Cen City
For those who slip through End City's cracks, it is the first stop on a long road to freedom.
Structure and Society
Cen City is a dense mesh of commerce, housing, and neon-lit streets that pulse with activity. Digital billboards flicker above bustling markets where street vendors sell cybernetic implants alongside traditional food stalls. Data couriers zip between buildings on hoverbikes, carrying encrypted payloads worth more than their lives.
High towers offer the spatial elegance of the elite’s living quarters, while steel-girded electric skywalks keep them elevated, moving above the streets—untouched, unless by choice. And they always choose. Mingling with the city's street life isn’t a drawback—it’s the secret allure of calling Cen City Towers home.
For it is in the streets where life truly begins—and where the elite experience the unimaginable.
The transition is instant. Steel, stained wood, and glass give way to rust, neon, and mirrored finishes the moment you step down to The Streets. Damn right, Dorothy, we’re not in Psuedo-Elysium anymore. And sometimes? You never want to go back.
Contraband moves in a heartbeat—from a runner’s bag to a buyer’s pocket. Pills, powders, electrically charged liquids—devices designed to change your very existence, if only for a moment.
The people are different on the streets, too. Here, decorum and manners give way to code, secrets, and loyalty. Crisp suits and elegant dresses shed their skin, replaced by neon-laced t-shirts, denim, and body art. The people here may live apart in domicile only but in The Streets? Everything and everyone is a part of the whole.
Those who call these streets home make every inch count. Apartments are compact, modular, and built for efficiency—a single room shifting between bedroom, living space, and kitchen at the sound of your voice. If you're lucky—or rich—you might afford an outdoor expansion, a fold-out patio, or a rooftop setup.
There’s no bathtub in these units. That’s what The Sink is for—Cen City’s version of a bathhouse, where neon light cuts through the steam and conversations flow as freely as the water. Those who can’t afford The Sink make do with the infrared and ultraviolet light saunas installed in every unit—functional, practical— just enough to pass for clean.
Street life is called street life for a reason. In Cen City, whether elite or street dweller, life happens outside your walls.
Commerce, Technology & Infrastructure
Currency: Cen City operates on a mix of corporate credits, underground digital trade, and old-world bartering. Official transactions flow through corporate-controlled networks, while encrypted ledgers bury the rest in back-channel markets.
For the gainfully employed, credits are automatically added to their planetary citizen profiles, ensuring compliance and trackability. Those who deal outside the system rely on runners, freelancers, and the unregistered with in—moving tokens through underground net-runner syndicates known as bit-banks.
And who says you can’t have both? Some do. Many do. But for those who live completely off the grid, the centuries-old way of doing business still thrives.
"A favor for a favor is still the flavor of the day."
Public Transit: The elite move above it all. Skyways—electrically charged walkways—carry them from tower to tower, while tubes—lightning-fast, frictionless lifts—drop them from their high-rise living quarters to the offices and The Streets below.
For longer trips, aircabs ferry passengers up to Elysium’s five rings. On the ground, people get around however they can—lightning rails, hover cars, bikes and boards, or just footing it.
Power & Water: Cen City's power and water systems are built for redundancy and security—but they aren’t without loopholes.
The city runs on five nuclear reactors strategically placed to ensure that power never fails where it matters most—the elite districts and core infrastructure. No matter the crisis, the lights stay on.
Public works offices can be found on nearly every corner, overseeing power regulation, while strategically placed manholes provide access to the underground Cooling and Waste Management system.
To prevent catastrophe, nuclear waste, and bio waste are funneled in opposite directions by a carefully managed to ensure public safety.
Biowaste is treated, processed, and repurposed, feeding the city’s underground community greenhouse, where food and medicinal plants thrive.
Nuclear runoff is contained and transported northward to processing facilities, where it is stabilized and prepared for disposal in the Badlands.
And about those loopholes? Where there's a will, there's a way.
The elite don’t always pay for proper transport, extra water requisition, or premium services. That’s where favors come in. But as always, someone has to pay. And most of the time? It’s not them.
Maybe a family loses their cooking water for the night.
"Water's out, honey. Grab something from the ramen cart—double for me, please."
Maybe "The Sink is down for maintenance" a little longer than usual. A strange smell seeped in from somewhere, and the cleanup takes time.
The rich cut corners. The streets pay the price.
Law, Order & Corruption
Cen City operates under a directorate-style government—one that cares little for the everyday struggles of its people. What are its primary concerns? Collecting taxes, capturing and returning refugees, cracking down on contraband, and keeping the city running smoothly.
With a population of over 15 million, Cen City is a dense, chaotic metropolis divided between the elite, the working class, and the unregistered vagrants who exist outside the system.
It is ruled by a council of three elected officials, each overseeing one of the city's core pillars:
- Infrastructure – Managing power, water, and transit.
- Economy – Overseeing trade, taxation, and corporate influence.
- Security – Controlling the Peacekeepers, surveillance, and enforcement.
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