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Walk of Man |
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Walk of Man is one of the larger geographic regions of New Horizon, covering most of everything between Moon Lake and the Jungle Regions of New Horizon.
Rugged, wild and untamed the Walk of Man is a sprawling expanse of splendid and arid wilderness loaded with many precious natural resources and scenery which will take a man's breath away.
Originally colonized by folks who 'simply wanted to be left alone' the Walk of Man closely mirrors two eras in earth's history, the Wild West of North America, as well as the feudal era of Japan, with many young gunslingers and self styled samurai out to make a name for themselves in the savage frontier land.
There are very few high tech trades to be found in this region, with men and women, Wafan and human alike, who will often spend their formative years in a simple rustic life, mining minerals the old fashioned way, and tending livestock like men and women have for thousands of years.
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Trapper Town (Walk of Man)
A faction whose tireless diligence to exploration and homesteading, coupled with their preference for little governmental interaction has created a group of hardy individuals with a deep respect for the law, but with the wisdom and moral flexibility to know when to bend the rules.
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Moon Lake |
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Moon Lake, though frozen by proximity to the cave, many chilly tributaries run off from this lake and supply much of the water found elsewhere on the continent. Though no one has attempted to explore beneath the ice, it seems to only be a few feet deep in certain places, and there's much speculation as to what lays beneath, perhaps even the origin of the bitter cold surrounding the region.
In the morning, the lake is still and exudes a tranquillity that one could mediate too. At night, the water stirs seemingly without reason as it takes on a milky pale complexion underneath the moonlight. Swimming is strictly prohibited at both morning and night, although there has been the occasional tourists or adventurer that dared to swim within its waters during the day with nothing happening to them, it's those who wished to swim at night that were never heard from again.
Another phenomenon of the lake is its mysterious medicinal properties. The drink from the lake has been known to heal humans from terminal illnesses of different kind. Yet, not everyone who drinks from the lake gains from his benefit. Some went insane or even died from brain damage later on, so trying this out should only be done by the most desperate people.
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Lonely Mesa |
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Much like the fertile plains of Central North America, dotted with forests and hills, this area covers a sizable stretch of land, with many native grazers and predators running amok, as well as controlled terrestrial graze lands used for genetically modified earth livestock, cattle and sheep.
Going concerns are the deadly Grim Stalkers, the planets alpha predators, stalking and killing Men and Wafans. Additionally, the outlaw faction 'Rusty Stars,' posing as bandits, when their real goal is to take over the zone, toppling Trapper Town, and running it for themselves with more ruthless efficiency to line their pockets with gold.
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Trapper Town |
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The regional capital city, Trapper Town, is a minor world trading hub. Though nowhere near as impressive as any of the coastal trading centers, it supports a bristling economy. The primary exports are slug thrower fire arms, livestock and minerals. The peace is kept by the Marshall's Posse, lead by the infamous Wafan Lawman, Alabaster, who personally oversees the many bounty contracts placed forth, and leads any official law actions. The local government is called The Voice of the West, a group of four local citizens from the four major walks of life.
The Voice of the West is made up of the senior regional representatives of the Hunters, the Farmers, the Miners and the Lawmen. They work together as a council of three, with the fourth member (whoever drew the short straw) sent off to represent the Walk of Man as their Septumvir. Their will is carried out and administered/interpreted by the Marshal or Mayor of each town throughout the geographic region.
Trapper Town has a strange mix of low tech and high tech equipment and facilities. Many buildings are made of primitive materials, and may look scrounged. The technology they use is advanced as anywhere else on the planet and it clearly sticks out like a bright star in the black sky. Most roads in the town are not paved.
Trapper Town is divided into two halves by a river. The left half is all businesses and warehousing, called the Business Halfway. The right half is divided to the northern residential and governing body, called the Office Quarter, and the southern living and dining area, called the Copper Quarter. There's a large market place at the juncture of the three regions. The roads are more paved in the Office Quarter and the Business Halfway than in the Copper Quarter.
Trapper Town is protected by a fifteen foot tall wall, approximately eight feet thick, with heavy weapon turrets every fifty feet. Trapper Town also has a railroad station and an airport located to the south of town.
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concept art by Eriance
Sheriff's Office
This isn't "the" Sheriff's office, but one of the more common ones and the one found in Trapper Town to add. A standard sheriffs building usually is a mixture of old western fashion and modern high technology architecture. It is also not uncommon to see a lazy dog sleeping on the front porch.
concept art by Eriance
Captain Booze's Bar
Captain Booze's bar is a locally well known establishment in Trapper Town filled with a lot of people almost every day of the week. The bar itself looks like any Trapper Town building, with a mixture between western style and high tech elements. There are water filled steel barrels in front of the bar, a stylish neon sign visible for from a long distance and even a satellite dish on the roof. This place usually doesn't host the finest people, but this does not mean that there are any people in Trapper Town that could be labeled as high class. However, it is a very popular place nonetheless, for anyone who's interested in having a drink, picking up a lady for the night or even starting a good bar fight when things get too boring.
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Crane Hill |
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Crane Hill is a small town atop a dusty red hill, mostly living quarters. The town has a small circular neighborhood of row houses called the Circular Quarter. This neighborhood it sandwiched between a red light district called Rats Nest on the northern side of town and a railroad station for miners amidst the Mining Industry section found in the southern part of town. Crane Hill is approximately 1/5 the size of Trapper Town. It lies on the south edge of the Azuremar Mountain Range, next to Mare Lake, which in turn lies not far away from the much larger Moon Lake.
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Dusty Hollows |
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After the fall of Neo Titania, New Horizon was starved for mineral wealth. With the discovery of Bleeding Hill, a hill so intensely iron heavy rain ran red from it, it was decided the Dusty Hollows would have to be the mining center of New Horizon, with the city of Bleeding Hill it's primary settlement.
The Rusty Stars frequently attempt sabotage in this region, as well as attempting to hijack various mineral convoys sent to Trapper Town. Also, there are frequent stampedes of the aggressive pack predators called Unicorns in the region, as well as flash floods often triggering frenzied breeding activities from Horizon Moles.
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Bleeding Hill |
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Bleeding Hill is actually three towns, with approximately four or five hundred permanent residents in total, all within a five mile radius of one another.
North Hill acts as an administration center for the region, and is also home to the Marshals Refuge, the major law enforcement hub for the region.
West Hill is the home to most of the regions vices, male and female escort services, bars, movie theaters and most other forms of entertainment to help keep the miners and smelters who call this region home from going completely insane. A slice of Las Vegas on an Alien Planet.
South Hill is home to most of the mercantile establishments, the lions share of resident housing as well as many of the more family friendly forms of recreation, as well as the primary barracks that unweded miners and smelters who make their living here.
The local Mayor is popular, but ineffective, and much of the local administration is done through his deputy mayor, and the local posse. Here, even more than Trapper Town, bounty hunters are the second arm of the Law.
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Blighted Dunes |
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An arid, desolate and sandy stretch of coastline and hills, notable for prominent offshore fishing as well as gem mining the coastal foothills. The only real scenery are the small, narrow forests which dot the foothills slopes.
The Rusty Stars frequently attempt to sabotage gem mining operations in the region, but more frequently local trouble is caused by The Lodestone Group, who frequently discretely purchase the services of mercenaries to run settlers off of their land so they can buy at reduced prices.
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Warhead |
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Warhead Keep is one of the factions of New Horizon. The city is something of a training camp for the Vanguard Millitary. The sturdy fortress has stood off attacks of surprising violence. Warhead, once a war-ravaged dilapidated garrison city, has risen into a fortified city under the leadership of its dictator and ruler, general Trask. The most feared outlaws and mercenaries gravitate around this place, but it is also where the best weaponry in all New Horizon can be found, as well as employment for the unscrupulous.
Warhead is a massive roughly round military base built on top of a massive offshore rock outcropping. However the entire side of the oddly shaped outcropping is pockmarked with many buildings carved out of the rock, and many gun emplacements.
The central district is Warhead Hold, and there are four quarters around it, the Barracks, the Market, the Training Pavilion and the Armory. Since the city was built along side of some cliffs, it came to be divided into two levels. The lower level is more or less underneath the city and it is called 'Down Below'. Down Below contains mostly civilian quarters and storage facilities, as well as the generators and prisons. The upper level contains the central district and its four surrounding quarters.
Warhead buildings are more rounded off than most typical military structures, and have a sort of bronzed colors scheme mingled with reds and whites.
Warhead is surrounded by a small wall, only five feet tall, but with a city build out of the rock itself the city wall is barely necessary. Warhead also has a heliport located slightly south of the central citadel. There is also a sea port at the north eastern edge of town.
Warhead is about the same size as Trapper Town, and half the size of Avalon. The city is three times the size of any military base found anywhere on the planet. It's also blackened by plumes of smoke and steam from their munitions development departments. The sky above Warhead is constantly dark, the result of the smoke emission by its many steel industry and military factories, casting the whole city into a dark and forbidding shadow.
Trask's Stronghold is found in the middle of the central district called Warhead Hold. This stronghold is the personal fortress of Warhead's military dictator, general Trask. This building serves as the main garrison, the War Room, and the executive office of the city. Security is tight, and no one but Trask's top advisors has ever entered this sanctum.
The General's District surrounding Trask's Stronghold is the home of Trask's lackeys in the military aristocracy of Warhead. This is as close as one gets to 'upper class' in Warhead, with large, but not well decorated and very foreboding looking houses.
Inhabitants here, and in the whole city in fact, are highly guarded. Obeying the laws of the city to the letter, as there are constant examples of what disobedience brings. So petrified and fearful they are by the examples, the inhabitants actually cooperate whole-heartedly with their rigid enforcers to bring in anyone caught breaking the law. They can't be blamed; the enforcers are part of Trask's personal police force, the Black Templars.
Trask's men are tough, but they don't care to handle jobs that don't affect Warhead or their general. That's where mercenaries come in. The Mercenary Guild hires guns that can make a killing - in both senses of the word - serving the desperate or lazy people who are offering the job.
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concept art by Eriance
Barracks of Warhead
The "Barracks of Warhead" are impressive indeed. There isn't a single army in the world that is as massive and mighty as that of Warhead Keep, and that might is visibly displayed by every building in their city, including the barracks.
concept art by Eriance
Walls of Warhead
If you want to visualize the Walls of Warhead then simply imagine the Great Wall of China if that was built by a high technology and weapons fixated army. The Walls or Warhead is a strong military motif, with lots of big generic gun emplacements. Breaching this wall is close to impossible!
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Red Feathers Rest |
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The only major city in the north of Blighted Dunes is the Red Feathers Rest; home of the self described Iron Mustang Tribe and the largest and most prosperous of the renewed 'Native American' culture movement. Though only about twenty percent of their numbers are 'Native American' in genealogy, they live a life which while composed of more high technology than the average man of the Walk of Man in their glorious city. Their lives are simple, regimented and deeply in tune with the nature of the land, so their technology is only that which is integral to their lives, and no more, replacing only what will not work in their harsh land with more advanced analogues, such as their prized electric Mustang Motorcycles from which their name is drawn that they use to hunt the ferocious beasts of the plain.
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Azuremar Mountain Range |
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The Azuremar Mountain Range (also known as the Vertigo Mountains) is a mountain range of truly titanic proportions, nearly the size of the North American continent back on Earth. Perilous by any man's standard, these glacier covered mountains earn their name for the deep blue glaciers which crest and calve, with the icebergs falling more than half a mile vertically to Moon Lake. The region is very difficult to traverse, but amid its great heights lay many hidden communities in the many high altitude valleys.
There's little to no traditional fundamentally criminal element in the Azuremars, but their many hundreds of thousands of peaks, valleys and caves make it a place where many secretive factions often hide themselves away from the rest of the world, such as the now seemingly extinct Scarlet Moon Mercenaries. There are many people dwelling within their peaks that are enemies of the outside world.
The Azuremar mountains spews thousands of tons of volcanic debris into the air every year. The highest peak of the mountain range is called Mt. Michal, after the first mountain-climber who explored its deepest recesses. The mountain of Michal is covered in perpetual snows up until a few thousand feet from the summit, where it blasts its hot ash into the atmosphere. The area around the mountain range is surrounded by small snowy forests.
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Garden of Zen |
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The Garden of Zen is a beautiful place hidden away within the Azuremar Mountain Range, not far from Mt. Michal. The Garden of Zen was built on the shore of a small unnamed lake which waters come from within the mountains all around the area by a fresh mountain spring that discharges million gallons of water per day. The Garden of Zen has been designed to resemble a temple which structure combines high technology and Chinese tranquility.
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concept art by Eriance
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Renegades Rest |
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Renegades Rest is a subterranean complex, used chiefly by bandits and outlaws, a hodgepodge of obsolete and more obsolete technology, as well as scrounged garbage grade furnishings and black markets.
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Frozen Caves |
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The Frozen Caves are a seemingly endless frozen expanse of tunnels in an otherwise tropical area. The origin of its frigid cold is unknown, but what is known is that the caves are enormous and seismic analysis shows that at its greatest depths it connects to an enormous underground river, larger than any surface river of the planet.
The entrance of the snowy cave from which the wind howls is extremely huge. The inside is both dark and damp and seems to go on for kilometres. A noise seems to echo in those caverns and one wonders what keeps making that constant howling noise.
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