UnderCities....

Man built these futuristic cities underground cities to cope with the overcrowding of the surface. These cities were vast, self-sufficient and capable of coping with very large populations . They were never intended to save all of mankind. When the surface became unlivable they were hurriedly filled beyond capacity and locked away from the surface.

Since then the cities have had continuing trouble with over-population plague epidemics, riots that continued into wars, food, water, air and power shortages. The governing bodies continually changed corruption being the only consistent factor.

To cope with the over-crowding more and more buildings were built within the the Undercities, on top of other buildings, between buildings or suspended from the sky-like ceiling of the original construction. Eventually being forced to expand out of the original construction in attempts to find more space. Tunnels were dug through the outer walls of the city to create new places to live.

The way that these cities were able to maintain their self sufficiency was to rout control of all their important manufacturing, recycling and farming activities through a central computer. This computer would guarantee that all resources would be utilized with absolute efficiency. At the time of the fall it was universally agreed that to further protect man, the advanced technology that had led to the Fall would be suppressed. Technology would be wound back hundreds of years. As the computer controlled all of the manufacturing it was easy to regulate what was built and what wasn't. This regulation was not easy and advances in technology have been made and eventually allowed by the computers. But with manipulation of stock markets, the patents office and financial incentives it has been possible to freeze the technological world in the '22nd century'. (tech level 8)

The computer does not rule the populace but merely guide its growth. There are traditional elected governments that 'run' the UnderCities but the computer always has a say. For many years however it has mostly been the corporations that rule the Undercities.

The technology available to the general populace was not 'wound back' to the dark ages, in fact far from it modern technologies include ; cybernetics, computers, combustion powered wheeled vehicles, and occasionally the rare flying Vehicle or basic robotics, etc

Below is a cross section of a typical Undercity not all have expanded to the surface, some do not have the air shafts visible above ground. From above the cross-section would show concentric rings.

The basic cylinder structure of the city was built pre-fall and as such is self repairing and has magical immunity, however this is all that is readily noticeable as pre-Fall tech, most of the buildings have been added on since, especially the above ground sections and are of simpler construction (Tech level 8)

Most white collar Workers work from home, tapping into a virtual network with special machines, this reduces the amount of traffic into the inner 'Core' where the richest corporations are based. See Ghosting

Undercity

Undercities are large underground 'cylinders' housing millions of people . Some of the most over crowded undercities are rumour to house 1billion people.

The 'cylinder' is sectioned into concentric rings and multiple levels.

The inner rings, often refered to as the Core house the richest and the outer rings the poor. The highest levels are similarly are more exclusive than the lowest levels.
(god help those in the outer rings on the lowest levels.)

Most Undercity cores have 'checkpoints' to prevent the malcontented poor entering the richer core. In the attempt to reduce crime and civil unrest.

Policing generally is a 'user pays' system. Private citizens pay security firms to maintain the peace. As such the poorer areas end up being unpoliced or at best policed by vigilantie groups or by organised crime.

The outer rings are where a city's most nefarious activity takes place. Anything can be had for a price in the outer rings. Many of the core's respected elite have fallen for the debauchery that occurs outside the core.

The core is not immune to crime but it is more sublte and organised.

see World History for more information

SIXTEEN is an example of an UnderCity gone bad