Now as you know, the Lunar Heartlands correspond to the American Heartlands on some magical level. But what about Glamour you ask? A few thoughts.
At one level Glamour can be imagined as something like Chicago, the weirdly artificial capital of the Midwest and one of the great cities of the world. Chicago was a late-comer in the Midwest, founded a good century or two after the Midwest started having cities. But it reoriented the Midwest around it, and dominated its logistics and finances.
But for me, I got to go a little further west to Las Vegas. That weird city by the Colorado, that never would have been built but for the Red Goddess rising into the sky. Artificial, “glamourous”, and even with a palace or two. So put Las Vegas in the Midwest and next to a surreal folly, and you have it.
Now if we imagine Glamour as imperial Las Vegas (Campi or Vicus?), things start making a lot more sense. The weirdness. The odd priorities of the court. The Red Emperor really works as Elvis that way – but as an endlessly resurrecting Elvis. Imagine we get the Hillybilly Cat Emperor, the Silver Screen Pharaoh, the Black Leather Phoenix, and the Jumpsuit Juggernaut. But also many more – Elvis gets his punk rock period, his Miami Vice incarnation, a Hair Band Presley, and more.
Now if we really want to run with this, we might have a “Khordavu’s Palace” in the Inner City of Glamour, where visitors get to experience “every man is a god” or at least treated like one by the staff. You get to indulge in whatever whim you wish, but when your time is up, you are both financially and spiritually diminished, and likely in debt to the Red Emperor. It is an impressive facade, but if you go through the back entrance, you see that it is mostly made of wood and clay, not marble and silver.
