Exclave Vistora
Introduction
Exclave Vistora (/ˈɛkskleɪv vɪˈstɔrə/) is a Post-Tempest faction and polity on Novaluna. Directly descended from and to a lesser degree contiguous with its Ante-Tempest predecessor colony of XCL-V "The Exclave", Exclave Vistora (more commonly known as just Vistora) is an incomprehensibly immense megacity of over four billion people sprawled across and beyond the small island on which XCL-V was first founded.
Far and above the largest city—if it has at this point not far surpassed the limits of what can constitute a city—ever to exist on Novaluna, Vistora is an enormous, contiguous hyper-agglomeration of diversely oriented component sectors, each a colourful mosaic of gigantic urban cores striated with neon-lit spires rising hundreds, even thousands of metres into the sky, and sparser peripheries glittering with the glass and steel landscapes of a city that encompasses all it touches, building upon land and water alike in its ravenous pursuit of space. Its nation-wide average for population density already far in excess of most other cities proper on Novaluna, even this figure belies the true character of life in the sectors figuratively and literally centremost in Vistora; in the old city core, where the bulk of Vistora's vast population resides, densities reach the astronomical heights of several hundred thousand to nearly a million people per square kilometre.
Since its inception from the ruins of the Exclave after the Tempest, virtually all facets of Vistora have been dominated by the dealings and goings-on of what have collectively become known as the Associations. As a catchall term for every organisation of power and repute, including megacorporations to criminal organisations to militant collectives, few generalisations can be made about them; while they are often classified as "non-state actors", even this is difficult to determine, as in Vistora's earlier years they often exercised just as much authority and legitimacy over their respective circles as the frequently fractious, weak, and fluctuating "legitimate" government. Formerly the multifarous forces behind the conflicts suffusing much of Vistora's history, since its 332 PT political reformation most Associations have largely ceased regular fighting amongst themselves, although they continue to wield substantial influence in nearly all areas of society, hard power included.
In many respects, Vistora is a city of sweeping superlatives. Within its bounds exists the extremes of stupendous wealth and grinding poverty, its teeming streets wracked by anarchic violence and brutal oppression alike yet so also burgeoning with the spirits of ambition and freedom. Due not only to its tremendous population, but also its unprecedented internal diversity and the microcosms of advancement in society and technology this has produced, Vistora is widely recognised as possessing a nigh-bottomless well of latent potential waiting to be tapped.
Flag and Seal
Location
Name:
Motto:
Capital Sector:
Largest Sector:
Language(s)
Area:
-Land:
-Water:
-Other:
Population (c. 462 PT):
-Density (OHA):
-Growth:
(461-462 PT)
Government:
(c. 462 PT)
-Chief Operator:
-Chief Executive:
-Chief Legislator:
-Chief Justiciar:
-Chief Director
Established:
Demonym:
Currency:
Time Zone:
Exclave Vistora
Vision of Voice
Sector Zero
Sector Nagara
20+
142,922 sq km (22nd)
77,440 sq km (54.18%)
58,432 sq km (40.88%)
7,050 sq km (4.94%)
4,003,056,912 (1st)
47,379/sq km (1st)
+0.820%
Civicalist Cyberpsephocracy
Visio Vocis
Djara Re Coru
Ilun Si Maila
Gedet Om Golom
Vilcho Shar Hiran
32 PT
Vistoran
Vistoran cira (₡) (VIC)
NST +1
Etymology
The name of Exclave Vistora is, as might be expected, directly contiguous with XCL-V, the Ante-Tempest colony from which the Post-Tempest polity draws most of its national inspiration. Exclave is quite simply taken from the erstwhile city's name, the Exclave, while Vistora is taken directly in reference to Vistora Nova, the island on which it was built, and indirectly in homage to the Old Earth megacity-state that spearheaded the Novaluna One project since its infancy.
History
While the population of what had once been the Exclave recovered relatively quickly from the
apocalyptic ravagings of the Tempest, the societal and governing institutions that had seen the Exclave flourish into the greatest, most prosperous, most enlightened major city beyond the confines of Earth were lost to history in the chaos, preserved only in fragments of artefact and memory. What proceeded to take root and grow in its place, though sharing part of its name, was something wholly different and vastly more sinister. Free and productive commerce metastasised into a rapacious scrum of greed, while long-held cultural traditions of liberty degenerated into caprice and anarchy. Even as the façade of a thriving new city was rebuilt upon the rubble of the old, rot had taken hold at its very foundations.
For the first few centuries after its traumatic reawakening, Vistora was dominated by the fierce and violent rivalries between the Associations; powerful quasi-corporate entities, extensive organised crime syndicates, and large irregular forces of urban guerrillas and paramilitias, with Vistora's nominal central government largely powerless to tame the chaos. At the height of inter-faction conflict, in 216 PT only 7% of Vistora's population was under the government's de-facto jurisdiction, a situation only exacerbated by the government's own incompetence and oppressiveness at the time.
Since 332 PT, however, an uneasy peace has existed, due to a period of wide-ranging political reformation coinciding with the creation of Visio Vocis, a highly enigmatic artificial intelligence of unknown power thought to permeate nearly all of Vistora's technology; the corporations have largely replaced deadly feuding for competition of the more peaceful sort, greater autonomy has placated the more amenable armed citizen groups, and crime has largely been consolidated into three super-organisations willing to negotiate and curb violent action. Though strikingly imperfect, this detente has nevertheless served to demonstrate the truly tremendous underutilised potential of Vistora, extant in its many peoples and potentially world-changing technology.
Crime
Although crime in and of itself can at times be hard to define in Vistora—in the megacity's lawless early centuries, law itself was an insubstantial nicety even in the patchy few places it could be said to apply—even insofar as crime can be somewhat-universally defined as mala in se, there is little question that it has long played an overt role in Vistoran society and continues to do so in its many amorphous manifestations. In the days of Vistora's law enforcement being either brutally capricious or absent altogether, the black and grey of Vistoran society was an all-encompassing, continuous flux, in some way, shape, or form pervading all facets of Vistora. The lines between criminal syndicate and legitimate enterprise, or between militant group and civil-society organisation, were often so tenuous as to be useless, eventually giving rise to the term Association to describe any entity that wielded political, social, economic, and military power in Vistora. Whether or not an Association was illegal became a meaningless distinction, for where they reigned, they were the law.
From that chaos, a sort of order has since arisen; after the Reformation of 332 PT, most Associations withdrew from deep and direct involvement in extralegal activity, and what remained of the organised criminal sphere consolidated into three major super-syndicates, this new method of organisation reflecting the new reality in Vistora. Crime, though more clearly defined, was still in high demand, and required more capital, efficiency, and nuance than ever before, requirements these three new criminal Associations were well-placed to meet. Known as the Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves after their namesakes in folklore and fantasy, between them they account for some 86% of all organised criminal activity in Exclave Vistora and a significant proportion beyond it.
The Orcs are Vistora's primary purveyors of illicit violence of all sorts, few-to-no questions asked. Their signature body-modification is enlarged and protruding inferior canine teeth, and their trademark is a lethal mix of brutality and precision. Most Orcs undergo moderate to extensive biological and cyberprosthetic augmentations to boost their strength, speed, reactions, and overall martial prowess to levels seldom seen elsewhere outside the military sphere, contributing to their fearsome reputation as incredibly formidable fighters. As such, the bulk of their revenue comes from criminal activity complementing this; from common thugs and goons hired to rough up a troublesome smalltimer rival, to some of the deadliest and most capable contract assassins in the world, to well-equipped and well-trained mercenary armies, the Orcs provide a great many third-parties with force-projection capabilities rivaling that of small countries. Elsewise, the Orcs conduct extensive operations in arms trafficking, extortion, coordinated theft, and protection racketeering.
The Elves, counterwise, largely prefer other forms of goods trafficking and smuggling as more subtle sources of felonious profit. Readily identifiable by their signature body-mod in the form of lengthened, pointy ears, the Elves are characterised by almost universal biopsionic capability amongst its members; the Elves has one of the highest uptakes of biopsionics out of any Vistoran Association, and those who do join without being biopsionically capable at first nearly always receive biopsionic inductions as a perk of their membership. Alongside the multifarious advantages this confers, the Elves run one of the largest drug production, trafficking, and distribution rings in the world. Further taking advantage of their supremacy in criminal logistics, the Elves are also heavily involved in trafficking stolen, illicitly produced, and counterfeit goods, people smuggling, and running large networks of illegal brothels and casinos, largely beyond the borders of Vistora.
The Dwarves, as the third of this criminal triad, shore up the cybercrime niche otherwise left largely vacant by their rivals. Noticeable by the extensive jewelry worn by most of their members, often incorporating various technical functions and frequently integrated directly into their bodies, the Dwarves comprise a great many expert hackers and technicians with whom they conduct their criminal activities. The majority of this takes the shape of digital theft, be it of money directly, or crucial information in its myriad forms to be sold to the highest bidder. Similarly, many Dwarves contract out their services as for-hire "cybermercenaries", conducting all manner of criminal activity through the Sys for the right price. Those among the Dwarves who do not specialise specifically in hacking or computer-related crime, are most often mechanics, technicians, and engineers who build and sell various illegal weapons, tools, and devices, and run illicit street-racing rings furnished with vehicles they mod, sell, and oftentimes use themselves.