Factions:
There used to be only two overarching group of people with their own different allegiances: The ones in the Fort vs the ones outside.
With the current situations though, things got complicated.
You have people from the "Old Forts", which were the ones who still lived in the original Fort area.
You have the ones from "New Forts", encompassing the new main fort areas gained during the 2nd Blackout.
You have the ones from the "Slums", an ever increasing area around the fort yet not completely under its influence.
And then you have "outsiders", ie. The rest of the city and the world beyond.
Specific powers in the area:
>忠靈館(區公所/舊寨)
De facto funeral provider in the district. Handled all burials by giving the bodies a small service than transporting all of them within the Old Fort area. Nobody knew where they went afterward.
>FireFighters放火隊 (幫派/新寨)
As guns didn't work as intended within the fort, and fort structures were neigh invincible, other methods of destructions would be considered. And fire actually became a choice in an environment that wouldn't burn. This was a gang of "Fire Artists" that ran around with flamethrowers, even though those were rarely used enough since people and things would still burn, and crossing others in the Fort usually led to an extremely short existence. Still, spraying fire alone were usually threatening enough, and pyromaniacs in troves were just an annoyance to fight. So they became an oddity in the Fort via a strange blend of self-control (for pyromaniacs) and potential threats.
>寨區水電管理局 / Fort-district Cityworks Bureau / FCB (政府/新寨/外部)
The official government branch that, to the outside world, handled all public works for the Fort district, but actually also handled everything else within the boundary of the whole slums area. As the government's currant stance was hands-free containment and nobody in the Fort actually recognized the law, that certainly put them in an odd position. They usually made sure all the electric and pump stations in the area, both official and illegal ones, were in working conditions. To do that meant they also needed to allot for personal protections and have a reputation that made people not wanting to cross them, so they also became somewhat militant and involved in Fort-issues as a sort of mediator. The result was an armed but usually harmless gang with the official title of public civil servants. It was also a great place for the government to dump people that "didn't quite fit" the usual criteria, but were too useful or risky to let go otherwise.
>8-88便利店 (民生/新寨)
The only franchised 24hr convenience store from the biggest company in the whole neighborhood. Even though other stores existed in the area, those were all locally owned and operated, but this 8-88 operated completely under the 8-88 style & standards with no deviations, aside of the fact that the manager lived above the store and had never set foot off of it since the opening. It was also known to be stupidly overpriced especially when compared to slum-pricing, and that it was an unofficial neutral zone as the manager was overly proficient at ejecting misbehaved customers as well as nonpaying squatters.
This store received a monthly delivery in the morning via a special armoured freight truck, as the whole building was owned by 8-88 and acted as a warehouse for the store.
>勵武會館 (幫派/新寨)
A dollar-dojo that taught Fort-style martial arts re. brawling. Also a gathering of Junkies and Dopers who enjoyed violence. Fight maniacs who held no interests in weaklings so they're strangely harmless most of the time, but just hopping into every single fight that crossed their paths with no care for collateral damages nor innocent bystanders meant they were still a problem.
The master was once one of the top tier martial arts fighting competitors in the international circus, but you wouldn't have guessed he practiced Zhao Bao Tai-Chi from all that 300lbs steroided muscles and his 200kg bench presses.
>大校場 (幫派/商業/舊寨)
Underground death race/cagefight-style motocross arena controlled by the Hao family. It was insane both in idea and application, but somehow they made a pretty solid success out of it and created a national illegal gambling ring off this.
>Shrine of Sand (民生/舊寨)
A shrine from such a long time ago that nobody remembered which god it was for. Its current purpose was to placate all the dead who have died around the Fort in its long bloodied history. Nobody had attempted to fix the place so it had been condemned before the 2nd Blackout, but with the change to Fort structures after that, the service had moved back in.
This was suspected to be the original temple from the very first Fort, but with nobody knowing the build nor exact position of the original Fort, this had only remained a suspicion.
>Dust Shop Emil (?商業?/新寨)
A shop that sold a unique type of illegal drug that came in the form of airborne sprinkled powder. That dust could be formulated to a large number of various purposes and strengths, but the secret of its creation had solidly remained in the hands of its owner Emil.
It's unofficial tagline: "Share the fun!"
>4 Cornerstones (幫派/新寨)
Referred to the 4 major casinos that each occupied the 4 corners of the New Fort District, and were considered the top powers in New Fort. While smaller casinos and dens were a dime a dozen, these 4 all operated Las Vegas-level establishments in addition to games one couldn't find from a legal gambling house. Their money, power and effort ended up indirectly making about 40% of New Fort accessible to regular tourists, as long as they stuck to main roads and have the guides with them.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>Breachead Inc. (犯罪/新寨)
Situated at the border of Slum and New Fort, this "Electronic Solution" company specialized in network intrusion & online espionage. Using the Fort's special property that neutralized all wireless airwaves, they turned it around and used this to make themselves impervious to the majority of indirect hacking efforts as it was much more easy to monitor just one single network cable, especially when they laid it themselves and was the sole owner of the ISP front it registered under. As a side business they were also the sole provider of all of New Fort's wired internet services and landline phone as well, meaning they also actively monitored all traffics and knew whatever was typed into a networked connected computer system within the New Fort. The big players all understood this and therefore still depended on paper and messengers and other offline systems.
>Noteworthy Press (民生/新寨)
A loose union of messengers who provided more than half of the Fort's message transfer. They also printed a weekly newspaper with mostly Tabloid-style fake news focused on "shock entertainments" above all else as a side business.
They also maintained many connections with outside on all levels. In a sense they were the biggest message choke-point on info in and out of the fort.
>幽和堂 (民生/新寨)
Herbal medicine store specialized in medicine found nowhere else but the Fort. While their "cures"' effectiveness were more lottery-based, in selected cases they have proven to be more miraculously effective than conventional medicines.
>Independent Associated Research Centre/IARC (?民生?/新寨)
A group of fringe researchers who set up their permanent research institute to study various anomalies within the Fort. As the gathering of individuals each arrived with their individual causes, the IARC did not focus on any one branch but pooled together whatever resources they could scrounge up for various reasons to struggle.
They did not have official ties, as there was already an official branch for this, and most members of the IARC were either pseudo-scientists or community rejects. The reason that they were more than willing to dabbled in more underhand and/or less travelled paths in order to get results also made them quite untrustworthy to the outside eyes.
>Kinsel's (商業/貧民區)
"Travel Agency" specialized in guided tour around the slum and New Fort area ie. Local bodyguards for dumb tourists. Within the huge number of agencies and individual guides they're the most famous and dependable one around, and even have a few selected Old Fort tours that boasted an amazing 70% survival rate.
>Soft Blue Petals (商業/新寨)
The watering hole for loose muscles and paid killers to make connections and chances for a spare buck. The patrons were surprisingly friendly & polite as 80% of them at any time would be willing and capable to off anyone for nothing but a lark, so its just good sense to not be too gung-ho in the sea of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) they waded in. And fighting would just scare off the potential meal tickets anyhow.
>5th & Sundry Station (政府/貧民區)
The official police station in the slum area just because there had to be one. Totally police-operated with no connection to any other government branches, it was more a bunkhouse filled with useless dead-end jobbers too scary to be put anywhere else. This was the pasture, and they could do whatever they want as long as they accepted their own consequences.
>Colesroad (商業/貧民區)
At the boundary of the slum and the outside, was a road filled with illegal roadside hawkers who sold various merchandises of unknown origins, uses and qualities. Due to this Colesroad was one of the most visited tourist spot in the slum district. Various gangs would hold this road under control, but their reign would always be short & bloody for the attraction and revenue this place generated every day.
>Fort East Station (政府/商業/民生/外部)
The underground rail station closest to the slum area, and the end of the Fort-Central Line. After the 2nd blackout 20 years ago, a separate regiment of Fort-focused SDU had put their station into the office building on top, and made this the unofficial Anti-Fort headquarter of the government and the headquarter of the Unconventional SDU team "Daidao".
Unlike the badged ruffians from 5th & Sundry, all crime around this location would be swiftly and albeit excessively dealt with, so this place also attracted what few commercial and large businesses that remained around the area, indirectly made it the regional centre of the area.
>Integrated Public School P-12 (民生/貧民區)
With the district's special conditions one of the biggest challenge was education. While the Fort had its own various private tutor systems, those were generally not available to the majority. The compromise was to build a school within the slum district for people who were physically unable to leave the area. The Integrated school would provide all 12 years of basic educations plus adult studies throughout the day, and was one of the biggest school in the world from student counts alone. And through the enticement of free meals and basic medicine, their student counts would end up including 75% of school-aged youth and 12% of adults in the whole district.
>Anbella Institute (商業/新寨)
The foremost private school in the district. Anbella offered allegiance-free specialty education for all fields, with a degree recognized internationally through its satellited schools on the outside. It was also a neutral ground for future potential Fort leaders and other special children to interact, as its major clientele consisted of youths with a certain degree of wealth, power, talent, and "uniqueness". Other students included outsiders who resided in the Fort for various reasons and could afford the school fees, illegitimate offspring, or people who have supposedly disappeared and other special circumstances. To them Anbella would offer absolute secrecy and protection until they graduate.
For the handful of youths in the Fort who could match Anbella's strict entry requirements, 60% of them would eventually become their students.
>Hestome Education Service (商業/新寨)
It's main focus as a specialty personal private tutors & bodyguards as a 24hr service contract provider, as well as specialty contracted work consultants. Their way of tutoring was closer to apprenticeship in a focused goal-oriented style. They literally trained anything from basic schooling to university specialty subjects to underhand techniques like chemical warfare and assassinations. They also offered indenture contracts for students who couldn't afford them to work off their fees via services.
Many of their students were destitute and orphaned who ended up working for them forever. And they were also known to offer efficient & disposable workforces when the situation demanded so.
>Communion Hospital (民生/貧民區)
Public hospital used exclusively for the district. As the sole public health provider for the whole district, this hospital was a medical warzone 24/7, to the point that anyone who wished to become medical personnel in this country must have an internship here in order to get a medical license, if only to make sure the hospital would have staffs. That also inevitably resulted in both the high dropout rate of medical students in the country, and the abnormally high proficiency for those who remained.
The annual personnel turnover rate in this hospital was 95%, the remaining 5% were only here because they couldn't leave.
>Bing Human Resources (商業/貧民區)
Dayjob contractor and one of the more popular job-intermediator in the district. Specialized in mundane day and short-term work that required little skills, they also offered some jobs that were unordinary, as well as more bounty-based "collection services" with less concern regarding personal well beings.
>Kins Restaurant (商業/新寨)
A 3-stories Canton-style seafood restaurant near one of the cornerstone casino. They offered specialized local foodstuffs found nowhere else in a private dining rooms setting. Very popular where privacy was concerned.
>Watercat Delivery (商業/貧民區)
The only delivery service exclusively for the district, and the only one who accepted deliveries into the New Fort and even the exterior of Old Fort. The workers were well-trained, well-armed, and well-dependable.
>Subdistrict Court House (政府/外部)
Courthouse specialized in cases that involved the district. Considering how much influences the government had here the courthouse was actually the one with the least work to do. The location also offered services for other official paperworks.
>Harbour 1 (民生/外部)
Had been one of the lifeline of the city even before the Fort came into infamy. After the 2nd Blackout two decades ago this was considered too big to relocate, so all the most important shipments were redirected to other ports, but to this day the port still received 50% of import/export cargos, and the problem with smuggling was still a big issue.
>Synder's Heaven (商業/新寨)
The most famous brothel in the New Fort area, it's a dance club-themed party house where clients and workers were free to mingle, and actual businesses would be taken up to the private rooms above. It's loud and messy and even attracted visitors who wasn't looking for the actual service but just want to party as well.
>Colesroad Post Office (政府/貧民區)
The only postal service office in the district. The didn't do any post deliveries themselves and instead have an agreement with Noteworthy Press and other messengers for the actual deliveries. Other than that they were mostly pickup/dropoff with a heavily guard explosive-proofed warehouse for mails and parcels.
>Renraise Hotel Fort South (商業/外部)
The closest 5-star/5-Diamond Hotel outside of the slum area. A popular destination for tourists who wished to go to the Fort but didn't want to stay overnight there. Actually owned by one of the 4 cornerstone casinos, and have direct safe passage transfer to and from.
>Bar Deux Neko-Mew (商業/新寨)
A nightclub bar that offered 1-on-1 service of all genders in a tasteful matter. More adult-oriented services was only offered to long term clienteles who spend time, effort and money to woo their specific servers, but that was a part that the Bar's owner, Mistress 黑光 , distanced herself from. As the relic of a previous location now no longer operated, the servers all wore cat-theme uniforms in a mature design.
>Unconventional SDU "Daidao" (政府/外部)
While its official position was an autonomous branch of SDU (Special Duty Unit) under the Police jurisdiction, it was in fact a special joint police/military task force created to contain all potential threats and could possibly step beyond the slum area. And in order to combat the special physical anomaly that effectively nullified all conventional weapons, they specialized in more anarchic and brutal ways of conflicts as well as some that were not allowed to be made public in order to preserve modern status quo.
Even though their designation was "Daidao", their main combat style was in fact a variant of short-spear/bayonet fighting. Still many in the team were also well trained with their namesake.
50% of its team members were born in the district, 90% of whom had moved away before but came back due to occupational and/or other requirements.
>Heywood Inn Fort East (商業/貧民區)
A more budget-oriented hotel/rental apartment at the edge of the slum. Its main source of clientele was for those who were Fort-Addicted but unable to remain in the area due to circumstances. As the owner ran the place in a no-questions-asked style, it was also a gathering spot for non-local troubles even if it was mere blocks away from Fort East Station.
