Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Cities of Urbis - Building Bodenwald, Part V

Continued from Part IV...

The next district of Munich is Sendling. We read that the area had Bronze Age settlements, including numerous finds from the Tumulus Culture. In Urbis, the whole region of the Flannish Cities was once inhabited by savage goblin tribes of the Goblin Mound Builder Culture, which means there are likely plenty of Goblin Mounds in this part of Bodenwald. And perhaps goblins still hide there from time to time, though their tunnels have likely been re-dug countless times over the centuries...

Close to Sendling, in the suburbs of Grünwald and Gauting there are also some remains of Roman settlements - and the Urbis equivalent of that is the Atalan Empire. Thus, one of the major themes of this district seems to be the buried remains of the past - forgotten, but not gone. There also used to be a Roman road - which we can combine with the Salt Road mentioned earlier.

There is a side note on Swedish looting during the Thirty Years' War, which is probably not terribly relevant to Bodenwald proper - but I should probably add a note to the history of Svardholm (my Stockholm analogue) that they were once the center of a large and aggressive empire conquering much of the Flannish Cities at a time. Of more interest is the Sendlinger Mordweihnacht (Sendlinger Murder Christmas), a riveting tale of lies and conspiracies which resulted in 1100 rebellious peasants being massacred by noble-led troops on Christmas Eve. In Urbis, this has probably resulted in major hauntings at the Festival of Lights (the local Christmas analogue), and the locals know well enough to stay clear of any places where ghosts will appear on that night.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/thumb/b/b0/SendlingerMordweihnacht2.png/640px-SendlingerMordweihnacht2.png

Later on Sendling developed into a workers' district, which implies local activities by the Secondaries. As for other noteworthy locations it has the Großmarkthalle München, which is Europe's third largest wholesale trade facility for fruits and vegetables. Looking at the map of Urbis' Known Lands, Bodenwald does seem to be a great spot to trade fruits and vegetables from all over the Flannish Cities with the Siebenbund, the Parginian Rim, and other points south. Given the current focus of Bodenwald, I expect that extraterrestrial fruits also see some trade here. I also expect that their biohazard containment systems aren't exactly up to modern-day standards, with, as the Ancient Masters say, occasional Hilarious Results.

All in all, much of this district would be dedicated to trade and logistics, with major rail connections - while the negotiations will largely happen elsewhere, the physical goods are moved here. This will give the district a somewhat grimy atmosphere - it's not run-down by any means, but it is much to busy to attempt to make it look nice.

Also in Sendling is church that used to be an "entertainment facility" called "Elysium" - from the sparse description it reads more like a feast hall than a brothel, but we can certainly "tart it up" for Urbis. Maybe the feasthall was also used as a temple of the Horned Man, but then the previous owner (not the priest) died and his heir sold it to the church of Thenos which wasted no time in converting it into a proper temple of their faith and kicking out all this unwholesome activity. Needless to say, the priest of the Horned Man and his followers are rather unhappy about all of this...

Looking at the communities just outside of Sendling (and Munich proper) I mentioned earlier, Grünwald has Grünwald Castle, which is home to an archaeological museum. Its Urbis counterpart likely houses whatever remnants of the Goblin Mound Builder culture and the Atalan Empire are dug out of the ground in the region. In recent years all this railroad and warehouse building activity in the district has likely resulted in a steady stream of such artifacts, and the experts probably haven't had the time to examine them all if any of them are... unsafe.

Gauting, on the other hand, is of interest because it has a facility of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (German foreign intelligence service), so the main headquarters of the intelligence service of Bodenwald is likely located there. One of their major activities is likely to keep tab on the space exploration programs of other city-states, and its agents can expect to be frequently posted to other planets. Presumably, they also keep a collection of dangerous extraterrestrial artifacts deemed unsafe to the public there.


Continued in Part VI...

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