Quinello

Demographics

There isn’t much of a rich or poor neighborhood in Remeyae’s capital city. Even the houses of poor people look much like the houses of rich people. You can’t normally tell the difference between someone who’s poor and someone who just has a small family. So the least expensive houses have one bedroom, one bathroom, a living room, a kitchen, a front patio and a backyard, all average in size. The patio won’t be anything fancy, just a part of the foundation with a bit of the roof over it. With some support pillars, of course. The minimal square footage of a house here is 750 feet^2. Anything under that goes against local building regulation.

Government

The laws are mostly the same as the laws everywhere else in the country. The city can get quite crowded since it is the capital city, so there has to be regulations to keep the roads clear of pedestrians for horses and wagons. Just your typical, don’t walk in the road you could get hurt, kind of ordeal. Walking on an unblocked road could earn you a minor ticket, and a night in jail if you can’t pay the ticket. It’s not a serious offense, because an offender will really only be endangering themselves.

Defences

People have to go through checkpoints to get into the city, seeing as this is Remeyae’s capital city. The police at the river and road checkpoints check wagons, luggage, canteens, boats, and heavily dressed people. The last one seems a bit excessive, but they really just tell them to walk through a metal detector. It’s the same thing for luggage that the owners think of as sensitive. The police don’t check the canteens for poison, as there are many liquids that can be considered poisonous. They only check for flammable or explosive liquid like gasoline. On top of that, cars are banned if they run on gas. And officers patrol around the city to make sure people didn’t travel off the road. Unlikely, but it happens sometimes, always having broken off from the road before they could be seen.

Industry & Trade

Laborious jobs here include fishing, farming, building, maintenance and stocking. On the topic of maintenance, each house gets inspected every five years by maintenance groups. Now, home maintenance is mandatory and won’t cost home owners a piece. That doesn’t mean the maintenance crews aren’t getting paid, of course. It just means that their clients aren’t paying them. The government is. That’s an odd job that gives you right to say you work for the government, but it’s technically true seeing as they’re the ones paying. They just want the citizens to be safe. It’s the same thing for every large city in Remeyae.

Infrastructure

A simple list: aqueducts, sewers, fourteen clinics, three hospitals, six animal hospitals, maintenance services, residential neighborhoods, two soup kitchens, three animal shelters, one homeless shelter, two homeless camps, wide roads, storm drains, solar panel services, two churches, lightning rods, planters, ten public schools, two private schools, three water treatment plants, and a water recycling plant (don’t worry, the systems aren’t connected and they advise you only use the water for plants and don’t dump it in the river. You’ll be fined for doing that.)

Assets

There are some cosmetics salons. A couple of barber shops, and no barber shops don’t count as cosmetic salons, some people actually need their hair cut decently for work. There are a few pet groomers. There are inns and apartments. There are stables. Some people have small stores they sell jewelry at. There are a couple you can make your own jewelry at, but none of the material is expensive. There is a single pottery place that lets you make and paint pottery, with pottery on sale for you to paint if you don’t want to or can’t make it yourself. Some people will even offer to paint it for you for a price, but a couple might be feeling generous and help a kid paint theirs for free. There are thrift stores, and some hand off the merchandise that doesn’t sell to people in need. There are some grocery stores and a farmer’s market. Everything edible at the farmer’s market is either grown on the farms at the edge of the city or grown in peoples’ own gardens. Tickets can be sold there for events in town or even as far as the other side of the country. Most common are plays taking place in a nearby amphitheater or indoor stage, which usually star school aged children. Surprisingly, the plays are pretty good as long as you like the subject. Sometimes, though, it’s adult night. While not immediately inappropriate, the play during adult nights usually involve some dark themes that are too disturbing for children, or has some suggestive themes. And alcoholic beverages are sold. The place is well cleaned before another event.

History

Before weather resistant corn existed, the founder decided that a large city won’t really seem to take up much space when it’s in the middle of a place nobody wanted to inhabit. How right she was. For a long time after that, the river was the only source of transportation to and from the city, as the land was too hot to build roads and rest stops quickly. Eventually, though, it was done. Boatless travelers start their journey at dusk and begin resting from early to late morning. By 10, the temperature of the desert is normally at 92 degrees Fahrenheit, and it slowly but steadily rises until 2. By then, it’s about 104 degrees Fahrenheit. It doesn’t begin cooling down until 4. The point is, few people are crazy enough to travel through that without promise of shade and water, so not many people would care if there was a city in the middle of all of it. And by not care, again, I’m talking about space. Many people would flip if that was a sudden realization. Another thing to keep in mind is that the fish in the river are kind of aggressive, so most people are too scared to cool off while boating to the city. While others would just jump in the water for three seconds and get out as quickly as they can. There have been no reports of the fish being aggressive enough to kill someone, but there certainly are quite a few about someone being bitten, and having the scars to prove it. And a couple about the wounds being infected by parasites and the people dying from it months later. Those instances are rare, though. The fish don’t bite deep, if they bite at all. You’re more likely to get a bacterial or viral infection than get infected by worms. Unless it’s blood flukes. Now, in that case, you’re going to be scratching yourself up like a madman. It doesn’t matter what kind, blood flukes are disgusting creatures.

Architecture

The capital is located in the middle of a desert, so the primary building material is mud bricks. The water isn’t an issue, as there are two large rivers visible on the world map that meet where the city is. The desert isn’t entirely made of sand, either. There are rough patches of dirt here and there, and there’s a lot more dirt on the river banks. The residents recycle their corn ears so workers can use to bind the mud bricks.

Geography

Around the city you’ll see flat, sandy ground for about half a mile outward, and then hills will obstruct your view. The hills aren’t very tall, but are tall enough that you’d need to be on top of a three story house to see above them. On a clear day, you’ll be able to see far enough that instead of hills obstructing your view, heat waves are distorting it. On a not so clear day, why are you outside? You’re going to get dirt in your eyes and lungs!

Natural Resources

Dirt and sand as far as the eye can see. Which isn’t always very much, but still. The fish in the river have adapted to the dust storms that occasionally pop up, and can filter large amounts of fine particles from their gills. Fruit bearing cacti like to grow close to the river banks among other succulents, and the river is filled with seaweed. You’ll see some Mesquite trees out in the desert, but there are many more by the river. The pods on the trees are used to make flour. Lastly, at the edges of town, you’ll see large fields of corn. Rows upon rows of corn. The corn is used as a food source and the ears as mud brick binding.

Type

Capital

Population

927,463

Location under

Remeyae

Owning Organization

Remeyaen Government

Characters in Location

• Randy Quinello