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Overview
Cyrene is a large city and greater state located on the shores of the Eastern Sea and surrounding the Bay of Cyrene. Both the capital city and state of the Republic of Paxem, Cyrene is one of the most populated cities on the Doggerland bank, and currently operates both the largest port and the largest airport on the continent. It is famous for its governmental district, vibrant and multicultural downtown, modern skyline, and electricity-generating seawall.
Inception
Originally, the city was designed by architects Antonin Kaldwin and Julia Meynora as a replacement capital for the Neu Corporate Republik after the planned destruction of Novenæ by Florian Steinbauer. Florian Steinbauer had a significant hand in the project's design as well, especially the federal sector of the city, where the large, imposing buildings reflected his obsession with power and status. In a book published by Julia Meynora after the war, she reported that Steinbauer stated "It needs to intimidate. It needs to show the rest of the universe that we're a force to be reckoned with."
After the end of the war and the defeat of the NCR, the plans for the capital were discovered in two locations - a room adjacent to Florian Steinbauer's office at the Chisel Enterprises regional headquarters in Novenæ, and within Julia Meynora's office in Neu Wiltshire. These plans were quickly requisitioned and studied by the newly formed Paxemese government, who was already preparing to construct a new capital due to the extensive damage and movements for independence in Novenæ. The design was chosen for three main reasons.
- It simplified the planning work the government would need to conduct to construct its new capitol. The city of Cyrene was already meticulously planned by the Republik government, and extensive surveys had been conducted on the site where the city was planned.
- The region the city was planned to be located in was a largely temperate, flat area with access to the Eastern Ocean. It had a natural border to the north (the Sedona mountains).
- It helped guarantee the allegiance of the Republik planners who had designed the city.
Initial Construction
Work on the city began in August of 3021. A large port was constructed first along the shores of the Eastern Sea, in order to facilitate the transport of building materials. Sedona district, the region of the city surrounding the port, was constructed first. Large amounts of temporary housing for construction workers was erected and moved as the city expanded upward towards the Sedona mountains. Ground was broken on Cyrene International Sky Harbor shortly after, with the airport being completed just a month and a half later. Work continued into late November, when construction began on the two major boulevards extending eastward into the planned Federal District. The tens of thousands of construction workers worked at a blistering pace until a workers strike caused work in Sedona District to falter and stall for around two weeks. This workers strike mostly affected Heimat Construction, a subsidiary of Chisel Enterprises, who had been lowering wages and pushing workers to finish work below budget and ahead of schedule.
Later Construction
After two weeks of stalled construction, Heimat Construction bended to the worker's demands and raised wages significantly, with the condition that the work had to continue at the same pace as before. The employees relented, both satisfied by the greatly increased wages and threatened by Heimat's proposed move towards completely automated construction during the strike. The entire ordeal costed Heimat Construction, however. After the strike, they were no longer the dominant construction company in Cyrene, with Relient Construction, a fast-growing competitor, receiving several contracts for the Federal District.
Over three months, a massive dam was constructed around the bay of Cyrene, completely separating it from the rest of the Eastern Ocean. Once finished, the bay began to be used as a coolant reservoir for the Antov L. Akimov nuclear power plant. Over a period of three weeks the water in the bay was drained until it was at an acceptable depth of seven meters deep. The water was boiled directly into steam by the power plant, while the salt was returned into the bay. This left huge salt dredges on the coastline of the bay, giving the coast its characteristic white look. The salinity of the bay is an estimated 730% the salinity of the rest of the Eastern Ocean. This makes it almost impossible to drown in the bay, and also makes the water completely undrinkable and unsuitable for filtration, except for that desalinated through the nuclear plant.
After the construction of the dam, otherwise known as the Great Oceanic Dam, work started in earnest on the giant governmental buildings in the Federal district. The Volkshalle, one of the largest buildings by internal volume to ever be created, went up in an astonishing one month. Other buildings followed suit, with the Federal district becoming operable in just three months.
In mid-3022, international corporations began to take interest in the fast-growing Arabelle district. Foreign companies with motives to leave their birth countries, like KAR and Aether Cybercomputing, began to relocate their global headquarters to the city due to the incredibly low corporate tax rate Cyrene had put in place. In a matter of four months, the number of supertall skyscrapers (skyscrapers over 300 meters) had grown to sixteen, the most of any city on the Doggerland bank.
After the migration crisis and the Ono Island disaster, a new district was designated as Canareis district, meant to contain housing the tens of thousands of immigrants migrating from the European mainland to Cyrene. Consisting largely of prefabricated Kiloblocks, Canareis District is still heavily under construction, with an estimated three of five Kiloblocks completed.
Present Day
Districts
Arabelle District
Otherwise known as downtown Cyrene, Arabelle district is the corporate hub of Cyrene. It is located directly south of the Federal district, hugging the north and east shores of the bay of Cyrene. Dozens of prominent companies have regional or global headquarters there. It is recognized as being the safest district other than the Federal District, with crime kept firmly in check by both CYPOL and private corporate security. It is also the only district other than Canareis district where skyscrapers are allowed, containing the several supertall (300m+) skyscrapers that comprise Cyrene's impressive skyline.
Arabelle District is a hotbed of construction as it continues to expand eastwards along the coastline. Contracts for available land are often snatched up in a matter of seconds, with companies such as Relient Construction, Heimat Construction, and Starkebau fiercely competing amongst themselves to deliver on projects. The buildings vary in style, with the dominant style being modern corporate aestheticism with hard lines and sharp angles, though more classical skyscrapers such as the WBC center still exist.
Arabelle District is often seen as the face of Cyrene and is most prominently featured in media about the city. It is extremely densely populated, with buildings often blocking out light to the streets below.
Arabelle is comprised of several distinct subdistricts, including South Flats Park, Midtown Cyrene, Little Sentosa, and the Waterfront.
Canareis District
Canareis district, otherwise known as Dam's End, is a mid-size proposed district located near the southern end of the Great Oceanic Dam, extending upwards towards Arabelle district. It is largely physically separated from the rest of the city except by a coastal road and tunnel. The district was proposed in early 3022 to serve as a solution to the rising crime rates within Cyrene, as well as a to serve as a housing solution for the tens of thousands of immigrants from the Novus Imperium Romanum and other countries in Eurasia. The district is to be marked by several "Kiloblocks", skyscraper-sized cheaply constructed residential buildings capable of housing thousands of residents each.
The district is designated as a "Special Legislative Zone", where only capital crimes are enforced. This is a distinct part of the 3022 Crime Bill passed by the Cyrene City Council, which also created the system of stratification and surveillance. The Special Legislative Zone is designed to concentrate the majority of organized crime in a segregated district. This means that the majority of Canareis District is a largely lawless-zone with the sole exception being the Kiloblocks, where security is often contracted out to a host of security corporations. Certain areas of the district are also subject to "gang rule", where a particular sort of judicial system is enforced by the most prominent gang in the area.
Canareis district will consist of two smaller sectors. The lowlands will be an area created from dredged seafloor leftover from the construction of the bay of Cyrene. This will be the location of the five Kiloblocks that dominate the skyline of the district. Due to its low lying nature, the area is prone to frequent floods, necessitating the inclusion of emergency floodgates on each of the Kiloblock's lowest (and main) entrances. The muck that often clogs the streets is incredibly salty due to the consistent flooding and evaporation of the high-salinity content baywater, leading to frequent painful lesions and sloughing skin on the residents unlucky enough to spend most of their time on the streets. This area is dimly lit and has many industrial alleys and corridors where robbers and other dangerous criminals lie in wait.
The second area is the red light district, Cyrene's haven for brothels, unregulated drug sale, and normally-illegal cybernetic modifications. This area, also known as "Dam's End" (due to its location being at the southern end of the Great Oceanic Dam), is notably cleaner than the Lowlands, but is just as dangerous, due to the high concentration of the drug and prostitution trade in the area. This is also the area that many individuals who do not live in the district will go to, in order to get a taste of the "dangerous life". These tourists are often the targets of pickpocketing.
Murder and other capital crimes, while still being nominally illegal in the district, occur regularly, only infrequently enforced during crackdowns by CYPOL. The corporations and gangs who maintain the small pockets of law and order are known for being corrupt and regularly accept bribes. Due to the prevalence of more serious crimes, three out of four people in the district are armed.
Federal District
Sedona District
Located west and north of the Federal district, Sedona District stretches to the Zaandam border, and is by far the largest district in the city, comprising the vast majority of the land allocated to the capital state. Primarily comprised of suburban development, rolling fields, and pine forests, it is bordered to the north by the Sedona mountain range, to the east by Zaandam, to the south by the Eastern Ocean, and to the west by the Federal district. Notable landmarks in the district are Cyrene Sky Harbor, Palazio Bay, and the Port of Cyrene. 60% of the district consists of protected nature preserves, and the area is famous for its hiking and skiing. Sedona has regularly topped polls for the most beautiful natural areas of the Doggerland.
Sedona district is also known the high property prices of it's affluent neighborhoods, many of which serve as the residences of notable Paxemese politicians and corporate figures. Pulaski, Palazio Bay, and Georgetown, the first, second and fourth most expensive suburban areas on the Doggerland bank, are located within the district.
Cicero Isle
Cicero Isle is a protected island located in the middle of the bay of Cyrene, known for its black sand beaches caused by a locally high concentration of the mineral magnetite in the sediment there. Prior to 3023, travel to the island was heavily restricted and based off a monthly quota due to the sensitivity of the region's environment and its untouched nature. Precedence to visit was given to research organizations and those who had made donations to the National Park Service, who were responsible for the island's maintenance.
In May of 3023, the island was bought by Chisel Enterprises for an undisclosed sum. The island was closed off to all visitors after the purchase.
St. Konstantin's Isle
Geography
Notable Landmarks
Demographics
Cyrene is
Relationship to Dependencies