Location: Northern Colony Flyland
Status: Abandoned city
Destroyed: 1811
Known for: The Pearls of Prescott, Sigourney the Great Sorceress, Arnold the Awkward, Brunger Avenue, the Great Barrier, and being a thoroughly terrible place for a casual stroll
Once one of the most important cities in the Northern Colony, Prescott is now a crumbling ghost town pressed against—and partially divided by—the Great Barrier.
Where Flamingo Springs is bright, tidy, flower-filled, and bustling with activity, Prescott seems determined to be the exact opposite.
A gray haze hangs over ruined streets. Buildings stand shoulder-to-shoulder with broken windows and sagging walls. Vegetation is scarce. Fairies are nowhere to be seen.
And every once in a while, something seems to move where nothing should be moving.
Welcome to Prescott.
Maybe don’t stay after dark.
The Rise of Prescott
Long before its destruction, Prescott was one of the great centers of the Northern Colony.
It was home to powerful sorcerers and tinkers, including Sigourney the Great Sorceress, Arnold, and their teacher, Timothy the Great Tinkerer of Prescott.
At the time, the colony was ruled by the tyrannical Emperor Pugsly the Ugly.
As teenagers, Sigourney and Arnold were determined to overthrow him. Together, they began developing what would become one of the most legendary magical artifacts in Northern Colony history:
The Pearls of Prescott.
The Pearls were designed to lead their wearer toward what they desired most. Their creation became associated with an extraordinary period of peace, power, and prosperity for Prescott and the Northern Colony.
Eventually, Sigourney overthrew Pugsly and took power herself.
For a time, Prescott flourished.
That’s the pleasant version of the story, anyway.
The Fall of Prescott
In 1811, Prescott was devastated by a magical catastrophe.
The traditional account places much of the blame on Arnold the Awkward, Sigourney’s husband and former ally. According to the version of history commonly remembered in the Northern Colony, Arnold betrayed Sigourney, stole the Pearls for himself, and somehow caused the destruction of most of Prescott.
Sigourney was presumed dead.
The survivors fled.
The city was abandoned and left in ruins.
But there may be a problem with that story.
Arnold later claimed that Sigourney had discovered a far more dangerous power within the Pearls: the ability to manipulate the people around her. According to his account, he stole the Pearls to stop her.
Sigourney did not appreciate this.
Arnold claimed that in her rage she destroyed half of Prescott, killing dozens and ultimately destroying herself as well.
So who actually destroyed Prescott?
Depends whom you ask.
History is irritating that way.
The Curse
After Prescott fell, many residents of the Northern Colony came to believe that the entire flyland had been placed under a curse.
Once counted among the most powerful magical colonies, the Northern Colony gradually fell behind its rivals. Magical knowledge declined, other colonies grew stronger, and Prescott’s destruction became the dividing line between a celebrated past and a much less impressive present.
Arnold himself disputed the idea that the colony had actually been cursed.
That has not stopped people from talking about it for the last two centuries.
The legendary Pearls became tangled up in those beliefs as well. Some hoped that recovering them might restore the prosperity the colony once enjoyed.
Others had considerably stronger reasons for wanting them to remain hidden.
Prescott Today
Modern Prescott remains almost entirely abandoned.
The city is covered by a gray, suffocating haze. Buildings crowd tightly against one another, many appearing barely capable of remaining upright. Windows are shattered, streets are empty, and the flowers and greenery common in Flamingo Springs are almost completely absent.
A large, dilapidated mansion overlooks Prescott’s central square. A statue of a woman stands there as well—possibly depicting Sigourney herself.
Visitors have also reported glimpsing strange shadows moving through the empty streets.
Which is exactly the sort of detail that makes a person reconsider the definition of abandoned.
At night, Prescott becomes even less inviting.
Broken lamp posts line deserted roads, bits of glass glint in sagging windows, and murky light occasionally appears from places where nobody is supposed to live.
Prescott may be empty.
That does not necessarily mean you’re alone.
The Great Barrier
One of Prescott’s defining features is the Great Barrier, which passes directly through the city.
The enormous translucent wall of magical energy separates the Northern Colony from the Elven Supremacy. From a distance it appears purple, but up close its surface subtly shifts between bluish-purple and pink.
Mountains, forests, and enormous crystalline structures can be faintly seen through it on the Supremacy side.
Prescott therefore serves not only as a ruin but also as a border zone.
The Barrier Patrol operates near the city, and anyone wandering too close to the wrong side of the Barrier risks ending up somewhere they definitely did not intend to be.
Potentially including an elven detentionary.
Brunger Avenue
Near the Barrier lies one of Prescott’s strangest surviving locations:
Brunger Avenue.
The street is technically considered neutral territory accessible to both the Northern Colony and the Elven Supremacy.
It is also the site of Initiation, the ancient magical rite through which young sorcerers may receive the stones that power their magic.
Brunger Avenue is usually filled with unnaturally dark fog. Magical barriers permit only one Initiate to enter at a time, and participants are fitted with escape harnesses capable of pulling them to safety if they become injured or unable to continue.
This is reassuring.
Mostly.
Those who complete Initiation also form hermetic memories of the experience. Certain memories can exist in only one person, meaning that telling someone what happened may cause the storyteller to lose that memory and transfer it to the listener.
Which makes asking older students for hints significantly less useful than it sounds.
The Pearls of Prescott
No artifact is more closely tied to the city than the legendary Pearls of Prescott.
Sigourney and Arnold began creating them when they were young, hoping the artifact would help them free the colony from Emperor Pugsly.
The Pearls could guide their wearer toward whatever they desired most, and they became associated with Prescott’s greatest period of prosperity.
But according to Arnold, their greatest power was also their most dangerous.
After Prescott’s fall, he spent much of the rest of his life attempting to keep the Pearls out of the hands of anyone he considered unworthy. Unable to destroy them, he hid them and created decoys meant to mislead future searchers.
For generations afterward, the Pearls attracted treasure hunters, Scroungers, politicians, magical scholars, and other people who were entirely certain they could be trusted with an artifact capable of giving them whatever they wanted.
This confidence should perhaps have been viewed as a warning sign.
Why Prescott Matters
Prescott isn’t merely an old ruin. Its destruction changed the Northern Colony.
Its fall became the foundation of the colony’s supposed curse. Its most famous artifact continued influencing politics generations later. Its streets still contain traces of powerful old magic. And its history remains tangled up in questions that have never received completely satisfying answers.
Was Sigourney a heroic ruler or a magical tyrant?
Was Arnold a traitor or the person who tried to stop her?
Were the Pearls responsible for Prescott’s prosperity?
Was the Northern Colony truly cursed when they disappeared?
And why does an abandoned city still contain so much active magic more than two centuries after its destruction?
For a dead city, Prescott has an annoying habit of refusing to stay in the past.
First-Time Visitor’s Advice
Do not enter unstable buildings without a very good reason.
Do not follow mysterious shadows.
Do not wander into dark magical fog simply because everyone else your age apparently did it.
Pay very close attention to which side of the Great Barrier you’re standing on.
And if a centuries-old magical artifact promises to lead you toward everything you’ve ever wanted? Perhaps ask why its previous owners’ city is currently in ruins.