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Difference between revisions of "Litharge"
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The Slab is an enormous platform that defines the 'surface' of Litharge, encircling many buildings and serving as the base for others, with huge foundations that extend down through the miles of buildings between the surface and natural ground level. It's an amalgamated framework that encases infrastructure like power, water, waste, and air filtration, and permits travel over its surface. Anything above the Slab is prime real estate: the Singing Citadel exists entirely above the Slab, as do the most prosperous businesses. Below the Slab the city is a perpetual dusky haze of artificial lighting, holo-projections, ad signs, vehicle headlights, and so on. Air pollution exists on the surface but tends to be worse below the Slab, getting worse towards the bottom. ("Slab" is rumoured to stand for Stabilised Logistics Amalgamation Bridgework, but this is a retrofitted acronym.) | The Slab is an enormous platform that defines the 'surface' of Litharge, encircling many buildings and serving as the base for others, with huge foundations that extend down through the miles of buildings between the surface and natural ground level. It's an amalgamated framework that encases infrastructure like power, water, waste, and air filtration, and permits travel over its surface. Anything above the Slab is prime real estate: the Singing Citadel exists entirely above the Slab, as do the most prosperous businesses. Below the Slab the city is a perpetual dusky haze of artificial lighting, holo-projections, ad signs, vehicle headlights, and so on. Air pollution exists on the surface but tends to be worse below the Slab, getting worse towards the bottom. ("Slab" is rumoured to stand for Stabilised Logistics Amalgamation Bridgework, but this is a retrofitted acronym.) | ||
== | '''Colors:''' Blue, gold, white | ||
=Litharge= | |||
The capital. A smog-choked, sprawling megalopolis on the shores of the [[Glissalian ocean]]. This location has been used for urban development for thousands of years now, and though the city appears to be built on high bluffs above the sea, these outcroppings are actually the compacted ruins of previous versions of Litharge. There are so many compressed layers of city-strata beneath Litharge, urban archaeologists use it to date historical events. | |||
'''Litharge is:'''<br/> | |||
*Vast, sprawling<br/> | *Vast, sprawling<br/> | ||
*Vertical almost as much as horizontal<br/> | *Vertical almost as much as horizontal<br/> | ||
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*Exemplary of technology causing problems as well as solving them<br/> | *Exemplary of technology causing problems as well as solving them<br/> | ||
==The Upper City== | |||
== | |||
===The Singing Citadel=== | ===The Singing Citadel=== | ||
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===The Promenade=== | ===The Promenade=== | ||
The Promenade is a stretch of the Slab on the surface running parallel to the Singing Citadel, with the Arcoplex at one end. It is a rare open space in a city where public parks are a foreign concept. The beauty of the Citadel and the ice rings in the sky above make for picturesque scenery, if you ignore the pollution, cityscape, and heavy traffic. Many vendors and performers set up shop along this stretch of the Slab. It's a place to see and be seen. | The Promenade is a stretch of the Slab on the surface running parallel to the Singing Citadel, with the [[Litharge#The_Arcoplex|Arcoplex]] at one end and the Space Elevator at the other. It is a rare open space in a city where public parks are a foreign concept. The beauty of the Citadel and the ice rings in the sky above make for picturesque scenery, if you ignore the pollution, cityscape, and heavy traffic. Many vendors and performers set up shop along this stretch of the Slab. It's a place to see and be seen. | ||
'''The Space Elevator'''<br/> | |||
This superfreighter elevator connects the spaceport on the western side of the city to the [[Glisal Orbital Synergy Halo]] just beyond the planet's atmosphere. | |||
===Raphite Towers=== | ===Raphite Towers=== | ||
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'''The Phalanstery''' - Nath-el apartments. Row of buildings purchased and fused/grafted together by additional construction. Communal dwelling for Nath-el who can't find a place in the Hives.<br/> | '''The Phalanstery''' - Nath-el apartments. Row of buildings purchased and fused/grafted together by additional construction. Communal dwelling for Nath-el who can't find a place in the Hives.<br/> | ||
'''Braktul Block''' - a Tukkav apartment building. | '''Braktul Block''' - a Tukkav apartment building. | ||
===The Glittering Shores=== | |||
A vast swathe of painstakingly restored shoreline, white sands and picturesque cliffs beneath the foot of the Citadel above, the Glittering Shores offer clean air, clean water and sunshine for the enjoyment of the people of Litharge, courtesy of the Celestine Office of Cultural Affairs. Between the boardwalk of the Arcadeway and the Dreg End Pier, one may find a variety of souvenir shops, wine bars and other commercial ventures, including [[Fission]] and [[Fronds in Low Places]]. A highly exclusive property development offers luxury housing along the cliffs overlooking the ocean, for anyone interested in purchasing a luxury condo at a respectable premium. | |||
===The Corporate Territories=== | ===The Corporate Territories=== | ||
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Built on the site of a failed arcology project, the Arcoplex developers converted the unfinished arcology framework into an enormous shopping complex. Visible on the surface skyline where a massive illuminated pyramid frame stands apart from the surrounding skyscrapers, the Arcoplex continues down through the Slab, with lifts and moving walkways conveying patrons up and down many dozens of floors. Because drone delivery and the efficiency of spime tracking and logistics means department stores are an obsolete loop between manufacturer and end consumer, the Arcoplex instead features small businesses, specialised outlets, artisan vendors, food, and services. Advertising was once intense, but since the Angel's revolution the Arcoplex has fallen somewhat into disrepair - with many empty shopfronts. Vestigial arcology elements stand out within: geodesic design, air recycling, and repurposed living quarters. | Built on the site of a failed arcology project, the Arcoplex developers converted the unfinished arcology framework into an enormous shopping complex. Visible on the surface skyline where a massive illuminated pyramid frame stands apart from the surrounding skyscrapers, the Arcoplex continues down through the Slab, with lifts and moving walkways conveying patrons up and down many dozens of floors. Because drone delivery and the efficiency of spime tracking and logistics means department stores are an obsolete loop between manufacturer and end consumer, the Arcoplex instead features small businesses, specialised outlets, artisan vendors, food, and services. Advertising was once intense, but since the Angel's revolution the Arcoplex has fallen somewhat into disrepair - with many empty shopfronts. Vestigial arcology elements stand out within: geodesic design, air recycling, and repurposed living quarters. | ||
==The Undercity== | |||
The undercity is the sprawling region far below the Slab, beneath Raphite Towers, where the common folk live. It exists in perpetual twilight lit by street lights and neon signs. Street punks, crime, sleaze, dark dealings, and shadowy alleyways are common, but it's not all bad, and there are many legitimate businesses, bars, clubs, street food vendors, and small business enterprises that would be unable to thrive in the shark-eat-dog Corporate Territories. | The undercity is the sprawling region far below the Slab, beneath Raphite Towers, where the common folk live. It exists in perpetual twilight lit by street lights and neon signs. Street punks, crime, sleaze, dark dealings, and shadowy alleyways are common, but it's not all bad, and there are many legitimate businesses, bars, clubs, street food vendors, and small business enterprises that would be unable to thrive in the shark-eat-dog Corporate Territories. | ||
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'''Fullerene forges'''<br/> | '''Fullerene forges'''<br/> | ||
Fullerene is the colloquial name for manufacturing plants for molecules for nanomachines (eg. fullerenes and other carbon allotropes). These plants are responsible for a lot of small-particle air pollution, but their impact on the economy means that they somehow get away with it.<br/> | Fullerene is the colloquial name for manufacturing plants for molecules for nanomachines (eg. fullerenes and other carbon allotropes). These plants are responsible for a lot of small-particle air pollution, but their impact on the economy means that they somehow get away with it.<br/> | ||
===Scrapston=== | ===Scrapston=== | ||
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The Dregs are a place for those with nowhere better to go, but who haven't yet fallen between the cracks to end up in the Subnet: the working poor, failed entrepreneurs and hustlers, fringe-dwellers, addicts. They're also an excellent place to operate for anyone who doesn't want their business known: the criminal element, smugglers, dealers, data slicers, corps running unsanctioned business. | The Dregs are a place for those with nowhere better to go, but who haven't yet fallen between the cracks to end up in the Subnet: the working poor, failed entrepreneurs and hustlers, fringe-dwellers, addicts. They're also an excellent place to operate for anyone who doesn't want their business known: the criminal element, smugglers, dealers, data slicers, corps running unsanctioned business. | ||
===Dreg End Beach=== | |||
Where the garbage and refuse of Litharge spills down to the [[Glisalian Ocean]], the Dreg's End Beach curves along the footprint of the Dregs for as far as the eye can see, home to vermin, skulking [[trash crab]]s, and scavenging [[fishhook gull]]s. | |||
===Hyndoh Prison=== | ===Hyndoh Prison=== | ||