Ark City

*"In small communities, such as my village, neighbours know one another and share a sense of responsibility for the common good. It seems that the more people who accumulate in an area, the greater the tendency is for those people to become fractious and prone to violence. No greater proof of this tendency is needed than the glowing craters that now exist where once overcrowded cities stood. Beware of too great a concentration of people in any one place - it makes us more dangerous to one another than ever."*

"𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰."

Ark City (also known as the North Atlantic Project and the Ark Colony) is a small artificial island located in the ‘middle’ of the North Atlantic Ocean. The **Arks** was used as a large, technologically advanced sheltermeant to safeguard a small portion of humanity in the event of an apocalyptic catastrophe, eventually doing so during the apocalypse war. It is considered to be a modern multicultural and thriving metropolis, overrun by corporations, corruption, organised crime and gang violence. It is known for its cool and overall unusual climate, as well as for its obscure history and odd, indigenous species of imported flora and fauna. By 2077, Ark City was voted the "Worst place to live in post nuclear world."

The Ark is the place you go where you'd worn out your welcome on the nice planets, but don't want to buy a tent and try your luck out in the literal wilderness. Yeah, City Centre is a pretty big step down from Quelmax Prime, but you can walk down a street, drink clean water and eat edible food, have some entertainment and not have to worry about the Secret Police summarily executing you with nanosaws for your outstanding warrant, because as far as the local fuzz is concerned all that hyperporn you were caught smuggling is someone else's problem.

As for the Corpos, doing business with the aliens and mutants means being able to keep tabs on things, and the customs checkpoint is basically a blank check to arm and equip themselves with hardware that humanity won't be able to copy for generations, if ever. And the galactic community as a whole tolerates, because having a nice little neutral jerkwater planet can be politically very useful.

## History

Ark City was established in the Atlantic ocean in 1994. Founded by a group of billionaires, engineers and celebrities, it was originally known as Fame City before its renaming in 1998.

Ark City has wide streets and dense urban skyscrapers which are home to almost seven million people by 2087. It operates as a city-state, officially owning the title of Free City, and with the Novus Corporation having almost complete control over it. This metropolis is considered a thrilling and exciting location to visit, as well as an interesting and vibrant place to live for those of means, and a hellscape to the city's disenfranchised; its world famous slogan is "The City on the Edge of Tomorrow", and more recently "The City of Dreams". Technologically triumphant over the troubles of the past world, a combination of cultures of the Old World, and a new beginning of the NUSA; Ark City is now.

Ark City was the brainchild of Richard House, a successful businessman who during the 1990s was concerned by the violence and disruption of the impending Collapse. Working mainly on corporate-funded projects soon started not to be enough for him, and seeing himself in an uniquely position to deal with the problem, Richard started a side company known as Promethean International, and began to plan an ideal new city — an environment that would be controlled and would be ultimately safe from the ravages tearing the world apart. His new city would be completely planned, self-sufficient, and capable of holding off even the most determined marauders. It would boast planned neighbourhoods dedicated to preserving the feel of different types of nationalities and cultures, as well as a super-modern corporate centre that would stand as a shining beacon of enlightened capitalism. It was ambitious, far-reaching, and visionary in its approach

House secured an unheard amount of capital needed to finance the gargantuan project. With the Collapse, many corporations were looking to establish their own urban areas - controlled zones free of crime, poverty or debt. A place where governments would be corporate-run, allowing optimum zoning and no anti-business elements to interfere with corporate growth. Ideally, it would be a capitalist mecca of opportunity. House's dream city was tailor-made for their purposes and so he provided the design and construction capacities. By 1992, over fifty corporations signed on with house.