The Coir Core

This settlement exists within the Rhizome Zone. It is the primary hub for information and the origin point at which agents who enter are spawned. Many do not know that they are spawned there due to the fact that they are quickly redirected to a point within the simulation that makes sense, but everyone who enters must first appear at this checkpoint.   Many agent avatars are stored at this checkpoint. It is considered where they 'live' within the simulation. There are hundreds of thousands of avatars at this location, all within their respective housing units. Sometimes, these avatars are allowed to 'freely roam on their own' so that the developers can test things such as movement, dimension, and limitation. Once an agent plugs into the Rhizome Zone, an avatar is randomly selected. The data stored for that agent immediately textures the avatar and the avatar becomes T-posed in a state of suspended animation as the locations are calibrated and the computer calculates all necessary coordinates. This also gives the software time to sync up with the physical apparatus needed.   This opening hub has been reworked several times. In the early days of the Rhizome Zone, this area was a very small room with only one avatar present at a time. The entire place was reminiscent of an old-fashioned computer CD-ROM game intro screen where you select your character and settings before entering the experience.   Over time, the entire UI of the Rhizome Zone was deleted in order to make the whole thing more immersive for agents.   Along with these more functional changes, there were also a lot of aesthetic changes made to the area. As more agents expanded to enter the Rhizome at once, more avatars needed to be present and accessible at the same time to prevent lag and delay in logging on. These avatars also began to glitch out when first being controlled, so the developers made it so that the avatars could move around freely on their own to work out any bugs or kinks that may be present in them before the agents connect to them.   At first, the area appeared to be a small, techno room with 'sci-fi' elements. It has been rebuilt and updated over time to be more and more like normal life. As the team migrated away from the outdated supposedly futuristic tech interface, they created an apartment building in which each of the avatars roamed about in their own room. It has since been expanded to include surrounding towns with houses and shops. Sometimes, when agents connect, they can override the automatic directives and appear in this starting town. The place is a bit eerie, however, due to the fact that there are several blank avatars roaming around seemingly mindlessly