Thread: [WB] The Undercity, world building projcet (Currently being remoddled)

So what I want to do with this is have a gradually building world that sci-fi fans like me contribute to. You can build on the world of the Undercity, and it's environments, races, factions, etc. The only things you need to bring is respect for what others have contributed, your imagination and a willingness to let other build on your ideas or let yours be built on. If you're going to criticize anything do it nicely, give your reasons, and offer some suggestions. If you want to contribute anything from an image you think will fit something to a new piece of lore please talk to me and we'll make some magic happen. Anyone can use this as an RP setting. Any images are not owned by the users unless stated otherwise. In the year 2801 Earth is no longer one little Island in the black ocean of space and humans no longer live on it alone. Now, it Is one of the terminals of vast empire. Humanity stretches out to the stars, and the Sol Confederation now stretches out into the stars and throughout the galaxy. They have encountered many races along the way, some have become allies, some have become partners, others have become slaves. Incorporated into the Conglomerate by trickery or force. The cities of Earth have grown until it covers the planet. Not great towers soar up miles into the sky, up in the heavens where the rich and affluent live, and in the is middle city, the working class and the moderately successful continue with the drudgery of faceless, thankless work that allows the gears of empire to grind on. The poor however, the outcasts, the downtrodden, the forgotten, they fall down past the bottom rung. From the Surface to four miles up. This dark and degenerate part of the city called Earth never sees the light of the sun. It has its own climate, its own weather system, and its own rules. For the billions who live here there is no law, or order, accept what they make for themselves, with the gang, the cartels, and the micro-states of the Undercity. Blocks The under city is divided into blocks approximately twenty five miles 40.2km by twenty five miles by two miles square. Each block is one of 100 blocks in a Super Block. Block are subdivided into Sub-Blocks of about one by one by two miles square. Each block is sometimes dominated by a particular racial group but most are a mixed up mess. Often, one gang or group will dominate a sub-block or two, but only the bigger gangs and organizations control whole blocks or more, so far no one has managed to control an entire super block. The consistency of the blocks very, some are taken up entirely by remains of earth oceans, now trapped under a shell of city. Trapped in a cafe of perma-crete and steel, life has taken a strange turn as it evolved to meet this new dark existence only lit by the faint artificial glow from the city above, or from the underwater settlements inside it. Others are given over entirely to old industrial complexes, and some are even to this day walled off and secure as bunkers for the rich and power of the skyline if all else goes wrong, or as depots for military munitions in case earth should ever come under attack. EARTH GOV IN THE UNDERCITY The government of Earth has next to no presence in the Undercity. So far down, where people generally do not know or care about what goes on, only the bare necessities is done due to the efforts of the few who care, or simply due to old laws that are easier to perform than to remove from the books. Free Clinics Open Clincs It is hardly even a drop in the yawning abyss of the Undercity. These small, understaffed and under funded clinics, manned by a few kind souls from the middle and upper city and the worlds beyond. They brave the darkness to help save lives do their best with what they have. May of them come from charities, religious organizations like the Terran Orthodox Church. Some are military criminals or desperate medical students who tradded time below for free tuition. Generally these clinics are considered neutral territory and are by default under the protection of the local power because of how necessary their services are, generally. If the Balance of power should change, however, clinic staff, and their stores of drugs especially, are often spoils of war. Carted off to be sold or put to work as another commodity in the Undercity. Earth Lowcity Police Police in the Undercity are less like police, and more like soldiers, to put it kindly. Regular officers down in the Undercity live and work inside fortified police stations deigned to withstand full-scale assaults by gangs or Undercity militia. When police officer deploy for operations or patrols they are fully armed and armored. They travel with armored patrol vehicles for protection and to hold prisoners and sometimes even an overhead patrol craft providing air cover. The men down here are retiring SWAT officers, veteran street cops from the Middle City, and rejects who got shoved off on one department after another until they hit bottom. They are hardened, stoic, and it's a coin toss on weather a given precient is run clean by a honest captain, or even worse than the local gangs they are are supposed to be controlling. After all, at least the criminals have to live down there, the police of the undercity get to leave eventually. Although they are encouraged to arrest they are authorized to shoot to kill and often do so. Only the most powerful cartels and militias would dare to retaliate and it would be impossible to arrest and process every criminal they run into. Although they are not as well armed as the military. They are better armed then almost all those they protect in the undercity. Earth Planetary Defense A dangerous as the gangs and militia can be, or as well armed as the police are, none of them compare to the Planetary Defense Force. Better armed and trained then anyone. They guard a handful of high security bunkers, RnD labs, training bases, and ancient depots throughout the Undercity. Even the bravest and most ruthless would consider it not just suicidal but stupid to try and break into one of these facilities. Guarded by power armored Mobile Infantry carrying high powered X ray lasers than can cut you down through half a foot of concrete, or auto turrets that shoot anything without a friend or foe tag on site, even the police give them a wide berth. GANGS, CARTELS, AND MICROSTATES In the Undercity the law and order of the upper levels does not penetrate any more than sunlight. The only law is what the people who live down there make for themselves. For the most part the gangs and the cartels make the rules. Often one or more gangs or cartels will claim part of a block, Running a racket and doing what the please accept when the heavily armed and armored Undercity Police patrols come through. Sometimes the gangs and cartels are powerful enough to control one or more blocks like small countries, running, administering, and employing everyone in the block. Effectively owning it. This is most often true if the gang or cartel is a part of an interstellar crime organization. These criminals are fighting with each other almost constntly for one thing or another and territory is blurry and ever changing with few hard boarder. The Gangs The gangs are diverse. Coming from every possible background. Many gangs will fracture along these lines, with some only being open to aliens, or humans, or Buddhist or Havrasi, or homosexual or straight beings, or female supremacists or or genderless aliens who think creatures of a binary sex are freaks. The gangs divide along every possible line of separation and countless numbers of them are constantly waging turf wars across the blocks. Only the strongest are able to control any territory permanently and make it a semi-secure base. Even for those that do, infighting is common. CALBA TRIBE Calba Tribe is Run by Mira Calba and are a self styled tribe of Amazon's who control a block on the Northern Boarder of the Holdstead Republic. They are known to work as mercenaries and to raid parts of the Undercity outside their territory for male and female slaves and female new recruits. Although they do not think much of men they do think very highly of honorable and skilled warriors of any race or gender. They do not raid the Holdsted republic to avoid any confrontations with its allies. SORGA'S CLAN Sorga's Clan is a clan of Vollas run by the family Sorga. They live in villages about half a mile above ground level between buildings. They work as mercenaries, spies, bodyguards, assassins, and couriers for the people of the Undercity. They are known for their professionalism as they never disclose information on their clients unless you pay very very very well and they like you and they always deliver on their contracts. SHARK FINS The Shark Fins are a gang of spliced who all have distinctly animal traits. They are known to run gladiatorial tournaments where they pit spliced humans against vicious alien creatures. They are led by a hulking and vicious Spliced who resembles a humanoid great White Shark. The Cartels The cartels are generally better organized and funded than the gangs and will often hire the gangs as extra muscle. Unlike the gangs whos' ideology is as various as their numbers the cartels are usually in it only for profit, and use the Undercity and the blocks they control as basses of operation for smuggling, drug making, human trafficking, and other illegal activities. BLOOD TITHE CARTEL The Blood Tithe Cartel is one of the most hated groups in the Undercity. They deal strictly in the humanoid trade and not just slaving either but organ farming and as a cover for groups or individuals, with the right money, who wish to conduct illegal human experimentation. They control seven blocks and at the center is half a block almost entirely consisting of slave markets, body shops, splicing parlors, brothels, and anything else degrading to intelligent beings. EVIL SUN Evil Sun is an interstellar Crime syndicate started in the Undercity of Earth, it one of the largest and most powerful of such organizations in the galaxy with its fingers and toes in every kind of illegal operation. It also controls one of the largest areas in the Undercity, a massive 64 blocks is considered their territory,. Its members are marked with a Dark Red Sun tattoo on their shoulder, they have an arrangement with the Skasin District for access to their landing field, they have an unoffical arrangment with the Holdsted Republic as well. Microstates Anyone not within direct line of sight of a Police Station in the Undercity is usually at the mercy of criminals, assuming that your outside a good station that hasn't reached an accommodation with the local boss. Some of the Undercity's citizens have, because of this, banded together for protection and developed small city states that are more or less bubbles of law and order. These very in size from a sub block, to sometimes several blocks and are usually controlled by a loose form of civil government and policed and protected by militia who more or less keep the gangs and cartels out depending on their strength SKASIN DISTRICT One of the largest and best organized of the many city-states that cover the Undercity. It consists of twelve blocks directly underneath the skylines market district, and inside its boundaries is one of the few Undercity civilian landing fields on Earth. These blocks are where a huge concentration of poor or disfranchised Skasin immigrants on Earth live. Many of these Skasins were terrorists, rebels, former military, or political activists forced to flee their home after the COnfederation's conquest of their planet. As a result, the quickly developed a ruthlessly effective militia and a government to orginize and control their territory. The Market DIstrict Guard, as it is officially called, is mostly hardened fighters who are used to bloody street fighting and unconventional warfare. The Skasins themselves have few restrictions on warfare and they are not above using weapons and tactics that make even the cartel mercenaries flinch. On top of that they are very well armed to and few gangs are cartel's would challenge them directly. This district is one of the few places in the Undercity that can be considered safe as a result of strict rule enforcement by the militia and strict boarder control with a series of customs inspections and checkpoints for people going in and out and official passes for all permanent resident of the district. The population is primarily human and Skasin. They are allied with the Holdstead Republic and Evil Sun Cartell, making one of the most lethal alliances in the Undercity as well. HOLDSTEAD REPUBLIC The Holdstead Republic received its name from the Holdstead building at its center. The building was once the Capitol of Earth but has since been built on top of. It is a large and relatively safe Microstate that benefits from being a trading hub in the undercity and a larger than average concentration of free clinics and ULP stations. Early on, the Republic lucked out by having a pragmatic and honest group of Police captains who provided support to the budding Republic. They gave security to Republican City Council and provided training to the Miltia. Working together, they managed to make a bubble where Earth law could actually exsist as, with a few concessions such as prostitution, the ULP and the militia enforce the law as is even have a basic court system. Although actions such as the Hostead and Skasin district alliance has tested the relationship between the micro-state and the ULP it has held strong and made one of the few places in the undecity that thrives. B BLOCK B Block is a single block that has no government but a loose alliance of the people in the block for defense against slaver and gangs. The block received its name because it is both Block 1B and the occupants of the block are mostly human of African descent. The block is most famous for the B Block incident. RACES There are countess races living in the Undercity and here are a few. SKASINS Skasins are a race of aliens that look very much like humans, they have dark grey skin, yellow, green, or orange eyes and orange blond hair. Unlike humans they do not grow hair all over their bodies, only on their heads, armpits, and groin. They are on average the same height as humans and about as strong. Their vision, especially in low light area is not as good though. They do however have thicker skin that is more resilient to cuts and scrapes, and especially burning and blistering. Although they seem to be very human, on the outside. They're reproductive organs are the major difference. The Males of the species have internal tests and the penis posses erectile tissue, but also a cartilage spine, which achieve erection. The females possess a pseudo penis of soft erectile tissue, which must become erect to allow penetration and copulation leading to a myth that Skasins are hermaphroditic. They come from a rather hot world that supports an unusual number of volcanoes because of a thin planetary crust, and a thinner ozone layer which allowed in more radiation from the sun. They have a very communal culture that has a deep respect of woman and maternity and gender equality equal to that of human society. Though it does see the role of child-rearing primarily the work of woman this is also seen as a very important duty, with a common joke being that the woman don't trust the men to do it. They have much diffrent standards of modesty than humans and nudity above the waist for both sexes is not considered immodest. Although, much like humanity, traditional elements of their society reject homosexuality the stanards are again diffrent. Skasins only consider a sexual relationship homosexual, same sex couples can be openly in a non-physical relationship is not consodered in anyway taboo. It should be noted, however, that homosexuality by Skasin standards is still largly accepted. They primarily follow a religion that believes the universe was created by one, genderless being who made all things form his blood. They recognize that their are other gods but do not think they deserve worship and believe them to be generally malevolent. HUMANS Regular old average humans, although they might suffer from some minor mutations or splicing its nothing so extreme that they need to be called a separate species. GROM Grom are very interesting because of the striking difference between the two sexes. The females look very much like human females accept for their dark green skin, and a line of bone ridges running across their nose. Often human find them very attractive. The males however are several inches taller than human males, large, stocky, extremely strong, and often have an excess body fat. The bones of this species are extremely strong and dense making them heavier then they look. They reproduce in much the same way as humans and sterile hybrids are possible. In their society males are often dominant and females are seen as little more than property. They worship Havras, the god of plunder and they hold to strict code of plunder. You do not take from dying or the sick, for they cannot defend their property, so it cannot be truly plundered. You do not take a mans woman unless you kill him first, nor do you take his property unless you have first beat him into submission and brutal if vaguely noble concepts. VOLLAS The population on Earth was started by a group of slaves brought to the planet and escaped into the Undercity. Vollas are very lithe and agile aliens. Coming from an Avian ancestry, they have hollow bones which makes them more fragile but extremely light and quickly the small talons in their toes as well as larger ones on a lesser set of arms that make them excellent climbers allowing them to make the most of the decaying Undercitys landscape. they are relatively short for a humanoid race, standing only about 4'9 tall on average. Unlike many humanoids, they are not sexually dimorphic as they have no genders, being are asexual Although they possess what could be called a penis and a cloaca but they only have one set of reproductive organs as reproduction as achieved by the joining of cells that cannot be considered either an egg or a sperm. They also do not take exclusive sex partners, and mating and reproduction are seen as separate things, so it is not uncommon for them to take non Vollas sexual partners to avoid impregnation when they are not seeking reproduction. Their society does not recognize any genders, gender roles, or boundaries, so such concepts are very odd to them if they are not used to interacting with other races. They have a diverse pantheon of gods that most other species find hard to grasp. They primarily worship a goddess of fertility, their only gendered god and is believed to have been taken from some earth religion. SPLICED Splicing, is the act of introducing foreign DNA into a persons gene code, generally these changes are minor, such as increased eye sight, even venomous fangs, or improved strength. The introduction of animal features is not uncommon, many people have a fetish for it and some are addicted to splicing. Although Spliced genes generally do not carry over to children. Some highly spliced individuals can and have, overtime, been bred into communities of spliced, often those kept as slaves for one reason or another, until they can now be considered a separate species of half human half animals, or who knows what else. Fren The Fren are a race of hermaphroditic aliens from a small planet on the edge of known space. Although their race has a sense of being biologically superior to all others. The recognize that they cannot assert their superiority through military conquest and so try to conquer other races in a different way. Instead they try to assimilate other races into their by interbreeding. Since there is a two in three chance any children they have will be hermaphrodites, and a one in six chance it will skip a generation. over the course of many generation the Fren can slowly interbreed into a population until eventually it will be complete absorbed into their own, and they move onto the next. Currently they are trying to do this to the Skasin, resulting in a sizable minority of earths Skasin population to actually be hermaphrodite Fren-Skasin. The Fren assimilate a species by reproducing with in them and passing on the specific genetics that makes a hermaphrodite and a Fren. Fren-Human, for example, appear as human females with thin, long and slender arms and legs, and fully functional reproductive organs, for both sexes. Despite rumors to the opposite, Fren0hybrids are usually less well endowed then a male of the species. Pure Fren will often try to begin Assimilation by maximizing the number of times they can reproduce, whether by planting their material in sperm or egg banks, or simply doing it as nature intended. Although the pure bred Isla are known to primarily worship a deity known as Fren a deity of fertility and creation, as well as the Deity Grom, representing war and virility and destruction they worship a few others as well. Hybrid Fren, such as Fren-Skasin or Fren-Human, are known to amalgamate these gods with those of their other parent race. GrulinaFemale on the left The Grulina are a race of large, hulking aliens with a strong warrior culture, who often work as mercenaries in the Undercity. They're origins are unknown and little is known about their culture and society besides the fact that that there are no known cases of natural reproduction by this species. They reproduce by capturing women or purchasing female slaves and forcing them into pits where they are forced to fight to the death with the survivors being removed and being converted into Grulina females, this results in slight variations based on their original species but overall, their appearance is unmistakable. It is unknown if they have any memories of their past selves after conversion. CLIMATE AND NATURE IN THE UNDERCITY The Undercity plays host to many interesting and strange forms of flora and fauna, some of them aliens, many of them dangerous. Some areas are covered by forests of glowing mushrooms three or four feet tall, giant spiders that walk across polluted lakes and live off of mutated fish. And rumors of intelligent moss and kingdoms of technologically advanced rats. It climate is also unique with storms of warm water or hale, cause by malfunctioning and ancient climate tech that causes odd and sometime predictable weather, like the annual flooding of the old Amazon river. Their is also more dangerous natural, or rather unnatural disasters, such as city quakes and cave ins caused by parts of the Undercity finally rotting out and giving way. Streetlight Mushrooms Native to those parts of the under city underneath environmental control facilities in the levels above. This mutated strand of mushrooms grows long stalks about one foot in diameters and five to twelve feet tall. Notable for their phosphorescence that makes them resemble street lights. Although not edible, they have been transplanted to many parts of the undercity to replace inoperable street lights, lending to their name. IMPORTANT EVENTS B Block Incident The B block Incident was caused when three women form the Skasin block were kidnapped, raped, and murdered by Grom who worked for the blood tithe out of B Block The Block was unable to give them up so in retaliation the Skasins mined the block with IED's. the blood tithe moved in to protect their interests and the Evil Sun sent its men to help the Skasin Defense Force. The confrontation continued to escalate over several months until almost an entire super block was caught up and even the police could no longer safely patrol the streets. Eventually several police stations were destroyed when the cartels and gangs hoping to get an edge with police weapons. The violence eventually flowed up into the Middle City and then twenty thousand Mobile Infantry were finally sent in to end the violence and enforce order. It was the only time in memory that, for a few weeks, an entier super-block was quiet. They Did eventually leave though dozen's more police precients were constructed, more fortified than ever, and fresh attention ment more money and officers were pumped into the Undercity. Never the less, it was business as usual, though thousands of people were now dead and the Undercity was given a fresh reminder not to attract the attention of the people up top where the sun shines. Last edited by a moderator Sep 23, 2022