A Guide to Your Digital World: Anshar

Good evening fans and followers! Our previous posts introduced new game mechanics, gave you a starting campaign with which you can learn the rules of Digimon: Encounters, and also provided you all with the core rule book needed for play so that you have those rules at the ready. Now let us begin to introduce you to the world of Digimon: Encounters. While there are snippits here and there within the core book, it doesn't provide a lot of detailed information. So the following will be the first in a series of gazetteer-type posts (to be scattered throughout our production updates) so that you can familiarize yourself with the universe of Digimon: Encounters. We would like to begin with a brief history of Anshar.

Anshar: Home of the Imperial Palace

The Imperial Palace in Anshar Proper dates back to the ancient Digital World’s first Emperors. Back then, Anshar was the only plane in the Digital World, and was divided into forty-four sub districts. The capital, District One, was the city proper and eventually became what we know as Anshar today. Additionally, Anshar’s desert area was much smaller than it is in present times. In fact, many districts included vast tracts of farmland and lake country. The mining operations in the city of Le’ore (Lee-or) also made District Twelve a cultural landmark in the Ancient Digital World. The central desert provided District One with a natural means of protection. Scattered villages and oases gave rise to trade routs from District One to the outskirts of the Digital World.

The palace was constructed as a seat of power for imperial rule, and by edict, was to be the tallest building in the city. The structure of the palace is built around a central pillar. From there, four observation platforms descend in sequence to the base of the tower. This allowed a three hundred and sixty degree view of the surrounding terrain. Later Emperors supplemented the tower with other improvements, including a defensive wall just preceding the Clan Wars (see Chapter I of the core rule book). Records from the time period are nonexistent, but ruins of the original wall suggest that it was made from solid granite blocks ten meters or more in height and five meters thick.

During the Clan Wars and Golden Age, further expansions were made to both the Digital World and on the Imperial Residence. Support columns were added to the observation platforms attached to the main structure. Later, during the Golden Age when the Digital World had ben unified, the palace was further expanded adding several wings radiating out like spokes from the tower. These wings housed servants, guards, guests and the Imperial Treasury for a time.

It was when the Enemy came to power that the palace saw its final phase of construction. The Enemy dismantled the original defensive wall and ordered the construction of a more solid structure. The new wall was also constructed of granite, but was reinforced with steel digi-chrome inside. The gates to this wall are made of granite as well, reinforced with digi-chrome, and are powered by two massive motors housed within the ramparts of the wall. In addition, multiple out-buildings were added to the courtyard to house garrisons of troops, food stores, and ammunition.

In the present, the palace was only used as the imperial residence for a short time before it was demolished in an assassination attempt by one of the Enemy’s agents. During reconstruction, the Emperor was moved to the city of Terra Prime for his safety, and the capital remains there to this day. The palace, now reconstructed, houses the Sovereign of Anshar, Azulongmon, as well as the new archives for the Empire. Guests and members of the public are allowed admittance to the building and tour the archives.