In Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet, Traction Cities are vast metropolises built on tiers that are capable of moving on gigantic wheels and caterpillar tracks. These cities hunt smaller cities (in order to tear them apart for resources and fuel) which in turn hunt towns which in turn hunt villages and static settlements. This practice is known as Municipal Darwinism, and is clearly a parody of the animal kingdom.
Traction cities in the books are often named after cities in the real world, such as London, Brighton, Anchorage, Paris or Manchester, and sometimes their names have been slightly modified for comedic effect; for example, Tunbridge Wells has been renamed 'Tunbridge Wheels' and Wolverhampton has become 'Wolverinehampton'.
The author states that when coming up with the concept he was inspired by how his home town of Brighton was "expanding and swallowing up the smaller towns and villages around it".[1]
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Traction Cities were first formed by an engineer from London named Nicholas Quirke, who was inspired by the ideas of the scriven (a mutant human species) leader Auric Godshawk who invented huge engines capable of moving large cities. Quirke had to move the city to escape from attackers such as the nomads and also so he could use the moving city to hunt for prey. After the devastation of the Sixty Minute War, the world collapsed into a post apocalyptic state, and immense geological upheaval (such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and glaciers) threatened the world's surviving cities. In order to survive, urban areas were mobilized into vast vehicles that could evade dangerous areas. Naturally this required vast amounts of fuel, and as the earth became stripped of its natural resources, cities resorted to the practice of Municipal Darwinism and began to consume each other for energy.
Before the age of the Traction Era, other moving buildings had been created. In Fever Crumb the Northern Nomads used moving fortresses.
The Traction Cities were soon opposed by the Anti-Traction League, based out of Central Asia, which sought to return the Earth to its former state and viewed the inhabitants of the cities as barbarians and savages. Conversely, the Traction Cities also view the Anti-Tractionists as barbarians.
The series takes place roughly 1000 years after London becomes the first Traction City (that is, around AD 13000), and it covers the rising tensions between the Traction Cities and the Anti-Traction League, eventually culminating in a war towards the end of the series.
Traction Cities range in size from enormous metropolis (or Urbivores) with populations of millions, to tiny villages and hamlets propelled by small engines or even sails. Airships have become the most common method of transport in this new era, as they are the only way to travel between mobile destinations - actual heavier-than-air aeroplanes having become an extinct technology after the Sixty Minute War.
Larger cities are usually built on tiers similar to a wedding cake, with the poorer classes living on the lower tiers among the tracks and engines, known as the Gut of the city, and the higher classes living in mansions and villas at the top of the city.
An exception to this was Arkangel, a huge, not very ethical, Ice City. As well as being divided into tiers, there is an outer "shell", and an inner area, close to the engines. The poorer classes live on the outside of the city, while the rich live on the inside where it is warmer.
Most cities are urbivorous, and have attachments called "Jaws" to catch prey and drag it into the Gut. Here the prey is stripped, melted down and used as fuel for the predator city. Its inhabitants are integrated into the population of the predator city, or, in less ethical cities, taken as slaves.
Not all cities are predatory, however; some (notably Anchorage and Airhaven) are peaceful and make a living by trading. Smaller towns and hamlets are also often peaceful and survive by trading or mining. Sometimes smaller towns meet in gatherings known as "trading clusters."
Ice cities are cities, and towns, that are around the colder parts of the world, such as Greenland or Siberia. Instead of wheels, they have skates to quickly get across the snow and ice. They have a Main Drive Wheel for grip and to propel the city, or town, along. The skates are just for support. Anchorage also had wheels that could be used if the city was crossing solid land. These cities can only be found in the far north, not the far south.
Static Settlements are towns, and occasionally cities, that have settled up in mountains or anywhere where bigger towns can't find and eat them. They are usually not moving. Sometimes, they can be Semi - Static.
There are also aquatic equivalents of Traction Cities called Raft Cities which travel across the oceans hunting smaller raft suburbs and static island settlements. Notable Raft Cities include Puerto Angeles, Brighton and Marseille, most of which are coastal ports in the real world. Some smaller towns are amphibious, using inflatable air-tanks to float across water when necessary.
There are also cities on the ocean floor, such as Grimsby. However most of these are sunken and are uninhabited.
Furthermore, there are Sand Towns, and Sand Cities, that hunt in deserts, mostly in north and western Africa - the mountains of southern Africa being home instead to more static settlements.
The city of Airhaven is a flying city, that attached gas bags to itself to lift itself away from the hungry cities.
There is also reference to Harvester Suburbs, such as Harrowbarrow , which are built for war, with thick armour, reserve engines, and spare wheels to replace ones lost or damaged in conflict. Harrowbarrow can also bury underground and launch surprise attacks against static settlements.
The most common area for Traction Cities to be found is Europe and Northern Asia, which is because of constant trampling by the Traction machinery a muddy wasteland called the 'Great Hunting Ground'. They are also prevalent in South America (now called Nuevo Maya), the Arctic (now called the Ice Wastes), India, the Sahara Desert, and Antarctica. However, all this can be said as being Hunting Ground; Traction Cities are simply more abundant in number in Europe and Northern Asia. North America has been reduced to a nuclear wasteland by the Sixty-Minute War and is known as the Dead Continent.
Static settlements are found across the mountains of Central and South-East Asia, Southern Africa and the Andes. Still, in Africa many Traction Cities and Towns are roaming. Movement difficulty for Tractionist civilisation is the reason why static civilisation has not become extinct, and this is taken to its peak in the Far East:
Much of the Far East is controlled by the Anti-Traction League, focussed in the Himalayas and other such mountainous regions, which are difficult or impossible for the Traction Cities to reach or manoeuvre through. Protecting the Anti-Traction League are immense fortifications, which the Traction Cities cannot penetrate, further protecting the League from Tractionist attack.
Australia's condition is never specified. It is notably the only continent in the series that is never mentioned by any characters or the book's narration. However, Philip Reeve hints that Fever Crumb may have adventures in Australia and Nuevo Maya in the future, as he never found time to explore them in the original series.
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