//:commerce.mcfs.ctx
| Table of Contents |
|---|
//MIDNIGHT CITY FREE STATE FACTSHEET
| POPULATION | DEMONYM | OFFICIAL LANGUAGES | CURRENCY | GOVERNMENT | DEMOGRAPHICS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 82,391,985 | Midnighter |
English, Faetongue |
Qumark (₾) | Mayor: Rufus Barrick District Council |
57.8% Human |
CITY DISTRICTS
Northside, Blueridge, Central
Known as the Domes. These are the wealthiest districts in the city, contained within heavily secured enviro-domes that protect residents from both the pollution of the outer city and the poor riff-raff that occupy the open streets. In these districts you can find the sprawling estates of the ultrawealthy, the secretive and debauched parties of the unrestrained elite, the hottest clubs, the most expensive boutiques, as well as the corporate headquarters of Gordian-Allod, Pacific Entertainment Group, and other megacorporations. GA Coliseum, home of the Squad Combat League, draws constant crowds. Dead in the middle of the Central district stands the Mag Mell Arcology, a symbol of Gordian-Allod and the Unseelie Court’s power.
Key Locations: Mag Mell Arcology, Bank of Midnight City (BMC), Central Station, City Hall, Club Stefon, Chez Carcajou, Holoplex Cineon Theatre, GA Coliseum
Whitecap
Home to the Midnight City Institute of Technology (MCIT, commonly called The Institute) as well as numerous laboratories and gleaming research centres. Rumours abound regarding the types of experiments conducted deep in the unmarked labs. Whitecap has its own central train station, which provides express service to other areas of the city, as well as a direct line to the Midnight City International Airport.
Key Locations: Midnight City Institute of Technology, Whitecap Station, Gordian-Allod Research Division
Eastview
A predominantly industrial area, housing numerous warehouses, factories, and plants -- most of which are owned by Gordian-Allod or subsidiaries. There are several apartment mega-complexes used to house the factory employees in cramped 'coffin' accomodations. Anti-suicide nets on upper floors are a common sight. Abandoned industrial sites are frequently used for criminal purposes or, in the case of the Sato Complex Track, converted for other activities such as death-defying street races.
Key Locations: GA Manufacturing Division, Sato Complex Race Track, Eastview Shipping
Fraser, Uniontown, Lowertown
These three infamous districts collectively make up the Zone. Once, they were the beating heart of the resistance against Gordian-Allod's rule. Now, instead of uniting against their oppressors, the people of the Zone have been turned against each other. After being ravaged by the Quake of 2378 and with few resources allocated to rebuilding, the present day Zone is more or less lawless. It’s said that all of the city’s illegal activity can be traced to hideaways and safe houses tucked away here. A motley assortment of illegal chems, bootleg weapons, and smuggled goods fill the marketplaces scattered throughout the area, providing the enterprising individual with anything they could possibly need. Need an untraceable gun? Software for that big heist? Or maybe you’re trying to track down some military-grade cybernetics and systems. For the right price, you can find it here. Unlicensed clinics, weapons dealers, magic smugglers, hitmen, drug dealers, and more all ply their trade in the shadows of the Zone, away from the prying eyes of the MCDF.
The Zone itself is a dreary, grimy labyrinth of concrete and steel, crumbling tenements, the constant buzz of gaudy, dying neon signs. The air is choked with smog from illegal industrial operations and the water is frequently filthy due to the perpetual breakdown of the pumping and filtration stations serving the area. Toxic waste flows freely in the rivers, with floods during the rainy months filling the low-lying areas with sludge and waste. Its mutant rats and fish are the stuff of legends.
Some say the Zone is the soul of Midnight City, a land of perpetual shadow. Literal shadow, in the way the decrepit skyscrapers and polluted haze combine to hide the sun. Spiritual and moral shadow, in the way its citizens will step on each other at the first opportunity to grab something for themselves. It's darkest at midnight, and it's always midnight in the Zone.
Key Locations: Lucky Sevens, Church of St. Duncan, The Butcher's Shop, Chem Row, Meat Market
Boyne
Its skyline is a blocky silhouette of massive apartment blocks - some with up to 20,000 residents in a single block - criss-crossed by skywalks far above the streets, bridging the complexes at 30, 50, 70 floors. As the site of Midnight City General Hospital, the largest nonprofit hospital in the city, traffic in the area is dense at all hours; accidents and traffic jams are common. Traffic cams and drones create speed traps liberally abused by the MCDF to make quota. Domestic violence, drug abuse, and the occasional psychotic break plague the lives of the indentured wage-slaves who populate the area, and sirens at all hours of the night are not uncommon.
Key Locations: MCDF 17th Precinct, Wagner Apartments, Midcity General Hospital
Avalon
Sometimes colloquially referred to as the magic district. Several small enclaves of mages, lifebinders, and ecomancers have found a home within its borders, supporting independent training academies, bluestone importers, and artifact traders. These shops are frequently raided by MCDF officers allegedly responding to reports of illegal imports. However, word on the street is that the Unseelie Court just wants to stop any independent parties from amassing too much magical power.
Key Locations: Bluewave Academy, The Magic Box, New Tairngire Imports
Longhaul
A sparsely populated district, a ‘pass through’ district, notable for its so-called junk fields. Occupying the space between Midcity’s old southern border and Seatac’s old northern border, Longhaul saw heavy fighting in the early days of the conquest of Seatac and was never quite rebuilt. Now its ruined factories and junkyards are home to scrappers and squatters sifting through the trash for anything that can be repurposed. It is dotted with shanty slums built of scrap metal, and has a pest problem in the form of swarms of mutated Ferals.
Key Locations: Scrap City
Seatac
Originally an independant city. When Halcyon Group attempted to set up a branch in the city, Gordian-Allod manufactured a pretext for war and sent the Midcity forces to conquer it. Now, Seatac is mostly home to working-class individuals who work the vertical farms and weapons manufacturing plants. Remnants of the war still abound, notably the frequent MCDF patrols.
Key Locations: Ammunition Alley, MCDF 48th Precinct, AgriCorp Complex
The Underground
A network of disused sewers, maintenance tunnels, and floodways that have been repurposed by the city's smugglers, fugitives, and vampires, allowing for underground travel throughout most of the city. Most of the tunnels are bare-bones and unlit, but there are sections of The Underground where various social outcasts have set up makeshift apartments. Other sections are used by black market traders to transport goods. Still others have been inhabited by nightmarish monsters, psychotic killers, organ harvesters, and all other manner of horror. It is unwise to travel The Underground alone. Unless you know where you're going, there's a good chance you'll end up dead.
LIFE IN MIDNIGHT CITY
Welcome to the Midnight City Free State - the crown jewel of the West Coast. Situated on the shores of the Salish Sea, Midnight City has grown into a world-class megacity, attracting immigrants and businesses from all across the globe. Whether you seek a new career, investment opportunities, entertainment, stardom, or a chance to build the life you’ve always wanted - Midnight City is your dream made real!
The reality of life in Midnight City is far from the rosy picture of prosperity and opportunity that the Free State shills want to sell you. Most citizens of the city walk its smog-choked streets with their heads down, cautiously navigating the mix of criminals and security forces as they scrape up enough cash for another day. Those with corporate jobs find themselves worked to the bone, every ounce of productivity forcefully extracted from them by an uncaring capitalist machine until they are too broken to work anymore. The homeless, destitute, unemployed, sick, and marginalized are discarded by a society that has no use for them and left to fend for themselves on the streets.
And the streets are no better. Awash in blood and death, robbery, organ theft, drug trafficking, gang wars, prostitution, addiction, kidnapping, and every other flavour of human misery one could imagine, the people who can’t fend for themselves are just meat for the machine. Gang violence is constant, whether it’s shakedowns for territory or tribute, or just killing for fun. Gang members brandish weapons and wear their colours openly. And the law? Little more than a sick joke. The Security Force is just another gang with more money and guns backing them. The officers deployed outside of the Domes have no intention of making a hard life any better for the people doomed to live in the open streets. They attack, arrest, jail, and outright murder anyone who refuses to pay their bribes and bend the knee. As long as they serve the interests of the wealthy, the MCDF operates with impunity.
Beyond the pristine Domes and the Mag Mell Arcology, which are protected and defended with the full might of the MCDF, Midnight City’s infrastructure ranges from shabby to crumbling and crime ranges from constant to lethal. After the Quake in 2378 left a significant portion of the city near in ruins, resources were diverted by the government and corporations to rebuild only the wealthiest areas and later to erect the Domes as a physical barrier against the heavily polluted environment - and against the poor themselves. The rest of the city had to make due with what meagre assistance and mutual aid could be provided by independent groups like the Azure Union, Paladins, and Wayfarers. But it wasn’t enough then, and it still isn’t enough now.
Most people in Midnight City have resigned themselves to their fate. The few that haven’t, whether seeking to make the world better or to line their own pockets, face a Sisyphean battle against a society designed to crush them under heel.
ENVIRONMENT
Midnight City’s famous climate-controlled Domes offer residents 24/7 clear skies and warm temperatures. No matter what the weather is like outside, experience perpetual perfection within the Domes!*
*Dome presence limited to Central, Northside, and Blueridge Districts. Access to the Domes requires a Citizen Access Card. Unauthorized persons caught trespassing in the Domes will be shot.
Outside the Domes, Midnight City’s grey skies piss acid rain down on the citizens at regular intervals. Smog from the accumulated industrial pollutants of unregulated refineries, plants, drug labs, and trash fires settles in thick dark clouds over the center of the city. The daylight is so diffused by the pollution that even the vampires can walk in the light with little discomfort. Sometimes an ocean wind will disperse the smog long enough for a moment’s reprieve, but it’s usually a sign of worse things to come. While Midnight City has a mostly temperate climate, its proximity to concentrated sources of corium means violent Nexus Weather Events occur throughout the year, bringing sudden lightning storms, heavy winds, hail, blizzards, and other unseasonable weather extremes.
Those travelling outside the Domes are advised to carry personal protective equipment: respirators rated for Organic Vapours and Acid Gas, as well as an outer layer treated with polyethylene. When the MCDF wants to hit quota, they’ll enforce the city law allowing the use and purchase only of authorized PPE from licensed manufacturers and retailers. But the black market has its own ways around that.
CULTURE
On the streets, violence is a fact of life. Citizens open-carry weapons, throw hands over the smallest of grievances, and will step over a body on the sidewalk without a second glance. While the Zone is infamous for its violence and brutality, muggings and random attacks are common throughout the other districts. Violence permeates every aspect of Midnight City's culture-- life on the street, popular media, and spectator sports all integrate the city’s bloody environment into their fabrics. Live combat footage from the Second Corporate War broke viewing records daily, and entertainment companies are still desperate to broadcast enough blood and guts to replicate that success.
Bread and circuses keep most of the civilians in line. Everyone seeks something to distract them from the misery of their lives - whether that’s a BLISS chip giving them a temporary reprieve inside the life of a superstar, or a handful of pills copped from the dealer down the street. Addiction is rampant across all age groups, and the Security Force turns a blind eye to the drug trade unless they need to make quota.
Many of the city’s residents believe that the only way to avoid becoming a victim of the city is to keep your head down and focus only on yourself. Good Samaritans are the exception, not the rule; by and large, the denizens of Midnight City are very willing to take from others if it means getting ahead. This cutthroat philosophy fuels every industry, from mercenaries to corporate dealings to gang life, and is exploited by the top echelons of society. Unity of the lower classes is a threat to those in power, so whether discreetly or openly, corporate and governmental interests do all they can to foster division, greed, and hatred to undermine the influence of groups like the Azure Union and the Paladins. Us vs. Them is the order of the day, whether that’s citizens vs. outsiders, MCDF vs. civilians, gangs vs. gangs, district vs. district, or species vs. species.
ECONOMY
With its business-friendly laws, well-developed infrastructure, and vast population of talented and eager workers, Midnight City attracts businesses and investors from all over the world. Many corporations, including Gordian-Allod International, Pacific Entertainment Group, and Cybanthropy Limited, have headquarters in the city. Midnight City is a world leader in cybernetics, biotechnology, gene therapy, and a global center for entertainment and sport. It’s the home of the Squad Combat League - the most watched live sport in the world!
Midnight City’s wealthy upper echelons built their fortunes on the blood, sweat, and lives of Nexite miners and plant workers in the early days of the city’s growth. After establishing a stranglehold on natural resources and power generation, Gordian-Allod expanded into other sectors - technology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and on. Gordian-Allod effectively owns Midnight City, and while other corporations operate within its borders they do so at GA’s pleasure.
Midnight City’s currency is the qumark (₾), colloquially called Qs/qus or marks. Primarily a digital currency, the majority of citizens access their funds by way of a Qucard or Quchip. The black market, however, has numerous exchanges that convert digital qumarks into physical currency. While criminals prefer to transact in hard cash to avoid being traced, physical currency isn’t limited to illegal activities. Azure Union activists and those sympathetic to their cause, as well as those who want to feel some small measure of freedom from corporate oppression may also choose to use cash over digital.
Unemployment in Midnight City hovers between 68% and 75%, but those employed by the corps - Wageslaves and Temps - don’t fare much better. “Temp” refers to what corps call a ‘Temporal Employee Management Program’, where the worker owes ‘Temporal Debt’ to the company paid back with working time. Corps advertise these Temp programs in glowing terms, showing pictures of ultramodern company apartments in places like the Mag Mell Arcology. But the reality is a Temp sleeps in a corpo “coffin” in the cheapest corporate accommodations, eats tasteless corpo food, takes cramped corpo transport, and doesn’t make a dime of money when they pull 12 to 14 hour shifts daily - plus overtime. Temp Debt can be accumulated in many ways, like running up a line of corporate credit, inability to pay for healthcare at a corporate-owned clinic, as part of a court sentence, or agreeing to a term of Temp Debt in exchange for food and shelter. Contracts can be decades long. Many Temps don’t live long enough to see the end of theirs.
Outside of the corpos, people make a living however they can. Mercenary and assassin work is lucrative, especially in the Zone. Smuggling, drug dealing, theft, hacking, prostitution, and other illegal enterprises are the only ways to survive for many people. Those whose morals preclude them from entering the criminal underworld scrape and claw for every qumark but honest work mostly means barely surviving if they survive at all.
Midnight City’s ports are the busiest in the world and constantly moving industrial materials and consumer goods (and, off the books, people). While the city state’s GDP is among the highest in the world, a significant amount of money is lost to corruption - bribes, graft, and outright theft. As it has since the dawn of currency, the city state’s immense wealth accumulates at the top and stays there. There is no reinvestment in services or infrastructure as long as you’re outside the Domes.
FOOD
Midnight City's food supply is mainly homegrown in complexes of massive vertical farms, the majority of which are located in SeaTac. Meat is primarily lab grown; authentic beef, chicken, or pork from a living animal is rare and considered a status symbol for the wealthy. Areas such as the Zone still experience food deserts, and those citizens disproportionately rely on synthetic, processed, instant, pre-packaged food. Nutritional supplements and powdered 'complete meal' drinks are common fare, in lieu of access to fresh food and a balanced diet.
Popular fast food chains include Doublemeat Palace, Thai Hard, Shenzhou Wok, and Big Kahuna Burger. Just don’t ask what’s in the ground “beef”.
Midnight City’s food scene, regardless of ingredient quality, is heavily influenced by its longstanding population of East and Southeast Asian diaspora. Many varieties of noodle dishes, curries, dumplings, and meat skewers have gone through changes due to the availability of ingredients and fusion with other cuisines to become something wholly unique to Midnight City. Trucks and cheap stalls selling street food are extremely common, though there is little in the way of health inspection or regulation. The guiding hand of the Unseelie Court too has influenced the cuisine of the city, adding a Fae flair to the more upper-class culinary offerings.
ENTERTAINMENT AND MEDIA
Much of the populace seeks live and violent entertainment at the many arenas that dot the city. The Squad Combat League holds the title of the most viewed and most profitable sport not just in the city but globally. Smaller leagues for other types of combat including Mage Battles and traditional martial arts also draw significant crowds; in particular, the diaspora from Southeast Asia brought with them the ancient arts of Muay Thai and Lethwei.
Deathmatches are technically illegal within the city confines, and therefore held regularly in underground fighting rings in the Zone, abandoned industrial yards, and other areas isolated from the police’s prying eyes. Of course, a bribe is enough to get the Security Forces to look the other way, and it’s an open secret that the ultrawealthy host their own private deathmatches for the entertainment of dinner guests.
Aside from fighting, Midnight City has a vibrant music scene. Protest music inspired by the battles of the Azure Union against corporate injustice is a staple of dive bars in the Zone, and “Midcity Dub” is the genre of choice for the drug-crazed masses crammed into the trendiest clubs. Pacific Entertainment Group is a majority owner of every major music studio in the city and controls the mass-market pop music scene, with an assembly line of blandly pretty pop superstars waiting in the wings.
Pacific Entertainment Group also runs numerous movie, television, and BLISS studios out of the city. Just like with their music division, PEG exploits young and naive talents, putting them through a gauntlet of training programs, surgeries, and strictly regimented lifestyles in order to craft the ideal superstar. The stress of this strict image control, the abuses behind the scenes, and the often extreme behaviour of ‘devoted’ fans means most stars have a short run at the top. By the time the next big thing makes headlines, the names and the faces of the old are long forgotten.
TRANSPORTATION
Local transit is controlled by the Midnight City Transit Commission (MCTC). They operate the Metro, a light rail network that covers the majority of the city - when it’s working. The graffiti-tagged trains and stations are frequently sites of muggings and attacks. Armed Transit Marshals ride on each train, but they only exist to protect the driver, not the passengers. MCTC also operates a fleet of armoured buses to supplement the rail network. The buses are in just as bad of shape as the trains, and the drivers are authorized to use lethal force on hostile passengers.
Midnight City Cab Company (MC3) is the largest private transit service in the city, though many other private transit services also operate alongside them. There is no real regulation on these service providers so long as they kick back enough money to the Security Force. Book at your own risk.
Continental Rail runs regular high-speed rail service on the Continental Line with stops in Bay City and New Angeles to the south, and Halcyon City in the east.
Midnight City‘s many cargo ports along the shores of the Salish Sea are managed by the Midnight City Port Authority (MCPA). Drugs, people, weapons, and other illegal goods pass through these ports daily. Privately owned slips for cruise ships, yachts, and smaller civilian watercraft as well as a regular armoured hovercraft ferry service also operate from Midcity’s shores.
The Midnight City International Airport (Airport Code: MDC), located in the Whitecap district, offers direct and connecting flights worldwide. Flights to Halcyon City, New Angeles, Rome, Saint-Roland, Jincheng, Neo Tokyo, Amsterdam, Cathalham, Kangaba, Moskom, and more are offered daily. Kingfisher-class flights to the Shenzhou Spaceport for connections to Zeal and Pandora are included with the purchase of any orbital ticket package, if you’re rich enough to afford one.
EMERGENCY SERVICES
Health
Short on cash? Midnight City’s vast array of healthcare corporations also offer cash for blood and organs! Tissue donation is also accepted at many clinics and hospitals as part of a payment plan for other medical procedures. Talk to your hospital sales representative today to explore your options for monetizing your body.
Midnight City’s healthcare system is made up of private clinics and healthcare conglomerates ready to bankrupt anyone unfortunate enough to get sick. Denton Medical, BlueTower Health, MidirMedNet and several smaller corporations operate networks of hospitals and specialty clinics for those who can pay, but for those who can’t, they have to settle for chronically underfunded and understaffed nonprofits like Midcity General.
Case-Jensen Pharmaceuticals stocks MedVendors throughout the city, cheaply dispensing painkillers and antibiotics from vending machines, as well as Automated Clinic Terminals powered by AI for those who don’t have the cash to see a real doctor. The MedVendors are constantly ransacked by desperate addicts, and whether the subpar AI care is better than just downing a shot of whiskey and hoping for the best remains an open question.
All licensed EMS providers in Midnight City run armoured land and air ambulances by necessity, with drivers and lifebinders armed for their protection. But without a corporate plan or enough money to hire a dedicated Trauma Team, you’ll be lucky if an ambulance arrives at all.
Fire
The Midnight City Fire Department provides fire suppression and first-responder services throughout the city when the manpower is available. The MCFD makes heavy use of drones, but are consistently deployed to “priority” (read: wealthy) calls ahead of emergencies in places like the Zone. The corps push citizens to supplement MCFD service with a subscription to a private fire response service, claiming that the MCFD “cannot guarantee adequate response times” to all calls otherwise.
Police and Military
MCDF Commander-in-Chief: Marshal Jeik Rayburn
MCDF Security Force Commander: Security General Rama Sorndee
MCDF Expeditionary Force Commander: Expeditionary General Zoe Diaz
The Midnight City Defense Forces were formed after the conquest of SeaTac, when the powers that be decided it would be easier to merge the police force with the military occupation force. Now, the MCDF is both police and military under the same command. The Security Force (SF) is designated for “internal missions” and the Expeditionary Force (EF) is designated for “missions abroad”. The Expeditionary Force is further divided into three branches: Army, Navy, and Air Corps.
The Expeditionary Force employs roughly 40,000 full-time soldiers, sailors, and airmen and a further 15,000 part-time reservists. They operate out of three primary bases: MCFB Jericho located to the North of the city, MCFB Armitage between Midnight City and SeaTac, and MCFB Standen to the East of the city. The EF is rife with abuse, including the brutal hazing of new recruits and even experimentation on ‘problem soldiers’. The culture of the EF is dehumanizing, breaking soldiers down and building them back up into remorseless killers. When the EF is let loose on a target area, no one is safe. Indiscriminate looting and the wanton murder of civilians is common.
The Security Force employs approximately 20,000 full-time officers and 80,000 security contractors in 100 Precincts across the city, along with 50,000 android, drone, and heavy mechanized support units. SF officers are corrupt at every level, and the entire apparatus seems to run on bribes and even the outright robbery of the citizens. The security contractors are little more than warm bodies bought from the lowest bidder. There is no sense of discipline or even a genuine desire to help anyone. Most people join the SF because they want a license to beat whoever they want, whenever they want.