Derova

Featuring massively overdeveloped “urban canyons” with narrow streets and mountains of industrial refuse, Derova is one of the most densely-populated regions on Earth. Official census numbers account for less than 50% of the people actually living in the district, many of whom are Discons and Scrumblies.

With growth spurred on by the massive rush of tower- and arcology-building in the 90s, Derova was highly crowded even before the last economic crash, and its western regions were badly damaged when the chemical explosion in old Hadid blew poisonous fallout into the area.

Derova has since been overrun by an incessantly growing population of both local and itinerant poor. District services are unable to keep up with the demands of the population, and outages occur on a regular basis.

Many Derovans have taken to stealing power and utilities from the neighboring districts of Sunridge and Hadid, often via cleverly-contrived and complicated means.

Derova has succeeded in preserving one aspect of its prior civility: a fleet of beaten-up autocabs, green in color, busily servicing the needs of Derova residents.

Locations in Derova
E – The Egg. A massive multi-family housing structure with a unique egg-shaped exterior (deemed an architectural marvel in its time), the Egg is now one of the nicer of the run-down apartment buildings found on the northern edge of Derova. Isaac LeQuinn lives here.

F – The Fairfax Fabstacks. A small complex, now mostly deserted and inhabited by a rotating assortment of street gangs and discons, where Ips and Mr. Mercury have a print shop on the roof.

R - Rain Town. Rain Town is built on the remains of the failed Rainier Tech arcology in the southeast corner of the city. Formerly pyramidal, it has been built up and over through the years. Originally intended for a population of a few thousand, it now houses over a hundred thousand people. Like Kowloon Walled City before it, is the most densely populated place on earth: a riot of commerce and life and ramshackle networks. Here you’ll find AR junkies, nanodust heads, unlicensed dentists, and cyberdolls.

Rain Town's internal systems and heuristics are maintained by a central AI which has been damaged over the years by both natural erosion and human scavengers. Its hardware and peripheral devices have been hacked and modified by resourceful squatters, tying it in with hundreds of other systems and devices. At any given time of day the AI is busy maintaining living conditions, regulating resource allocation, controlling bots and farm machinery, scanning media, servicing maintenance requests, providing entertainment access, and playing chess.

There are some within the arcology who claim to have spoken to the AI itself, even some who claim it is awake, aware, and self-conscious. These tales are generally regarded as childish nonsense.

W – Wolves Den. This dilapidated five-story complex has been taken over by a large and powerful street gang called The White Wolves.” Their leader Quinn Wolfe is a violent sociopath who has plans to expand his criminal empire into Sunridge. The building is constantly patrolled, both inside and out, by gang members. The Wolves quickly cornered the local Barbie market (homobarbitine), and the profits from sales of this drug have enabled the gang to expand into 'fitting, hacking, and doll services. Their sources are unknown but suspected to lie within the labs of A-Z Biomed, whose chief scientist—a political extremist and runs in the same social networks as Wolfe.

Derova District Building -- District Government.

Derova DSF -- District Security Force.