Paka-Uzi (Pa-Kha Uh-Zee)

Paka-Uzi's population is diverse, with approximate species ratios of the following;

• Chromatic Cat (53%)
• Eponni (36%)
• Solar (3%)
• Human (3%)
• Naga (2%)
• Seropni (2%)

Paka-Uzi is governed primarily the local government of Shundallen, a large trade town. Technically it's also governed in part by a coalition of factories which produced firearms, ammunition, and other supplies for the war effort, but after the war ended and thus ceased being profitable, some fractures in their leadership have appeared.

The P.U.S.H. union has made some progress in negotiating for more governing power for the actual residents of Paka-Uzi, but their actual influence on governance is still significantly less than is ideal.

Paka-Uzi is located in a small clearing within a large, dense "forest" of ambrosia cacti. There are three narrow paths through the forest. While easy for the local eponni and seropni to navigate, an outsider will quickly find themself confused and lost without assistance.

The forest is also regularly patrolled by the eponni troupes, who take shifts to ensure the village is safe, as eponni are typically inclined to do. As the non-eponni members of the village are somewhat considered to be part of the troupe, they're also under the eponni's protection and allowed into the village at all. Strangers must be accompanied or otherwise have permission from the troupe to enter.

The chromatic cat population is also somewhat notably effective at navigating the cacti forest and will often accompany the eponni with their surveillance of strangers. Many of the residents of Paka-Uzi are paranoid of strangers and of the government, especially after the incident in 9224 of the Fifth Era.

The majority of residential inhabitants of Paka-Uzi are employed by the conglomerate of factories in Shundallen as miners (Most of which is the mines nearly two kilometers from the village proper). When the war between the Astridium and Rigeshem ended, disputes over who was actually employing them and who owned the mining rights began, which put a lot of miners' employment into question. Unfortunately seeking employment elsewhere is not an option for the majority of residents.

The majority of the village's electricity is sourced from a large section of solar panels, which is interspersed through the surrounding cacti fields. During emergencies, some can also be sourced from the more centralized panels in Shundallen, but blackouts can last up to an hour before power reaches them, which leaves far too much time for heat stroke to set in and hospitals to overtax its private solar panels and batteries.

Paka-Uzi's water is sourced from three artisan wells, one of which in the village proper. The water is run through a simple filtration system composed of several layers of fine mesh and boiling chambers to remove solid pollutants and bacteria. Liquid and gas contaminants are still a problem as the system isn't equipped to remove anything with the same or finer consistency as water.

The majority of Paka-Uzi's infrastructure is focused on up-keeping the processing plants for stone, minerals, and metal that the various mining operations produce, as well as the automated mine cart system which transports the processed material to Shundallen for further processing or sale.

Paka-Uzi was founded as a mining settlement in 9189 of the Fifth Era. The main problem with this was remarkably not taking advantage of the general desperation for employment in the civilian population (Though that was certainly not good) but rather that the territory was already occupied by a colony of seropni, who were forced out of the cavern they were occupying when excavation efforts began. The first round of miners were never informed that there was a colony living there, so when the cluster approached them for help, they were sympathetic, at least after a short period of attempting to break linguistic barriers. They explained the process of petitioning to the seropni, who never fully grasped it, but the miners sent several series of letters to the offices of Shundallen. Unfortunately the only responses they received were empty promises to relocate the seropni instead of halting the excavation operations which, while said letters were being sent, were destroying their nesting grounds and homes.

When the miners came together and collectively agreed to refuse to work and began to sabotage the efforts of those who had less empathy for the seropni' plight, a demolition team was sent to work without the residents' knowledge. This was unfortunately timed with the mating season of the seropni, leaving them stunned, heartbroken, and without nesting grounds to safely incubate their eggs.

The predominantly human miner population offered up their fledgling town as a nesting ground and the seropni, desperate, accepted the offer. This lead to a delicate, somber alliance between the residents and the colony which would eventually become the P.U.S.H. union, or the Paka-Uzi Seropni Human union, a group which still exists in the modern day but now includes the eponni troupes which preform most of the construction and factory work, as well as up-keeping the solar panels, and the chromatic cats who carry out most of the work outside of the mines and factories, such as running the local hospital and managing the transports between Paka-Uzi and Shundallen.

P.U.S.H.'s first act was to halt mining efforts entirely, made possible by the seropni's help in finding and providing food and water as no one was able to buy food. Shundallen was the first to crack, but instead of giving in and moving their mining efforts to an actually unoccupied area, they sent in peace keeping officers who occupied Paka-Uzi for three months. The seropni were quick to back down when their young were threatened.

In Igni of 9199 of the Fifth Era, Shundallen employed multiple large troupes of eponni to assist in construction efforts to build housing, metal processing facilities, and solar panels. Soon after many of the troupes were included in P.U.S.H., and they were willing to assist in the form of halting their work until ownership of the territory was given to the town and its residents, which would at least partially return the territory to the seropni colony. This lead to another harsh retaliation by Lunala of the same year.

These conflicts between Paka-Uzi's union and Shundallen continue to the present day, as Shundallen still refuses to pay their employees with standardized leos, and instead pays them with credits for Shundallen to purchase goods on their behalf.

Paka-Uzi proper is mostly residential buildings, almost all of which are built out of relatively small sandstone blocks which are stacked in slanted formations and packed with silt, mud, and clay. They're typically elevated around 15 to 45 centimeters off the ground and accessed with a small set of stairs or a ladder, which helps prevent flooding into homes and allows water to pass harmlessly under residential and commercial buildings alike. Each building is also arranged and built to cooperate with stormwater channels as monsoons are a relatively common occurrence. The plumbing and electrical systems of the buildings are integrated into the foundations, which are usually made of water resistant concrete and chemically treated rebar.

Quod of 9228 of the Fifth Era brought better centralized cooling system for both residential and commercial buildings, but the majority of Paka-Uzi's buildings are old and ill equipped to be fully modernized. Fortunately various sponsors for the village have taken an interest in renovating it to be more habitable, as well as funding local shops with actual standardized leos.

Paka-Uzi is located on a large desert plane above a series of vast cave systems, each of which hosting several smaller attached cave systems. The main village itself is in the center of a large "forest" of ambrosia cactus which is somewhat maze-like, though was not intentionally planted to behave as such.

Paka-Uzi has a highly arid climate, and is prone to a yearly period of frequent monsoons, as well as dust storms.

The wider territory around Paka-Uzi mostly includes iron ore, copper, and manganese, as well as zinc and occasional veins of lead. There's also a fair amount of sandstone, shale, and abundant salt in the cave systems.

Its primary source of food outside of what it can purchase from Shundallen is cactus fruit, though there is not enough to feed the entire town, nor be reasonably traded with other towns, even if they could reasonably access them.