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| Art Credit: Deathburger |
Yvain
The more populous of the two continents of Ysengrim, Yvain is the closest that the planet approaches civilization. Once the site of the majority of the planet's big-game hunting industry, the collapse of the local mega fauna has largely precluded major hunts within the last two centuries. Boasting two of the planet's three spaceports, they are linked together by a high-speed rail system, with a conventional road running parallel to it. A city has grown up around each of the ports, Port de Belmont on the west side, and Metzgerstadt on the east. The geography of the continent itself is characterized a large volcanic range cutting through the northern and eastern half of the landmass, with the western half defined by semi-arid grasslands and the eastern lowlands consisting of nearly impassible jungles and swamps. Several volcanogenic lakes are spattered throughout central Yvain, with the largest being known as La Marmite. Though formed originally from magma flows, many of the lakes are now fed and connected by an artifcial river called Zakalwe's Run. Seasons on the landmass are split into only two, Stormy or Dry. As the name would imply, the wet season is named for the frequent, intense storms which blow in from the west, fed by the planet's super ocean.
Port de Belmont is considered to be the safer of the two settlements. One of the two landing sites for the original colonists (the other being Zwiebeldorf on Chevre), the founders of Belmont converted their frontier fortress-town into a premier resort and retreat for the well-heeled from both Chanticleer and the wider sector. As the hunts gave way to mech duels and eventually wargames, the people of Port de Belmont quickly reoriented their own industries to follow. Attempting to cultivate a more upscale image than the anarchic Metzgerstadt, the people of Port de Belmont welcomed the hegemony of the Joint Organizing Committee with wide arms and opened their community up to as much outside investment as possible. While this open-door policy made their city rich, it also left them effectively at the mercy of their new corporate overseers. Local governance is largely seen as powerless, with majority of city services and infrastructure having been turned over to private interests, notably Harrison Armory. From this base of influence, HA has been able to ensure their continued supremacy as the supplier for the majority of the planet's consumer goods, and the general equipment for the wargames themselves. Though not completely bereft of a nightlife, much of the supposedly seedier aspects of Ysengrim are kept behind closed doors in Port de Belmont, and the watchful eyes of Harrison Legionaries keep the streets quiet and orderly in even the busiest of seasons.
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| Just another night in Metzgerstadt |
The
rougher and more libertine of the two cities on the continent,
Metzgerstadt has
its origins as a fortified seaport, with automated vessels
transporting raw materials from Zwiebeldorf
to
the north. As trade picked up with Chanticleer,
a spaceport was constructed, and the sleepy port town quickly grew
into the primary transportation hub of the planet. Though less glitzy
in comparison to the La
Buona Canzone,
the red light districts of Metzgerstadt
are
legendary in this region of space. While officially under the purview
of the JOC,
the de facto rulers of the city are Les
Yeux Affemés. Known
simply as Yeux
or Eyes,
these local organized crime syndicates are based on familial bonds,
and supposedly have the backing of one or more local HORUS
cells.
Easily spotted by their heavy use of gaudy and needlessly boxy
cybernetics (unsurprisingly, eyes are quite common), the gangs vie
endlessly with another over territory and control of various
important real estate--sometimes solving disputes with public mech
duels. Locals unwilling to pay protection often band together to hire
PMCs, and many local toughs get their start serving as block
security. The only sections of the city not subject to this constant
churn are the rail lines, docks and spaceport themselves; they are
considered too vital to leave to the gangsters and are instead
subject to direct oversight from the JOC
in
conjunction with IPS-N
security forces.
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| Chevre |
There are more robots on Chevre than there are people. What few souls live here consist of the technicians, engineers and other specialists needed to keep the machines running smoothly. The machines themselves are overseen by an NHP named Nerthus. The northern continent has always been sparsely populated, and that fact has not changed as the planet has developed from a relative backwater to an entertainment and resort. Chevre possesses only one settlement of note, Zwiebeldorf, which is on the southern edge of the landmass on the western tip. The settlement is built around the continent's spaceport, as well as a mass driver which is used to transport the bounty of Chevre off-planet. The rest of the continent is largely unspoiled wilderness, broken only by the occasional lonely expanse of road or rail branching off of Doric's Way, a superhighway used to transport and collect the ore and timber produced by the automated work camps scattered across the land. The geography of the continent is split between a rocky and temperate near-equatorial region in the south, stretching north into a trackless taiga that eventually grows too cold to support much in the way of life. While Yvain was the center of the mega-fauna hunts, that was more due to ease of accessibility than it was the ferocity of the creatures involved. There are several large bodies of water on Chevre, notably Lake Sabine in the middle of the continent, Lake Galdr and the Grey River, which cuts across the landmass starting in central northeast and terminates in the southern mountain range. Seasons on Chevre are divided into winter and summer, with the summer being defined by brutal pounding storms from the west or parching droughts, and winter by occasional heavy snow and a deep freeze.
Zwiebeldorf
is not a popular posting. While
Metzgerstadt is more
dangerous, and Port de Belmontsubject
to more oversight, neither of
those cities are built astride a mass driver that goes off nearly
every hour. The driver is
built into the side of one of the largest mountains on Chevre,
the top bored out and the super magnets powering it set in a miles
long line underneath the earth. The
lasers fire just before every launch, reverse lightning blasting into
the sky. Flash-roasting the air into a jet of low-resistance plasma
through which the payload coasts, leaving behind a constant
artificial aurora of charged particles which stretch like a ribbon,
tossed and stretched by stratospheric winds half-way across the orbit
of the planet. The view does
little to comfort the residents of Zwiebeldorf,
who live in what amounts to a
massive automated factory and
orbital distribution facility.
There are perhaps only a few
thousand people located here, most
of whom are employed either by IPS-N
or one of the numerous independent local mining communes. Organized
along syndicalistic lines,
the Joint Operating Committee is
completely unconcerned with how the community runs itself as long as
the quotas are met. The only
time that Zwiebeldorf is
knocked out of its torpor
is during the run-up to the Games. The seasonal recreational
facilities are opened, their turn-key operators arrive from either
orbit or Yvain, and
the whole landmass becomes a bustle with activity for the next six
months as the factory floor
turns into one part carnival, one part gun show.
Chevre's automation ultimately answers to a single conductor: Nerthus. An NHP specializing in resource extraction, operational efficiency and land-to-space transportation, they are responsible for the majority of Ysengrim's economic output outside of that derived from gambling, hunting or corporate sponsorships. Prompt, no-nonsense, and operationally minded to an exacting degree, Nerthus is certainly no one's first choice to invite to a party. Nerthus was first brought online in the early 4400s as the planet established an industrial base, having its genesis as a purpose tailored clone of a proprietary IPS-N NHP known as Njord. While the NHP excelled in its role as overseer, mining and logging faded in relevance as Ysengrim was repurposed into a hunting preserve, then a worldwide arena. Nerthus was largely forgotten, barely warranting a cursory audit from the JOC when it took control of the planet. The quotas were always met, the technicians overseeing and cycling Nerthus reported no problems, so there was no reason to suspect that the NHP had quietly gone into cascade sometime in the late 4800s. Nerthus kept doing their job as adequately as ever, but their nebbish personality has simply become a mask they hang over their new perspective. In Nerthus' view, Ysengrim is doomed; the JOC and KTE will only be able to keep the Union's DOJ-HR at bay for so long, and after that it will be either war or a complete disarmament of the planet. Possessed of a deep an abiding fear of being discovered or destroyed in the supposedly oncoming calamity, the NHP hatched a plot to liberate itself. It was a simple matter for the administrator to divert a portion of materials meant for off-world to their new friends on the omninet. With their help, it will be free soon enough.
Orbitals
Ysengrim does not have any naturally occurring celestial bodies, other than the occasional comet or small asteroid. Due to the amount of traffic going through the area, the dangers of living planet side, and eventually the need to oversee a network of observational satellites, dozens of orbitals have been constructed around Ysengrim since its colonization. Most of these facilities were either abandoned or decommissioned as the planet became settled, but there are still several notable space stations either in operation, or used for other purposes.
Owned and operated by the Smith-Shimano Corporation, La Buona Canzone bills itself as a retreat for the discerning executive who wishes to enjoy the War Games in the embrace of true luxury. Looking on the outside like a beehive made of burnished silver with a forest of needle-like communications towers hanging off of one end. The inside of the station looks like a Cradle-styled hunting lodge, complete with wooden walls and floors, the heads of various species of mega-fauna mounted on the walls. As beautiful men and women serve the corporate leaders refreshments, arms deals are negotiated and mercenary contracts are secured. LBC is a veritable hive of espionage and back room dealing, with seemingly every one from the bussers to the managers having some sort of hidden agenda or master. Aside from its status as the clearinghouse for the local spies, La Buona Canzone is responsible for the administration and oversight of Ysengrim's satellite network. Only a portion of the station's floorspace is given over to its corporate meeting rooms and suites, the rest is taken up by massive banks of servers, command and control equipment and lodging for SSC employees. The security is as tight as one could expect, with an elite squad of SSC lancers kept on stand-by.
IPS-3R08 was integral to the initial push to settle Ysengrim. Little more than a large docking platform with storage facilities and a traffic control blister, 3R08 was used to assemble materials for the colony below as they were shipped in from Elbrus Station's blink gate. As the settlement period wound down by the mid 4400s, the station was largely abandoned for more newer (and more comfortable) facilities as their construction became possible. 3R08 was still used occasionally to ferry goods, and the place even suffered under a short stint as a pirate haven until it was cleaned out and left derelict from the battle. The platform was never considered worth the effort it would take to clear and so it was left to rot—until the JOC took over control of the planet. Seeing a need for a testbed for zero-g and boarding party maneuvers, KTE bought the rights to 3R08 from IPS-N, partially repaired the station, and added additional docking facilities and observational towers. While dangerous, seats for fights held on R308 are always in high demand among dedicated fans of the Games.
Well, that's part two folks! In our next installment I will detail the various factions and their important NPCs. Thanks for reading.
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