Editing Diaphane (section)

==Cityscape==

There are degrees of transparency. The elite live in high towers of pure crystal. The middle class live in homes with large windows, some walls of translucent glass block, and maybe a floor of tile painted with a trompe l'oeil mural to make it look like it is floating on clouds. The peasants and tradesmen make do with large windows of paper in the summer months and open roofs in the dry season.

"Transparency" is also an ideal that philosophers and artist strive for, knowing that it lies somewhere beyond our clouded world. Common folk are less concerned with such abstractions and often view glass walls as a means of one-upsmanship against their neighbors.

-- by Glyptodont

It is said that when Diaphane achieves true transparency, it will fade from the material world and join the invisible world. This goal is sought through the city’s architecture, not only in its buildings of quartz, windows, and glass, but in its streets that are also paths in the spirit-world. Straight roads in Diaphane are probably also invisible paths, used by the invisible Neighbors and other invisible spirits. Curved roads, roads that cross water, roads interrupted by gated walls, or crossroads – all hinder invisible spirits, especially ghosts (the many mirrors of Narcissus accomplish the same effect).

Outsiders complain that the streets and buildings of Diaphane shift and change, roads that were crooked now run straight, or vice-versa. This is not so. Citizens know these are simply the effects of invisible paths. As their city develops in its transparency, the invisible world around it grows closer, and it is possible to accidentally wander into the sections where the invisible people dwell, which normally cannot be seen or found. Those who know and can see the right paths – cryptomancers and others – can use them as shortcuts through the City of Glass. Others run the risk of becoming lost in the [[Spirit_world|Invisible World]], or of annoying the Neighbors.

-- by Kakita Kojiro

Diaphane is home to some of the world's best greenhouses.

-- by shanoxilt

====Grand Aquarium====

Diaphane has a grand aquarium of x-ray fish, jellyfish, glass catfish, and icefish.

-- by shanoxilt

====The Crystal Grotto====

When she and her twin sister wandered the lands, the sister who founded Diaphane came to a place near the clear ice of the glaciers, and through which clear waters and winds flowed. She discovered or was led to the sacred crystal cave that no human had ever seen -- and there she found the [[Spirit_world|Crystal Tree]]. That was how she knew where to found her city.

-- by Kakita Kojiro

====The Holy Sphere====

Optics are extremely advanced in the three cities, due to the high degree of precision and value placed on lessons, so that the sight of corrective lenses are fairly common,
and this has been expanded to include spy-glasses, and large telescopes and microscopes of large size. It is said that these are used to track the motion of the heavens, predict the weather, the future, and even look into the past. The Guild of the Convex Passions and the Concave Faction work together creating common goods for export, and crafting singular works of art. The Ships of the Twins Cities also have very accurate maps and charts do to the extensive questioning of sources both spirit and material, salvaged maps and surveys from ruins, and taken from the very souls of spies. The largest example of this is a revolving crystal sphere that displays the movements of the clouds and the sky in the Planetarium, made possible by projecting the spirit of the World itself from specially designed lenses and mirrors. The effect is awe inspiring and is used to illustrate the power and ability of Diaphane. The projection is carefully studies with large magnifying glasses, and cities and towns are observed from Afar. It is said that the movement of armies can be tracked by looking for trails of dust, and that as explorers find new lands or ruins, they are added to the Sphere.

-- by stephen_dean

====The Stained Quarter====

During the time of the [[Cities_of_glass_history|Second Shattering]]  new advances had been made in tinting glass with vivid hues. New buildings and wonders were made, all of stained and colored glass, and the City of Glass took on translucent hues. 

This led to great debates in the Crystalline Agora, as citizens argued that the hues were a perversion of true Translucence. Eventually rabble-rousers whipped mobs of citizens into a frenzy, leading to the destruction of the colored glass in the [[Cities_of_glass_history|Second Shattering]]. The surviving proponents accepted exile under the guise of founding the colony that became [[Iridos]]. The records, of course, were purged for the good of all. 

The ruined Stained Quarter was never rebuilt. But it is still inhabited by squatters and the poor, since the broken shards there did not fracture the spirits of the [[Spirit_world|Invisible World]] as they did in the other places of Shattering. No spirit-storms of invisible shards occur there to strip flesh from bone as they do at the other Shattered places.

-- by Kakita Kojiro

====The Ghost Quarter====

In, or around, Diaphane there is a literal "ghost town". It is a neighborhood where ghosts dwell. Some of the living neighbors may practice ancestor worship and veneration of ghostly transparency.

-- by shanoxilt

They are more focused on "veneration" than "worship" of the ghosts -- instead of seeking intercession from the ghosts (as one might from a god or worshipped spirit), they are seeking information about the past, and secrets from the past. The ghosts are venerated by flattery and by listening to their opinions and advice. In return the ghosts are persuaded to reveal what they recall, or to act as go-betweens to the much older ghosts who no longer have much connection to the physical world. Ultimately, there is hope of contacting the Founding Sister...

-- by Kakita Kojiro