New Calypso

It's a city of dreams... and I'm a big dreamer.

— Jackie Wells, 2077 A.D.

New Calypso is the capital city of Asteria. With an estimated population of nearly 1.2 million and a surface area of 67 km², it is also the largest city on the planet. Ever since its founding in 169, the city has been a major economic, industrial, agricultural and financial hub for all of Asteria. The city sits at the mouth of the Viridian delta, deep within the Viridian Lowlands. It is surrounded by a multitude of industrial and agricultural suburbs to feed its growing economy and, to a lesser extent, the entire planet.

The city is also a major transport and logistic hub, thanks to the New Calypso Spaceport as well as numerous maglev stations and a deeply interconnected road network. As a result, the city has developped a very strong tourism industry, especially along Viridia where many cruises take place. New Calypso is also renowned for being the first city to implement the Climate Control Towers within its districts, making it the first successful terraforming project in the world.

History

The city was first founded in 169 as the first outpost of the Ceryx colonization program. Its location was chosen as the ideal balance of raw resources, flat lands and arable land. This has enabled the city to grow extremelly fast, reaching 50 000 inhabitants in less that a year. This eventually led to the founding of another city, Port Mirage, near the coast of the Panthalian ocean. Trade routes between both cities led to the construction of roads and maglev networks that quickly spread to the other cities built along Viridia, with New Calypso remaining at the heart of this network. This trend continued for several decades before stabilizing in the 200s.

New Calypso by Jonathan M.K. Dornell

Country
Vestan Federation
Region
Viridian Lowlands
Subdivisions
15 districts
Government
Mayor: Henry Marth
Surface Area
67 km²
Population
1.2 million

After the outbreak of the Interstellar War, the city was progressively abandonned in favor of the Evacuation Fleet. Many buildings were dismantled for resources and left in a precarious state before the end of the war and the associated nuclear holocaust buried the city in radioactive ashes. The city would remain abandonned for nearly sixty years before the Asterian Restoration Initiative began in earnest. The city was the first location to be restored, providing much needed infrastructure and shelter for the initiative's workers and engineers. The first Climate Control Tower was built to shield them from the harmful atmosphere and was a huge success. After the completion of the Restoration Initiative, the city remained the central hub of the entire Viridian region, and was once again the capital city of the entire planet. The colony grew steadily until the 370s, after which immigration slowed down. During this time, the city was expanded multiple times and was eventually surrounded by suburbs of all sorts, preventing further horizontal growth. Numerous additional Climate Control Towers were built to cover the city's suburbs, providing a vast region of clean breathable air.

Unfortunately, the city became plunged in chaos once more during the Asterian Insurrection of 379. The war broke out in the city's center and quickly propagated to the entire region, engulfing it in a brutal conflict of guerilla warfare. Much of the city sustained damage, especially in the suburbs, and many inhabitants were forced to relocate to other cities. While short-lived, the scars of the Insurrection have yet to heal in some areas of the city, especially the most damaged suburbs, due to the priorization of the city center and the climate control towers.

Geography

City center

The city center is the heart of the city and contains the administrative tower, which also serves as the primary Climate Control Tower of the city. The tower itself was heavily damaged during the Insurrection, but has since been completely repaired. The city's center is mostly composed of offices and commercial centers, along with museums and parks.

Outer districts

The city's outer districts are mostly composed of residential and commercial areas, with several parks and public buildings found throughout these districts. Some districts also contain some industrial buildings, though these are often smart factories and warehouses design to locally produce minor goods rather than a heavy industry.

Climate Containment Wall

Surrounding the city of New Calypso is a large, 25m high concrete wall. This wall is used to contain the artificial micro-climate and feeds the Climate Control Towers of the city itself. Traversing the wall is as easy as using one of the many gates and tunnels that connect the city to its suburbs.

Suburbs

New Calypso is surrounded by suburbs that extend to some 12 kilometers beyond the city's Climate Containment Wall. These smaller towns also have Climate Control Towers and containment walls, though much smaller that those of the capital. Many of these suburbs are full of residential and industrial areas, most of whom support the nearby agricultural and mining industry.

Culture

New Calypso has seen plenty of history, but its people have only lived through a part of it. Indeed, as all of its citizens arrived after the Asterian Restoration Initiative, they are all fully integrated Federation citizens, and as such share a common but heterogenous culture. This translates into a number of festivals all year round taking place in the city center while numerous districts and suburbs present higher concentrations of certain ethnicities.

After the Asterian Insurrection, military and paramilitary presence grew exponentially to maintain order and garantee the safety of the city's inhabinants. Initially well perceived, the public opinion of such measures has since dropped in the last three years and people now rarely express any feelings towards this presence. Military patrols are common on the streets and roads, while numerous checkpoints taken at stratetic locations still occur to maintain control over the main transport lanes.