Catersburg

Once a crucial farming hub at the confluence of several rivers and one of the largest cities in Crathlia, Catersburg is now a decaying city. Improved transportation and flight to the urban centers of Lexport and Masthead has left it a shadow of its former self. With the Duchy of Evenbrook losing money, crime has flourished. For its relatively small size, it is currently one of the most dangerous cities in Crathlia.
Despite being a member of its governing Evenbrook Clan and the daughter of its Duchess, I will be quite frank with my readers about Catersburg's issues and why they're occuring. Clarity and transparency are, I believe, crucial for someone in a leadership role.

Demographics

Working Class Majority

Catersburg is primarily occupied by Crathlian Amalgams of lower socioeconomic status. They live in neighborhoods scattered throughout the city and its outskirts, full of small houses that are at least fifty years old and often not containing modern appliances such as dishwashers. Some live in apartment buildings closer to the city's center. These are of similar age if not older, typically built during the industrial boom and associated with a particular factory. Row houses are more common towards the city's center and are typically about a hundred years old.
The next major group is Crathlian Dregs, who are typically working class. They live in similar conditions to their Amalgam counterparts, with a heavier skew towards apartment living due to factory work being more common for Dregs.

Nearly-Nonexistent Upper Classes

There exists a large income gap between these two groups and the "upper" class of Catersburg, dominated by the Amalgams who control the ships and crop storage facilities. However, these businessmen and women often don't live in Catersburg proper, choosing to live in either one of Crathlia's better cities or in the Duchy of Evenbrook's beautiful countryside. They also don't make nearly as much money as their counterparts in more prosperous, outward-facing cities such as Lexport, Masthead, North Firesbay, South Firesbay, and any number of other Crathlian cities.
Catersburg has the absolute minimum Paragon population to keep itself afloat (and even this is dubious at times). It has trouble attracting both lawyers and police officers, both of which being professions exclusive to Paragons. The past few Duchesses of Evenbrook have been forced to create wage incentives to keep Catersburg's police force staffed. The fact that the officers would rather not be there has contributed to the Amalgam frustration with police existing all over Crathlia, and has resulted in Catersburg being somewhat a center of Amalgam unrest (less so than Lexport or Gateway, and arguably less than the larger southern cities, but I should say it's on the list at least). Combined with the fact that it has also been difficult to maintain the justice system for the same reason (and thus the wait time for trials is generally quite long), Catersburg is a generally unpleasant place for all its citizens.

Ethnic Makeup

As you can imagine, the foreign-born population of Catersburg is very small, mostly consisting of families who have been here at least a hundred years. Most citizens are as Crathlian as Crathlian can be.

Infastructure and Architecture

Yes, we are aware of the hovertrain line that just ends on 8th Street for no particular reason, forcing everyone to walk during their commute to 11th Street, where the train line picks up again.
Unfortunately, we can't afford to fix it.

The sorry state of Catersburg's infastructure is infamous, both locally and across Crathlia. Aside from the hovertrain lines, there are several unfinished factories, eternally webbed with scaffolding. Many of the apartment buildings were quite elaborate and fashionable when they were built, but have fallen into disrepair. Formerly golden carved swoops are now chipped and dull. The city is dingy, all grays and brick, faded and cracked.

Written by Cordelia Colbreak Evenbrook

Old Apartment by Mike Rasching on Unsplash

Founding Date

Unknown. Established sometime before the Colony.

Alternative Name(s)

Inverbourgh (formerly)
Ionad (formerly)
Enverburg (formerly)

Type

City

Population

120,000

Location under

North Lautney

Owner/Ruler

Ophelia Evenbrook Colbreak

Ruling/Owning Rank

County of Evenbrook

Owning Organization

Kingdom of Crathlia

Crathlia, Present Day

Open full size

This is a political map of the modern-day Kingdom of Crathlia, depicting its duchies (the large swaths of land governed by the High Clans), counties (smaller subsections governed by the Noble Clans), and cities. The boundaries have largely remained consistent for two hundred years.

History

View of the ancient castle by Adriaen van de Velde

Early History

Inverbourgh was established some hundreds of years prior to the arrival of the shapeshifters. The name is a combination of elements meaning "river confluence" and "castle."
According to Colonial records, Inverbourgh was among the largest cities and an epicenter of trade. This explains the aignaoi name for the city: Ionad, which means "center." High Lord Flaithrí son of Nuallán and Ríona came to view the human-founded city as a threat and destroyed it, rebuilding it around several compounds.
However, the city still remained a center of human dissidence, and during Crathlian Revolution, the city was returned to its original name of Inverborgh (albeit with many spelling variations due to widespread inability of humans to read and write). It was the birthplace and stronghold of Eleanor Evenbrook, and thus also the birthplace of the Evenbrook Clan itself. By the 700s, the name was most commonly written "Enverburg," the E-shift likely being in association with the Evenbrooks.

A New Name

Enverburg was renamed Catersburg after Queen Catherine Alderley Scaleburn, the immensely popular daughter of King Percival Alderley and Queen Aveline Ashdown. After the famines of the 1050s and the infighting among the Evenbrooks who were ruling at the time, Queen Catherine personally lived in the city for several years, helping to restore it. In thanks for her assistance, the eventual Duchess of Evenbrook renamed the city after her queen.

Industrial Boom

To be quite frank (and I can say this because this is my own clan, my own ancestors), Catersburg's industrialization was handled incredibly poorly, and that has resulted in many of the issues that we face today. Catersburg's position prior to industrialization was very similar to that of Aberley, which has comparitively prospered as a primarily historical town and tourism center for citydwellers who want a taste of pastoral beauty and history going back to before the colonization. Attempting to modernize artificially is what killed the city.

Abandoned Hotel by Mike Rasching on Unsplash

In the late 1100s and early 1200s, much excitement surrounded the technological advancements of the day. The Colbreak Clan and the Ironwood Clan profited the most, since the Duchy of Colbreak is centered around Lexport and the Duchy of Ironwood contains the three next-largest Crathlian cities. Many of the other High Clans looked on their gains with jealousy, including my own Evenbrook Clan.
In 1213, Duke Berrin Evenbrook begun a project to modernize Catersburg and turn it into a prosperous, bustling metropolis. Most of the castles and historical buildings were demolished, replaced with factories, restaurants, shopping venues, ostentatious hotels, and expensive apartments and houses that none of the factory workers could afford. Hoping that pouring money into the city would eventually pay off, Duke Evenbrook continued to order new construction.
However, in the late 1230s, a famine decimated the Duchy of Evenbrook's crops and chief source of revenue for the Evenbrooks. Most of the newly-built factories had to abruptly close their doors, laying thousands of workers off, who left for the cities that Duke Evenbrook had wanted to emulate.

Decline

Catersburg never recovered. Many of the structures built during the early 1200s now stand empty or in disrepair. Neither did the Evenbrook Clan. Today we're in a vicious cycle of attempting to maintain and improve Catersburg while supporting our rural counties.