Birdencaster

I will hopefully get a graphics tablet, in August, to draw a city map that will go in the sidebar.
The map is currently a Behind The Scenes Work In Process. (2021-09-06)

I am doing it but it is when I want to do the map. I have a job now. (2022-11-20)

— James Woodwright World author

History

The City of Birdencaster was founded in the United Kingdom in 2050CE. The city itself has the shape of a circle, this is not typical of city shapes before 2045CE. Unlike Oxford ^[1] which is a star shape, or other cities that are more organic. Birdencaster is this shape to be more space-efficient with its surrounding areas, later founded cities follow this form of being circular in shape.

Geography

Birdencaster is situated, North-East of Warminster ^[3] and North West West of Salisbury ^[2]. The City itself is geographically separated into 5 Zones, circular rings, and 12 Segments. Each building has its own code depicting where it is within Birdencaster it is. The Zone number first and the Segment last are separated by a space, all addresses start with this code. It is only Zone 1 that does not have a segment code as it is regarded as not needing to be separated into Segments. As with all cities founded after 2045CE, Each Zone has an industry that a society needs to function, and each of these is found in each Zone. Some Zones have more than one industry within them. This is not a hard and fast rule, as there are some establishments that can be found in Zones that do not belong to that Zone’s industry designation. Such as a hardware store in Zone 3 or a Porridge House in Zone 5 or a fireworks factory in Zone 5. This rule has some interesting changes as not every Zone has only one industry such as with Zone 5. Zone 1 is an interesting Zone as it is the only one that doesn’t have a residential quarter. A list of each Zone’s industry is below.

Zone 1 - Entertainment.
Zone 2 - Governmental.
Zone 3 - High Industrial.
Zone 4 - Marketplaces.
Zone 5 - Transportation and Low Industrial.

As Birdencaster has Segments. Some of these numbered Segments have certain buildings in them, these are:

Segments 1, 4, 7 and 10 hold the Captain of the Messenger's office. These are the headquarters for the Messenger. These offices are found in each Zone that has these Segments.
Segment numbers that are multiples of four have Warehouses.
Segments that are multiples of five are banking districts. The Banks generally cater to the people living in the Zones in which they lie. Moving house to another Segment means transferring the bank account.

Postal Service

For messages such as letters or short messages, these are carried by Messenger. For parcels, they are sent to Post Offices. For parcels that are destined within the city are taken to the closest Captain of the Messengers' Office to be further delivered to their destination. For parcels that are destined to be outside Birdencaster, then the package is sorted into regions of the country and then taken to the closest Segment in Zone 5. For example, a post office in 4 2 will take their packages destined to be taken out of Birdencaster, to 5 2. Addresses start with the Zone and Segment code and then the standard way of writing an address is below.

Climate

There are four seasons, which are Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Winter tends to, be longer as it overlaps into the new year, and the seasons, therefore, do not divide equally, so in:

March to May is Spring.
June to August is Summer.
September to October is Autumn.
November to February is Winter.

Winters are snowier, but not as thick as some parts of North America, citizens of Birdencaster have gotten used to having to sweep stairs to get to buildings or to even make roads usable. Nothing too serious happens as the sewer system can cope with snow melting.

Architecture

Buildings

The architectural style of Birdencaster is Victorian brick structures, that can resemble medieval structures due to some buildings having their reliance on timber beams on the outside. For buildings that are more than two floors tall, brick is used without external timber beams. The tallest building in the city is the Arena of over 5 floors tall and resembles the coliseum in Rome. Most buildings only reach 4 floors in total. Some buildings that are part of the Beekeeping Industry, have a reliance on being open on more than one side. These buildings are made of wood and tile, while the main structure is brick. Some buildings have their exterior walls plastered. These buildings tend to be more official buildings, such as the Captain of the Messengers' Office. Due to their age, these plastered buildings tend to have patches of exposed brickwork. As it is not considered to be important to repair them.

Roads

Roads are cobbled. They share a brick-like pattern, except for parts of Zone 4 as 4 7 are brick paved. Once in the central Zone of Zone 1, the Roads as marked out with arches. After going through an arch into Zone 1 the pattern changes from brick-like to arches. The arch pattern goes around the Arena in a clockwise direction. Meaning that if someone joins the clockwise path at Segment 3 the next chance they have to leave the Zone is at Segment 4. Signposts are used to show which Segment someone will find themselves in if they were to walk down a road. Pavements are used alongside all roads. Birdencaster follows the following name conventions for its road names, which are;

Are not named after a Monarch or a Monarch position, such as King, Queen, Prince, Princess or Duke.
Street name pertaining to another place such as Oxford, London or any local place and then road so, therefore, road names such as Oxford Road or London Road are not used.
Road names do not end in Boulevard as it makes the place sound grander than it actually is.
Roads can get their names from the industry, so for example 3 5 has, a mint on Mint Street.

Public Squares

Public squares with a building have clocks with bells. Squares that don’t have buildings with clocks inside instead have clocks at the squares themselves. The bells chime for each hour. Unlike in The Old World, they chime the hour number it represents in 24-hour time. For example, 3 pm will have bells chime 15 times.

Demographics

The population of Birdencaster is estimated to be 100,000. With enough services to support the population, Birdencaster is regarded as a small city. With the adult population there are more women than men, but due to attrition such as with warfare and disease, has the opposite for its children and teenage population.

Economy

Birdencaster makes most of its money from its three main industries. These industries, in a list of profitability, are Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Beekeeping. Due to The Great Rewind, industries have returned to use more primitive tools that don’t need as much power to drive them. Most industries within Birdencaster are physical by nature.

Employment placements

Professions: Types of Placements

Generic article | Jun 30, 2022

Poverty Level

Zone 3 is the poorest, and their residents are the least well dressed, either because they feel that feeding themselves is a higher priority than the clothes they have on their backs. It could also be the case that their clothes are getting dirtier than other workplaces in other Zones. Nutritionally, while the diets of the citizenry are more basic, they do not have the luxury of being picky with the foods they eat. While allergies are a reasonable reason to be picky. Dietary choices such as vegans and pescatarians would find it hard to have a balanced diet with the food that is available, they would more than likely suffer from malnutrition.

Electricity

Electricity within, Birdencaster is highly regulated depending on whether the building is residential, commercial or Industrial. While this is the case there are still some issues in some places such as with Segment 7. For other parts of the city the rules are as follows;

With Residential most areas, will only have 2 hours of electricity per day which is often when citizens are out for work or school.
With Commerical areas, they have enough power for the opening and closing procedures as well as running the store.
With the Industrial areas, they are allowed all the power they need to function.

While this is the case there is not enough power to go around for everyone. The policy is to use as little power as possible. Commercial establishments will use analogue versions of cash registers so if they have a calculator it will be a mechanical one. For the unfortunate who live in Segment 7, this is not necessarily the case. Their power is much more intermittent, with commercial establishments using candles to light their stores while factories use most of the power. Streetlights often don’t come on at night and if they do they give a weak, flickering light, so when they can, citizens of this segment will stay in as much as possible.

The Electrical Protests of Birdencaster

Military Conflict | Nov 20, 2022

Market Days

In Birdencaster, there is no single day that is called a market day, as all days in Zone 4 are a market day. There is no scheduled day on which the markets will be busier than the others. While Birdencaster has Bakers, butchers, Fishmongers and Greengrocers it is the Greengrocers and the fishmongers that are limited to only having market stalls whereas the other two are allowed to have stores for hygiene and production reasons. Any food that is imported is preserved in either cans or jars to allow for long transportation time or storage. It is for this reason that the fishmongers and the grocers have stalls as they require less space to sell their wares. This is the same for food items that are exported for the same reasons.

Recycling

Birdencaster has a prominent culture of recycling, reusing and repairing items. When an item breaks it is repaired. When a can is opened it is either reused or recycled. The main plastic used, which is derived from cobs of corn, is PLA. This plastic can be recycled or buried to decompose, with some chemical help.

Recycling centres, gather recyclables are found across the city. The recycling plant is found in Zone 3. The majority of recycling materials are paper, steel cans and PLA plastic.

The people of The New World would see how the people of The Old World would use Aluminium in the use of cans for drinking as wonderfully wasteful.

Wonderfully wasteful, because they look into the past and into The Old World as their lives must been better. The waste of aluminium cans must have meant their lives were better. As they wouldn't worry about the waste whereas the people of The New World would.

Culture

Celebrations and Holidays

The main celebration happens weekly on a Thursday, called The Great Day of Celebration. To celebrate there is one more day of school or work until the weekend. Other celebrations include Thanksgiving which lands on the second Monday of October. Unlike the Canadian version, this version is to be thankful that they are still alive, and have work and school placements. Christmas is observed on the 25th of December. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday in April, removing the complicated rule with the equinox.

Entertainment

The main entertainments can be found in Zone 1, at the Arena. The Arena is used by the public on The Great Day of Celebration. On days that are not a Thursday, the Arena is either repaired or used to practice new entertainments, in a way that does not endanger the lives, of the audience, while they are not there. The Arena is also used as the venue for a fireworks display on November 5th.

by Rollstein

Zone 4 is renown for its play areas and picnic tables. Entertainments are either enjoyed outside in the person’s Zone of Residence or in Zone 1. Board games are played but the pieces tend to be made of copper, on the backs of the tiles or the pieces, are lined with felt so as to not scratch the surface of the table. They are no longer made out of cardboard to make the product more durable and to save on resources.

Museums

While there is a museum in the city in Zone 2, it is not popular as it has not been updated recently. What is of note is one of the exhibits. Which is the last newspaper ever printed. The newspaper has its front page showing, the need to reduce resources and that this issue would be the last. Newspapers are not printed anymore as the paper that is used leads towards premade paper items such as notebooks, ballot papers, Warehouse Ledgers and Messenger Service: Manual of Service. These paper items repeat while newspapers don't as they change with each passing issue. They get around this issue by going to Libraries.

Government

The city runs like a municipality, but with more devolved powers. While the central government has given guidance on what its students should learn within the city of Birdencaster. Birdencaster is welcome to add its own curriculum to the framework. A noticeable example of this with cities that are near a natural resource will educate their citizenry to do with those resources such as mine safety for mountainous cities or in the case of Birdencaster, Forestry safety. On a much more personal level while Birdencaster suffers frequent protests, in Zone 1 and Zone 2, from the lack of power in Segment 7. Other areas are much more pleased with how their lives are governed and will frequently walk past the City Hall in pride. Some families will take their adult children to see the City Hall as a part of their parental education. Citizens may have issues and will write to City Hall when they do.

Transportation

All citizens have use of a bike, it is common to see abled-bodied citizens cycle to work or school etc. This is not the case in Zone 4 as it has a market on its main streets. Which has a policy of walking with their bike during market times, during the evening when there is less trade in the markets people are welcome to carefully cycle through the markets. People who want to travel together can opt to get a cycle rickshaw to somewhere in the city that is not just in Zone 5. Zone 5, or the outer Zone has two train lines that have train services running in opposite directions. Around the circumference of the city. While not the most reliable, the train system is used to see other parts of Birdencaster and allow citizens to get from one place to another, faster than they would normally. There are rail stations in each segment. All passenger services within Birdencaster are the second most reliable with external freight trains being the most reliable. Passenger services out of the city are the least reliable as the service is booked and awaits for everyone to board before leaving making the service slow down.

Type - City
Status - Active
Funded - 2050
Demonym - Birdencastian
Alternative Name(s) - Historically called Burdencaster
Ruler - Duncan Smith
Ruling Rank - Mayor
Population - 100,000
Demographics
97% White
3% Asian

Writing conventions

It is understood in the trade that cobbled streets are stones that have not been cut to make a street. It is Sett paving is streets or paving where the stones have been cut and put into any pattern. Most people argue that cobbled streets are those of either cut stones or unrefined stone. Once the cut stone has been arranged into patterns to make it look more aesthetic, makes it sett paving.

In this article I have followed the conventions of everyone else, sett paving is patterned paving.

For more information on the technical terms of cobbled streets Click Here