Macula

A sprawling slum outside of Retina, with a population estimated to be between 40,000 - 100,000. Many of the inhabitants of Macula are not human, and have come to Macula in order to eventually be admitted into Retina. Macula is a site of crude experimentation, innovation and magical development, with many magical creatures living side by side. Many dangerous and unstable spells are created here. The governance of Macula is managed by a shifting alliance of gangs, which some say have links back to Retina itself.

The largest and most powerful gang is Lamina, originally a farming collective to provide wage insurance to smallhold farmers outside Retina. Lamina was relentlessly persecuted by the Retina elites: from Lamina's perspective the elites were resistant to the social consciousness of the farmers, from Retina's perspective Lamina was using money to develop dangerous single use spells that were sometimes used for the assassination of political elites. Now that Macula is more established, the political elite of Retina have been in consistent communication with Lamina to organise Macula and occasionally use each other's resources for various tasks.

Lamina's manufacture of single use spells is mostly possible due to the large population of unwanted individuals who live in the slum. Common materials for spells, such as bezoars, eyes etc are in greater supply here, and regulation and restriction are almost non-existent. Permanent spells are not able to be made in Macula, as the few instructional documents that exist are stored solely in Sclera, under their most heavy guard.