty that would, in theory, establish the lordlessness of the Umbilicus in perpetuity.

This state of affairs has more or less held to this day. The Umbilicus's fragile independence has persisted not because of any sense of honor or principle possessed by the nearby bosses, but in fact for exactly the opposite reason. The fractiousness and jealousy of the bosses ensures that none of them want to risk a rival gaining control of the Umbilicus, and so if any does make a move toward taking possession of it, the other bosses will quickly express their displeasure. Not wanting to risk a war in which they're clearly outnumbered, the ambitious boss has so far always relented, leaving the Umbilicus still unclaimed. This certainly doesn't mean the neighboring bosses have left it alone; they have stationed spies and agents there, established some measure of influence in various somewhat subtle ways, and tested the limits of how much their neighbors are willing to allow them before they're pressured to pull back. Thus a number of nearby bosses do have some sway in the Umbilicus, but none can claim to own it uncontested. At the moment, the bosses with the most power there are Rags, whose minions make up the majority of the soldiers in the Garrison; Rastigarn the Gleeful, to whom the master of the Turris Novatorum has some level of loyalty; and Zamzama, who has no single notable power base in the Umbilicus but has slightly above average influence in most of the establishments there, thus giving her in toto disproportionate sway.

Inhabitants

A number of people, of course, live within the structures that surround the Umbilicus: the staff and clientele of the Hostel, the mages of the Turris; even many of the Codmarket vendors make their homes there, sleeping in or under their stalls. But the Umbilicus proper, despite being little more than a giant circular pit, is also not without its ellogous denizens.

While people do venture onto the floor of the Umbilicus to harvest creatures from the oilpools, it is too irregular to readily build on and offers little reason for anyone to try to make a home there. Nevertheless, the floor does have two known permanent inhabitants. A tritoniform being called Oily Gee is often seen splashing around the Moat and the oilpools; she wanders all about the floor of the Umbilicus, except that she gives the Splinter a wide berth. A lithe fae being known only as the Grim lives behind or perhaps somehow within the Bilefall and claims to be able to commune with Plex itself.

The walls of the Umbilicus are more populated—more specifically, the parts of the walls along the Threads. While these walls bear no buildings, per se, many people have holked hollowed-out homes into the walls of the Umbilicus—and redig them, or dig new ones, when they inevitably heal. These hole-dwellings, which range from single-room hovels to multistory complexes, almost all lie along the major Threads wherefrom they can be easily accessed, and are collectively known as the Threadtowns. (Despite the use of the plural, the Threadtowns effectively function as a single community, although the sets of buildings along different Threads are sometimes referred to as separate towns.) A plurality of the inhabitants of the Threadtowns work as meatminers, though many harvest other resources from the Umbilicus, and some provide goods and services to other Threadtowners. Though the Threadtowns have no formal government, there is one person who's managed to gain enough respect and deference from the other Threadtowners to effectively be their de facto leader: Iron Rose, a two-headed woman of uncertain species. Since she claims no territory outside the Umbilicus and does not threaten the neighboring bosses, they do not consider her rulership of the Threadtowns a violation of the Omphalodic Treaty and mostly leave her to her own devices—akthough they may try to curry her favor if there's something they want from her domain.