Otome Row: Places and Setting

It is 2012 or Year 20 of Hinao Era – thirty-four years since the conclusion of the Sixty Years War and the start of the Cold War. Since then, most of the fallout zones left by the detonation of spin bombs have stabilised. Their reconstruction gave rise to the War Accountability and Reparation Provisions where organisations of both Amaharan and foreign origin are given unrestricted access in order to bolster efforts of reconstruction. Owing to numerous legal loopholes in the charter under which they were founded, questions of law, jurisdiction and even sovereignty within these areas remain uncertain to this day. Within the so-called WARP Zones, the rule of law is weak and competition is unforgiving. The difference between have and have-not can be stark as day and night and whether it is hell or heaven depends on one's position and attitude. The largest, most important and most infamous of these zones is the Jura Megalopolis.

Located on the southern shore of the Ryunan Peninsula facing the Jura Strait, the Megalopolis is one of the largest cities in the world and its busiest and most important port. Though heavily spin-bombed and still peppered with major anomalies, the territory's strategic location assured its quick revival and regrowth. With a third of the world's shipping passing within sight of the shore, the Jura Megalopolis is vital to the world's economy and a vital sea route for both civilian and military purposes, yet its legal status makes it inviolable by official forces, especially in this era of Cold War tensions. Today, the Jura Megalopolis has become a hub of intrigues and spies, terrorists and unsavory corporations and above all, crime.

History

Amaharan settlement of the Jura area began in the 16th century during the invasion of Ryunan by the shortlived Kagamine Shogunate. The invaders set up a fief and took over the land with military force, absorbing several razed Miao villages, an existing trading post of Middle Kingdom origin (but not imperial administration) and a newly founded Catholic mission. It grew in economic importance as a port during the Yanari Shogunate when overbearing isolationism encouraged merchants to use Ryunan as an intermediary to access markets and producers on the Home Islands.

As the Yanari stagnated, the shogunate grew so distant that it hardly took notice when the Rose Europeans began gaining significant influence. Historic maritime trading nations such as Ezpana, Uragos, and the Sonic Provinces grew in influence throughout the centuries but engaged the local authorities as economic partners. Francia's primacy following the Napoleonic Wars turned the relationship on its head and greatly expanded Rose European influence. Recognising the strategic importance of the locale, Francia refounded the city under its present name, recentered it around its present day core and added the first industries and deep water port facilities to handle iron and steel ships. Following a half century of Francian dominance, newly rising powers such as Karlsland, Danuby and Etruria as well as a rapidly industrialising and reforming Dominion of Amahara wrested control back from the Francians to even out the balance of power. By the early 20th century, Jura was once again generally agreed to be Amaharan in principle, albeit with large sectors under foreign administration.

Jura was a vital strategic point during Amahara's wars of expansion in the first half of the 20th century and came under threat several times. Despite becoming allies of the Lian dynasty, the Dominion never allowed them use of Jura as a staging point. After the war turned on its head in 1976, Jura became one of the main targets for the first wave of strategic spin bombs. The city was almost totally depopulated and subsequently classified as a W.A.R.P. Zone in the post-war arrangements. The Megastructure was laid over top of the remnants of much of the city and reconstruction quickly saw Jura reemerge larger and more populous than ever.

Territory

The Jura WARP Zone is approximately a beveled, enlongated right triangle with an area of over 700 sq. km. Despite or because of its reputation, the population has grown rapidly since the war, resulting in a very high human density and a tendency for hub areas with the money to build upwards. Whether from the sea, the nearby mountains or across the strait, the Jura Megalopolis has a very compelling skyline. At the edges of the territory, lack of space and zoning regulation brings slums and buildings right to the international borders.

In the west, slums and barrios come right to the edge of the Celebes Republic, an exotic pot of a dictatorship tolerated because it opposes communism. Despite the threat of nasty wildlife, landmines or guerrillas randomly shooting folks, parts of the jungle are often stripped or poached for food, wood, or drug cultivation. In two areas near extant Celebean villages, the border could even be said to be blurry, a state of affairs tolerated so long the local general or rebel leader gets a cut.

The northeastern border faces the Ryunan People's Republic, former Amaharan territory turned communist hellhole since its occupation and annexation by the People's Confederation of Lotus Asia. Despite post-war treaties, the Ryunan DMZ was reoccupied a mere seven years after the war by rebranding an entire army division into a supposedly civil border-and-customs unit. Here, spartan housing blocks abut directly on walls of concrete and barbed wire beyond which is stark rainforest punctuated by clear logged areas, guard towers and even bunkers. This longer and more exciting border has only one official crossing. Yet, despite heavy patrols and iron curtain efforts, human movement into the Megalopolis continues steadily through various methods.

Lying beneath much of Jura Megalopolis is the Megastructure, a giant engineering plate laid over the ruins of the pre-war city of Jura after the end of the Sixty Years War to form a stable and flat foundation for the new city. It underlies the majority of present-day Jura Megalopolis, including all of the downtown core, covering over a myriad of waterways, topography and the worst of the fallout anomalies caused by spin bombs. The massive plate is webbed with tunnels and chambers for installation of the vast utility networks needed to service the city-state and the layer's implementation in different areas ranges from obvious and unfinished to cleverly concealed and almost unknown. Beneath it, the landscape has been converted into an inhospitable and dangerous yet lively network of dumps, artificial caverns and inscrutable catacombs known as the Undercity.

Just across the Jura Strait lies the theocratic Emirate of Midena, a member of the Caliphate whose fundamental hostility to the Amaharan religion is carefully weighed against economic and political realities. Several other states (mostly small nations on the mainland or archipelago polities) are also nearby along with the Francian imperial colony of Menden. Among the last colonial holdouts anywhere in the world, Menden nevertheless holds the potential of Rose European influence in the area.

Wards and Landmarks

Hinagiku

Hinagiku is one of the smaller wards of Jura Megalopolis. It borders Swallow Hill to the west and Ichigun to the north and east. The stretch of shoreline along the south comprises most of the good beaches remaining on the mainland and the area receives much traffic as a result. The Otome, among a quirky bunch of other gangs, have their home turf is located within Hinagiku.

Although not many are aware of the distinction, Hinagiku is the oldest part of the Jura Megalopolis, having been a Kagamine period town and the site of a Catholic mission for centuries before the industrial port was founded. Much of the ward is comprised of a series of hills so the Megastructure was never built over it. Nevertheless, physical recollections of Hinagiku's history are the exception rather than the norm and boringly cloned Reconstruction architecture dominates the urban landscape.

Ichigun

Ichigun is a large ward bordered in the west by West Side and Swallow Hill, in the east by Central Jura, in the north by Kawashi and to the southwest by Hinagiku. Most of its area is built on Megastructure and as a result its shoreline is an ugly and inhospitable cliff broken up by yawning maws into the Undercity. On the surface, it is packed and built up but has neither the claustrophobic crowdedness of West Side nor the sheer vertical impressiveness of Central Jura or Ayarai. Bike gangs dominate its criminal scene.

West Side

Running along the western border of Jura Megalopolis is a massive band of the city's poorest and most squalorous surface neighbourhoods. Unlike the reasonably large buildings common in the more central zones, much of the construction in West Side was independent work without oversight of any sort. As a result, even the more sensible streets are just barely wide enough to fit two lanes of traffic while smaller paths and avenues twist and turn through the hilly karst in nonsensical fashion. Many of the gangs in West Side are grouped by ethnicity or some other outside cultural or historic grouping, congealing out of what is otherwise a fairly well mixed melting pot.

Swallow Hill

The meat of the ward lies beneath eponymous Swallow Hill, a small mountain located between Black Lagoon, Hinagiku, West Side and Ichigun. It is another historied site within Jura Megalopolis, having been the approximate location of a Middle Empire trading post and the largest Miao settlement in the area for centuries prior to the Amaharans arriving. The surface of the mountain is rural in appearance with rough rock, sinkholes and relatively scrubby trees while everything of import is located inside hollowed out tunnels and caverns. Despite being technically underground it is not considered a part of the Undercity as everything is located on a grade with surrounding districts.

Hantown
The official term for a NotChinatown in the world of Amahara.

Underhill Mall
A very large mall space that is practically the size of a town and completely underground. It's big enough that bicycles and even scooters with electric motors are common in the shopping arcade, which is full of discount off-the-truck shops for everything.

Black Lagoon

The Black Lagoon is located on the southwest corner of Jura Megalopolis bordering Swallow Hill to the east and transitioning gradually from West Side to the north. Here, canals ancient and new break up the lowrise cityscape into numerous islands. The most famous feature is its floating city district. In most other respects, architecture is much like in the West Side, though it is slightly less crowded and the roofs are more colourful. There are numerous marinas and the lagoon itself is crowded with light craft. In addition to the obvious waterfront, crime also gathers near the border with Celebes.

Neo Venna

Kawashi

A "suburban" district though heavily populated by the same definition in any other country. There is continuing work at the southern and eastern sides of this ward to tear everything down to build taller and bigger things despite there being plenty of packed townhouses and small apartment blocks to begin with. While clever landscaping makes many areas appear green and natural, most of it actually lies on top of Megastructure.

Ayarai

Ayarai extends northwards from the downtown core and extends to cover the northern half of the border with the Ryunan People's Republic. Similar to Central Jura, Ayarai is built upwards and is dominated by big, tall buildings but is significantly poorer and much less glitzy than the "real" downtown core. Packed highrises have their foundations laid right up against the border walls and the rainforest is extremely close with the canopy reaching above the 12th floor. This is also approximately the level of a second Megastructure forming in southern areas (along with parts of downtown and Kawashi) as developers try to maximise usable space.

Although the most dramatic stories tend to come from Warzone Alpha, Ayarai is now thought to receive more human traffic from the rest of Ryunan due to much greater military attention to the southern stretch of the border.

Kitayama

Kitayama forms the northwestern corner of Jura Megalopolis and is the least densely populated part of the city due to steep terrain. Mount Kitayama, still called "Lelian" in Miao is a (formerly) picturesque dormant volcano and considered a holy mountain in the old days. The glaciers that had vanished from the peak during the colonial era suddenly reappeared after the war. Plenty of habitation does exist in the area but is rather unobtrusive compared to the various tourist destinations.

The Rift

Lies between West End, Ayarai and Kitayama. Its area is defined by the presence of the extremely deep Rift caused by spin bomb detonations. Many of the residents live with the highest background anomalies in Jura outside of the Undercity.

Zone Beta

Zone Beta is a smoggy industrial zone that exists on both sides of the Megastructure to a greater extent than any other district. It contains some major pieces of infrastructure such as Jura Quantum Power Plant and Jura Water Complex.

Warzone Alpha

The eastern corner of the Jura Megalopolis has a reputation as its most terrifying ward in terms of overt physical danger. Originally a peacekeeping zone meant to ensure the security of the city's airport and hold the Jura Straits and RPR border under observation, Zone Alpha quickly became the main stronghold of various anti-communist groups and things went downhill from there. Today, "War" is typically appended to the proper name of "Zone Alpha".

Meia International Airport

Eastwall
The Eastwall building is a very large multi-use building with a facade that comes within an inch of the communist border. Its towering brutalist architecture resembles a bunker facing out to the communist realm beyond but its name refers to the fact that the structure is a staggering 3km long, following the contour of the border perfectly. It is unironically rumored to actually be used as a base for various anti-communist groups and attracted more than its share of attacks from the east. The south end of the building is about 100m from the Lelouch Memorial Bridge. The north end is used as the main library of Jura University.

Hinamori Castle Hotel
Hinamori Castle was a shogunate era fortification that, like many castles in Ryunan, was restored and rebuilt as a hotel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The castle hotel survived both the war and Jura's reconstruction and is now the highest rated hotel outside downtown proper. It forms the core of a gated and very heavily secured airport-hotel commercial district within Warzone Alpha

Jura University Campus
Jura University is the most prominent center of learning in the region of Southeast Lotus Asia. Although not the only institution of higher education in Jura Megalopolis, the majority rent its laboratory spaces, library network, technological assets or piggyback in some way.

Yurishima

Yurishima is an offshore island territory of the Dominion of Amahara. It is closer to the Emirate of Midena than Jura Megalopolis or the rest of Ryunan and is composed of jam-packed military base and an adjoining town with a much greater level of security than most parts of Jura enjoy. It is not officially a part of Jura Megalopolis and commerce between the two is not officially allowed and nobody is officially allowed to travel in either direction without an official visa that isn't officially ever issued. Because it is Amaharan soil, Yurishima is not lawless and is something of a fortress to keep it that way.

Central Jura

The downtown core is basically the endgame content of the Jura Megalopolis, a district packed with skyscrapers, mysteries, people and money. A few of the most powerful gangs are concentrated in this area, which covers approximately a quarter of the total area of the Megalopolis.

The Wall
Officially the 03 Ring Route, but much better known to locals as "The Wall". Not everyone is aware of its true, gangland derived etymology. It is is an elevated highway that surrounds Central Jura so dubbed because it is the limit beyond which most gangs are ruthlessly smashed should they attempt to encroach on the superpowers' territories in the downtown core.

The Ninja Building
The headquarters of the Ninja Corporation, the tallest and among the most gaudily lit buildings in the city.

The Undercity

The Undercity is a vast series of giant caverns, ruins and tunnels cut off from the surface by the Megastructure or simply built underground to begin with. It is an inhospitable place, but nevertheless is home to a large population.

Nethertown

Over the last decade or so, desperation for real estate has led to pockets of the downtown core to recolonise sections of the Undercity by building downwards through the city's foundation. Accessibility to these areas is not great owing largely to having to cross the Megastructure in places where there is room to carve out such an access and the desireability of avoiding extant fallout zones. These pockets of downward construction are known collectively as the Nethertown, which has a positive connotation of being secure where the rest of the Undercity is dangerous. Some of these pockets are interconnected by secured tunnels or routes beneath the Megastructure. They are also generally better lit, since they don't have to steal power in order to have any at all.