Bellevue

Welcome to the rich man’s land. You won’t find a whole lotta slums here, it’s all micro-arcos and luxury APCs here. Bellevue is where the rich and powerful that work in Downtown come to sleep, and you better believe the security is also on the same level. Tread carefully and be smart - people may tolerate you where they work, but they damn well won’t enjoy you drekking the place they lay their heads. Let’s get down to the rundown.

If Downtown is where the rich and powerful go to party, then Bellevue is where they sleep at night, tucked away in tailored micro- arcologies and shuffled around the city in luxury APCs. “The Belle,” as it is known by locals, sits between Lakes Washington and Sammamish, flanked by Redmond, Renton, and Snohomish. Downtown is across Lake Washington, Council Island is in it. The Belle got its nickname from longtime mayor Marilyn Shultz, who dubbed it “belle of the ball” and the most popular place to live in Seattle. A version of that name dug itself into the psyche of the residents, recently resurrected as part of Jonathan Blake’s mayoral campaign.

The slogan, like Bellevue itself, is a complete fabrication. Nothing is genuine. Bellevue is based on every image we see on the trid of an idealized suburban enclave culture; a Horizon- scrubbed vision of the best stuff to emerge out of other parts of the city.

Twenty years ago, the ork population was close to twenty percent, but a long campaign of redlining and Tolkien-esque bigotry reshuffled the population breakdown. The Blake era took things one step further, triggering an influx of highly educated corporate types with disposable incomes looking to live in the next “it” part of the city. The Belle is that place. Bellevue boasts rolling green hills, lakes, and million-dollar views of Downtown. The area is speckled with gated communities that are arcologies in everything but name. Several offer domes and purified air shipped in from the Canadian wilds. This style of living comes with a high price tag, and even if you have the money you also need to have the social capital to jump to the front of the waiting list.

Still, not everyone in Bellevue is white-collar wealthy. Virtually all of the population is corporate affiliated, but sixteen percent of the people still live below the poverty level. Most of those individuals are not affiliated with the corps. These are the workers who keep Bellevue running while living in a society entirely separate from their upper-echelon counterparts. The two sides rarely meet, but when they do, it is usually back-alley affairs, black-market deals, or rich kids trying to play gutterpunk.

Geography

Bellevue is bordered by Lake Washington to the west and Lake Sammamish to the east. Rolling hills and lakes are common, but there are relatively few remaining forests, as most of the ground is build up. Eastern border with Redmond Barrens is heavily patrolled, and partially walled up.

Type

District

Population

Population: 209,000 (Human 63%, Elf 13%, Dwarf 2%, Ork 19%, Troll 2%, Other 1%)

Location under

Seattle Metroplex

Included Locations

• Cavilard Research Center
• Gaeatronics Mountain