Does anyone remember this? No, me neither. I won't even give excuses, because they were good for the first few weeks when I had a lot of work, but the rest of the time was simply laziness and procrastination. You can blame Rob for this, because he posted the list of Wanted Pages and I noticed Marduk was one of then.
I am not fully satisfied with this, either, but I decided that if I did not force myself to write something I may never finish the city. On the good news, there should only be one more installment before the city is ready for the wiki, so if you notice it takes too long do not hesitate to call me names.
Give us your money: Ereskigal, Utu and Inanna Bay
Those three districts are the main area to find shopping areas, entertainment and tourist traps in general.
Utu is the most cosmopolitan district of the city, and the one who lacks its on distinct identity -you can find a bit of everything there, from shopping malls to townhouses to romantic bistros. The headquarters of the City Watch are in the Watch Keep, an actual seaside castle at the western end of the district, while Nazca Square site at the eastern end.
The Santa Maria catholic cathedral is on that square, a gilded gothic church lifting over the surrounding houses. The cathedral is the biggest church in the city, and, thought the citizens have always called it “the cathedral”, it actually was not even a consecrated church for many years; it was not consecrated, granted Cathedral rank, and had a bishop named, until 2020.
Inanna Bay, and the streets that surround it, is without doubt the main tourist attraction, Its long beaches, the terrace filled esplanade, its curio shops and many small hotels bring out the tourist in droves (the locals usually prefer the less scenic but calmer beaches in Ishkur bay and on the other side of the lake, in Ninkasi).
The district is busy day and night; once the cafès and teashops close, the pubs and discos open. At the end of the sea promenade, overlooking the Watch Keep on the other side of the bay, is the most ornate building in the district, an impressive baroque palace. Originally planned as a mall, it became a Casino in late 2018.
Ereshigal, nested in the centre of the city, it the smallest district, but one of the most lively. The street plan is chaotic, with narrow streets snaking in what looks like random patterns... because they are computer generated random patterns. Oscar stole the idea from Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy and its Medinas. Perpetually lost visitors often claim the streets themselves change locations.
They are right. There is a absurdly complex system of hinges and pulleys that moves and twists walls, and in a couple of places, entire buildings, to create new cul-de-sacs or open up formerly dead alleys). The streets themselves change names constantly and with no apparent reason (though they don't tell visitors, neighbours always carry a small computer with the newest map and a crosslinked street directory; they do not have actual street address for mailing purposes, each household has a individual code, to cope with the ever-changing street names)
In homage to its oriental style, the entire area is a huge bazaar, full of artisan shops, street vendors and small fountainoed plazas. Its most importat landmark is the Great Library, a massive egyptian style building.
The Library has a small (but growing) collection of physical books, but its core is a massive date center and hundreds of reading ports, all connected to one of the copies of the Alexandria Archive. Even though both Oscar Vykos and the city government have made public on several occasion that the library only has a copy of the entertainment and scientific media, and none of the rumoured host of secrets the library has found and downloaded, they still keep getting a steady trickle or 'dane agents searching for the elusive data, in the hopes they will find it and avoid the well known retaliation from the Archive. After the nth attempt, the City Watch simply shrugged, and began to use the library to identify agents, and send a copy of the list the the Alexandria Archive and Section 9 (except, not Section 9, because Section 9 does not exist).
Between Ereshkigal and Utu is Nazca Square, one of the best known squares in fenspace since the creation of the weekly Peruvian Market. The market, as so many other landmarks in fenspace, started as a sudden spark of eccentricity that grew up when more and more people warmed to the idea. Once upon a time, in the Spain of 2013 there lived two elderly ladies, lifelong friends, who had spent he last half century manning their stalls in their town's farmer's market, selling fresh produce from their farms; on that they weren't much different from thousands other farmers. What set then apart from most was one grandson, who had joined the Supers faction and moved to the moon.
Even that would have been just one more gossip topic in the village, until the day they decided they wanted to visit space. Their families were shocked, very sensibly decided that two seventy year old widowers weren't in any state to travel the solar system alone, and tried to convince then to join a cruise. The grandson, by then a member of Marduk's city Watch, was a fen, and thus did not know the meaning of the word “sensible”. He visited home for Christmas... and brought a vat of handwavium as a present for granny. They secretly spent the holidays waving the market van and a couple of spacesuits, and a couple days after the grandson left for the moon, an old van lifted and left atmosphere.
After a few stops in Stellvia, Central, Kandor, and Port Luna's Landing Memorial, they finally reached Marduk, where the grandson invited then to his home. Granny Maria was shocked and scandalized once she opened her grandson's fridge and saw the collection of processed food, frozen meals and vitamin supplements, but he managed to divert her wrath with the news that fresh produce was night impossible to find. After a “small” detour via Mars and Jupiter, they returned home to a disaproving family.
Two weeks later, they loaded their van as usual for the marketday... and a few hours later they were knocking at the grandson's door. They unloaded enough greens in his fridge to satisfy their nutritive complains, and then moved t the city centre and set up a stall in the first main square they found.
But the matter did not end there. The Marduk farms had a sizeable community of Peruvian farmers, tending the fields. Most of then came form poor families, and the money for a few years working in space would help their families. One day, a group of then were chatting in the bar after work, when the gossip moved to the new vegetable ladies, and they showed everyone that fendanes can also have Blue Hair Days- In the next days, several packages left the moon for Peru, and one month later several cars filled with vegetables were taking lift in the Andes.
Since then, every weekend the Nazca square (re-named after the market success) has hosted the Peruvian Market, a huge affair where literally hundreds of rickety cars lift from Peru to park in the Marduk spaceport, and open their stalls in the city. Many people, and specially restaurant owners from the moon and Cislunar space, visit the market in search for fresh food.
I am interested in comments about the cathedral part. When I first put a cathedral in the map, I had forgotten that simply naming a big church a “cathedral” does not make if so; a Catholic Cathedral is the seat of a bishop, and that can only be named by the Pope. Since we extended the timeline, this gave me some breath space, so, at the moment, my tentative idea is that the first Bishop of Marduk was named in 2020. So I would appreciate comments In a couple of points:
-Do you thing a formal Papal Visit to fenspace by 2020 is reasonable? They do accept the Church of Fenspace as a legitimate faith, so it is likely they do not dislike fens too much.
-If that visit would happen, do you think he would take the time to formally consecrate the main churches in fenspace? As a couple of examples, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is probably the most famous church under construction in Europe; even though it is not yet finished, it was consecrated by the pope himself in his last Papal Visit to Spain. John Paul II did the same when they (finally) finished up Madrid's cathedral a few years ago.
-In 2020 the moon will already have several important sized settlements. Should all of then become a single episcopal see, or each of the bigger cities (probably Kandor, Port Luna, Marduk and Bristol) have their own bishop?
-The same with the other planets.
Myself, I tend towards six dioceses: Luna (with Cislunar Space), Venus, Mars, the Belt, Jupiter, and the Outer System, and there probably would be plans to break then in smaller dioceses once the catholic population there increased
I am not fully satisfied with this, either, but I decided that if I did not force myself to write something I may never finish the city. On the good news, there should only be one more installment before the city is ready for the wiki, so if you notice it takes too long do not hesitate to call me names.
Give us your money: Ereskigal, Utu and Inanna Bay
Those three districts are the main area to find shopping areas, entertainment and tourist traps in general.
Utu is the most cosmopolitan district of the city, and the one who lacks its on distinct identity -you can find a bit of everything there, from shopping malls to townhouses to romantic bistros. The headquarters of the City Watch are in the Watch Keep, an actual seaside castle at the western end of the district, while Nazca Square site at the eastern end.
The Santa Maria catholic cathedral is on that square, a gilded gothic church lifting over the surrounding houses. The cathedral is the biggest church in the city, and, thought the citizens have always called it “the cathedral”, it actually was not even a consecrated church for many years; it was not consecrated, granted Cathedral rank, and had a bishop named, until 2020.
Inanna Bay, and the streets that surround it, is without doubt the main tourist attraction, Its long beaches, the terrace filled esplanade, its curio shops and many small hotels bring out the tourist in droves (the locals usually prefer the less scenic but calmer beaches in Ishkur bay and on the other side of the lake, in Ninkasi).
The district is busy day and night; once the cafès and teashops close, the pubs and discos open. At the end of the sea promenade, overlooking the Watch Keep on the other side of the bay, is the most ornate building in the district, an impressive baroque palace. Originally planned as a mall, it became a Casino in late 2018.
Ereshigal, nested in the centre of the city, it the smallest district, but one of the most lively. The street plan is chaotic, with narrow streets snaking in what looks like random patterns... because they are computer generated random patterns. Oscar stole the idea from Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy and its Medinas. Perpetually lost visitors often claim the streets themselves change locations.
They are right. There is a absurdly complex system of hinges and pulleys that moves and twists walls, and in a couple of places, entire buildings, to create new cul-de-sacs or open up formerly dead alleys). The streets themselves change names constantly and with no apparent reason (though they don't tell visitors, neighbours always carry a small computer with the newest map and a crosslinked street directory; they do not have actual street address for mailing purposes, each household has a individual code, to cope with the ever-changing street names)
In homage to its oriental style, the entire area is a huge bazaar, full of artisan shops, street vendors and small fountainoed plazas. Its most importat landmark is the Great Library, a massive egyptian style building.
The Library has a small (but growing) collection of physical books, but its core is a massive date center and hundreds of reading ports, all connected to one of the copies of the Alexandria Archive. Even though both Oscar Vykos and the city government have made public on several occasion that the library only has a copy of the entertainment and scientific media, and none of the rumoured host of secrets the library has found and downloaded, they still keep getting a steady trickle or 'dane agents searching for the elusive data, in the hopes they will find it and avoid the well known retaliation from the Archive. After the nth attempt, the City Watch simply shrugged, and began to use the library to identify agents, and send a copy of the list the the Alexandria Archive and Section 9 (except, not Section 9, because Section 9 does not exist).
Between Ereshkigal and Utu is Nazca Square, one of the best known squares in fenspace since the creation of the weekly Peruvian Market. The market, as so many other landmarks in fenspace, started as a sudden spark of eccentricity that grew up when more and more people warmed to the idea. Once upon a time, in the Spain of 2013 there lived two elderly ladies, lifelong friends, who had spent he last half century manning their stalls in their town's farmer's market, selling fresh produce from their farms; on that they weren't much different from thousands other farmers. What set then apart from most was one grandson, who had joined the Supers faction and moved to the moon.
Even that would have been just one more gossip topic in the village, until the day they decided they wanted to visit space. Their families were shocked, very sensibly decided that two seventy year old widowers weren't in any state to travel the solar system alone, and tried to convince then to join a cruise. The grandson, by then a member of Marduk's city Watch, was a fen, and thus did not know the meaning of the word “sensible”. He visited home for Christmas... and brought a vat of handwavium as a present for granny. They secretly spent the holidays waving the market van and a couple of spacesuits, and a couple days after the grandson left for the moon, an old van lifted and left atmosphere.
After a few stops in Stellvia, Central, Kandor, and Port Luna's Landing Memorial, they finally reached Marduk, where the grandson invited then to his home. Granny Maria was shocked and scandalized once she opened her grandson's fridge and saw the collection of processed food, frozen meals and vitamin supplements, but he managed to divert her wrath with the news that fresh produce was night impossible to find. After a “small” detour via Mars and Jupiter, they returned home to a disaproving family.
Two weeks later, they loaded their van as usual for the marketday... and a few hours later they were knocking at the grandson's door. They unloaded enough greens in his fridge to satisfy their nutritive complains, and then moved t the city centre and set up a stall in the first main square they found.
But the matter did not end there. The Marduk farms had a sizeable community of Peruvian farmers, tending the fields. Most of then came form poor families, and the money for a few years working in space would help their families. One day, a group of then were chatting in the bar after work, when the gossip moved to the new vegetable ladies, and they showed everyone that fendanes can also have Blue Hair Days- In the next days, several packages left the moon for Peru, and one month later several cars filled with vegetables were taking lift in the Andes.
Since then, every weekend the Nazca square (re-named after the market success) has hosted the Peruvian Market, a huge affair where literally hundreds of rickety cars lift from Peru to park in the Marduk spaceport, and open their stalls in the city. Many people, and specially restaurant owners from the moon and Cislunar space, visit the market in search for fresh food.
I am interested in comments about the cathedral part. When I first put a cathedral in the map, I had forgotten that simply naming a big church a “cathedral” does not make if so; a Catholic Cathedral is the seat of a bishop, and that can only be named by the Pope. Since we extended the timeline, this gave me some breath space, so, at the moment, my tentative idea is that the first Bishop of Marduk was named in 2020. So I would appreciate comments In a couple of points:
-Do you thing a formal Papal Visit to fenspace by 2020 is reasonable? They do accept the Church of Fenspace as a legitimate faith, so it is likely they do not dislike fens too much.
-If that visit would happen, do you think he would take the time to formally consecrate the main churches in fenspace? As a couple of examples, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is probably the most famous church under construction in Europe; even though it is not yet finished, it was consecrated by the pope himself in his last Papal Visit to Spain. John Paul II did the same when they (finally) finished up Madrid's cathedral a few years ago.
-In 2020 the moon will already have several important sized settlements. Should all of then become a single episcopal see, or each of the bigger cities (probably Kandor, Port Luna, Marduk and Bristol) have their own bishop?
-The same with the other planets.
Myself, I tend towards six dioceses: Luna (with Cislunar Space), Venus, Mars, the Belt, Jupiter, and the Outer System, and there probably would be plans to break then in smaller dioceses once the catholic population there increased