Difference between revisions of "Materi Syna/New Resilience"

Latest revision as of 00:51, 16 September 2011

(Worldbuilding stuff in progress. Posted here since Razor can't use Googledocs in China.)

General Info

Founded in 2652 CE by Vadim Tostanavich, Razorback Cliffwalker, and Joshua MacNamara, the colony of New Resilience represents one of the few bastions of Outverser culture in Hiverspace.

Physical Data

Demographics

The estimated population of New Resilience is about 18,000, broken down into an estimated 5,500 Ungstiri, 4,000 Demarians, 2,100 Martians, 1,600 Sivadians, 1,200 Timonae, 800 Qua, 600 Grimlahdi, and smaller clusters of surviving Outversers and other native Hiverspacers.

The establishment of the nearby Phyrrian Enclave infuriated Castori and Centauran settlers, and neither race maintains an official presence in the colony.

Geography, Topography, & Climate

New Resilience is nestled in the Koshke Chelyusti (Catsjaw/Altheor's Jaw) Valley, in the shadow of the Koshki Zuba (Catstooth/Altheor's Tooth) mountain range. It is bisected by the river Prague, whose source rises in the mountains and flows southwest before finally spilling into Lake Ashley, one of nine great lakes which dot the continent. Earthquakes are rare, but not unheard of.

Sandwiched between the colony's borders and Lake Ashley is a belt of flat, arable grassland suitable for farming. The further east one goes, however, the terrain gives way to dense forest - a dangerous wildland the Demarian populace has nicknamed the Shadow Mother, and the Timonae have more fancifully dubbed Maza's Pocket.

New Resilience's climate is moderate and the colony experiences four seasons, with warm summers and cold winters. Rainfall is fairly even and the coldest months experience snow.

Cityscape

There is no single, dominant style to this little frontier town - rather it is a hodgepodge of periods and peoples whose tastes have collided to produce a colorful and varied atmosphere. It is divided into four neighborhoods, each boasting their own personal character.

Ranix Square

This bustling commercial district is as close as one gets to downtown New Resilience. Here one is afforded their first look at the rebirth of terrestrial Ungstiri architecture - which, it should come as no surprise, does not stray far from the prefabricated base model. It is stark, simple, and pragmatic; function over form, with minimal ornamentation. Collaboration between the various races is therefore easy to pick out, such as in the government buildings where structural embellishment is more daring and elaborate.

While this is the city's beating heart, there are no high-rises. The tallest building is the courthouse clocktower.

Alhiran Quarter

Home to Pavlo's Pastries and the Snowmist Bathhouse. Here, New Resilience's second-largest demographic holds court. Streets are narrow and traffic is largely on foot or bicycle. Homes are generally multi-level, multi-family affairs with large windows and balconies and lush rooftop gardens. The market is a giant, open-air sprawl for most of the year. Buildings in general are more open and airy, and those erected by the Demarians' own hands tend to favor polychrome stone and brick with domed ceilings, broad arches, and colorful frescoes.

Few "outsiders" tend to live here, owing to the overwhelmingly Demarian atmosphere; little in the way of accommodation for other races has been provided. However, the neighborhood tends to be popular with Lyiri, Pyracani, and Timonae; the former two undoubtedly attracted to similarities in appearance and culture, and the last likely embracing the echoes of Demaria's legendary leisure and luxury.

Riverside

By far the largest and most populated area of the colony. When people think of New Resilience, they are thinking of Riverside - and with good reason. The neighborhood is practically a celebration of Outverser culture and a patchwork piece of the races that rifted over from Normalspace. Here, the look and feel of the area varies from house to house or block to block; a Sivadian-styled cottage may shoulder up beside an Hesperian insula, or entire streets might bear the footprint of a particular ethnic group. It is a lively, haphazard gumbo.

Memorial Park is here, as are the schools, hospital, and casino. A variety of Outverser cuisines and fashions are front and center, stocking store shelves or being hawked by a plethora of street vendors.

Fulton Street

Nobody talks about this part of town. It's not a hive of scum and villainy, but give it twenty years. New Resilience's poor are beginning to congregate here, and as such the land values and overall mood are beginning to congeal into a dismal morass of decay and hopelessness. Trouble is starting to brew here, and whether it tumbles further toward the point of no return or is pulled back from the brink is up to colony's leaders.

No particular ethnic group calls this place home; poverty is universal. The Dead Hand Tavern is here, and not much else - cheap storefronts and liquor stores and god help us all, taco stands.