#wall if

Header: @antisocialxconstruct​ (me!)

Story: Annibale Siconolfi

Features: Benjamin Bardou

Disclaimer: Jordy Meow

Early Settlement Period

The earliest iteration of Wall was a carefully planned community intended to use the available space as efficiently as possible while still allowing some room for future expansion. Despite having a habitable area of only about 3 acres, the use of high-density housing complexes meant the town was expected to be able to support approximately 8,000-10,000 people comfortably.

Points of interest:

1) Central distribution facility - direct elevator access between the city and the primary warehouse complex inside the seedfield, which sits at a higher elevation than the rest of the city.

2) City hall - situated in the center of the city, this was intended as a meeting place for the citizens for various events and programs, as well as an open forum for people to voice their interests and opinions on city operations.

3) Hydroelectric dam - a primary source of electrical power for the city, also often used as an outdoor gathering place due to the atmosphere of the waterfall and abundance of flora and open space around it.

4) Courier stations - city authorities had a three-checkpoint courier service which was responsible both for transporting resources throughout the city as well as facilitating communication between citizens.

5) Auxiliary storage and record-keeping - a dual-purpose complex which took advantage of the cooler temperatures at the city’s perimeter to store perishables and maintain a server farm holding a library of preserved old-world knowledge.

6) School campus - a full block of the city was dedicated to educational services, intended to raise citizens from childhood to working age and then provide trade education

7) Theater - a secondary public meeting space, less official than city hall and used largely for holiday gatherings and entertainment.

Hub entrances - the hubs themselves are underground and connected through a network of foot tunnels, with entrances from the street at regular intervals throughout the city. The cooler underground space allows the hubs to operate more efficiently, while the heat they output is channeled upward to provide warmth to the city overhead.

Present Day

Although the exact details are no longer widely agreed on, disagreements over Wall’s operations led to a schism in leadership some 250 years ago, which compounded into a complete breakdown of the “planned community.” Despite gradual cooling of the terrain and a marked decrease in soil viability, the population has continued to grow exponentially, and although no census has ever been taken, estimates of the current population range anywhere from 300,000 on the conservative end to potentially as high as 700,000.

Points of interest:

1) CenFac and keeper barracks - the seat of keeper authority in the market district, and the only line of access to the city stores on the other side of the wall.

2) River distribution checkpoint - the main point of trade and communication between the keepers and river district representatives. Despite any conflict elsewhere in the city, an uneasy truce exists at this location.

3) Outer distribution checkpoint - the main point of contact for trade and communication between the keepers and the outer district residents. Also typically serves as salvage storage while the value of outer district trade goods is being assessed.

4) Night market - once a month, three streets are converted into an outdoor market for four nights. This is an incredibly popular social event in the market district, as well as a highly sought-after opportunity for tradespeople to reach new customers.

5) Kaori’s shop

6) Ozzy’s home and workshop

7) Temple’s studio

8) “The bottleneck” - generally regarded as the furthest western point in Wall that is still comfortably livable, although there are believed to be at least two hundred people living beyond this point.

Hub entrances - as surface area became more scarce, many people moved below ground to make their homes in the tunnels around the hubs, where it is often slightly warmer than above. As a result many of the foot tunnels are now inaccessible.

District Territories

Market District: roughly the northern half of the city, fully under the jurisdiction of the keepers. The market district contains six hubs, as well as the entirety of CenFac, and keeper patrols ensure that no new construction can obstruct the major arteries allowing passage between CenFac, the hubs, and the distribution checkpoints.

River District: roughly the southern half of the city, with no centralized authority. The river district contains eight hubs, as well as almost the entirety of the river which flows from the hydroelectric dam (note: they do not have any control of the dam itself, as the height of the wall exceeds the maximum 12 stories of the structures around it). The major arteries in the river district are not strictly maintained and have been known to shift over time, however a clearance of 15 feet over the river is generally enforced to allow clear passage by skiff from the east to west end.

Contested Areas: The border between the market and river districts is somewhat nebulous, and can often come down to who is present in a particular area on a given day. A block at the eastern end has been a point of conflict, as both sides would like to secure control of one of the major core structures and the nearby hub. At the moment, the keepers have strengthened their hold on the core structure by populating the building with their own employees, however the river district maintains control of the hub. At the western end, the keepers have tentatively pushed their way south in an attempt to control the entire outer district border, in order to minimize salvage trade going into the river district. The incursion has been largely not tolerated by the river district.

The Outer Districts: Although the divisions are less clearly defined, the outer districts are generally split into the bottleneck, and the outer edge. The outer edge will sometimes be split between the northern and southern halves for ease of referencing where particular salvage originated.