Location: Northern Colony Flyland
Founded: 1805
Founder: Established by decree of Sigourney the Great Sorceress
Known for: Flowers, magic, flying vehicles, fairies, excessive bureaucracy, and pretending that everything is perfectly normal
Near the Northern Colony Flyland’s border with the Supremacy sits Flamingo Springs, a magical city of cobblestone streets, colorful shops, flying cars, and more flowers than anyone could reasonably know what to do with.
Seriously. There are flowers everywhere.
Flower beds line the streets. Vines climb pillars and wind around windows and streetlamps. Blossoms hang above roads alongside colorful lanterns. Someone even decided the garbage cans needed bouquets.
For an Underlander arriving for the first time, Flamingo Springs can feel like somebody took an old-fashioned town, filled it with magic, launched it into the sky, and then appointed several government committees to make sure nobody enjoyed themselves without the proper paperwork.
History
Flamingo Springs was established by decree of Sigourney the Great Sorceress and formally founded in 1805.
At the time, nearby Prescott remained one of the most important cities in the Northern Colony. Only six years later, in 1811, Prescott fell in the catastrophe that would reshape the colony and leave Flamingo Springs with a much more important role in the region.
The city’s name predates that disaster.
To the northeast lies Moonveil Lake, once home to a settlement of sentient flamingos. Their presence inspired the name Flamingo Springs, although modern visitors should not assume the city is overrun with pink birds.
It isn’t.
Probably.
Geography
Flamingo Springs occupies a particularly dramatic corner of the Northern Colony Flyland.
To the south, the city reaches the edge of the flyland itself.
To the west stands the Great Barrier, the immense translucent wall of magical energy separating the Northern Colony from the Elven Supremacy.
The city’s northern surroundings are dominated by several of the region’s most important landmarks:
- Gemheart Mountain, home to Ironspike Fortress and the Kingdom of the Dwarves
- The Gloomwood
- Moonveil Lake
Together, these natural and magical boundaries make Flamingo Springs feel less like a city surrounded by ordinary suburbs and more like civilization squeezed between several places where a sensible person might strongly reconsider wandering off the road.
Around Town
Much of Flamingo Springs has an old-fashioned appearance, with townhomes and shops lining cobblestone streets. Don’t let the historic architecture fool you, though. Flying cars, buses, trucks, and the occasional winged horse pass overhead, and the flat rooftops of many buildings double as parking lots.
At the center of town is a large public square dominated by a fountain capable of sending water thirty feet into the air in seemingly impossible patterns. The square is bordered by important destinations including the library, shopping areas, and Flamingo Springs City Hall, recognizable by its clock tower, golden bell, and purple and green flags.
Elsewhere around town, visitors may encounter businesses such as Grabowski’s Brews, Nash’s Magical Items and Oddities, Kane and Rosalind’s Beauty Salon, The Flabby Fairy, and Patty’s Pets. Flamingo Springs also has its share of less successful establishments. After Words Books, an abandoned two-story bookshop squeezed between a pet shop and an apothecary, has seen better days. Its peeling paint, boarded windows, and resident population of kranks have done little to encourage browsing, although there have been occasional plans to put the property back to use.
A word of advice regarding Patty’s Pets: if you see a multicolored winged cat escaping through a window, it’s probably best not to get involved.
And if someone invites you inside After Words Books to help with a minor pest problem, it may be wise to clarify exactly how many pests they mean.
And as for the Pop Shop?
If someone assures you it’s perfectly safe because it already exploded once, consider asking a follow-up question.
The Fairies of Flamingo Springs
Flamingo Springs is home to a very large fairy population.
Many live in neighborhoods known as fayborhoods, where enormous trees have been converted into communities of tiny homes. Hundreds or even thousands of fairies may zip between the branches of a single neighborhood.
Fairies are known for their remarkable organizational skills, attention to detail, and fondness for rules, records, schedules, classifications, filing systems, performance reviews, and occasionally creating an entirely new filing system to keep track of the old filing systems.
Their administrative headquarters, the Fairy Operational Oligarchy, stands out dramatically from the rest of Flamingo Springs. While most of the city looks quaint and historic, FOO headquarters is a massive white cube surrounded by geometrically trimmed landscaping and operated with almost frightening efficiency.
Government
Flamingo Springs is governed by a mayor and city council, although the city operates within the larger government of the Northern Colony.
One unusual advisor to the Flamingo Springs government is its Seer.
Chosen through fate rather than election, the Seer is expected to provide magical insight into difficult questions involving people, places, events, crimes, decisions, and possible futures.
For generations, that position belonged to the formidable Bess Belfry.
Her successor is considerably younger.
And considerably less prepared.
Flamingo Springs Academy
Young residents of Flamingo Springs may attend Flamingo Springs Academy, a historic and prestigious school that has taken on a distinctly military flavor under its current administration.
Students are called cadets. School officials wear red and black. A gigantic metal dragon dominates the Academy grounds. Discipline, achievement, strength, and greatness feature prominently in school culture.
At the beginning of their high-school education, magically capable students undergo Initiation, an ancient rite through which they may receive the magical stone that will power much of their future spellwork.
Precisely what happens during Initiation?
Nice try.
A City in the Shadow of Prescott
Flamingo Springs existed before the fall of Prescott, but the disaster of 1811 permanently altered the balance of the Northern Colony.
Prescott had once been among the colony’s great centers of magical power. Its destruction sent survivors elsewhere and became bound up with stories of the legendary Pearls of Prescott and the curse that supposedly weakened the Northern Colony in the generations that followed.
Flamingo Springs survived.
And over time, a settlement founded only a few years before Prescott’s destruction became one of the defining cities of the modern Northern Colony.
At the Edge of the World
Not far from Flamingo Springs rises the Great Barrier, an enormous translucent wall of magical energy separating the Northern Colony from the mysterious Elven Supremacy beyond.
From a distance it appears purple. Up close, its color subtly pulses between blue-purple and pink, with mountains, forests, and enormous crystalline structures faintly visible on the opposite side.
Most residents of Flamingo Springs are accustomed to having an impossible magical wall on the horizon.
Visitors generally require a little more time.
First-Time Visitor’s Advice
Look up occasionally. Traffic isn’t limited to the streets.
Don’t assume an animal without wings can’t fly.
Don’t assume furniture can’t talk.
Don’t assume an elderly woman needs help simply because she’s carrying a cane.
Avoid wandering into the Gloomwood simply because the name sounds inviting.
And if someone hands you a stack of government forms asking about your relatives’ criminal intentions and your preferred varieties of cheese, don’t worry. You’re probably in exactly the right place.