Moro
Moro, 'a quiet place in the country', sited in a broad valley at the southern edge of the Sequoia Rainforest in the Satoyama Chiku {managed woodlands district} - geographically at the border of the eastern sector of the Southern Steppe region of the Tairiku continent. It is a chartered city of the Zakharovich Dai Ichizoku (for retired spacer crew and the land bound Ichizoku members). Moro is near the southern border of the chiku, Zakharovich Fortress is near the northern border of the chiku. The geography around the city of Moro is a mosaic of foothills, woodlands, temperate rainforest, and rivers, streams, canals, ponds and resevoirs. The climate is warm with an annual mean temperature between thirteen and twenty three degrees celsius, a spring/summer wet season rainfall average of about two hundred centimeters, and a better than even chance of a few summer typhoons coming from the coasts south, and east of the city. The portion of the Sequoia Rainforest located in the Satoyama Chiku, home to more than five thousand plant species (thirty percent of which are unique), is classified as a sustainable, renewable timber protectorate by Parliament and must follow strict logging and forestry guidelines and regulations. The forest here is dominated by tsuga, fir, hemlock, beech, oak, bamboo, ferns, sedges, shrubs, lichens and mosses, mushrooms, willow, sugi, sequoia, ironwood, tabunoki, axe breaker, greenheart, cedar, stone oak, and rhododendron. Also making appearences are black bears, gold eagles, wild horses, chernaya puma {black cougar}, giant salamander, sika, grass lizards, dragonflies, serow, macaque, aodaisho {blue general snake}, tanuki, and fireflies. Unlike many cities on Nejiro that have civic centers and/or high rises in the middle of the city, Moro has the Akaiki Stands - unofficially referenced as 'The Park' by the locals - a microcosm of the Sequoia Rainforest preserved by the City Charter, it is credited with much of the relaxed vibe of the city. The city is filled with traditional nihon style minka architecture and construction invisibly integrated with modern conveniences and materials such as streaming holos, wireless internet, solar, rain barrel hvac, and hydrocell technology. The largest example of this is the sprawling Moro Station, which has dozens of platforms for all the regional and continental passenger and freight lines on the move daily, a rolling stock depot, warehouses (several of which are kept reserved as public shelters during typhoon season), a large public market, and several comfortable and quiet waiting areas. Buildings in the city are generally built on stilts due to the proximity of the canals and the myriad waterways, and have laquered wooden boardwalks and engawas instead of sidewalks and squares. There are a few continental highways and tollways but most freight is moved through the waterways or via rail. What roadways are available are generally narrow, two lanes at most, (the city itself being an exception - for as many as two additional lanes in high traffic areas, one of these dedicated to the public transit trams and buses) and are engineered to a high degree to handle drainage several different ways simultaneously. The cache system that was developed for this is highly popular (and in use in many other places on Nejiro) as the water is recycled and filtered into agricultural irrigation. There is a regional airport, Akaiki Airfield {red tree}, located south of the city, used primarily by the Nejiro Fire Brigade Satoyama Chiku Battalion - Search and Rescue Units and Wildland Firefighters, and also by personal aircraft, the local aviation clubs, and a small amount of freight, business, and tourist travel with regular flights scheduled weekly. Local mass transit consists of water taxis on the canals, and buses and trams throughout the city. Electric bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles (rental and ownership) are also an extremely popular transit choice and they comprise more than a third of city traffic. Most of the local industry is situated around Timber. Local manufacturing includes lumber mills and yards, paper mills, printers, book binders, textile mills, ink and dye makers, stationary and calligraphy tool makers and supply, umbrella and parasol makers, boatyards (junks, barges, and river boats), electric vehicle (consumer, commercial, agricultural) manufacture, cabinet and furniture makers, tool and equipment manufacture and supply for logging, forestry, carpentry, agriculture, and construction. Agriculture here is chiefly organic sustainable open field plantations (tree, hemp, bamboo), rice fields (paddy and wild - paper, textiles, and sake), autumn barley fields, fruit and nut orchards, free range livestock pastures from beef to poultry, freshwater fishing, and some foraging of the woods and forests - largely for mushrooms. There are roughly thirty three thousand permanent residents of Moro, with an additional ten thousand or so, attributable to an abundance of public and private boarding schools, the two score or so logging camps, fire lookouts, and Wylde Ranger stations in the hills north of the city, also to the NPO Sequoia Regional Headquarters and the Nejiro Fire Brigade Satoyama Chiku Battalion being located in the city. Moro is governed by an elected Mayor (currently Sjors Zackary) and their appointed staff, working with an elected Ward Council which supports its own Sheriffs Department, Fire and Forestry Service, Green Utility Service (water, power, sanitation), and Magistrate Court. The Satoyama Chiku is governed by Naomi Sachie, Meritous, Common House MP from her office in Moro. The suburban residential areas of the city are very slowly growing as families and retirees discover (through word of mouth - no advertising due to adamant public opinion that 'country folk wanna stay country') and enjoy Moro's slower and more relaxed pace of life and emigrate to 'that overgrown town'.
Akaiki Stands is a seven hundred ha nature preserve in the middle of the city, an original part of the Sequoia Rainforest, with trees more than three thousand years old, that the city builders chose to leave in place - surrounded by a public park - The Lawn. 'The Park' has a number of running and hiking trails rated from novice to expert, cobblestone walking and biking paths, and unpaved path horse trails, all over which Park Rangers lead tours in a variety of topics from birding to foraging for students, tourists, and hobbyists. 'The Park' is encircled by another hundred ha of wide and soft green lawns and stategic placements of shade trees, playgrounds (skate parks, chess and go challenge boards - life and table size, ice rink, swimming pools, pitches, courts - basketball, tennis) benches, cobblestone trails, and gardens for people to relax or frolic, picnic and play.
Akaiki Ampitheatre, located adjacent to 'The Park', and constructed completely of preserved or laquered local woods has five thousand seats, handmade by local craftsmen, from which to enjoy concerts and theater during the warm dry days and evenings in the autumn and winter. It also hosts Graduations in March, and the Kids at Heart Egg Hunt in early April that sends you off with clues for locations in and out of Moro.
Footie Field is a ten thousand seat stadium that hosts both amateur and professional association football matches. The roof, which resembles an umbrella, is constructed of transparent polymer compounds over metal spines engineered to let in enough sunlight to keep the real grass growing; to shield the spectators from sun, wind, and rain; to completely power the structure from solar; and to provide all the water for the real grass field, the ground based thermal hvac system, the food and beverage vendors, and the restrooms and locker rooms from the catchment and recycle system. It is a designated public shelter during typhoon season.
The Satoyama Gazette is a local community newspaper that covers Moro, the Satoyama Chiku, and the Sequoia region at large. The paper also runs planetary, stellar, and interstellar headlines in its daily print and expanded digital editions. The paper enjoys great support from both its loyal local base in Moro, but also from its regional, worldwide, and stellar advertisers and subscribers, and only needs to charge one Ryu for a daily print edition and/or one Ryu weekly for its expanded digital edition to maintain a generous profit.
Green Cab Co. is faithfully modeled after the historic London cabbies and their iconic vehicles, in this case painted hunter green, digitized and electric. The drivers encyclopedic knowledge of the city and its environs as well as the wider area around the city, and their uniforms are also faithfully copied and applied to local conditions. The company has recently expanded into Hilo.
Shinseina Kokina Seiiki Mosque {sacred noble sanctuary} is a scaled down version of the beautiful Al-Haram Mosque that only covers one city block.
Ao Ushi {blue ox} manufactures competition and professional hand axes, manufactures chainsaws, manufactures powered logging tools and equipment, manufactures the industrial logging mech Kikori {wood cutter} (2.3 million Ryu) and variations for forestry, firefighting, mining, and agriculture. This is a local version of the LM4C Lumberjack.
Moro Polytech is a top ten public school that teaches up to five thousand students, (and up to another five thousand digitally) vocations, engineering, applied sciences, business, construction, agriculture, environment and climate science, math, social science, health, humanities, design, estate management, household management, and hospitality. It is a key center of research in the development of polymers, microwave physics, and non toxic food flavors and colors. MedGel, a plant based haemophilic polymer that forms a mesh to stop traumatic bleeding and seal internal and external wounds was developed in one of its labs and now used commonly in Nejiro's military and emergency trauma medicine, and also in veterinary and human surgical fields. The Moro Polytech Library is a six story complex that holds more than three million printed works and nearly six million electronic and digital resources, it is equipped with a twenty eight hour study center, an I-Space which includes audio-visual information and production areas, the VR Experience Zone, the internet of Things, laser cutting and engraving, vinyl cutting, 3D scanning and printing, book scanning, and large format printing.
Waterlily manufactures usb portable, residential, commercial, and industrial hydrocell and hydroelectric generators and their accessories - portable solar panels, portable wind turbines, power packs, power cables, charge controllers, adapters, and inverters, offers repair services and maintenance contracts.
Radost Sake {joy rice wine} produces Junmai Ginjo Genshu Sake {pure rice undiluted sake} with bold rich fruity and earthy flavor tones with hints of ripe melon, pear, plum, cinnamon, and cardammom.
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