SW City

SW City

Location: Southeastern Alphaworld

Coordinates: 2218s 3610e (-3610X, -2218Z)

Mayor: Shane Syntax

Inhabitants: Common Races, Lesser Races, Nimbusians, Subminians, various Fauna and Flora

Population: ~37,000

Size: 40.7 km2 (15.7 mi2)

SW City was founded in November 1855 after the Civil Revolt led by Gramon Syntax. It was named in honor of Signet Wagner, a revolutionary who sacrificed himself to save many lives during the revolt.

The city covers the vast majority of SW Island and is part of the larger Scarabian Confederation, a region consisting of geographies within and surrounding the Irenic Ocean. It has grown to become the largest city on Alphaworld.

The current mayor is Shane Syntax, who has been leading the town since Samuel W. Comit Jr.'s resignation in 2002. Under Syntax, the SW City Administration and Management govern the districts and precincts of the city, including the Central, Estate, River, Palm, and Shores districts.

The political landscape of the city is controlled by the Charter, which outlines administration, inactivity and land distribution.

The main currency used in SW City is Flint (ƒ).

Contents (hide)

  1.   1.  History
  2.   2.  Government
    1.   2.1  Current Administration
  3.   3.  Geography
    1.   3.1  Geographical Records
  4.   4.  Inhabitants
  5.   5.  Relationship to Alphaworld
  6.   6.  Origin of Name

1. History

SW City began as a city-state in the aftermath of the Civil Revolt of 1855. It was officially founded on March 28, 1886 by Gramon Syntax, Talus Harmony, Damon Marshe, and others and named in honor of Signet Wagner, a revolutionary who saved other revolutionaries from being shot at the cost of his own life.

With the blessing of Gramon, a group of citizen-ran companies formed what would become the Scarabian Confederation as a diplomatic trade mission charged with maintaining friendly relations between SW City and the surrounding region. It quickly grew into the cooperative trade confederation it's known as today.

The SW City Civil Rights Act was passed in 1925, granting equal rights and privileges to all races in SW City. Further improvements were made with the passage of the Equal Racial Opportunity Act in 1980.

First contact with the interplanetary Circle of Fire Corporation occurred in 1994. CoF brought new technology to SW City in exchange for SW City's and the Scarabian Confederation's cooperation in a new planetary government, and Mayor Samuel W. Comit Jr. declared the beginning of the Corporate Era.

In the year 2000, the city began experiencing economic instability, causing the Scara-dollar currency to fluctuate wildly in value.

During this time, two days before the city’s birthday, on March 26, 2002, Mayor Samuel W. Comit Jr. announced his resignation and Shane Syntax was appointed in his place. That same year, commercial space travel became widely available, resulting in a large exodus of the population from Alphaworld, including SW City and the Confederation.

The situation devolved quickly, and the resulting unrest allowed the Pelma asteroid to escape early detection and deterrence. Carschall Tip, a settled area on Sybit Island, was obliterated in the impact. Soon after, the SW City contracted with Circle of Fire for its asteroid deterrence.

In 2004, Flint Prestonous led a campaign to fix the city's currency and the Flint (ƒ) was introduced. In November of that same year, the SW City Administration voted to reform the government, simplifying the hierarchical structure, reducing spending and corruption, and orienting government bureaucracy more towards efficiency and away from career advancement, profit, and engagements in social engineering.

Both measures helped to stabilize the culture and the economy, putting the latter onto a consistent growth trajectory.

As SW City gained influence, other settlements in the area saw the opportunity that SW City and the Scarabian Confederation afforded.

In 2026, due to a time travel mishap (see "Relationship to Alphaworld" below), SW City had to pay reparations to hundreds of thousands of individuals due to the actions of one of its governors, Mikhail Alexeyev Dostovei, who caused the incident.

2. Government

SW City formed in 1855 as a city-state. It also established the trade mission of what would in short order become the Scarabian Confederation. While SW City does have an organized democratic government, the Confederation is today considered the civic authority that keeps the peace and prevents invasion by its (as some describe it) "less-enlightened" neighbors. These attitudes have given denizens of the region a somewhat xenophobic reputation.

2.1 Current Administration

The current administration of SW City is governed by the Charter. Governors control their respective territories and delegate management of their various precincts to the Managers. SW City currently includes the Central, Estate, River, Palm, and Shores districts.

3. Geography

Geography in SW City ranges to any type of environment you can imagine. A large list of geographical areas can be found in the Geography directory.

3.1 Geographical Records

4. Inhabitants

SW City is populated by three major races - Humans, Nimbusians, and Submins, although many other common races exist.

5. Relationship to Alphaworld

SW City is a part of Alphaworld, a post-modern, anarchic yet relatively peaceful world. SW City is one of the few bastions of organized civilization.

Alphaworld first made contact with the rest of the galaxy in 1994. Its space-faring ambassadors, the Circle of Fire Corporation, ushered in an age of modern technology and protection from constant asteroid impacts from the solar system's asteroid belt in exchange for certain rights of governorship, becoming the de facto world government. This empowered CoF and other corporations of the world to became the new power centers, beginning the Corporate Era.

SW City received many great benefits from the new technologies CoF introduced and species that settled in the city from all over the galaxy. An economic and cultural boom followed in 2004 as a direct result of its dealings with Circle of Fire.

In 2011, Governor Mikhail Alexeyev Dostovei launched an ICBM loaded with exotic matter and detonated it in orbit around Alphaworld in an attempt to open a wormhole to another part of the galaxy and establish trade for his corporation MadCorp. He ended up causing a major diplomatic incident instead.

Due to a misunderstanding with the trader he purchased the exotic matter from, a cousin of Dr. Chris who spoke an odd dialect of Lingarian, Dostovei ended up purchasing the wrong kind of exotic matter and the ICBM ended up boring a tunnel through time instead of space. The entire Alphaworld system was accidentally swallowed up and shot forward to the year 2026.

Dostovei was last seen fleeing toward Horizon City with an angry mob of Circle of Fire employees after him, for they had missed out on 15 years worth of stock options. SW City ended up paying reparations to those affected and officially apologized for the incident.

6. Origin of Name

The "SW" in SW City means Signet Wagner City. During the Civil Revolt Of 1855, Signet Wagner was largely responsible for the downfall of the Scarabian Empire. He fell during the final battle, and the newly formed city-state was named in his honor. However, to most modern citizens, "SW" means nothing and most of the citizens simply refer to SW City as "the city".

"SW" also has a secondary meaning. According to history dating back to the Tribal Era, the Yuli Tribe is the ancestral civilization of SW City. Its military division was known as the Scarab Warriors, named after the local wildlife near their homeland. The Yulians as well as other budding tribes would have most likely been destroyed had it not been for the Scarab Warriors battle prowess during the Heretikian War. Thus, some citizens alternatively refer to SW City as Scarab Warrior City in their honor.