Kandor City

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Flag of Kandor City
Game Statistics

Kandor City is the largest city in Fenspace, based around The Watchtower and located in Crater Daniell, Luna. The city has a population of 250,000, and hosts the Metahuman Power Biomodification Research Institute (Supers faction home base), Kandor City Hospital, and the base for the Soviet Air Force "Central Committee" among others.

History

The Watchtower is the oldest structure on Luna, and lifts a remarkable 1600m from the highest point of the south-western lip of the crater, with a number of large supports helping to stabilize the foundation. The old part of the city along with the old docks and warehouse district are based around these supports and inside the crater, with the actual living area in glass-covered sections between the supports on the crater's inner rim. Many people consider "The Watchtower, Kandor City, Luna" to be the most prestigious business address in all of Fenspace.

Eventually, the fen got inspired (or bored) and built a full bell-like dome over the entire crater. This dome reaches 5 kilometers over the center of the crater and almost twice the height of the Watchtower. The light shining off it makes it the only man-made structure on Luna to be visible by the naked eye from Earth.

Inside the dome, the Supers who built it took advantage of the free space to lay out a clean, tidy, and surprisingly green city. Whilst the old town is crowded, the new city takes the best features of the various cities in fiction and combines them. Due to Crater Daniell being an ellipse (with the long axis being Northwest to Southeast), the fen came up with an arrangement of 3 oval zones placed inside one another with their borders 4 kilometers apart. From the center of the crater these are named the Core, Main, and Rim zones. These were then split into 8 wedges, corresponding to the major compass points, creating the sectors of the city. Each of the sectors is linked by the Kandor City Maglev train system and the Heavy Cargo Transport system on the crater rim. Unofficially there is an Outer zone which deals with those facilities outside the crater rim, and while it has not yet happened further zones may be unofficially designated.

Kandor's Neighbourhoods

The Watchtower sits on the rim at the Southwest position and the old docks take up the 'Southwest Outer' area, with the Old Town (including such things as Question Alley, the Paragon City Saloon, and Dr J's hardware store) taking up the Southwest Rim sector.

Map of the general Kandor City environs
To the north of the Watchtower along the rim are the Metahuman Power Biomodification Research Institute (a.k.a. Star Labs) and the dedicated emergency docks of Kandor City Hospital. Ironically enough, further round in the West sector is where Korolev Air Force Base (home base of the Soviet Air Force or VVS) is located. The 250K Saloon, a favorite off-duty hangout of the VVS, is close to Korolev.

Further round in the North Rim sector is the Kirby Memorial Spaceport (ICAO code XLKM, IATA code LKI, extending into the unofficial 'North Outer' area outside the crater rim) and the docklands/warehouse district. Also here are the lots of the Silvery Moon Films studios (located towards the border of the North and Northeast Rim sectors). The heavy industries line the rim of the crater to the west of this area in the Northwest Rim sector (a.k.a Northwest Outer) and extend outside the rim for those industries requiring vacuum.

To the south of the Watchtower in the South Rim sector. Surrounded by the unique Kandor Bell species of Dandy (taken as the symbol of the place) is the Nekomi Institute of Technology.[1] The Supers running this university are gradually getting their courses accredited by 'Daneside authorities, with the first full Degrees due to finish in May 2014. Already N.I.T. is becoming known for its wide variety of clubs, especially its Motor Club which currently holds the record for the fastest ground level circumnavigation of Luna at the equator. Also in this area are the various sports facilities of the city, including a full ski slope.

The new business and shopping district is in the Southwest Main sector. This contains the high-rise office buildings of the various companies in the City, with the new shops taking up the floors near street level. On the border between this sector and the Southwest Core sector is the entertainment district.

The current residential district takes up the Southeast Rim section. This area is filled with multi-story mansions owned by various factions and high-rise apartment buildings. What most people don't realize is that Kandor builds underground, allowing quite a bit of space that normally wouldn't be available. Towards the Southeast-East border is Gil Kane Memorial High School (the first public High School in Fenspace), and towards the Rim-Main Southeast-East corner is the Home for Wayward Catgirls. Not shown on the map, in fact in a highly secret location, is The Vault, the Supers prison.

Under construction on the border of the South and Southeast Core zones near the centre of the dome is the Trinity Towers arcology. This is a modified version of the Sky City concept from Takenaka Corporation. Being built to the Japanese building code in respect of the country the design came from, the three 2-kilometer-tall "cities in a building" will dominate the surrounding landscape. When finished in late 2014, each will provide housing for 75,000 people, and workspace for another 100,000. The three towers would be linked by an upper core housing the city's internal airport and main embassies. The Japanese government is officially watching the project, which may gain Clark Universal Construction an Earth-side contract.

One of Kandor City's nicknames is the Green City, and it isn't due to the fact that it's named after a Kryptonian City. Kandor City is a wonder of recycling and reclamation, and it has terraformed most of the area under the dome. The most impressive part of this is the creek-fed Lake Tezuka in the exact center of the dome. The creeks are part of the terraforming maintenance system, which is part and parcel of the city's life support system. Despite some worries it's not really part of the central water reclamation system, though it's tied in. The whole point of the creeks is to create at least a theoretically self-sustaining water cycle inside the dome that allows the wildlife to thrive without constant attention. As of 2014 Kandor City's terraforming is still mostly in the sagebrush-and-jackrabbits stage, but so far so good. Current plans for the rest involve subsequent local terraforming to make arable land and induce a permanent 1G area for cattle. The Mars and Venus Terraforming Projects are watching carefully.

The main green segment is in the Northeast Main sector, and only really reachable from Sherwood Station. It is here that a one square kilometer section has been planted with 'waved fast growing trees as an experiment. This has since been nicknamed by the students of the high school as 'The Forbidden Forest', given that the authorities have restricted the area due to slight mutations of the plants, and the rumors of a vicious biomodded white rabbit that lives in a cave in said forest. [2]

Hazards

Out for a stroll near the rim
The upside of the sheer size of the Kandor dome is you get weather effects. The downside of the sheer size of the Kandor dome is that you get weather effects. And that goes triple if you're near the crater rim outside the main city limits where the terraforming's still a little dodgy.

Most of the rim's solid rock or it's been treated to hold the dome's retaining walls. But some of it - particularly the slopes near the bottom - is mostly cracked rubble and eons of lunar dust piling up. Now add a gazillion liters of water to this mixture and what do you get? Picture it: you're out on the rim minding your own business when all of a sudden a dome squall comes up and you hear this rumbling sound above you. You look up, and there's this huge mass of water, rock and mud coming down off the rim and straight at you.

Thankfully it's not coming too fast. Outside the city the rest of the crater maintains lunar gravity, so the overall terminal velocity of all that crap is pretty low. Not quite so low you can avoid an avalanche by briskly walking away from it, but a good jog (plus some judicious leaping) will get you clear in a right hurry, even if it messes up your hiking expedition.

Transport

People get around the city in a number of ways. For short distances walking is best, though the switch between Earth and Lunar gravity in certain areas, near the rim, while gradual and safe, may upset the unwary; two rather different styles of walking are required.

Bicycles and rickshaws, some of which may be electrically assisted, or even robotic are popular with some, others insist on more traditional Earth-type vehicles, such as cars; the traffic can get quite heavy on occasion.

The Kandor City Maglev train system links each of the sectors, and the Heavy Cargo Transport system runs around the crater rim. While these have their place the Kandor Automatic Railway (KAR) is often used, both for passengers and light to medium goods transport.

Government

The only notable government department that many pay attention to is the Kandor City Police Department, or 'KCPD'.

Stories

Kandor City is a notable or major setting for the following stories:

Notes

  1. Despite what many people might think, Sora Hasegawa had nothing to do with the founding or naming of this part of Kandor.
  2. Said rabbit being a really nice sort, actually. He just can't stand Monty Python and the Holy Grail jokes. And if you ask politely, he'll invite you to tea with his haberdasher friend...