There's something evil in the city tonight...Kitanal is a city on the planet of Thuun, owned by the Thuknal race. Crime is down, living standards are up, and the people are happy. That's the official side of it, anyway.
In truth it's a polluted shithole for the most part. Most wear a mask to breathe outside, or face an early death with lungs dyed a cancerous black. There are more humans than Thuknals, and the various police agencies only really care if you pay them to or you're making a nuisance. But now there's something else. It always was a violent city, full of the urban legends and cryptid stories of a hundred species, but there's a new legend in town. Monsters, fitting no species in the Sentient Sortium, have been seen haunting the streets, over and over again - twisted beings of veined muscle and dripping fangs. People are disappearing faster than ever before - swallowed without trace by the rasping monster of the city.
A few people are connected by fate - or rather, by their shared acquaintance of one Stephen Pavlovich. He was a rich-towner who campaigned for the poor - equal rights for the mutants below the streets, hospices and shelters for the poor - and collected books. They'd heard he'd picked up a very rare old Earth book shortly before his sudden demise. Together, they decide to delve into this new sickness in the city - whatever the cause might be. They owe him, after all, whether it's a blood debt or simple friendship.
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Important Species of Kitanal
HumansBipedal humanoids, they range in natural skin tone from pale tan to black. The most populous race in Kitanal by far, they hold the most economic, social, and political power. Often aggressive, and breed rapidly. Native to a planet named Earth, which is now inaccessable to them. Many humans were forcefully conscripted as Auxillaries by the Xanquat in the Ten System War twenty-three years ago, but they have been released as a result of the Illuminary's actions.
The IlluminaryTechnically humans, their true form is now unknown. A off-shoot colony that rapidly developed technology via unknown means in the three hundred years of colonisation before the warper drive was created, they have occupied Sol and neighbouring systems, expelled the less advanced humans, and constructed huge solar cannons that destroy trespassers. They rarely venture out of their territory, the last occurrence being an intervention in the Ten System War - when the Xanquat conscripted 3.2 billion humans as auxilliaries for their forces, the Illuminary demanded their release, and destroyed the Xanquat homeworld upon refusal. Some humans worship them as gods.
ThunkalsSquat humanoids with pale green skin and wide jaws. Naturally herbivores, they had several billion humans settle on their worlds. As a compromise, those humans were moved to Thuun, where they pretty much took over the place. Now living in 'Kaltown' districts in their own cities otherwise taken over, there's a lot of friction between them and their unwelcome tenants.
XanquatRarely if ever seen on Thuun. Hated by humans for the conscription. Naturally xenophobic and warlike, they fought several interstellar wars until their homeworld was destroyed by the Illuminary. Now a shattered race, they have retreated from the interstellar eye. Large and coated in a thick pelt, with four arms and legs.
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Districts of the cityUptownThe homes of the rich and powerful. Patrolled by governmental police with little love for the scum of the slums. The buildings are hermetically sealed, and the streets are lined with sleek air scrubbers. Pleasant to live in - if you can afford it. Also the location of most governmental buildings. Henderdun's wall separates Uptown from the slums and industrial districts; allegedly a firebreak, the real reason is well known - to keep out the scum. Uptown is on the west side, the slums on the east. There are merely 6 million people living in Uptown.
MidtownAn area roughly the same size as Uptown, it's geographically south of it. It boarders the industrial districts to the east and south. Although it's the same size as Uptown, it has over four times the population - 34 million people. Most corporations have their main buildings here, and the white-collar workers who man them live here. Both Uptown and Midtown are geographically higher than the rest of Kitanal, meaning they suffer less from the pollution.
Industrial DistrictFactories, power stations, smoke and steel, these are all there is to be found in the industrial district. The superhighways through the industrial district go over the sea to the south onto the large island with the Space Port. Here is where almost everything made, smelted, or tank-grown in the city is brought to fruition. The fusion plants that power the city and the huge atmosphere generator that keeps it from choking fatally are located at the dead centre of the city, here in the industrial district. Cut off from Uptown via the Henderdun Wall.
LowtownThe largest part of the city by far. A sprawling mass of slums, apartment blocks, and businesses. Can vary from almost acceptable to gang-controlled pit in a city block. The south in particular, where it meets the seafront, is widely known as 'Scumtown', and police only patrol in armoured fighting vehicles. Kaltown is located mainly to the north, close to the wall, where the Wallmarket is famous for selling anything and everything -whether information, weapons, drugs, or even slaves - both human and alien. The true population of lowtown is unknown, but believed to number almost half a billion people. This is small compared to the vertical hives of further west, where each hive-city has up to two billion people in each.
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Every part of the city has various sub-districts, and most have their own facets of culture, gangs, and even species. The disparity between the have-it-alls in Uptown and the 'scummers' of lowtown has never been greater. The city - the violent, chaotic city - is scared of something, even if they don't know it themselves. Find out if you can, but beware of what you might find...