Puyallup
Welcome to the other barrens. It’s not quite as full of crime and filth and poverty, though it replaces that with a fragton of ash and actual barren wastes. It’s a place of contrasts. Pristine lava flows from the old Rainier eruption next to abandoned tenement blocks retaken over by squatters. The oddly beautiful streets of Tarislar, bastion of the elven refugees, and down the road a few klicks is Loveland, home of vice and debauchery for sale. It’s a little better than Redmond, but that’s like being a little more alive than a corpse. Let’s talk deets.“Barrens,” they say, lumping us all together. Redmond, too, like we’re next door neighbors, not sixty kilometers apart. Here in Puyallup, we’re used to getting written off by outsiders. They figure we’re just ashy gutters, Mafiosi and Yakuza thugs tearing each other apart, beetle dens and whorehouses competing for desperate nuyen, elves and orks killing each other over table scraps and corner deals. We are all those things, but those things ain’t all we are.
People live here, chummer. Always have, and always will. A hundred years ago this was farmland, wide-open spaces, blue skies, and green hills. Then came Rainier and refugees, ash and assholes, the Night of Rage and Tír Tairngire’s leftovers. After that, we layered on a couple generations of corrupt politicians and parasitic crime families sucking the place dry. Sprinkle with desperation. Add a pinch of hatred. Season to taste.
So we ain’t like Downtown, sure, but people are still just people. Over half a million souls—just by official count—are trying to get by, wanting to live their life, put a roof overhead, fill their belly, have some kids.
If the corps would give us half a chance, just a fair shake, they could make some real money here. We’ve got space. We’ve got nothing but room for improvement, we’ve got people with nothing but hunger for a better tomorrow. They could build here, instead of always being teases about it. They could invest, and we could work, buy, sell. Everyone would win.
But that ain’t what Puyallup’s for, if you ask our neighbors. Nope. They come here to hide from the law, to buy drugs or chips, to rent joyboys or cred-slots, to bash some keeblers. They come here in tricked-out racers to compete, or souped-up rigs about to make the Route 7 smuggling run. They come here to slum it, to get a kick out of some real streets if Bellevue or Downtown are too safe for their liking.
Someone once said you don’t pay a hooker for the sex, you pay ’em to leave you alone afterwards. To our neighbors, Puyallup’s that working girl. They come here so they can leave again, and feel better about themselves for doing so.
History
In the 2020s, when Mount Rainer erupted it buried Puyallup in ash and lava. It was soon afterwards occupied by refugees from the newly established NAN. The majority is a wasteland of rusted factories, abandoned buildings, and squatter camps. Within is Hell's Kitchen, with it's lava fields and boiling geysers. It's residents grow up with the knowledge that any cut or scrape may result in an infection and therefore death, all the while hacking black phlegm. It is a place where sometimes it seems as every every 10 meters there is a new gang.
Geography
Puyallup is the largest district of Seattle. In the north it borders Auburn, in the south and east, the lands of Salish-Shidhe Council. It's major landmarks include the Mowich Lawa Flow and the Puyallup River. Politics Puyallup City is the only place inside the Puyallup Barrens where something like government still exists. It is kept alive by money brought in by the Mob and Lone Star is present there. Roy Olmstead has been the mayor of the district since his election in the early 2030s.
Communities
Tarislar: An elven ghetto with 1000s of elves unlike most of Puyallup is actually patrolled by Knight Errant whom are paid by the elves to maintain the peace. The Laesa syndicate likewise helps keep things orderly.
Carbonado: It's a mostly latino and black community of Orks whom have organized themselves and done a good job of defending themselves against predatory gangs and racist attacks. Due to it being a former source of precious metals it is covered with pits, quarries, and tunnels.
Economy
Economy of the district is in a poor shape. Most businesses are either corp-owned, or fronts of organized crime. Inside Puyallup Barrens there is the so-called "Loveland", an amusement mile, where Mafia and Yakuza fight for the money the UCAS Army soldiers from Fort Lewis are willing to spend. Although there are some semi-stable squatter communities like the Crypt as well as the Carbonado ork community, who's inhabitants are able to look after themselves. Tarislar, an elven enclave of exiled elves from Tir Tairngire, is also located inside the Puyallup district. The locals there pay Knight Errant to patrol the streets of Tarislar and the elven Laésa syndicate has its roots there. A good place to buy illegal goods inside the Puyallup Barrens is the Crime Mall, a giant black market in the shell of an old shopping mall.
Lone Star Security Ratings
- C: Puyallup City, Tarislar (Tarislar pays Knight Errant for additional security, giving the area an effective A rating)
- E: Carbanado, Loveland, Graham Cracker City Z: Hell’s Kitchen, Orting, Ponderosa Estates, Silver Spring, South Prairie, The Neon Killing, Thrift
Type
District
Population
506,000 (Human 48%, Elf 21%, Dwarf 4%, Ork 22%, Troll 4%, Other 1%)
Location under
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