Instigator

Instigator is a city built on a soapbox. Every citizen is a pamphleteer, and the streets are paved with manifestos. They do not accept the world as it is; they demand to know why it is not better. "Why is this bridge not redundant?" they shout. "Why is the water not tested before it is drunk?"

The city is noisy, uncomfortable, and undeniably safe. The inhabitants have engineered their society to be resilient against failure. They practice "Game Days" where they deliberately set fire to the market to ensure the fire brigade is awake. They believe that silence is complicit, and that the only way to improve a system is to break it in public.

To the traveler, the citizens seem like troublemakers. They are always raising their hands in the back of the room, asking the difficult question that ruins the mood. But when the earthquake comes, Instigator is the only city left standing, because its people have been rehearsing for the apocalypse since breakfast.