Editing General Setting Information (section)

===== East Sophia<ref>https://alogos.dreamwidth.org/2425.html#EastSophia</ref> =====
'''Contains:''' Low-Cost Housing

Consisting mainly of buildings unfinished, or hastily completed to poor standard, this part of Karteria stands (or more accurately, ''slumps'') as a monument to failed ambition. Hardest hit by arcane radiation and the faltering of the city's economy, no one remains here unless they have to. As it is also the youngest part of the city, there's little loyalty to the land, no heritage to be found in remaining in a shell that has always been derelict. Tattered billboards remain, largely graffitied over or otherwise weathered, but pieces of their slogans remain, advertising the promise of a better life....

The businesses here are small, very local, and with a greater reputation for dealing in illicit goods and services. Unlicensed doctors are the only kind of healthcare around, as the people who live here can't afford the real thing. The quality is variable, from outright fraudsters, to altruists operating on charity, to the unscrupulous looking for test subjects.

Crime is less rampant than what the upper-classes might imagine, but there's no escaping that petty thievery is at its most common here, particularly against anyone who seems ''new''. Outright violence remains unusual—but it's also hard to get reliable statistics, as much of what goes on here is assumed to go unreported. If someone gets out of hand, the locals tend to handle it within the community.

If you don't cause trouble, and can take care of yourself, the people here are likely to leave you alone, and are more inclined to view the Augmented more pragmatically than most. And while they're not a group given easily to trust, the Augmented have made considerable inroads when it comes to earning their affection. The lower classes and impoverished who live here had little to lose and still expected the worst—and time and again, the Augmented have helped out, providing resources to people who weren't their own (and with it, the concept of class ''agitation'', perhaps).

Times remain rough, and with no solution to arcane radiation in sight, they're expected to remain rough indefinitely. But the Augmented who walk these streets are accepted more readily here than anywhere else in Karteria.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
|'''NOTABLE LANDMARKS & BUSINESSES'''

<big>♕</big> '''The Grand Old Respite''' — Hotels of all shapes and sizes did not fare well once the realities of living with arcane radiation set in. Tourism from abroad dropped to nothing, and inter-city visits were hardly enough to sustain anything. The hotel industry collapsed, buildings cannibalized for parts, or restructured (with varying degrees of care) into apartments.

The Respite was not remade with care. Even at its 'height', the hotel had never been grand nor old. And the few who made the mistake of staying here would argue its status as a respite. And now... it is a derelict among derelicts, its remaining furnishings too gaudy and poor-quality to even be worth looting. Though a recent build, its floors are already moldering, its walls threatening collapse; cut corners and illegal wiring solutions are everywhere. A popular haunt for trouble-seeking youths, and the source of dozens of (contradictory) local legends, the Respite is arguably more popular than ever.

<big>♕</big> '''Car Graveyard''' — Cars can no longer be driven nor purchased in Karteria. Even when personal vehicles were at the height of popularity and possibility, little of the city had time to transition itself into becoming a car-dependent society. Yet many saw these machines as the future, the next stage of a technological revolution!

They were wrong, of course, as with arcane radiation leading to an overall resource scarcity, the materials for both the building and running of cars was restricted, and eventually forbidden. And while the richest citizens could squirrel away their vehicles in private garages, the middle class could not. And so they were abandoned in East Sophia, to become an eyesore for the lower class. This graveyard is only the largest collection of rusting, decaying cars, with individual machines dotting the district in places you might not expect. Some even resort to sheltering within these corpses for lack of anywhere else to stay.
|}