New Paris

Written by Jacob Sullivan Edited by Zach Batson

Being the first city established on the Planet of Étoile Chérie, New Paris is the most industrialized of all of the settlements in the colonial system. When the first settlers arrived, the land that would be claimed as new Paris was in the middle of a forest of Blackwood and Aubert trees. Although the Blackwood trees are giant, their flexible and light nature made them a great resource for the construction of homes. In contrast, the Aubert trees were very dense, making them much better suited to the construction of walls to defend the settlers from the immense wildlife that roams Étoile Chérie. The Aubert tree is named after Harriette Aubert, a French arborist sent on the first expedition. Due to the introduction of fungal diseases from Earth, the Aubert tree has unfortunately gone extinct, but the wood’s legacy can still be shown in the Musée Découverte (Discovery Museum) on the Versailles University campus, which houses the remains of the first wooden wall constructed by the initial settlers.

The geography of New Paris today has changed dramatically since the early days of settlement. Now it is a robust urban city, with high-rise skyscrapers powered by Balfor engines rivaling those on Earth. The development of the city happened organically, with no initial design plan. As a result, as more settlers came, and more corporations began to invest in development for the city, buildings quickly cropped up all over the place, creating a maze of roads, alleys, and aetherports. Due to this early lack of planning, the city can be hard to navigate for newcomers, and traffic in the city backs up regularly. In addition to its confusing layout, the metropolitan area of the city, if counting the area owned by Versailles University, comes in at just under 25899.88 kilometers (10,000 square miles) making it larger than Paris itself, though with a smaller population as the city becomes less densely packed on its extremities. Part of the reason for this city sprawl is the extralegal status of Versailles University, which over the years has continued to purchase more land and expand its campus facilities without paying any taxes to the French colonial government. As a result, the Versailles University campus accounts for about 40% of the city's size and behaves as an independent entity with its own laws. Despite this, much of this property is still commercially rented out by the University. As a result, the University and city are economically codependent, even though they are internationally considered different entities.

Type

City