The Trenches
Before Neospire reached for the sky, before Zenith poured trillions into building their utopia, the foundations were laid—giant subterranean industrial vaults, loading corridors, reactor shafts, and structural bunkers. But when the city grew too large, too fast, these underlayers were abandoned, buried beneath newer infrastructure.
What remains is The Trenches: a massive, decaying undercity, unmapped, unregulated, and lawless. It is a rotting steel labyrinth, refuge to those who have been displaced by the city. The trenches are lawless, dangerous, but not dead.
Layout & Geography
- The Trenches span hundreds of square kilometers, twisting beneath Neospire like arteries carved into rust and concrete.
- Access points exist through the Verge, lower Grid utility shafts, and breached drainage systems.
- Built in layers, some parts resemble abandoned subway lines, others are cavernous voids with chasms hundreds of feet deep, lined with crumbling catwalks and active hazard piping.
- The tunnels within the trenches stretch on for miles, often seeming as if there is no end.
- There are neighborhoods within the trenches which are homes to those who either cannot escape the trenches or those who seek refuge inside.
Environment
- Neon LEDs line the walls. Lights that had been used in the past when the city was first build are maintained in the high traffic areas of the trenches. In other parts, darkness rules.
- Air quality is poor, in some areas, masks or even biofilters are required to breathe due to toxic fumes from subterranean irradiation.
- Steam jets and broken maglines hiss through the walls.
- Law enforcement has no presence within the Trenches, and gang warfare is not an uncommon occurrence.
- Illegal black markets are found inside the trenches, selling to mercs, gangs, and edgerunners.
Who Lives Here
| Group | Role |
|---|---|
| Trenchfolk | Families, outcasts, immigrants, squatters—many born here. |
| Gangs | Claim territory, extort protection, and provide de facto “law” in many blocks. |
| Nomad crashers | Use Trench hubs for rest, barter, and hiding. |
| Small-time fixers | Work in repurposed subway cars or server rooms, connecting talent to work. |
| Black market tech-runners | Salvage, rebuild, and sell off-grid ware or corrupted AIs. |
| Street medics and rogue docs | Offering everything from stim patches to black-market limb installations. |
| Trench Guides | Local couriers and runners who know every shortcut, breach tunnel, and live wire. |
Key Sectors in the Trenches
| Zone | Description |
|---|---|
| The Bazaar | Massive underground black market tucked inside an old metro interchange. Known for arms deals, custom implants, bodypart trading, and stolen data sales. |
| Floodwall 6 | A submerged section with stacked homes built on rusted scaffolds. Accessible only by narrow bridges and cable lifts. |
| Steamhook Loop | Former mag-rail maintenance corridor turned residential strip. Popular for food stalls, stim cafés, and junker clinics. |
| Coreline 12 | Power conduit vault repurposed into a self-governing community. Known for its anti-corp graffiti and underground propaganda press. |
| Service Block Delta | Grid undernode used for smuggling goods, weapons, and people up to the Verge or down into the Deep Trenches. A hive of shadows. |
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