The Capital Underground
Those living in the Capital would think of them, if they thought of them at all, as parasites in the gut, never considering the true nature of the Capital’s construction. Only the Keepers now recognized the old bones for what they were, ancient steel ribs and fiberglass organs, a ship so massive even Colossus III would be dwarfed. The nobles did not know that, once, the so-called underground, where the poor and destitute were left to rot, was once a haven to all their shared ancestors. - The Journal of Keeper Nicholas of the Temple High Order
Summary
Beneath the shining Capital city of the Inner Ring, a forgotten behemoth teems with life. Few know how the Capital was built, and fewer still understand the scope of the project, turning a vast passenger vessel into the heart of a thriving city. The Keepers alone know the truth, that the Inner Ring is merely the divided center of what was once the largest capital city on the planet Etagard, and that its entirety stretches far beyond the limits of the inner ring. Buried beneath the ground by its impact with the planet's surface, the IPV Paradise - or what remains of it - creates a massive labyrinthine expanse of halls, corridors, tunnels, caverns, and crawlspaces. Many of the larger hollows, now filled with iron and concrete buildings, were created by the Harvest thousands of years ago, when the first generations of Paradisians could not yet mine for metal ores and other raw resources. Some of the material cut from the vessel's body became metal bones and armor of the first Titanframes.Purpose / Function
The underground superstructure was not always a building at all; in fact, its original form and function was that of a space-faring vessel, an Intergalactic Passenger Vessel hailing from Evermore, and carrying thousands of colonists to a new galaxy. After impacting the planet Etagard, partially burying and destroying the vessel, survivors turned the wreck into the foundations of a settlement. The underground sections were transformed into basements and sewers, and hundreds of thousands of miles of cables and pipes were reconfigured to provide power and plumbing to the growing settlement.
With many miles of unused space still left untouched and largely intact, the digital terminals and tech stations that could be repaired and brought back online became centers for research and science. In the early years of the Paradisian Empire, these spaces were off limits to the public, but squatters found other ways in, and over time a large population of poor and desperate citizens called the slums their home.
Alterations
With many of the machines and equipment intended for colonization destroyed or damaged by the impact, the first Paradisians had to cannibalize their remaining technology and equipment, including parts of the IPV Paradise itself, in order to sustain themselves. This period of time is known as the Harvest, and during the Harvest large sections of the vessel were cut or stripped out to be recycled and used elsewhere. This process broke down walls and barriers within the vessel, as well as removing, replacing, and re-configuring some of the existing infrastructure, namely the cables and pipes.
After this breakdown, new construction filled in the gaps. Some was done by professional hands, such as labs commissioned by the government, but many places were developed by desperate people needing to make a home. Guided by organic need, an entire city beneath the city grew, filling in every crack and crevice to make use of any bit of space left over. It would not be until many centuries later that an attempt was made at modernizing the buildings and infrastructure, to try and bring it up to higher standards, but the attempt would be abandoned when Paradise fell and the empire broke apart.
Comments