Epic Trilogy + Prequel

Epic stories (Setting):

Part 1: Isolated, scattered, half-built towns with incredible monuments of worship, run by lawless warlords, with roving/nomadic tribes in nonstop violent conflicts. A mythical city, said to be the pinnacle of civilization and modern day comforts on one side of the region. On another side, another mythical city, like that of a theme park, run by a legendary psychopath. 

Part 2: The empire city state, cities and towns under one banner, anything allowed, as long as it doesn't interfere with the empire. Illicit activities pushed to centralized areas where waste is burned and consumed. Multiple positions of primary consultancy, from waste, to military, to spirituality, to entertainment are given to a legendary psychopath. 

Part 3: A centralized gathering of the organic, complex, crowded, dense city as the nexus of life,  The preponderance of mysterious tribes, organizations, corporations, cults; all with cryptic practices and schools of mystery and spirituality. Underground culture nurtured in the literal catacombs of the city, said to be traversed and intimidated by a legendary psychopath.

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Prequel: An inverse of sorts of the three stories. Starting off in a crowded village of complex leadership run by a small counsel, leading to a series of villages and towns under one banner, forming the beginnings of an Empire, leading to a scattered region run by an untouchable authority in a city with incredible technology and monuments. In every instance sabotaged and ruined by an unchecked psychopath who became a legend.

Fiction writing.

Ancient epic city of lights, with three ways in to visit. The sides of the valley where this city resides, has epic stairways down serving as entrances, for people who would be metaphorically comparable to airplane passengers today.

The Greyhound and Amtrak entrance would be through the official gates, which has a lengthy section that serves as a "moat" of sorts. This section is nothing more than a pit, a giant burning pile of trash, filth and whatever else one can burn. Squatters routinely reside and live on pits of dirt that have not yet caught on fire. This area is a free zone of sorts, where any thing goes. From that point the city is broken down into tiers based on classes, going up the hill. People passing into the city via the lower class can only hope their carriages don't get raided as they pass through the pits. They ride through with cloth over it, shielding their eyes from the horrors outside.

This city sacrifices defenders of justice in many brutal, bizarre ways, but the most popular is the combat arena. The announcer and organizer of the arena, is also the enforcer for the city, a corrupt zealot priest from the outside, who is also the Boss of the pits. The city has networks of aqueducts, canals and rivers, some of them underneath the ground, some of them going right through buildings. This water is recycled and pumped back up to the highest peak of the city, where the richest people preside.