New Nimbus

About the District

New Nimbus is one of the smallest districts of The City, housing a population of just under 250,000 beings of the sky. It was the third of The City's districts, planned and developed in the year 121 P.U.

The district is unique in that, true to its name, it is functionally a cloud in the sky. It floats approximately three kilometeres above The City, starting at The Amalgamate and slowly circling until it makes a full cycle once a day. The buildings are constructed of nimbian crystals, small white minerals that are cold to the touch and harvestable from clouds wherever elementals are nearby. These crystals had gone undiscovered to all except storm archons and sylphs (wind elementals), who have lived in the sky since the world's beginning and primarily kept to themselves before the founding of The City.

These crystals are legendary, not only for their iconic crystalline (obviously) appearance that have turned New Nimbus into a glistening utopia in the clouds, but also because of their magical properties. It is not uncommon for jewelry and clothes to include nimbian crystals, since doing so allows the wearer to walk among the clouds as though it is solid ground. The denizens of New Nimbus do not need the crystals to navigate the district, but nonetheless view them as a cultural staple and use them frequently.

All structures on New Nimbus must be, by law, constructed at least 58.3% out of nimbian crystals. This law was put into place shortly after the founding of the district, when an apartment building that did not meet the requirements plummeted out of the sky, resulting in 81 deaths.

History

New Nimbus takes the namesake of Nimbostratus, an ancient city of air elementals and the only city on record in the history of Original. It is not entirely known what became of Nimbostratus, as even the oldest air elementals have conflicting and inconsistent accounts of its (literal) rise and fall. But the prevailing narrative is that, upon learning of the existence of nimbian crystals, other monsters (or at least the ones who could actually reach them) waged war upon the elementals, toppling the grand city from the sky. There are no recorded instances of a war taking place in the sky, however, and some denizens of The City have dedicated their lives to learning what really destroyed the grand city.

Part of why New Nimbus took a bit longer than expected to construct was because negotiations with the storm archons took longer than expected, as the elementals were less than enthused by the prospect of sharing their home and vast collection of nimbian crystals with non-elementals. An agreement was only made after the other leaders of The City consented to building a dedicated section of The Amalgamate for elementals.

Facts about the neighborhood

• Sylphs and storm archons are legendary for their secrecy. They rarely interact with anyone outside of their species, and are notoriously gossipy. This has made for a thriving socialite/paprazzi scene, and resulted in the eventual founding of New Nimbus Nightly News (N.N.N.N.), a popular gossip tabloid.
• Tiny pet clouds are a common companion on New Nimbus. They're like excitable puppies, except made of water, and they love ice cream and peeing rain on The City down below.
• Common occupations in the New Nimbus (from most to least common):
1. Courier
2. Cloud Irrigation
3. Historian
4. Cartographer
5. Professor
6. Meteorologist
7. Astrologist
8. Fashion Model
9. Socialite
10. Healer (angels)
• New Nimbus is a major tourist spot and one of the few districts that humans feel comfortable visiting. Less likely to get eaten, y'know.
• New Nimbus has, by far, the lowest annual mortality rate among humans. The few deaths that take place in the district every year can usually be attributed to humans tourists not taking proper precautions, such as wearing articles of clothing with nimbian crystals at all time, and plummeting to the ground below. Annual statistics as recorded by the Bureau of Lifetime Management and Statistics are as follows:
  1. Gone Street: 3,786
  2. Isale Way: 3,054
  3. District of the Dearly Departed: 2,897
  4. The Amalgamate: 897
  5. The Red Wastes: 564
  6. Serenity Way: 43
  7. New Nimbus: 5
• Visitors to the city are stopped at a checkpoint and required to wear "sky treaders," shoes embroidered with nimbian crystals that allow non-New Nimbus residents to tread the clouds.
• New Nimbus is often considered the "fashion district" of The City. This is another thing that can be attributed to nimbian crystals, which are often embroidered into cloaks, robes, and dresses woven of water vapor, or stitched with lightning.
• Each district (aside from The Amalgamate) is represented/celebrated for two months out of the year. New Nimbus is celebrated the third and fourth months (March-April), the Months of the Skies.
• The monster inhabitants of The City have never agreed on an official name. As a result, the locals of each neighborhood know The City by their own names. New Nimbus' name for The City: City Indigno