Vistora wrote:Make it happen. Join the cool kids.
Did you miss something about Schizo-PMT?
And Airships?
And Post-Apocalyptic?
Admittedly, the Imperium I mentioned up there was just an NPC Nation, probably would've just been a puppet, but I still have the original concept lying around. With some mild-to-moderate edits, we have the following.
[Excerpt from Rebirth; A Wanderer's Guide to our New World, by Johannes Fleming]
The Unified City is the quasi-official name for the organizations that control the ruins of a City, the original name of which is now unknown. According to what few records survive, the City was the subject of a invasion during the collapse, the signs of this can be seen in the extreme damage to major parts of the city, and, until recent years, the various decaying munitions and war-machines that could be found within it. Further, the city was largely abandoned after the collapse, until the rise of the Consortium. Since then, however, the City has become a hub of commerce and industry, a rare sight in our new world, with only the declining Raen Imperium, and the New Civilization surpassing them.
These days, the city is ruled by three groups, most recent, and most powerful, is the Consortium itself. It is based in the Palatial District, where its shining towers and brilliant facades remain largely, and mysteriously, unscathed by the collapse, and the passage of time. Originally, it was merely a collection of Wandering traders, the sort that scavenged the land for supplies, which they would then pass on to other groups of wanderers, or to one of the many groups that litter our new world. Their Re-discovery of the city, was an unprecedented boon to them. Further still, that it held a small population, an educated few, that had hardly held on in the decaying ruins of their ancestors.
It was there that the first deal was struck. The city's inhabitants were to utilize the marvels of technology still held in the City to create goods, what would become the Consortium, would see them sold far and wide, returning with migrants and supplies, ensuring the growth and survival of the city. This was achieved, according to an admission extracted from a Consortium Trademaster with a quite valuable specimen of pre-collapse artistry, through the Slave Trade, as it had been prior to today's Raen monopoly on the market. Slaves, bought using the goods produced by the city's inhabitants, would be returned to the city, pressed into a brief period of work, and then granted their freedom. Most of the former-slaves remained in the city, as their newfound skills were of little use without the equipment of the City, and continued to provide goods for what would become the Consortium.
In time, the loose group of traders would become organized, whether through the acquisition of rival groups, or the simple natural tendency towards order, is unknown. In any case, the Consortium was formed, and the City, now swollen with workmen, merchants, and simple vagabonds alike, became as it is today.
Next, and perhaps most important, is the Foundry. Named for the Foundry district in which it resides and rules, they are the descendants of those the young Consortium first encountered and carried in. Men and Women of both great intellect and great skill reside there, and prior to their discovery by the Consortium, they had been the closest to the lost era to still live beyond the iron fist of the Raen. Inventors and engineers, scientists and philosophers, artists and tradesmen, but not a soldier, or hunter, or even farmer among them. Without the Foundry itself, even in its dilapidated state, they would have undoubtedly perished in the wastes, their great intellect and thought lost to the world. Had the Consortium not arrived when it did, the dwindling group would have hardly lasted a few years longer.
Yet it did, and today, they remain among the worlds most enlightened. While the men and women of Science and the Arts have retreated to the Palatial District with the rise of the Consortium, the Engineers and Workers stayed, and the great foundry was once more put wholly to work. Or, as close as it could come to it, in its current state.
Their role in the Unified City is of great importance, but of strangely little power. The Consortium is most heavily represented in their Government, and though their goals frequently align, where they depart from each-other, a schism grows. It seems as though every day the demands of the Consortium grow, and the ability of the Foundry to provide remains unchanged. Quotas are rarely met, due to the static capacities of the ancient foundry, and their desperation to fill them has resulted in several crippling accidents, from which the Foundry will never recover.
Finally, we come to the third, and by far, the weakest, section of this Unified City. The Lower District. It is much as it sounds, a piece of the city that sits below the great Foundry, and in the shadow of the Palatial District's spires. Yet it is somewhat more, for it is where the vast majority of the citizenry resides. Here, Merchants come and go, trading with the populace and the Consortium alike. The lower levels of the Foundry still open to the Public are constantly at work, producing tools for the workmen, and trinkets for traders, all as the Consortium guards watch to ensure their law is enforced.
The people of the Lower District are by no means oppressed, compared to those of the Raen Imperium, though, it is likely that the people of the New Civilization, or the Southern Territories would find the conditions appalling; Thieves are shot on suspicion alone. One may come and go as they please, associate as they wish, you may even refuse to eat, without Raen guards ensuring that you are fed. Though, why one would do such a thing is unknown. Further unlike the Raen though, the Unified City does not support those without the means to support themselves. The threat of starvation is constant enough with the City's isolation and poor soil, and even the Consortium, with all its resources, cannot afford to freely give to its people.
In its streets, one will find a great support of the New Civilization, though their efforts to relieve the lower district have been token at best, and even supporters of the Raen, for under their iron grip, one has enough to eat, whether by choice, or by force. They have little voice in their leadership, and the needs of the Lower District and the needs of the Consortium rarely align. The Consortium needs rounds for their soldiers, the Lower District needs water for their thirst. It is this disparity that leads many of the inhabitants of the Lower District to rebel against the Consortium, and as one nears the Palatial District, the violence becomes ever more present. Changing from a pair of protesters harassing a guard unwilling to fire on them, to a charging mob faltering under the rain of bullets from a line of Consortium soldiers. Yet, still, the Consortium has its supporters. Some seek a better fate in the Legion, others, seek work in the Foundry, fewer still are granted employment in the Consortium itself.
Yes, I wrote the concept in-character.
It was very jarring when I noticed this during the editing I mentioned.
I'll try and see if I can find any of the tech-notes I had lying around, otherwise I'll reconstruct it from memory.
