Earth City

refers to a historical, planned megacity and North American unincorporated area established north of contemporary, "Old St. Louis," Missouri located along Interstate 70 and the intersection of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Established in the twenty-first century as a commercial development region in St. Louis, population drift and climate change reduced land use leading the city to return its northern face to federal government oversight.
Following major human conflicts in the , the region received considerations for megacity development and at one point was a world capital contender for the following the . Such proposals met rejection and the area remains dilapidated and underdeveloped with sparse populations, isolated megastructure development, and mixed-use wilderness and farmland.
==History==
===Depopulation Trends===
Like much of North America, the city of St. Louis and Missouri territory saw significant depopulation trends following the Interplanetary War and the advent of interstellar travel in the late 23rd century with the invention of the (). Circumstance and events of particular note for three-to-five generations of many North American residents, and later descendants, include the dissolution of the United States of America (USA) in the late 21st century following the "Big One," an quantum AI "storm" which devastated integrated computer and network infrastructure in the country's central and eastern regions. It is believed the quantum storm which connected and encrypted any accessible electronics also led into the eventual due to resulting societal upheaval.
In the late 21st and 22nd centuries, the so-called "Earth City" was a small component of St. Louis's northern downtown located along the Missouri River, made up primarily of economic and warehouse zoning. The opposing side of the river was dominated by high-yield, industrial farmland. Despite Earth City's advantageous location, the Missouri River in this part was too narrow for commerce/bulk barges along with many pedestrian and vehicle bridges limiting trade access and use. Floods were semi-regular along this section of the Missouri River, known as the "Big Muddy's" flood cycle.ArcGIS Storymaps: The Missouri River's Infamous Floods, Kyle Thomas Kreager (2020) Between every thirty and sixty years, the Missouri River experienced peak flooding and additional extreme conditions due to consequences of runaway climate change. On multiple occasions when flood-management infrastructure failed, particularly the Big One quantum storm, and suspension of Missouri state controls during the second civil war affecting the national power grid, Earth City and St. Louis experienced notable depopulation responses for a decade or more in length.
Earth City's name remained due to its novelty, eventually incorporating the surrounding northern region of St. Louis which fell into economic decline following the second civil war and urban dilapidation gave way to nature reclamation along the Missouri riverbanks. Moderate luck remained with St. Louis's destiny as more significant conflicts emerged in the mid-22nd century with the Rainforest Wars and then the Interplanetary War. With the emergence of asteroid warfare, architectural trends on Earth, especially North America which saw multiple asteroid strikes in the Interplanetary War, trended towards bigger, reinforced buildings constructed down to bedrock called "archologies" designed to protect against many forms of disaster, even cataclysms up to but not including a direct hit.
St. Louis avoided direct action during these conflicts as well and continued a mostly safe existence as a "third-tier" business commerce and residential city. Such a reputation would not protect the city from depopulation trends as access to new colonial planets in the Domus Diaspora opened up and allowed millions of families opportunities to escape politics and violence of the old history and systems of the Sol system. Interstellar colony corporations acted particular towards potential colonists for their new planets and tended to accept individuals of affluent background and sought after industrious skills to help establish new colonies. Such trends, along with depopulation, steadily decreased and blunted the economic competitiveness of North America, especially against the new economic powers of Africa.
===Dreams in Diaspora===
==Gallery==
DT Star Trek Iowa.jpg|The hinterlands of northern St. Louis quickly retreated into deindustrialized squalor.
DT marathon arena skyview 4k.jpg|A pristine but abandoned geofront on the Missouri River.
DT Traxus Combine White.png|Traxus was among the few corporations operating in Earth City during the Covenant War.