A Tourist's Guide to Heaven's Fall
So then, tourist. Fresh out of the maglev? Let me welcome you to Heaven's Fall.
City's nothing short of a lone shining beacon, screaming the values of advertiser-friendly civilization to the nomadic wastes. Only inhabited place in miles, too. Powered by eight fission reactors, all strung up on the Outer Wall that protects us from the monsters and rogue automatrons that roam beyond. Wouldn't say we thrive - we cling, more like, sandwiched between a polluted sea filled with corporate mines and a climate-ruined wasteland-continent where nothing will grow outside of an automted hydroponic plant. But hey - at least we're a free, independent city-state; we don't take our orders from the New Empire nor the rebellious Free Aerie States. We let the free market and its corporate masters lead, and we are happy to follow like lambs to the slaughter. Keep your head down, look out for those you care about, and you might get to live another day or maybe even afford the Medtech fee if you're at risk not to. Just another day on the rotten pizza.
Man, listen to me rattling on. You don't care about that. I know your type. What you really want is to spill your wallet without spilling your guts. Heaven's Fall has it all - if you want it, if you can dream it, it exists somewhere in the city. That's why you made the maglev trip. Or maybe an orbital shuttle? Well, either way - wait no more. Let me - the city famous Minxy Malindah, socialite extraordinaire - be your city choom for the day, walk you through our city, on the highlow.
So here's what's hot, what's not, and what's going to get you gonked on the dataslot.
Heaven's Fall
So then, everyone's been to the museums. Heaven's Fall is a very old city, at least 9000 cycles at the time of writing. 'Snot like you'll find much of those ancient times; it's all been dug up and sold for scrap or glory. What matters is that since the Sunder, the city's grown. Because its harbour is in a preem location, and because it was left to its own devices, Heaven's Fall has become a city-state in its own right. That means none of the Aerie's weird religious rules, and none of the New Empire's bureaucracy. A perfect place to live and work.
Well maybe not perfect. But hey, if you want to strike it rich beyond the Outer Wall and brave nomads, monsters and a lifeless wasteland, be my guest! See if life treats you better in one of the Empire's crumbly dead-end towns.
The Fall is divided into eight sectors (plus a central one) by large walls, all built after the Sunder by none other than the city's largest employer, Aurum Corp. Here's the rundown :
Sector 0 : The Upper City
Urban Centre
So, where else to start but at the Core? This is the heart of the entire city; actually, scratch that choomba; tucked deep within the city's Inner Wall, Sector 0 is the centre of the civilized world.
Here's where you'll find all the big movers in this wasteland of ours. Aurum, Vanguard, Takeda, Local 48, JadeLabs - they're all there, clumped together around the dancing hologram at Ekko Memorial Plaza. Hard to believe that not long ago, this place got hit by a nuke, huh? That was then, and this is now. This place serves to showcase the economic might of the Free City, and it does a damn good job at it.
Not many people live here - it's mostly office spaces, though there are a few penthouses and thousands of apartments carved within the Inner Wall. Badges from city hall don't often come down here; this is the domain of corporate police, after all. During the day time, the place is full of workers, commuting from all over the city. Past curfew, though, one can only imagine their betters don't want the plebs around, so the streets get really empty, really fast. Past midnight, the Core is the turf of spoiled corpo brats showing off on their overpriced bikes. Goddess help you if they decide to pick a fight - as you well expect, corpo police isn't going to arrest a CEO's son for putting the populace in their rightful place, after all.
Tourist rating : 3/5 stars
Sector 1 : Electric Town
Urban Centre
Once, Sector 1 was built around the pharma and arcane industries - but today, the Sunder killed the latter and JadeLabs bought out the former. Now, though? It's a tidy little district, full of Free Aerie folk and smaller non-pharma corpos ironically protected by JadeLab, since no corp wants to really hash out another Guild War on their turf.
Today, this sector boasts entertainment venues such as the Grand Arena and a lot of relatively affordable nightlife options. You've also got sleek coffee shops (especially along Maerin Avenue, the world capital of synthcoff) and there's quite a few electronics shops, BD parlours, holoplay meccas - not to forget the city's famous maid-cafés clustered all around Davi Plaza. Generally, it's mostly teenage punks or holoplay obsessed fans who loiter in this area, but you'll also find corpos on downtime and Syndicate gangoons - so mind your manners.
If the noise gets to you, take a hike along the canals and the outer walls. This quieter part of town is known as Little Luvaluna, and boasts fancy restaurants and calmer options for the discerning tourist. Many of the sector's frequent festivals happen to start or end there. City Hall's finest badges often loiter here, and Sector 1 is easily one of the safest Sectors in all of Heaven's Fall.
Tourist rating : 5/5 stars
Sector 2 : New Esaree
Overpacked Suburbs
After the horrors of the Fourth Guild War, which saw much of the Core reduced to cinders, authorities slated Sector 2 to become the city's new corporate core. That's why many corpos moved in and, for a while at least, there was steady investment into this part of town. This didn't take, though. Aurum and Vanguard collectively decided to rebuild the original Core, and Sector 2's new buildings were left for Esari refugees to squat and inhabit, thus giving it the name Little Esaree.
Before long, Sector 2 became a poor and extremely densely packed district. The streets are poorly planned, maze-like, and the arcologies crumble under their own weight. Still, the sector boasts a rich food and music scene, probably the best in the city. Several studios and BD prods are located here, especially around the area known as Audio City.
Sector 2 is vibrant and full of life, then, but choomba beware - it's also badly underfunded. Because public services are assigned based on census results, and many Esari never managed to obtain official residency permits, this means a distinct lack of police. Outside of the main thoroughfares, many alleyway complexes are the turf of different branches of the Syndicate, which enforce their own brand of law and order and control utility points, charging fees for their use. Not the safest district, then - but iconically Heaven's Fall.
Tourist rating : 3/5, and remove one number for each block away from Midsummer Avenue.
Sector 3 : Wall Market
Overpacked Suburbs
Stuck between a rock and a hard place - I really mean between Sectors 2 and 4 - Sector 3 is one of the most downtrodden districts in the city. It's plagued by neglect and corruption; not to mention the Syndicate's iron grip, barely dented by City Hall. The streets here are narrow and twisted, and often used by fugitives or smugglers, which tracks with rumours of cracks in the Outer Wall. Megabuilding M4 is known for its cockroaches, and conservation specialists sometimes loiter in the lobby in hopes to catch the newest specimen.
Along the Wall, then, is the district known as Wall Market. This commercial area sprawls along Canal Avenue, and serves as a chaotic entertainment district, where love can be bought and one's dignity can be sold just as easily as buying a new cyberdeck. Whilst not particularly safe, Wall Market is certainly somewhat safer than the rest of the Sector, and a draw for tourists and locals alike.
Tourist rating : 4/5, but if you value your internal organs, probably less?
Sector 4 : Embassy Hill
Inner Sector 4 : Overpacked Suburbs ; Outer Sector 4 : Combat Zone
After the devastation of the Fourth Guild War, the ruins of the Embassy District were rebuilt with corporate funding. Starting from the Inner Wall, a few arcologies and tower blocks were built, at least until challenges against the Mewei who used to live here forced authorities to stop building and instead erect a giant wall - the Firewall - to quarantine the rest of Sector 4.
And by the by, if you've never attended a history class in your life, Mewei are aliens - they kind of look like us, and certainly some of us like to chip themselves with impants to look like them. So that Embassy was protected by insane Imperial interstellar law, which has somehow carried over even though the chances of us ever seeing another sun than our own up close as close to nil.
Tourist rating : 2/5
The thing is, that Firewall was a last resort. The bulk of Sector 4s is easily unlike anything else in Heaven's Fall. The Mewei Enclave, as it is called now, was abandonned by the local authorities and even the corporations. It's far from dead, though. A city within the city, more like. The Mewei who continue to live here are led by gangs such as the netrunning crews making up the White Rabbit Cabal, who set up their own micro Intranet and Goddess knows what else in their attempts to breach the old, destroyed Net and seek out the rogue AIs that swim there.
There's only a few official checkpoints into the Enclave, and they're tightly guarded, inside and out. There's no police, no services, and no corporate patrols (though Telnet and Aurum sometimes send net watchers to try and disrupt the Cabal's efforts to reconnect to the old Net). The Mewei communes here are mostly closed off, insular, and generally do not take kindly to intruders. You won't get to see their factories, but with a bit of good luck, they'll let you roam their markets, still full of old-world tech and cutting edge netrunning gear.
But personally? I wouldn't go there if my life defended on it. So don't be a gonk.
Tourist rating : 2/5 if you're into nature hikes, tree-top adventures, spontaneous brain fry, or ghost subway stations.
Sector 5 : Feywood Glen
Overpacked Suburbs
Sector 5 has a reputation for being "average" - and average is what I'd call it too, yeah. You've got a few neighbourhoods here, such as Feywood Glen and Woodland Park, as well as the Tiefling district along Little Lady Luck Plaza. They offer modest, middle-class housing, but the streets are tidy and the atmosphere is way calmer than some of the other Sectors in town. Even though JadeLab is trying to build its tech campus here, the place remains mostly free and generally well protected.
Despite bordering the docklands, there's enough police presence to deter crime. Sure, there's Sisterhood graffiti here and there, but they couldn't give a damn about you, so long as you don't do something gonk to provoke them. The Foxes, typically more of a Sector 3 thing, actually operate out of here; you'll find Linny's Lounge right off Kaunis Street, as well as a couple more dollhouses, such as Puffs and Hightop.
Closer to Sector 6 and the docklands, it's true that the district shows a bit more urban distress; some of the buildings are a bit shoddy and there's definitely a weird kind of tension from the locals there. Still, even though it's mostly residential, Sector 5 is a pretty welcome reprieve from the big pizza, if you ask me.
Tourist rating : 3/5
Sector 6 : Docklands
Sector 6 : Overpacked Suburbs; Docklands : Combat Zone
Sector 6 is the gateway to the city's western docklands. Here you can taste the smog that emanates from all the various factories planted firmly within the city walls. The seaside-facing wall is lower than the others, allowing for fresh air to enter the district and get stuck there. There is some decay; a few factories have shut down, though nondescript forges and manufacturing plants remain active to this day, their blind walls collecting dust and grime. Life in the Dockland Industrial District is short and poorly lived. But where would we be without the sacrifice of a population too uneducated or stuck in poverty to climb the ladder of success? Many of the workers live in a Megabuilding M3. You'd be surprised, then, but there's a lot of unemployment - our corpo overlords don't really think of what happens to the workers when a forge closes or automates. And if it wasn't good enough, you've got rampant corporate violence and gang crime. The flesh-eating Gorgons, the Sisterhood, and the Dockworkers' Union all fight for control of turf in this part of town.
Beyond the Sector 6 walls, the Docklands proper start. Automated, massive yards sprawl, interspersed with greenhouses and industrial equipment. No one lives here, sandwiched between the Wall and the open sea - well, not willingly anyway, though there's certainly a few homeless camps in this area. Since the Fourth Guild War and the automining of the ocean, the docklands have shrunk in size and importance, leaving behind brownlands of abandonned factories left at the mercy of the various Sector 6 gangs. These abandonned zones, beyond the safety of the city's walls, are called the 'Combat Zone' with good reason. If stray gunfire or daylight kidnappings didn't deter you, the Sector 6 slums are home to the worst gang there, the Gorgons, who borge and carve people for eebies. Basically, don't go there, even if you found a really good discount on ex-miltech cyberware. Especially if you found a really good discount on ex-miltech cyberware.
Tourist rating : for meat lovers only.
Sector 7 : Candle's Keep
Urban Centre
Along with being a popular corporate residential district for middle-ranking corporats, Sector 7 offers services and a measure of sophistication - at a price. The sector is home to Speaker's Corner (where you'll find the city hall), General Hospital, as well as the millenia-old Candle's Keep, the last non-corporate place for higher education. This place is a go-to for the elites, but there's also a huge student population, and as a result the nightlife there is more refined than anything you'll find elsewhere. 7th Purgatory, Klub Elysium, Lucky 13... take your pick.
You'll find a lot of other historical places here. The Grand Chantry stands proud, if empty - religion is no longer at the forefront of anyone's minds, truth be told. There are also a handful of bioparks in the shadow of sleek arcologies. It's a peaceful and well-patrolled place, but with such a clash of values in the local population, unrest and protests are still fairly commonplace. This is especially true with younger people. Even though Heaven's Fall is a free city, students from the NESA and the Free Aerie States all study here and sure don't mind bothering the locals with fights and minor riots over that. Unrest and geopolitical strife at the bottom of a tequila shot. Go figure that.
Tourist rating : 4/5.
Sector 8 : Herald's Perch
Executive Zone
Don't you want to live in Sector 8? Of course you do, silly! The arcologies and office towers here are all guarded, and you can be free of the oppression of gangs here. Now, given the small size of the city, you won't find too many McMansions here; nevertheless, when every floor's a penthouse, and every lobby is a carefully curated biogarden, who needs a sprinkled yard, right? Within Sector 8, the district called Herald's Perch is where the wealthiest amongst the wealthy live. Some of the most luxurious hotels, such as the Final Heaven Hotel on Armitage Street are also located there, as well as Ekko's Country Club - though that's only if you've got the rep or cash. There you can network with corpo execs, top suits, the works. There's little chance you see them in person elsewhere, given that Sector 8 has its own separate subway line directly connected to the top corpo towers in Sector 0, and boasts more helipads per capita than anywhere else in town. If you somehow manage to make it there, in a McPenthouse or better, don't squander it - the residents will mow you down if they think you'll do anything to harm their little paradise. But let's be honest here - if you could get the scratch to live up here, you'd probably think the same.
Tourist rating : 3/5 if you're not loaded with eebies, but do try the StarLucks.
The Metro System
Too cheap for an autotaxi? Well then, Heaven's Fall still has you covered. The MetroLink system, part owned by the city and a consortion of corpos, runs timely trains across the city, for a rather cheap fee. The driverless system does sometimes need to adapt to evolving conditions, but by far and large it's considered reliable - though, security being subcontracted to Vanguard also helps, as their soldiers don't mess about. So make sure you have your ticket or Crabcard implant ready or be ready for a rough time.
Beyond the City
Once out of the city, you've got the Badlands. Much of the city is surrounded by rows of well-defended greenhouses feeding and fueling the world at the same time. But follow the shore northwards and you will find the Reclaimed Burbs. Wedged between a dark ocean and oil fields, ramshackle slums sprawl without any true government presence - the realm of those too poor to live within the city limits. They subsist on fishing what they can out of the waters, and often trade looted goods for refuse, which they dutifully recycle in the abandonned power station in the middle of the Burbs. Go south and you will hit the Silvermoon Saucer, an amusement park arcology towering over an old, delapidated Burb. (Thankfully, you can simply take the subway and skip right past it).
And even further beyond? Well... Guess it won't hurt to look at the map?
Go north, and you'll find the Free Aerie States. They broke off from the Empire not very long ago. Rugged people, up north, in what's left of their pine forests and craggy shores. Aurum bankrolls their army whilst NESA waits for a new Guild War to retake their lost state.
Go south, and you'll find what's left of Esaree. Technically, that's NESA territory, and that's why there's a giant border wall not far from the city. But in reality, it's a reality-warped land, where feywild creatures hold court and ruin all who stay, so most of its people are either dead or live tough lives elsewhere on the mainland, as refugees or unbidden nomads. Cross the Stony Mountains and you'll find another rebel state, the Luvaluna Confederacy, home of Aurum. The people of Luvaluna like their draperies, their architecture, and their relatively unpolluted coastline. They also like petrofuel, which sprouts in the sea and in the baked mountain foothills.
Any further, though....well, the Badlands stretch hundreds of miles from Heaven's Fall. The remains of motorways skirt the ruins of former great cities, and a few new towns that bravely try to reclaim the scorched Great Plains from nomads, wraiths, and worse. NESA doesn't have a monopoly on violence there; in fact, except for a few token outposts at NESA's borders, they've all but abandonned this hot, unforgiving desert land. Too poor for a maglev or orbital ride? You might bribe a nomad clan and make your way to Orcish Wyvernia, still loyal to NESA, where all of the planet's weather-controlling doodads used to be before they blew up in the Sunder. Or maybe you'll make it to the hive-cities of the Capital Province, or the salt marshes of the Nagaran Drift. More likely, though? Crossing the Badlands will make you wish for a thaumic winter. Trust me, I've tried, at least right up until the AC broke and I turned tail back to Heaven's Fall.
