Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Khayr ad-Din



The crime and poverty of living on the planet’s greatest rubbish pile only added insult to injury for the colonial-era settlement of Monroe. For centuries, that city thrived in the Badlands until, one day, a storm of white corrosive sand eroded it into near non-existence.

Centuries passed where the poor inhabitants of what became know as Khayr ad-Din, built on the vestiges of Monroe,  eked out meager existences recycling and reclaiming what they could form the global trash trade. These “Trashers” formed the economy.

The end of the war and the rise of the crime lord Saddik “The Spider” Jahmoon lead to a new business opportunity: gear dueling. In the span of a decade, the trash city became a global hub of gambling and tourism as terranovans from all over came to see the machines duel. The added revenue from broadcasting rights over the Hermes 72 has only increased The Spider’s wealth and the city’s renown.

Despite its newfound pride in the duelists,  Khayr ad-Din remains the trash city. The Gamma maglev hauls huge containers of trash into the heart of the urban area, the TNTR tower, and from there dispatches it to the Heaps - 27 square kilometers of refuse where a large number of trashers and generally underprivileged badlanders survive day to day in a city with no government and no services.

The City breaks down into roughly four neighbourhoods. In the center is the TNTR tower. Gleaming and surrounded by thick walls, the Terra Nova Trans Rail corporation displays its full clout here where there is no local government to placate. The bureau director, Basyl Paleologus, runs the business compound like a viceroy. With a tight grip on travel via the gamma maglev, the trash business and with the assistance of his own Security Command (SecCom) under the capable hands of Eileen Gudbransson and her protegee Nadia Demeter, Paleogus is answerable to nearly no one. Nearly.

Just south of the fortified TNTR tower is the Core. This densely concentrated part of Khayr ad-Din has built up around the Spider’s wealth and dueling. Khayr ad-Din’s crime lord has built a city and an industry. At its heart is the web arena. Although the streets are unpaved, the lawgivers keep it safe for tourists. Conditions are generally good and here you’ll find the Sand Stone club run by Marice Fryzel, Jackie Housa’s Oasis hotel and Tom Chamber’s Lucky Shot casino. Then there are the polar trade offices separated by large independent customs brokers. Add to these Trader’s Way where trashers exchange their goods and the Bazaar where Badlands caravans congregate and your form a respectable little city. The richest inhabitants and the most privileged tourist stay in the Spider’s lair, the crime boss’ enclave of luxury.

North of the TNTR and the Core is the Pit, a sunken section of the city where those who have climbed out of the Heaps but not quite enough to reside in the Core make their way. This area is beholden to crime and shady exchanges. The notable hotspots are the Hammer bar and the Gallow’s pool. These infamous places are ideal locations to hire someone to kill a person and a place to get rid of the body afterwards, respectively.

South of the Core is Ghost Town, the only part of the city where any of the original buildings of Monroe have escaped being buried under mounds of trash. There, the truly neglected live.

Nestled between Ghost Town and the Core, on a mound directly adjacent to the Westphalia-Azzov trade road is the Badlands Caravan Guild compound. There one finds Hotel Bravo, the BCG's home base.






Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

0 comments :


 
Hermes 72 - Heavy Gear RPG - Most artwork Copyright 2002 Dream Pod 9, Inc.