Martinaise

**Martinaise** is a location in *Disco Elysium*. It is a district of Revachol, the capital city of Le Caillou.

## Background

A very small district of Revachol, located north of the 8/81 raised motorway and Jamrock. It is a destroyed and poor area, that lacks in policing from the Revachol Citizens Militia and investments from the governing body of the Coalition of Nations. The area's architecture is a blend of eras, with the oldest building, the Dolorian Church of Humanity in Martinaise, dating back to its Ubi Sunt? settlers from 320 years ago.

In the time of Revachol the Suzerain, Martinaise was an independent province, developed into a workers' resort and R&D center by the indotribes The Wild Pines Group and FELD. As the Antecentennial Revolution gave rise to the Commune of Revachol, Martinaise would become one of the hotspots for revolutionary activity, with its communards building vast systems of interconnected underground bunkers, which served as weapon caches and propaganda broadcasters, and retrofitting the royal watchtower in the Martinaise Inlet into a Sea Fortress equipped with anti-aircraft artillery. The FELD Playback Experiment prototype, seized from the Feld R&D Center in west Martinaise, was used by the communards in order to promote the March Decree, the constitutional document of the commune.

In the year '08, as the socialist state of Graad fell and the Revolution drew to a close, the Coalition of Nations deployed Operation Death Blow over Revachol, with Martinaise being one of the primary targets for the warships' artillery. The district was indiscriminately shelled to ruin, though the Commune would officially last until the signing of the Revacholian Instrument of Surrender in '10, and communards would continue to fight in guerrilas against Coalition authorities until the '30s. After the establishment of the Revachol Zone of Control, under the authority of the Moralist International, the district was kept in ruins as a memorial, without investments in restoration and policing, attracting large amounts of organized crime and civil unrest. Over time, the commercial expansion of the Greater Revachol Industrial Harbour, owned and managed by Wild Pines, would cause the district's borders to clash against Martinaise's, creating the Harbour's Terminal B, and, in turn, giving rise to the Débardeurs' Union, an institution that protects the interests and rights of the Terminal's dockworkers.

By the '30s, the Union came under the control of the Claire brothers (Evrart and Edgar), who turned the organization into a *de facto* government for Martinaise. The Union secured the district with informal policing, combatting the local gangs and solving disputes. It also provided public services, such as a free-use phoneline in the Harbour secretariat. Finally, the Union would organize strikes, ensuring rights for the dockworkers under Wild Pines, including overtime pay and a medical plan. However, the Union also maintained a firm grip on the district, preventing a corporate renovation effort in the '40s, which was only able to install street lights and renovate the statue of King Filippe III before being muscled out.

In March 4th, '51, during the Union's largest strike against Wild Pines, the Krenel mercenary strikebreaker Ellis Kortenaer was killed by Iosef Lilianovich Dros, causing a large-scale incident that attracted widespread attention. In response to this, RCM officers Kim Kitsuragi, from Precinct 57, and Harrier Du Bois, from Precinct 41, were sent to investigate. This investigation culminated in a Union takeover of Terminal B, turning Martinaise into an independent and self-sufficient district, and inciting the rest of Revachol into a new Revolution - "The Return".

## Geography

The street grid of Martinaise is split into two major streets, which themselves split off from the 8/81 raised motorway: Rue de Saint-Ghislaine and Rue de Saint-Brune.

Rue de Saint-Ghislaine runs east of the Martinaise Inlet canal, intersecting into Roundabout North and leading cargo lorries into the Harbour. Notable features of the Rue are the Doomed Commercial Area (including the Whirling-in-Rags and Crime, Romance, and Biographies of Famous People), Capeside Apartments, the Bird's Nest Roy Pawnshop, and the Frittte kiosk.

Rue de Saint-Brune runs west of the canal, though it appears largely unpaved. Notable features of the Rue are the unnamed fishing village, the Feld Electrical R&D Center and another Feld building, the radio broadcast tower at Land's End, an abandoned fish market, and the Dolorian Church of Humanity. A scattering of informal housing blocks and dilapidated apartments surrounds the area, as do craters and bulletholes from the Revolution.

Underneath the district, a number of decrepit bunkers and tunnels connect these buildings, leading to a locked supply station in the Beachhead, which itself connects to the island fortress. The fortress stands out in the bay's horizon as the remains of its large anti-aircraft tower, now overgrown with vegetation.

## References

1. ↑ JOYCE MESSIER - "Martinaise is a district of Revachol." She looks around, her green raincoat flapping in the wind. "A very small district tucked away near the Industrial Harbour. North of the 8/81 and Jamrock."
2. ↑ NOID - "The crab-man's been lurking here for a while. He's experienced things. Things that give off \*bad sines\*. As far as we can tell, the Ubis built this place about three hundred and twenty years ago as a sarcophagus."
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 JOYCE MESSIER - "Before Martinaise was swallowed by the industrial harbour, even before it was part of Revachol -- long before Terminal B was erected here -- the Pines built it as a resort for its Revacholian employees."
4. ↑ TRANT HEIDELSTAM - "All of this was built by Feld, even the boardwalk. Wild Pines built Martinaise proper as a resort for their middle management, Feld built this side of town for R&D."
5. ↑ THE DESERTER - "There used to be a system that connected the bunkers. Tunnels and such. Under the church and... everywhere. Most of them are gone now, collapsed -- just bricks. All the old infrastructure has..."
6. ↑ SHIVERS - Collapsed storm drains. Old sewage systems flooded with rainwater. Hidden weapon caches from the Revolution. Doors leading down to Le Royaume -- the catacombs to which, for three centuries, they delivered the blue-blooded dead.
7. ↑ KIM KITSURAGI - "I think the purpose of this bunker was to produce propaganda. It would have had radio equipment back then, but that's all been looted."
8. ↑ LILIENNE, THE NET PICKER - "Mhm, used to be some kind of fortification there before the war -- for the communards. An anti-aircraft gun, I think. Bombed to bits in the landing... I haven't been there myself -- always steered clear of it."
9. ↑ TRANT HEIDELSTAM - "What's the March decree? I mean the radio transmission sent out to news agencies and world governments by the newly-created Commune of Revachol on the 7th of March in the year '02."
10. ↑ RENÉ ARNOUX - "Martinaise was used as one of the three footholds in Revachol during Operation Death Blow in '08. The other two are off in Stella Maris and the Delta." He points to the northeast.
11. ↑ YOU - "Where did it spread from there?"
JOYCE MESSIER - "From Revachol and Graad? Not far. The world managed to cauterize itself. Mazov's government was overthrown in '08, and the Coaltion crushed the Revachol commune two years later. It was \*The End\*."
12. ↑ THE DESERTER - "At least you know it." He nods toward Martinaise. "The traitors of this city turned the lights back on in the Thirties, after the fighting stopped. Ruins, glittering in the dark, like a fucking merry-go-round..."
13. ↑ JOYCE MESSIER - "The post-revolutionary decade was a disaster for the Coalition Government. Revachol in the Twenties was hell, especially on the west side of the river: gang warfare, a botched privatisation scheme, a nuclear pile meltdown..."
14. ↑ KIM KITSURAGI - "The Union does their share of policing in Martinaise, at least where gangs are concerned," the lieutenant replies instead. "That's why there isn't much organized crime around here."
15. ↑ SYLVIE - "People don't have the money to have the cables put in again. They use the Union's phone or the one on the coast."
16. ↑ JOYCE MESSIER - "Heavens, no. There have been \*two\* prior strikes. Both times the Union won significant concessions -- including overtime pay \*and\* a medical plan. This time their demands are more... I guess you could say \*aggressive\*."
17. ↑ KIM KITSURAGI - "They got as far as the street lamps and the statue on that intersection. Then something went sour." He lowers his voice. "I suspect that \*something\* was Evrart Claire -- the Union leader. He muscled them out. It's how it usually goes around here."
18. ↑  PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - It says: "Tensions rise in Terminal YC In light of the Débardeurs' strike in Terminal B, among representatives of heavy industry in Coal City..." you read.
19. ↑ YOU - "Wait, you mean The Return?"
KIM KITSURAGI - "Perhaps..." He pauses, deep in thought. "There are people who say the Zone of Control will not hold up long. They're not on the radio -- yet. But there are parties out there..."
TRANT HEIDELSTAM - "Yes." His face darkens. "I hear worries -- from systems analysts in Vesper and Messina. International risks departments in banks. People like that."
JEAN VICQUEMARE - "We've been hearing whispers in Jamrock too. Ever since fall. I agree that something is happening. People are tense. I hear a fan spinning. Fast. Something is about to hit it."