Herod leaned back, his eyes closed, trying to assemble the mosaic of cities transformed due to climate change as told to him by the explorer Salvatierra.

Herod broke the silence. “Salvatierra, why do you refer to these cities as invincible? In the face of such extreme climate impacts as they have suffered, you name them as such. Why?”

“It is because they have proven to be just that: invincible. As hostile new realities ravaged their lands, their buildings fell, their landscapes became barren, their seas rose and skies darkened. But they adapted. They endured.”

Salvatierra’s eyes met Herod’s, a fiery determination mirrored in both. “In their struggle, in their adaptation, they showed the invincible spirit of humanity. They do not mourn invisible cities that have disappeared – they reshaped them in the crucible of extreme conditions. The spirit of their people, their culture, and their will to live on… they all persist, even in the face of monumental change.”

“That, sire, is why I speak of them as invincible cities. Not because they haven’t changed, but because they did and survived.”

“The City of Ignifera didn’t burn under the searing heat of wildfires, it became a city glowing with resilience. Zephyr didn’t shatter in the face of storms, it learned to dance with the wind. Thalassa didn’t sink due to its rising seas, it learned to rise with them.”

s [at] invinciblecities [.] com