Tantalus Districts

Residential Districts

Tantalus is home to over 30million people. the majority of those live in one of the many residential districts. Residential districts are collections of hab blocks, small commercial holdings, store-rooms, communal areas like halls and greenspaces, wrapped in service corridors and transport tubes for the monorail systems.   Residential Districts across Tantalus vary quite considerably in style, size, design and population density as they were built over the course of a century as Tantalus' population expanded. There are even several partially complete residential districts where construction stopped after the destruction of Niobe station and the redirection of materials to the war effort.   Listed here are several residential districts, but there are many more:  

Hybadon Vale

A large middle-class commercial district built around a loop of multi-level shopfronts. It's commonly thought of as a 'shopping' district, most of the residents here work in the stores.

Aegapolis Gardens

Located near the vast agricultural areas of Tantalus. This district houses a large population of agri-workers and botanical experts. This district covers a large vertical area and features greenspaces and plants grown by the residents on almost every street.

Beladon Tertius Hub

A very large district that's constructed mostly along one, very long radial roadway. It's one of the older districts and is approximately centrally located, so transport links to all other districts run through here. The Providence Institute is located here, one of the larger Academies on Tantalus. Sports fans flock to the Stentor Arena in Hadariel. The Entertainment district is famous for its night-life and the Commercial district is one of the most popular shopping venues in all of Tantalus.

Lower Didephyrian

One of the newer districts, and therefore further from the primary areas of Tantalus. Residents complain that the hab modules are cheaply made with a range of problems including poor plumbing and electrical systems.

Stygadon Range

A mining district, and therefore further from the primary areas of Tantalus. During mining in the 4920's, a large natural fissure was revealed in the rock. Mining crews used the exposed rock to more easily locate promising mineral veins. District Planners were encouraged to build hab blocks into the fissure faces to allow the miners to live nearer to the mining sites. Once called a Boom District, it was heavily populated and wealthy until the mineral veins dried up. The majority of mining was taking place elsewhere by the 4970's and the wealthy population moved to better districts. Since then Stygadon Range has become a district of cheap, high density residential blocks for low-income citizens.

Lagentium Row

A dense knot of hab blocks built in the earliest days of Tantalus' colonisation to support the first settlers. In modern times Lagentium has become a place for low-income workers, typically those that work on the docks or Mercantile districts. The Artemis Technical Academy is located here.

Imperial Quarter

10,000 immigrants were taken in from a recently discovered survivor group that lived in the wreck of a massive wartime starship. They were moved from the wreck once it became clear the life-support systems had been failing and given one of the old partially-mined cave systems to work as their own claim. They were given instruction on using the mining equipment, as well as supplies to construct their own dwellings. They worked hard to develop a viable mining district and now supply ore and material to Tantalus and have been integrated into the monorail network as a new District. Travel advisory: Locals in Little Imperium have many strange customs, it is inadvisable to travel there without reading the information provided in the appendix directory.  

Commercial Districts

While there are many smaller commercial centres within the vast city-station of Tantalus, and many individual stores or small arcades, there are two major centres of commerce that are considered the true 'commercial districts' of Tantalus.

Demeter Holding

The place for buying and selling most things, eateries, bars, hotels and temporary lodgings can all be found here at reasonable prices.

The Mercantile District

The Mercantile District is a massive sprawling collection of warehourses, holding areas, loading facilities and trade centres. It forms the economic heart of Tantalus. A major cornerstone of trade and commerce at Tantalus is the buying and selling of scrap, treasures, information, and technology scavenged from the Graveyard. Aside from that the Mercantile District deals in everything that's produced at tantalus, or imported from elsewhere. The Tantalus Stock Exchange is located in the Mercantile District.      

Specialist Zones

Sometimes referred to as 'Restricted Zones', these are areas that most civilians would not normally have cause to visit during their lives.   Specialist Zones are divided into categories:

• General Access: In emergency situations these zones are automatically locked-down and switch over to Permit Zones until the emergency passes, otherwise these areas are accessible to all citizens.
• Permit Zones: Areas that require certain clearances to enter, usually government or military areas. Access to these areas requires special permits.

 

Hollard (General Access Zone 1)

A small but dense area that serves as the main civilian administration district for the Tantalus Authority. The Assembly Council met here in the Germund Way Council Chambers located in the Admin A block, as well as the offices of the sitting council members and associated support staff. The Commercial district here not only caters to the tastes of some of the most influential people in Tantalus, but also provides a range of meeting spaces and venues for presentations and events. Manterville (named for the pioneer of contained agricultural systems Aire Manterville) is a collection of scientific research institutes, medical facilities and research offices. Waldere Galas is a small habitation zone for those that need to remain within easy distance of critical facilities. It is typically lightly populated.  

Boretus Heights (Permit Zone 2)

An upper-class district built in radial patterns around a large central communal greenspace. This entire district is a 'gated community', only those that are wealthy enough to live there have access. It has a very small population, but occupies quite a large area. Most of the general population don't really even think about it, it doesn't appear on transit maps and can't be reached via any normal transit system.  

Industrial Permit Zone 4

Zone 4 is designated Industrial Site.  

Mining Permit Zone 6

Zone 6 is an active Mining Site.  

Agricultural Permit Zone 7

Zone 7 is the Agricultural Districts.  

Mining Permit Zone 9

Zone 4 is an active Mining Site.  

Agricultural Districts

A massive portion of Tantalus Voidstation is taken up with gigantic agri-farms. There are four major farm chambers that are linked, but used for different crops. Around these are dozens of smaller farms, and around these are hundreds of small nursery rooms. The Farm District, as it's sometimes called takes up approximately the same volume as 60% of the rest of Tantalus' interior constructions combined. It is not only responsible for scrubbing the air of toxins and producing fresh air to breathe, it's also a major part of the biowaste recycling system that allows such a massive population to exist all in one place.   The Farms are worked by thousands of trained workers every day, and the total working staff of all the farming areas combined equates to around 10% of Tantalus' entire population - and that doesn't include workers in associated jobs such as sewage reclamation or water processing.   Tantalus supplies around 90% of the edible biomatter (foodstuff) to the Outer reaches, and without it's exports life would be even harder for people living in other settlements. Generally speaking food crops aren't eaten as they are, they are sent to the Manufacturing Districts where they are reprocessed into nutrient-rich meals that are then sold to the populace. This extends the nutrition-value and shelf-life of the produce, but it doesn't provide very tasty food. A small quantity of raw ingredients are sent to the Mercantile District for sale as luxury items.   Workers on the farms are amongst the most trained and trusted since they are responsible for the wellbeing of the farms. Mistakes that lead to crop failures could cost lives, and so it's a well-paid job and one many aspire to.  

Stone Valley Range

A toroidal farm district divided into a number of smaller high-intensity agricultural strips.  

Silverbell Nursery

One of the largest open agri-fields, and the first ever made. It's so large that it contains a complex climate-control system.    

Industrial Districts

Despite boasting a a large and varied commercial and agricultural system, Tantalus exists mostly due to it's industrial capabilities. The massive smelteries and forges were constructed long before the war when Tantalus was a simple mining asteroid. In it's first life Tantalus was being slowly moved into position from the Oort Cloud into proximity of the Aegean Hypercomplex. During the transit, which took several centuries, a mining operation was established on the asteroid to construct the smelters and forges that would, in the future, be populated by Miners and associated industrial support structures. These ancient industrial facilities are massive and capable of smelting good ore from a range of rocks and even scrap metals.   The industrial levels are an enormous maze of modern and ancient tunnels, structures and facilities. Modern automated control techniques mean the smelters and forges are crewed by only a fraction of their intended staff, making the titanic facilities feel desolate, and indeed many areas have simply fallen into disrepair from not being needed.  

The Jagged Chambers

A massive series of natural fissures that were explored originally when Tantalus was de-orbited from the Oort Cloud. As such, the industrial facilities here are gigantic, ancient and sprawling.