Potomac
Potomac is a city on the lost world Calera, capital and economic center for one of the two major state societies on the planet.
Most transport is done by walking or horse-drawn wagons, in recent years a few companies have sprung up manufacturing automobiles from local chassis and imported drivetrains. Electrification, limited before recontact, has hit its stride with the commissioning of a nuclear reactor run by local engineers overseen by offworld consultants.
The spaceport is located outside the city, near the original site of recontact. Surrounded by a security fence, it features an open tarmac and no docking cradles—ships landing there cannot expect easy repair and resupply. As an off-grid planet, most visitors are frontier traders and the occasional Star Patrol warship. Also near the spaceport are facilities for the local garrison of Peacekeepers. This small unit is responsible for tamping down brushfire conflicts that threaten to escalate to wars, overseeing humanitarian operations, and screening new arrivals for restricted technologies.
Geography
Located on the coast, Potomac's seaside site gives ready access for transport conducted by sailing ship, or (increasingly in modern times), steamer. To the north is a flooded crater about a kilometer across, taking a divot out of the coastline and surrounded by mangled technological ruins; it is thought this was the site of Calera's first colony, the one whose destruction knocked it back to a preindustrial state. Several hundred kilometers to the south is Antietam, capital of the other nation-state, founded by people who left Potomac some decades into its rebuilding. A river, running west into the Potomac Territories, is a prime means of shipment to and from the countryside.Municipality
The wooden shacks of the early days have given way to brick buildings, some over a dozen stories high. The center of Potomac State industry, its skyline is crowded with smokestacks and an acrid black smoke hangs over the city even when the wind is blowing. Attempts at modernization and infrastructure expansion by humanitarian and uplift organizations are slow due to the crude state of local technology, budget issues, and Perelandra Protocol concerns regarding misuse of advanced devices. Thankfully, the citizens of Potomac did not forget germ theory and the city maintains a basic but functional network of sewers.Most transport is done by walking or horse-drawn wagons, in recent years a few companies have sprung up manufacturing automobiles from local chassis and imported drivetrains. Electrification, limited before recontact, has hit its stride with the commissioning of a nuclear reactor run by local engineers overseen by offworld consultants.
The spaceport is located outside the city, near the original site of recontact. Surrounded by a security fence, it features an open tarmac and no docking cradles—ships landing there cannot expect easy repair and resupply. As an off-grid planet, most visitors are frontier traders and the occasional Star Patrol warship. Also near the spaceport are facilities for the local garrison of Peacekeepers. This small unit is responsible for tamping down brushfire conflicts that threaten to escalate to wars, overseeing humanitarian operations, and screening new arrivals for restricted technologies.
History
Early records are spotty, as Caleran survivors in the immediate post-bombardment aftermath were more concerned with securing their next meal than leaving notes for posterity. But it is likely survivors from the first settlement dispersed into the countryside and Potomac arose later as a trading hub. This status also led to knowledge concentrating there, and it was the first to pioneer the revival of many lost technologies, such as steam engines. In the modern day it is an industrializing metropolis of about 100,000 people.
Location under
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