The City of Sing Pore Shi, Kakkoi

[Kakkoi]

The City of SingeporeShi, Kakkoi

The Royal Capital of The Kingdom of Kakkoi

Sing Pore Shi is the titanic capital of the Kingdom of Kakkoi. The city is by far the largest city in the kingdom, essentially being more of a small country than a mere city. The city is world-famous walls. Behind the Outer Wall lies a large expanse of farmland, Lake Laogai, and several mountains. The Inner Wall encloses the city itself. The city is also notable for having a unique system of dividing the populace into different parts of the city based on social status.

[Kakkoi]

History

Sing Pore Shi is ancient, arguably one of the oldest settlements in the kingdom. The city is stated to be five thousand years old. Early in its history, Sing Pore Shi was once simply a small subterranean city carved out of rocks. As the workers further excavated, they came across beautiful illuminated crystals and began to mine them. The crystals currently serve as a common light source for kingdom inhabitants. Eventually, as the metropolis' expansion reached above ground levels, the catacombs were abandoned. The city continued to grow and eventually became the capital of the newly-unified Kakkoi Kingdom.


The Outter Wall

[Kakkoi]

Government

As the capital of the Kingdom, Sing Pore Shi is home to the Supreme King.
The Grand Secretariat is a position held by the Leader of the Government of Sing Pore Shi. He is answerable to the King.
He or she serves as the King's foremost adviser on internal matters within Sing Pore Shi, which they are charged with overseeing. It is their job to maintain law and order in the bustling city.

[Kakkoi]

Culture

Sing Pore Shi Nobles

The people of Sing Pore Shi value order and stability and freedom. Law and order are maintained under the strictest of police forces to ensure that society does not break down into chaos. The people of Sing Pore Shi have a variety of recreational activities available to them including spas, poetry houses, shops, restaurants, and the Zoo. Tea-drinking is one of the most common ways citizens relax after work, while strolls around the parks and shops of the Middle Ring are also enjoyed. The University ensures that many upper and middle class families get a higher education (though considering the segregation, it is unlikely that anyone from the Lower Ring could attend it).

The architecture of Sing Pore Shi is slightly different from many other towns. The majority of the buildings are made of stone, with wood supports and plaster covering the outside. The color of roofing tiles on buildings indicate their prestige and vary by ring - Lower Ring buildings have black or dark green tiles, Middle Ring buildings have vibrant green, and the Upper Ring nobility uses yellow tiles as a sign of class. Kingdom symbols are often placed on gates, government buildings, and military sites. Roads in the Middle and Upper rings are made of flagstones, while the Lower Ring has muddy dirt paths for most of its streets and alleys. The citizens sport considerably more color variation in their clothing than other citys - blues, turquoises, browns, and golds can all be seen among the aristocracy, while the lower class usually wears browns and off-whites.

[Kakkoi]

City Layout

Sing Pore Shi is a divided city, with inhabitants sorted in various walled "rings" based on economic and social class. These range from the Lower Ring, a place of ghettos inhabited by refugees and the poor, to the Upper Ring, home of the Kingdom's ruling classes and the rich. Travel throughout the city (in addition to entering and exiting it) is provided by large, monorails, constructed during the reign of King Yi Ming. The monorails meet in large transit stations, are free to the general public, and are able to greatly shorten the two full days it would take to travel on foot from one end of the city to the other.


Outer Walls
Sing Pore Shi outer wall is the city's thickest layer of protection. The Wall is huge. It is easily a hundred meters tall and perhaps thirty meters thick. The Wall encircles all of Sing Pore Shi, along with the vast agrarian zone and a medium-sized lake. It is considered indestructible and is commonly drawn on maps as a terrain feature. The Dai Li mandates that soldiers and sentries be placed on the wall at all times, with many of them even living in built-in homes inside the wall.


Agrarian Zone
Just outside the lower ring, between the outer wall and the inner wall of the city is the agrarian zone, a large underdeveloped area that holds wide open plains of land, used mainly for agricultural purposes. Despite its vital wildlife and crops resources, the agrarian zone's primary function is serving as a massive land buffer between the outer wall and the inner wall, where all of the Sing Pore Shi residents dwell, widening the gap between invaders and citizens if perchance the outer wall was ever breached. With a self-sustaining supply of food and added protection from siege, the citizens of Sing Pore Shi are capable of maintaining daily routine, if not thriving, in the midst of even the most critical of wars. This area in the city houses many farms belonging to citizens, mostly of the Lower Ring, who live behind the Inner Wall and travel outside to tend to the land every day. The Agrarian Zone is also the location of the new Zoo.


The Agrarian Zone


Lower Ring
The Lower Ring plays home to the poor classes of Sing Pore Shi society and the majority of its population. These consist of newcomers to the city, including its multitude of refugees, and 'people who work with their hands' such as artisans, laborers, and craftsman. Due to the impoverished state of the citizens of the Lower Ring, as well as the influx of poor refugees, it is implied in "City of Walls and Secrets" that the crime rate is significantly higher. The Lower Ring is also the most densly populated area. Buildings in the Lower Ring are generally small, because the Lower Ring has the most populace and as many people need to be crammed into here as possible. Also, the roofs of the buildings here are brown tiled, indicating the poor status of the owners. Citizens are free to go into the Agrarian Zone, the Lower Ring, naturally, and the Middle Ring, but not the Upper Ring without the personal invitation of a citizen of the Upper Ring, the King or the government.


Lower Ring


Middle Ring
The Middle Ring of Sing Pore Shi contains the city's middle-class populace. Inside this ring are a vast assortment of shops and restaurants as well as the financial district and Town Hall (one of the oldest buildings in the Middle Ring). The Royal Sing Pore Shi University, a massive warehouse of knowledge and a key landmark of the city, is also located in this area. The buildings of this Ring are much larger than those of the Lower Ring and the roofs are tiled green. But they are smaller than those located in the Upper Ring. They are also more spaced out then the houses in the lower ring. It has a generally richer and more peaceful atmosphere than the Lower Ring, as there are lots of flowers and trees. Citizens of the Middle Ring are free to enter the Agrarian Zone, Lower Ring, Middle Ring and the Upper Ring without needing permission.


One of the many streets in the Middle Ring.


Royal University of Sing PoreShi


Upper Ring
As the richest of the three rings, the Upper Ring contains the city's upper class population, as well as military and government officials. The most important citizens of the city reside here, protected against criminal activity by the presence of the Dai Li. The Royal Palace is located in the center of the Upper Ring, within its own walls. The buildings of the Upper Ring are huge walled compounds, much like small versions of the Royal Palace itself, and the roofs are done with yellow tiles to symbolize the richness of the building and its owners. Obviously, Upper Ring Citizens are free to go wherever they please within Sing Pore Shi.


A typical Upper Ring Mansion.