Districts

The Wall

Nullport is enclosed by a seawall: forty-one kilometers long, completed in Charter Year 8, built and operated by Vantor. Locals call it the Wall.

The Wall has twelve gates. When they open and close is decided by Vantor's Wall Authority, and Gate Three is the largest checkpoint. Inside the Wall is the city. Outside are the drowned east shore and the old industrial zones inland, known collectively as The Outskirts. When locals talk about going “past the Wall,” they mean The Outskirts.

The Spires

The cluster of towers in the old downtown, home to corporate executives and boardroom families. Locals say they're going “up to the Spires.”

Whitecrown is the residences at the tops of the towers, where the elevators require three separate clearances. Cloudwalk is the skybridges between the towers, lined with boutiques and private galleries. Stillwater Terrace is a terraced garden on the hillside, home to private clinics and the Hospice, and the quietest place in the city.

The Corp Zone

A ring of corporate parks around the Spires, with each of the four corps holding its own section. Locals say they're going “into the parks.”

Bastion Park is Vantor's headquarters, where everyone walks on the right. White Garden is Sanavi's headquarters and home to White Garden General Hospital, the largest hospital in the city. Mirror Park is Kaleid's headquarters, where the City Channel and the World Daily are based. The Quiet is Ordinal's cluster of data centers, and the Charter runs there. Charter Square holds Charter Hall, the Charter Central Bank and the Central Service Point. The Hive is company housing: hexagonal capsule units stacked layer on layer.

The Blocks

Giant apartment blocks by the old harbor, where more than half the city gets its start. Locals say they're going “down to the Blocks.”

Block Seven is eighty stories tall and home to forty thousand people, with a public bathhouse, the Steam House, in the basement. Lantern Row is a night market that opens only after dark, hung with red lanterns. East Docks is a fully automated port where the cranes run all night. Fixit Lane can fix anything: elevators, implants, clocks. People, too. Old Terminus is the last station of the old railway, its main hall turned into a bar called Last Train. The Underpass is the space beneath the old highway, with all-night laundromats and dream pods.

The Outskirts

Everything outside the Wall. The Charter protects residents outside the Wall as well, but Charter Service Points are few.

The Rust Belt is the abandoned industrial zone inland; its largest junkyard is known as the Scrapyard. The Dust Fields are farmland on poisoned soil. The Tideflats are the old east-shore city drowned by the Surge, flooded to the second floor at high tide and connected by ferry. The Sunken Spire is an eco-tower broken in Charter Year 19, now jutting sideways into the sea; Civic Security advises residents not to approach it. Signal Ridge, on the ridgeline to the north, holds the last public signal tower outside the city.

Getting around

The Ring Line, a maglev loop around the Corp Zone, is punctual, clean and expensive. The Harbor Line runs from Central Station through The Blocks to East Docks, and at rush hour it is packed like a sardine can. The Wall Line runs along the inside of the Wall, connecting the gates. The overpass is the old highway, mostly abandoned. The Tideflats ferries run by the tides, with no timetable.

The Outbound Line runs once a week from Old Terminus, through the Rust Belt, to places farther out beyond the Wall. Locals call it the Last Train. The Clerk reminds residents: the Outbound Line's final stop lies outside the Charter's service area.

It rains on roughly a third of the days in the year here. Please remember your umbrella when you go out.