West Fall City
Location:
About sixty seven kilometer southwest of Durem. Tucked amidst rough Terrain bordering the mountains. To the southwest are high mountains while the rest of the terrain surrounding the city is rough hills. There is a single highway in development but as of yet unfinished, to and from Durem. Outside the city is still an isolated, barren area of canyons and wasteland.
The city is an artificial creation, a planned development of the Yaits Corporation during the glory days of Edward Yaits, the city's founding father and first mayor. The city is officially a part of the Ymiristani empire, yet political control truly lies with the Yaits Corporation.
People:
About 700,000 people live work and play here.
Many of the people who live in West Fall City are either workers for private enterprises, Casino workers, or just dreamers hoping to make it big. The city has many small business owners, have flooded the city to accommodate the burgeoning population. Municipalities still provide a government based service economy as well.
The people of West Fall city are of no distinct racial or ethnic trait. They are immigrants from all over Gaia. There are a significant number of altered-humans who reside here.
The Order of Charitable Monks brings clergy to the city, there is a small district for them outside the temple grounds.
The Casino District
Directly to the east of the HQ Pentagon is the Comercial District, commonly reffered to as the Casino district. Gambling is legal here, it is even encouraged. There a several major casinos here.
Two police stations exist to combat the crime and vice accompanying the introduction of the casinos, but have done little to stem the tide. Prostitution is practically legal & black-marketeering is rampant as the laws pertaining to it are rarely enforced.
Fights break out commonly, both within and without the casinos, but are dealt with quickly either by police or casino officials.
The Casino district is connected to Durem by rail, the city station is located off the center of the district. But Durem is the only city connected directly to West Fall City by rail.
The Money District
A series of penthouses built into the cliffs overlooking the city from the east, below this are wealthy neighborhoods filled with mansions and estates. The penthouses overlooking the city are supremely expensive prime real estate, costing upwards from ten million credits.
The Regulars District
To the west is an expansive suburb of middle class homes for people who've decided to make their life in the new city. Many of the homes are of simple modular construction. This part of the city has all the commercial advantages of suburban utopia, mini-malls, gas stations, convenience stores, restaurants. The central mall of the Regulars district is one of the largest malls in Gaia with over two-hundred stores for everyone's shopping convenience.
The Temple District
To the south of the headquarters is the temple district. Centered on the temple itself. Around the temple is the white, square, stucco housing of the temple devout, forming a labyrinth of narrow streets. On the border of the temple district and the regulars district is a ten story hospital run by the Order of Charitable Monks, a hospital gaining affluence for its personal relationships with the patients sent there.
Bakkar International Airport
To the far southwest of the corporate headquarters is a newly built international airport connecting West Fall city to the rest of Beyon. It has all the major amenities of an international airport. Its large size is built to accommodate the tourists interested in gambling.
The Industrial Sector
Cheap land and lax environmental codes has fueled an mini-industrial revolution to the west of the airport district, land zoned for industrial use quickly developed into a slew of heavy industries on the far edge of the city. Much land in the far desert is being developed with the prospect of finding oil or valuable minerals. Stone from the desert is already being used in the manufacture of cements. Other industries include chemicals, refining, bottling, machine tooling, and even an automobile manufacturer has a plant here. Most of the high pollution industries that have trouble in other cities can find a safe haven of sorts here. The industrial sector is slowly gaining a reputation for rivaling Delarion, but still lacking the high-tech edge of that industrial city by far.
The Octagon Citadel.
In the center of West Fall City is a massive octagon, only two stories high, yet over two kilometers in diameter from east to west and north to south. A massive headquarters, technical lab, and fortress. The outer wall of the structure is four meters thick, with three layers of protection built into it. The first layer underneath the cement is rust-proofed steel coated with titanium and laced with depleted uranium, the second is refined adamantine, and the the third is orichalum. The outer walls of the building are built to survive even a massive nuclear assault.
Inside, the functionality of the building is layered via concentric rings starting from the core of the structure, each ring being separated securely from the others. The very outer ring holds various offices such as public relations, marketing, accounting, purchasing, record keeping, and the conference rooms for meetings and such. The next ring is for the research and development for pharmaceuticals. medicine, and biotechnology. The third ring holds the substations that control the buildings air-defense systems, it is also a training hall for security forces, which aims to help the police keep law and order in the new city. The fourth ring is actually a manufacturing & testing center, where the R&D of weapons for police and military use was once conducted. Unlike the pentagon, the building has no courtyard, instead, there is the core. It is by far the most protected portion of the Citadel headquaters. Here is the central office for whomever is in charge here, surrounding it is the security control for the entire building. Then there are the sub levels, underneath the outer portion of the building they are merely parking garages, but under the interior is a manufacturing center designed to mass produce weapons.
As of right now, the octagon is the headquarters of the Yaits corporation, which is run by a once ruthless and domineering but now aged Edward Yaits III.
West Fall City has darker secrets, secrets that would devastate the world if they fell into the wrong hands.
The Temple of Ymir. (Property of the Charitable Order.)
Description:
An imposing temple stands in the southern section of West Fall City. It is a gray, square, marble structure modeled after the great Greek and Roman temples. Ten marble columns line every side of the structure. In the front, the relief above the columns consists of an image representing Ymir in glory. At the right hand of Ymir are representations of Loki and his children; Fenris, the Midgard Serpent, and Hela who rules the dead while at his left hand are the brothers Odin, Vili, and Ve depicted being tramped under the feet of the cow Audhumbla. The side and back reliefs depict the various giants of ancient times, the enemies of the Gods.
In the front of the temple is a long series of steps, each step is made of five stones, and each stone depicts a different creature. As the ground is cursed, the only way to enter the temple without being attacked by the curse is to ascend the steps in the right order, stepping on the right stone for each step.
A door of solid marble encloses the entrance. On it is carved a giant portrait of Mercenary Forsooth, the Follower of Ymir and keeper of his incarnation. He is a dark man with slick hair and a sour look, a twisted grin stuck on his mouth. His clothing is a hooded cloak and there is a depiction of an aura around him, shaded in darker marble rather than lighter. This door will only open for those who utter Ymir's praises properly in ancient Norse language.
The minor sanctum is the directly inside of the temple, it is a small lobby with decaying statuettes of Forsooth taking refuge in the hands of giant Ymir statue on both sides. No one has graced the inside of the temple since the suicide of Forsooth five hundred years ago.
At the sides of the minor sanctum behind the great statues are the doors leading into chambers of the monks. The left door leads to kitchen and bathing facilities while the right door is a chamber with bunk beds high enough for ten beds, each bed large enough for two men. Behind this chambers and office of the great Forsooth.
Behind the chambers is the office. The chambers is lined with amazingly well preserved furniture. A bear rug stretches across the entire room, an exceedingly great bear before its death. There is a plush bed with a luxurious down mattress, curtains line it to block any draft. There is a library at the side full of books on magic and spells of all types. There are also great histories of Gaia. And the records of the achievements of the Giants and Gods. In the office the polished oak furniture is of the finest craftsman ship and is amazingly well preserved. There is a pile of personal papers, as well as ancient maps of Gaia scattered about in which almost every corner of the Globe is represented.
In the main sanctum is a gold statue of Ymir holding a mortal body, but this body he is holding is not Forsooth, but an unknown representing the form Ymir has chosen for his incarnation. Before the alter is a gold pan for the burnt sacrifice to Ymir. To the side is the podium for Forsooth, the leader of the compound and high priest of the Dark Monks.
Behind the alter is a staircase that leads below the temple. Down there is a wine cellar, one of the many shelves has a secret, which opens a passage to the catacombs further under the table. There are many traps down here. Rats the size of large dogs have their nests here.
The first level of the catacombs is a torture chamber. Devices of torture of every make and model are scattered about. There are piles of coal. Beds made of nails. Tables covered with rusting tools and needles and weapons of torture. Whips hang across the wall. There are post to tie prisoners for flailing. Vats of acid and lime still hungry for more victims. The prisoner cells are in a hall behind the torture room. They are in the wall are tiny stone cubbyhole designed to keep a person cramped in a tiny ball. There are enough of these cells to accommodate five hundred prisoners on either wall.
The second level of the catacombs is found at the edge of the prisoner hall. It is a labyrinth that is inhabited by a foul beast that is the runt offspring of the Midgard Serpent. There are also traps of all kinds scattered about everywhere.
At the lowest level of the temple is a laboratory of quite high technical standards for its time. Amidst the containment tubes and stasis fields await many sights and a wealth of information on the Ymir incarnation project. There are also hoarded of documents of which there had been no time to burn. No one has seen this place in over five hundred years. The laboratory consists twenty rooms of 100 meters long by 100 meter wide, one on top of the other as each room descends deeper into the bowels of the earth. The deeper the rooms, the darker the secrets.
