In the artwork you see ruins, it's from a pretty great distance and the central piece is this half collapsed and slightly overthrown technological looking semicircle.

This got me thinking, there is potential there. In most stories ruins are just that, scavengers live in these husks of civilization, creatures run through broken walls, open thoroughfares, and maybe a glade has cropped up in some backyards. Some of you may have heard of things like the term, "urban jungle" but they always mean big cities and stuff. But why has there not been a more literal interpretation of this terminology?

Let's say a story is set in blah di blah time period, 7000 years after the collapse of the golden age of the so and so empire, and 1400 years out of the age of the collapse, and into the age of stability. Now... Let's put a smattering of story here.

Our journey does not begin, for we are not here, our journey also does not end, for we are again, not here, but instead we intrude upon the life of another, and his name, is Andrew McCalloway, and his profession is archeologist, he is an adventurer for hire yes, but his passion is towards the ancient wonders of the golden age of the empire Dyschix (dis-kicks). As an adventurer he is robust, especially since his class is magus, but our intrepid hero of naught is by and far not alone, nay, for at his side is his young daughter Maryth McCalloway.

Maryth is but 12 years old and filled with the same exuberance and curiosity as her father, but much less tempered with experience. A tragic tale of the loss of a loving mother and wife, leads to Maryth being homeschooled and journeying with her father. Though for her sake he does tend to go on expeditions less often. But today, is not a day at the home of the McCalloways, no, today we are in a tradehub of the Dyschix empire, sat upon the Crux of where the rivers Albion and Coserta meet, before traveling to the ocean. The ancient super structures of these music loving people's were grand and amplifying arrays were prevalent amongst their architecture for many reasons. The empire itself was largely passive, but by no means weak. Utilizing their sound magic arrays they had numerous military advancements, as it was a magical barrier, it had strength against spells, as sound was a physical force, it had physical defenses as well. However their untimely end did not come from without, but instead within, DEEP within. With the flourishing economy of the empire naturally immigrants and people of all walks of life traveled betwixt their cities. This was a wonderful thing...

But also their downfall. Unfortunately for the Dyschix their medical technology and natural immunities were not enough to prevent the plague that came with the nomads of Eschauvant, and the only thing the government officials could do is attempt quarantine... Sadly, while this prevented the spread of disease, it was already too late, and by the time anyone knew, too many necessary to removing the barrier had died or fallen ill, and so the barriers became tombs until the very structures themselves collapsed, bringing the barriers down on what had gone from a safegaurd, to being a tomb.

Present day:

Andrew looked up from under the brim of his hat at the moss grown metal structures, seeing many wooden platforms having been constructed by the local elven population several centuries back after their forced migration due to herds of blinker rhindbeetles. Trees scaled the metallic monoliths as if defying their silvery sides, wooden platforms appearing hither and you like broad leaves along a massive tree, bridges spanning them like vines across the blue sky above.

Maryth twirled in a slow circle, wonder and awe upon her face as she beheld the sight of Olru'Ta'Goth, the Land of the Steel Seabeasts as it were.

"Papa... Look at all the metal! How do you think they made it so tall? I bet even the biltor birds couldn't fly that high!" She said with reverence in her voice.

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Andrew glanced down at his daughter, taking her hand and pulling her over a large root before she could trip.

His mustache, Sandy blonde and mildly bushy quivered as he smiled.

"Well that's what we're here to see if we can learn my little blixenberry muffin. Mayhap we can speak with the elves and see what insight they have gained from these ruins over the years."

Maryth nodded slowly as she began to take more careful steps across the uneven ground, before it was a level pathway of metal and rock, now it was broken and eroded by nature's grasp, roots tearing through cracks and crevices to find the light of day and reclaim the land as it's own. Andrew glanced upwards once more, Less to see the architecture and more to spot the local denizens. Most towns had some smattering of races, but they typically had one that was most dominant. Here it was highland elves, typically of a more densely muscled build, they were surprisingly strong for their somewhat slim bodies.

As he gazed skyward he saw one, a gentleman with indiscernible height from such a distance, but with clearly light brown hair swept back and flowing towards his shoulders, with high cheekbones and a rounded chin, pointed ears stuck out from the side of his head, holding his wavy hair away from his face as he seemed to stare pensively over the ruins. His clothing, as far as what could be seen, was a rich blue with pine green overtones vest, over top of a brown cotton shirt, the sleeves seemed to flair into small ruffles near the wrists, likely a shopkeep or government official perhaps.

Andrew tore his gaze away and picked up Maryth, setting her upon his shoulders as he made his way across the forest floor. The trees were simply massive, and yet they were still dwarfed by the ruins themselves. To put it in perspective, the trunk of the smallest tree would need 37 men to reach out and touch hands to be able to ring about the trunk, and it grew tall enough to be able to be considered worthy of multiple floors and hold numerous houses, and yet these trees just shy of putting an elderwood forest to shame were still naught but a child scrabbling at the countertop in comparison to the ruins, branches snaked their way up the sides of them, twining into any crevice they could, ever attempting to reach higher, and yet they came at best to wind into a branch barely large enough to hold a staircase to 3/4 the ways up the structures. But that is not to say there was no greenery upon the top of them, for 3/4 was only slightly above where the semicircle began to level out enough that walkways could be anchored upon it, and gardens and parks were grown upon them for their great height allowed more sunlight to reach their farms.

Much effort was put into bringing up soil, many terramancers were imported to be able to haul proper soil and stone up the trees to the tops of these massive monoliths of a bygone age, and yet as elves were want to do, they blended nature and technology together to create something absolutely gorgeous. Planned walkways and gazebos could be found hither and yon across the top of the ruin, a massive viewing platform supported by magic as much as by engineering, sat suspended hanging off the edge of the broken edge of the highest point of the curve, looking for all the world as if it were meant for the God's themselves to gaze upon the splendor of the world below in awe.

:End

But that's what I mean by a literal interpretation of "urban jungle"

No I'm not likely to actually make that into a full blown story, as nice as that might be, making enough world history to be able to not screw myself over in the details of what is where and why and how? I can't do that. I'd get about fifty chapters in, and suddenly instead of heading to this town five miles away, they are somehow in the town that took them three weeks of travel to get away from, all because I can't keep the mental map straight.

You know, maybe we should take a look at some of the saying we have in our language. It would be an interesting thing to draw from.

Although maybe we could also take from titles of our history too. The hanging gardens? I mean come on, slap some chained platforms into a cavern and have all sorts of magical growing plots. That could be awesome, even if the original "hanging gardens" actually wasn't hanging... But still. And Alexander's lighthouse? Why not some sort of plateau in the sea towering high above, converted by mages, dug out by dwarves, manned by sailors, and all to be a giant Haven in the seas, a light so magically powerful it can be seen at the edge of the horizon on the closest continents some 2364 miles away from the coast. A bastion against the storms and deep sea creatures, a training ground and a bar set for adventurers, with caverns far below leading into a sea grotto dungeon full of all sorts of beasties of the deep.

We have so much to draw from, you just gotta take the simple stuff, and sometimes, just add in a bit of magic, and a bit of imagination.

The leaning tower of Pisa could easily be a dungeon with gravity fluctuations. And maybe it's set into a cliffside and they once took designs and made blueprints and found it spiraled into the cliff so going "up" in the tower actually has you walking a circle like a Nautilus shell that drills deeper into the hillside, and all the while you're not usually on the same gravitational plane as the planet. A real mc Escher dungeon if you will.

But who knows. Maybe this will spark something crazy from someone else out there. Good luck to you. :3