Solaris City

There are few words that would do justice to Solaris City. There are less which could do injustice. Solaris City is … an experience. Though not one I’d invite many people to know for themselves.  Read about it.  Catch the fights on holovid broadcasts.  Leave the rest to mystery and never worry about the fact that you missed it.  Because in the end, Solaris City is just what one would expect. Only more so.
       -- An interview with Kai Allard-Liao, Tharkan Media Associates, 23 November 3058

A Brief History of Solaris VII Solaris VII A Primer for Solaris Games A Whistlestop Tour of Solaris VII The Game World Solaris City A Tour of Solaris City International Zone Black Hills Cathay Kobe Montenegro Silesia Solaris City Location Index

All the guidebooks suggest arriving in Solaris City by night.  If coming by Dropship, forget an early debarkation and spend an extra hour on the ship’s promenade.  See the city cloaked in darkness but still alive with glittering lights.

What the guidebooks do not say is the reason behind this suggestion. Once Solaris City is seen by day, the memory is likely to ruin what little beauty the city may offer. Carpeted with trash-strewn streets and run-down neighborhoods, Solaris City is dirty and downtrodden. The Solaris River that cuts the city in half doesn’t look so much like a river as like a flooded swamp—or a sewer.  The homeless population is staggering, forced to live in sprawling slums and eking out an existence through petty crime and scavenging. The odds are one in fifty you will witness a crime your first day, one in twenty0five hundred that you will be the victim—and you can find booking agents to take that bet.  And always, there is the rain, which by night could possibly seem light and refreshing but by day will only begin to weigh oppressively.

Slightly more than three million people call Solaris City home, or at least their place of existence. Another half million in visitors might be swelling the population at any given time, donating generously to the cash flow Solaris VII must rake in to continue.  Central to that very purpose, Solaris City is also home to the five Open Class arenas—the stars of the Solaris Circuit.

Political Asylum

During the period of Reconstruction, which took place during the First Succession War, Solaris City was divided into five major sectors, each representing one of the great Successor Houses.  These sectors were to be administered by nationals, who were allowed to keep their foreign citizenship with no penalties as long as they lived in the appropriate quarter. No one thought how this might affect Solaris City in the long run. At the time, this design was devised to keep Solaris VII in the money, leading the Inner Sphere in `Mech games.

Each sector soon developed a character based upon the governing nationality. Kobe, devoted to citizens of the Draconis Combine, maintains a look reminiscent of medieval Japan with well-manicured grounds and an Asian touch to the many buildings.  House Davion’s Black Hills sector reminds one of a disorderly military camp—especially since the people maintain an identifiably aggressive attitude when set against other nationalities, though lately the Lyrans of Silesia come very close to matching them.

The physical division of Solaris had long-reaching implications as each sector took to policing their own. Each police force claimed jurisdiction to the sector boundary, but no further. Interference by the Solaris Police Department (SPD) was met with anything from icy cooperation to investigation-hampering “assistance.”  Soon the SPD involved itself only when a problem covered multiple sectors.

As more businesses moved in, the sectors also began depending more on the economic system of their particular nationality rather than the Lyran’s strong economy.  The various House bills became standard currency in their respective sectors, to be looked upon with disdain by the neighboring quarter. Solaris residents quickly invented derogatory slang for foreign moneys, calling K-bills “snakes,” D-bills “shivs,” S-bills “mittens,” L-bills “cookies” and M-bills “birdies.” The only slang everyone agreed on was the term for Solaris scrip.  Forced on those who have no choice but to accept it as payment, scrip value fluctuates so wildly that it can be worth anywhere from 1 percent of its theoretical C-bill value to the rare 100 percent.  Solaris scrip is commonly called “teep,” sounding out the initials T.P.—a reference to the lower-end quality of the currency.

This system of nationalized sectors has continued to grow so that every political entity is now represented in Solaris City.  The Periphery states have staked their claim in the run-down areas and slums bordering Solaris City.  So have the bandit kingdoms, though quite often their territory is measured in a few city blocks and under the protection of a local gang or criminal concern.  The old Guild Hall has been taken over by the Wolf’s Dragoons as an extension of Outreach’s mercenary support plans.  Even the Clans are represented on the Game World now, by the few exiled or renegade warriors who’ve come to compete, and by a political embassy established in Cathay for a small contingent of Clan Jade Falcon.

Crime

With everything from police forces to public works divided up by sectors, only the Solaris criminal element seems to be pervasive. Having no concern for sector borders, they gouge each sector impartially.

Solaris VII had first thought to undermine criminal activity by legalizing gambling. But crime, as has been proven over the centuries, is a most adaptable curse.  Bookies simply offered better odds than the legal gambling circuit, keeping their steady clientele.  It also created other problems, as many who would’ve constrained themselves to office pools or a little book betting on the side now were driven by the lure of organized betting into a state of financial ruin. Theft, street-side drug dealing and prostitution soared in the first year of legalized gambling, as did the use of alcohol and narcotics as those who bottomed-out took to their final escape from the reality of their lives.

Serious crime on Solaris VII, however, has always been in the hands of serious people. The Solaris Syndicate—also known as La Cosa Nostra, “this thing of ours,” or more commonly, the Mafia—oversees a lucrative business in gambling, drugs, prostitution and most other criminal activities.  What makes the Mafia more dangerous in its latest incarnation is the completely business-like nature. Violence is a measure of last resort, when all legal tricks and other forms of coercion have failed.  A hard eye on the bottom line has led to fewer mistakes than in the old days, making them much more unassailable.

If the Mafia has taken on at least the trappings of respectability, the yakuza are nearly ready for a public offering of stock. Though their rolls have opened up over the centuries, the yakuza still remain primarily staffed by those of Japanese descent with a head for business and a ruthless nature. Masters of threat, extortion and inside operating, these organized criminals maintain as many completely legal businesses—no matter how they were first acquired—as they do illegal ones.

The third powerful criminal force on Solaris VII are the triads—criminal organizations with Chinese roots. Nowhere near as organized as the previous two, a triad is a world unto itself.  Its members tend to be fanatically loyal, but between triads is the constant struggle for more territory is all-consuming. A triad typically stands ready to take on all comers, which means they are not averse to infringing on yakuza and Mafia claims.  Where the Mafia and yakuza tend to operate behind closed doors, triads virtually flaunt there existence as part of the ritualized procedure for laying claim to new territory and “walking protection” over their current turf.  Triads are like powerful street gangs, but with a slick media coating and very influential connections.