Downtown

It’s the hub of the city—the nexus of avenues and traffic and trains and people, all coming together to form the beating, bleeding heart of the metropolis. Downtown is a conglomerate of glistening, larger-than-life glass skyscrapers and lower, yet equally enormous, ornate stone buildings, at least half a century old but well looked after.
While matters of governance and civil operation may take place on Beacon Hill, since 1846 Downtown has been the true seat of the City's power, where corporate giants, banks, and government officials rub elbows. Anything meaningful in business happens here, with the top financial and legal firms, major bank branches, and corporate headquarters all tucked conveniently next to each other. With such power comes corruption, and Downtown is no exception - its stench lingers wherever you go.
Everything is buzzing with hurriedness and purpose, as everyone rushes about trying to get things done and not be overwhelmed by the frantic pace of activity. So caught up in their own activities, none of them are actually present; it’s all about functionality, ticking the checkbox, moving on to the next task. Time seems to speed up when you’re downtown, and the people blur into streaks of muted colours. It’s a city on amphetamines. And it never stops, day or night.
A handful of well-established luxurious hotels and expensive art-deco residential towers accommodate the rich and powerful, with all the luxury, security, and anonymity money can buy. And it is from their lofty towers that these modern-age queens and kings, along with their advisors and emissaries, play a multi-faceted game of chess where the City’s residents are the pawns.
It remains perhaps the perfect and purest example of how ignorant the masses are of the true nature of things. Rifts that operate downtown often sense that the Mist is strongest here. While this may be a subjective impression, there’s no arguing that the constant bombardment of stimuli here makes everyone more prone to absentmindedness - perfect for legendary Rifts seeking to conceal their actions.
This had lead to a clandestine struggle in the highest echelons of the glass-and-steel towers, a battle that carries down to street level and into the sewers beneath. Ancient secrets are traded for power. Artifacts from antiquity are exploited to damage enemies. Adversaries are tricked, betrayed, abused, murdered—bodies float down sewer tunnels, blood is mopped up from the floors of executive bathrooms, maddening ciphers are buried in Powerpoint presentations.