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Capital City: Difference between revisions
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This is usually where [[The Empire]] or other important political entity makes its headquarters. The center of politics, commerce, religion, culture, and/or crime, you'll find all sorts of subquests and side-plots here, but you may or may not find the best stuff here, thanks to the [[Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness]].
Has an obscene amount of [[NPC|NPCs]], sidequests, shops, vendors, and usually [[Minigame Zone|Minigame Zones]] as well. Generally appears in the first half of the game, but players will probably have to return here often. This is the one place most likely to get upgrades and evolving content as the plot progresses.
Compare with [[Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe]] and [[Big Applesauce]], when ''everything'' takes place in Tokyo or New York. See [[Merchant City]] for the capitalist version of the [[Capital City]], and [[Holy City]] for the religious equivalent--either one could overlap. Often has shades of [[Shining City]]. May also be a [[Hub Level]].
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* Trantor from [[Foundation]] by [[Isaac Asimov]]. The entire planet is one city, the capital of the [[Space Romans|Galactic Empire]].
* Minas Tirith from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.
* The [[Star Trek Novel Verse]] has quite a few. Among the recurring locations are the following capital cities (with the planet they serve as capital for in brackets): Laibok and later Lor'vela (Andoria), Cardassia City (Cardassia), Ki Baratan/Dartha (Romulus), vosTraal (Mestiko), New Samarkand (Alpha Centauri), Ashalla (Bajor), Medara (Betazed), Leran Manev (Trill), Keelee-kee (Tezwa), Iaron (Damiano), Federation City (New Mirada), Shi'Kahr (Vulcan), hiLeyi'a (Pacifica).
** The capital of Romulus has two names; which one is used is based on era. In [[Star Trek: Vulcans Heart]], the capital was given the name Ki Baratan. It had previously been called Dartha, but that was a century prior. Later novels used the time gap for a reasonable [[Retcon]]: the capital's name changes as new regimes come to power. Now, books set in the 22nd or 23rd centuries use "Dartha", those set in the 24th use "Ki Baratan". The name change is explicitly mentioned in the first [[Star Trek: Titan]] novel.
** San Francisco seems to be capital of Earth, although Paris is the official capital of the Federation.
*** Both Starfleet Academy and Starfleet Headquarters are in San Francisco. Since most Trek characters are in Starfleet, it's only natural that many of the earthside references one encounters will be in that region.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* [[Dungeons and Dragons]] has big hub cities crop up in campaign settings:
** ''[[Planescape]]'' has Sigil ("City of Doors")
** ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has a choice of such places spread through various regions, mostly [[Merchant City|major trade centers]]. Neverwinter for North campaigns, Waterdeep (City of Splendors) for North and Sword Coast, Baldur's Gate and Athkatla (the capital of Amn and a [[Holy City]] of the goddess of trade) for southern Sword Coast, Scornubel the "Caravan City" in Western Heartlands, Westgate on the south-west of the Sea of Fallen Stars...
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** For reference, the other major current capitals are Exodar (Draenei) and Gilneas City (Worgen) for the Alliance and Thunder Bluff (Tauren) and Silvermoon (Blood Elves) Bilgewater Harbor (Goblins) for the Horde.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]: Oblivion'' partially subverts this by starting the main character out at the Imperial City prison sewer exit. While this does place the character closest to the Imperial City on the main map, the usual progression for a first-time player is to follow the first quest, which immediately takes you to Weynon Priory, just outside the city of Chorrol. The Imperial City is available to travel to at any time, though.
** Also semi-averted in the form of Kvatch, which is nearly as large as the Imperial City and even has an arena. It's only a semi-aversion because the city gets [[Kick the Dog|razed to the ground by the Daedra]] before the player ever gets to see it.
** Played straight in the ''Shivering Isles'' expansion for ''Oblivion'', in that the divided city of Bliss/Crucible, capital of the Shivering Isles, is not available until you've finished the introductory quest. Until then, you're restricted to the village of Passwall.
** ''The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind'' has Vivec, the biggest city in the entire Vvanderfell island, divided in several "cantons" or neighborhoods, each one within a given building. Since the entire game is a [[Wide Open Sandbox]], you can go over there any time you want.
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* Deling City (though Esthar is ''far'' bigger) in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]''.
* Rabanastre from ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', also the first town. Archadia's capital Archades is also quite large, but not on the same scale and not as friendly.
** More importantly, there aren't nearly as many places to go in Archades due to its taxi system and being impossible to get around otherwise, cutscenes show it to actually be quite large.
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'', set in Neverwinter, is a [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|relatively large]] city. Not only is the first entire section of the game set ''exclusively'' in the metropolis, but one comes back to it for the final battle.
** Hordes of the Underdark, meanwhile, subverts it: you start off in Waterdeep, which plays this role to the ''[[Forgotten Realms|setting]]''... with only a (small) city block available for exploration, and not that much to do; the main part of the chapter is about exploring Halaster's Undermountain.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Role Playing Game]]▼
[[Category:Video Game Settings]]
[[Category:The City]]
[[Category:Capital City]]
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