Cyberpunk Avatar: Part 1
Alright, so this was done on request, I mentionied this Idea to attacfish, who asked for a write-up. So here it is (sorry it took so long, ended up balooning to 11k words, and this was finals week.) To start off, this is not a fully designed universe, and it’s probably not going to ever get turned into a story, I have to much unfinished to start. Meme fodder, maybe, but right now it’s just an idea I was playing around with because I like thinking up AU’s. Also, half finished collection of ideas makes it kinda hard to pick a starting point.
The Setting: A world much like the Avatar we know, but also, very different. Glittering skyscrapers rise up from the capitals of the Water Confederation, the Fire Nation, and the various states on the Earth continent., robot servants cater to the wealthy’s every whim, while in the slums below people would kill over a single cred chit, King’s and lords have given way to corporations conglomerates, people may not know of the spirit world, but anyone can jack-in to the virtual world. Waterbenders help to harmonize the chi to help bodies adapt to their new cybernetic implants, while far away earthbender usecareful applications of sonic vibrations to scout for new sources of oil.
Welcome to the world of cyberpunk avatar.
The Fire Nation: Like I said, not a fully developed AU, and the fire Nation suffers the worst of it. So far I’m generally leaning to a few characteristics.
1. Fire Nation is nominally a democracy, but is in fact effectively ruled by corporations (because what good cyber punk fiction doesn’t have all-powerful corporations)
2. It’s generally a higher tech and research orient economy, compared to the production of the earth kingdom.
3. Much less military presence than canon, wars are generally simply unprofitable in this day and age, though corporate security forces are small armies unto themselves.
4. Largest corporation is the Fire Nation Energy Co., nominally an energy corporation, it has it’s fingers in every pie.
The Water Confederations:
After Ba Sing Se and The Fire Nation, the Water Confederation is probably the most powerful state. Its unique situation along the Northern Pole makes it the perfect way point for ships (both water and air), to transport goods. To their credit, the Water Confederation made good use of the intial boost from trade, investing in technologies and waterbending research.
The corporations of the Confederation are somewhat different from other areas, being powerfully linked to family. While other corperations do tend to have “dynasties” at the upper end, the northern companies take it much further, with every family member being hired. While some Fire and Earth economists/businesspeople have argued this makes them less competitive, it has not proven to be to odious a burden, as it also insures a degree of loyalty and makes investing in training less risky.
The second unique point of the Northern Corporations is the number who work abroad. While earthbenders will occasionally contract to build in the Fire Nation, and Fire Nation technical experts will occasionally come to see new plants in the Earth States, these tend to be small scale temporary operations. By contrast, Waterbending Chi and body-manipulation requires doctors on sight. As such, corporations will tend to have significant presence in other area’s with permanent postings in forign lands that rote between doctors.
This phenomenon has given rise to two others. First in order to prevent fragmentation, certifications as trained doctor’s are only available in the north itself, and teaching techniques to those who do not attend would be grounds for official expulsion (and unofficial assassination). Secondly, in order to protect their doctors in the often volatile Earth State, they corporations have developed a nasty, but effective policy, any state that is found to have killed or failed to prevent the killing of a water tribe doctor will have all doctor’s forbidden from entering the territory.
One other…. Unique, aspect of the Northern Confederation is it’s women. Officially, most companies grant equal status to women, forbidding discrimination (though even that is not completely true). Unofficially the statistics speak for themselves. Women tend to work less, earn lower wages, and rarely achieve high level positions. There are no women CEO’s in the Northern Confederation, though there are usually one or two on the boards-of-directors.
Numerous arguments over the reasons for this have popped up. More cynical commentators argue the only reason there is even any overt claim of fairness at all is that companies doing business in the Fire Nation are required to be equal opportunity employers(by gender at least), and the positions on the board are tokens. Occasion crusades to enforce the laws more harshly have come up, but have always been defeated, doctors are simply to useful.
Others point to the family culture of the Northern Confederation. The Northern Confederations tends to reject robot servants, especially in domestic tasks. As well as early childhood services. Many women drop out of the work force when the is first child is born, and while many do rejoin one all children are in school, it creates a rather large gap.
Recently, the Northern Confederation have begun massive terriforming the project on the pole’s themselves, creation artificial domed cities with controlled climates.
The Southern Confederation? That what? The Southern Pole is deserted; there are a few scattered tribes, but nothing important. (well a few natural resources, but that’s it.)
The Earth States
The Earth State’s are a catch all term for all the nations that inhabit the major landmass of the world. It’s often joked that there’s no point in listing all the countries, by the time you finish, half of them will have been deposed or conquered. While not quite true, it’s not too far off. The earth states are intensely volatile, with wars and revolutions constantly shifting the borders. Because of this, trans-national corporations wield considerable power, often helping to fund revolutions to put in place more “friendly” governments.
The earth state are the largest source or raw materials for the rest of the world. The Northn Pole’s having little in the way of mines or agriculture (though the recent projects are changing that), and the Fire Nation has exhausted it’s supplies. At the same time, the volatility of the region discourages heavy investment or infrastructure (more than one corporation has been known to invest heavily in an area only to have the warlord decide to nationalize the assets or a war break out).
Technologically, the earth states are a bizarre mix. Not only can development heavily fluctuate between nations, but can often fluctuate within nations and people themselves. It is not uncomment to see palaces filled with robotic servants while 5 miles away fields are harvested by hand. Nor would it be surprising to see the farmers living in a crudely earthbent dirt hovel while also owning a holo-vid phone.
In general the Earth States tend to have three areas of tech that are heavily used. The first is military hardware. The second are large scale luxuries, imported for the more tyrannical of the warlords. The final tech, favored by the common people, tends to have three main characteristics. Portable, durable and easily hide able.
The Sky Traders
While the largest scale Northern Ocean trade is handled by large ocean liner, the inter Earth States trade requires a different breed of trader. Flying trade is used for inner earth kingdom trade for a number of reasons.
1. Flying means you don’t have to worry about crossing through warzones.
2. The only tariffs that apply are those of the two nations your transporting between
3. Does not require infrastructure (roads, railroads)
All of this adds up to make the Sky Traders a vital part of the Earth States. In general two types of sky trader vessel’s exist. Large scale, slow-flying sky “barges” used to transport raw materials and quick flying planes used to transport smaller, expensive goods.
Sky trader’s are a people apart, holding allegiances to no nation or state, or even each other. Each vessel is run by it’s own rules and laws. Sky trader’s can come from anywhere, a number come from people in the Earth State who last homes or family, but there are always adventurous souls from the Fire Nation, Ba Sing Se or Northern Pole.
Ba Sing Se
Last but not least is the city of Ba Sing Se. A sprawling megalopolis that is a nation unto itself. Technically Ba Sing Se’s physical position would classify it as part of the Earth States, however several factors make Ba Sing Se unique. First, and most importantly Ba Sing Se is stable, it had a consistent, continuous government for over a thousand years. While a mayor (who, interestingly, is elected by an unrigged popular vote) nominally holds power, it is the Dai Li who actually run things.
The Dai Li
The Dai Li, also known as the cultural protectors, have run things in Ba Sing Se for as long as anyone can remember. The Dai Li is an organization of paradoxes. They broke no challenge to their power, yet keep in the shadows, preferring pawns and intermediaries. Everyone know of them, yet few can speak of them. They run an oppressive, all monitoring police state, yet the gang warfare in the fourth ring is as bad as anything in the Earth States.
Much of the Dai Li can be understood by understanding two twin paradox’s. The first paradox is the paradox of control. Ba Sing Se is unbelievably huge, hosting over fifty-million people. To maintain, control, a massive organization is required. Yet a large organization run against the Dai Li’s own paranoid, the larger the force, the more weaknesses within. The greater a chance for other’s to spy, and while the Dai Li like keeping their eye on others, they are not so keen on the reverse.
The Dai Li have handled this problem by three methods. First, they work through proxies, the “core” Dai Li are in incredibly small number, while no one knows the true numbers estimates run from as little as five-hundred to as many as five-thousand, either way a tiny number for the size of the city. To supplement that an official police force, that is commanded but not trusted, in used.
Secondly, the Dai Li use a number of force multipliers. The most overt of these are the separate rings of Ba Sing Se, which allow the Dai Li to separate troublesome areas from easier to maintain areas, with checkpoints in between.
Other measures exist as well. Each citizen or “guest worker (even if they don’t actually have a job” has an ID chip implanted within them, identifying who they are, their area of residence, an crimes, and bending ability, as well as any other information the Dai Li feel necessary to know. These chips can be scanned at a distance, and tracked if needed.
Finally, the Dai Li employ’s a sophisticated surveillance system of autonomous cameras, motion detectors, and other monitoring devices throughout the upper three rings, as well as select areas of the fourth. The shear amount of data insures that even hundreds of workers would be capable of observing it all; instead it is coordinated by one of the most advanced AI’s in the world, codenamed KYOSHI.
The second Paradox of Ba Sing Se is the struggle between the corporations’s (both international and domestic) and the Dai Li. To the Dai Li, the corporations are like a snake that lays golden eggs. On the one hand, they threaten the Dai Li’s control over Ba Sing Se, and seek to subvert it whenever possible. On the other hand, Ba Sing Se relies on them for its power and prosperity, the Dai Li have seen what happens to nations that attempt command economies and close trade with the outside world. Ba Sing Se would not survive,
Thus, the paradox. Since the Dai Li will broke no overt challenges to their power, they must offer a carrot to go with the stick. The Dai Li’s carrot of choice is stability. While the constantly changing nations offer much chance for profit, they are also extremely risky, no sane company would risk placing expensive machinery there. Thus, Ba Sing Se has become the de-facto-manufacturing capital of the world (the Fire Nation is second, but higher wages means Ba-Sing-Se is the place of choice). Aside from attracting corporations in the first place, it also provides the Dai Li with a secondary advantage. Every corporation knows that the stability is the result of the Dai Li, and that killing them would be the equivalent of destroying the goose that lays the golden egg.
That said, while both sides understand that they need each other, they are more than willing to squabble over smaller disputes, each trying to get the best deal. But that just one of the many things that makes Ba Sing Se a unique and exciting place….
The Areas of Ba Sing Se
The upper ring is composed of two areas. The first is the inner ring, or upper ring “proper”. It many ways, stepping into the inner ring (if one were allowed to) is like stepping into another world. Wide avenues, walled compounds, and low buildings all seem disorienting out of place with the rest of Ba Sing Se. In fact, the only building more than two stories tall is the central government headquarters. An imposingly opulent building located at the absolute center of the inner ring.
Aside from the central government buildings, the inner ring is dominated by walled compounds. Because of the central location, as well as the building height, compounds in the inner ring are among the most expensive pieces of land in existence. In fact, a study by Ba Sing Se university, concluded that, based on per-hector land prices in the western in the western earth kingdom, one could literally buy a small country for the same price as the land of one of the compounds (thought the study pointed out that this assumed even price for all land, and ignored non-land assets). Because of this, three types of people hold compounds in the inner ring. The first groups are guests, holding houses granted to them by the Dai Li. The second group are “old money” who inherited the hereditary land from their ancestors and have been either successful enough, or prideful enough, to avoid selling. The final group are the ultra-ultra rich. The heads of the largest transnational corporations, whose net worth dwarves several countries.
Aside from the “inner” upper ring, there is “outer” upper ring. Uniquely in the planned, managed districts of Ba Sing Se, the outer ring is scattered. The outer area consists of a number of penthouse suites and houses located on the top of the largest buildings (mostly located in the middle or outer ring). What distinguishes as outer-upper ring residence from a mere penthouse suites is what is known as a “writ of estate”.
Writ of estate: Writ’s of estate are yet another example of the interplay between the Dai Li and the other powers they must contend with. Writ’s of estate grant the user and “estate” of a certain footage (varies per each one) and of no more than two stories. Writ’s of estate’s have several benefits, but there are two key ones.
The first is that, it allows privacy, the Dai Li are forbidden to enter, or bug, and the person is free to do whatever they wish, barring “threats to the state”. In practice it’s a little more complex, the writ of estate is not a promise that the Dai Li won’t spy on you, more that if you do managed to block them off (firing plants, destroying bugs, lead lining your house) they’ll won’t arrest you for it, which means that skilled and vigilant owners with good staffs can maintain privacy (expect for the “guest” houses, which are entirely government staffed). Because of this, estates are actually the preferred area of Ba Sing Se, to conduct business deals.
The second major advantages is that estates grant permanent passage to the upper level of Ba Sing se to any owners, residents and staff. (and, given Ba Sing Se’s tier system, this means they also grant them access to any other area, should they so wish).
The middle ring
The middle ring is a mixture of office space and apartments. Unlike the Upper Ring, tall buildings and cramped spaces are the order of the day. Within the middle ring, entire families living in a single bedroom apartments are fairly usual. However, the space premium should not be mistaken for poverty, these same apartments tend to also include robotic cleaners, high definition holographic media systems, advanced computers stations, and just about anything else that can be crammed in them.
In addition to its residential buildings, the middle ring holds the lion’s share of office buildings, both government bureaucracy and cooperate buildings. Residents of the middle ring tend to fall into three categories, mid-level managers and paper pushers for corporations. High level Earth based Xue researchers (as the only stable kingdom, almost all EarthXue research is located in Ba Sing Se), and government bureaucrats, (whose placement in the middle ring is a result of assignment, their wages tend to be lower than the other groups.)
The middle ring tends to be the most heavily monitored of the rings. Unlike the upper ring, individual people do not have the power to make monitoring problematic, and unlike the lower rings, they’re still important enough to matter.
The lower ring: The lower ring is similar to the middle ring, though the buildings tend to be not quite as tall and the residents much less luxurious. “Clean and plain” would be the watchwords, the apartments are not luxurious, but unlike the outer ring, they are usually well maintained. That said, it is important to note that this is a generalization, given Ba Sing Se’s sheer size, various areas of the lower ring can range from nearly middle ring level to dilapidated, falling apart hovels barely separate from the outer ring.
In addition, because the lower ring is the only ring which all citizens of Ba Sing Se have access too, it tends to be the site of major public events, such as sports arena’s (though more exclusive ones, such as recital halls, may prefer the middle ring).
The industrial ring: The Dai Li like a clean, orderly city. As such the industrial ring lies several miles from the edge of the lower ring, connected by massive mass transit systems. This is the beating heart of Ba Sing Se’s economy. A veritable sea of factories stenches outward , it is estimated that as much as 60% of the world base manufactured goods lie here (with 20% in the Fire Nation, and the rest divided up between the Water Tribe and other Earth Nations).
The factories of the industrial ring are a rather interesting mix. While technology is employed when necessary, much of the work is done by hand. For all that the inner areas of Ba Sing Se are technological marvels, for the mass of Ba Sing Se’s lower and working classes, as one factory owner puts it “machinery is expensive, more workers are cheap”. Thus, while Ba Sing Se supplies the worlds industry, it mainly relies on hand and bending power, with machinery being used only when necessary.
The Dai Li has very little interest in the factories, aside from insuring the function and do not threaten their power, and even then low level corporate security forces are permitted. As such factory conditions on entirely the purview of the cooperation running them range from “decent”, to “abysmal”, with most falling on the decidedly lower end of the scale.
The Fourth Ring: The Fourth ring has no official name. Unofficial names include, “the outer ring”, “the outer lower ring” “the wastelands” and the ever popular “piece of shit”. All are apt descriptions, running from the edge of the city proper all the way to the edge of the industrial ring; the fourth ring is a slum with a population dwarfing several smaller nations. While no census has been preformed, estimates run anywhere from 20 million to 40 million, which if true would make it larger than the entire population of the other rings Ba Sing Se (estimated at 25million). Unlike the middle and lower ring, the Fourth Ring is home to almost not gleaming sky scrapers, instead it is composed of massive slums of dirt buildings earthbent from the ground, those some would disagree that they should be dignified with the term “building”.
The fourth ring holds the mass of Ba Sing Se’s “guest workers”, immigrants who are allowed to live within the ring and fuel the industry Ba Sing Se relies on, but are not formal citizens, and as such cannot enter any of the proper rings. Unlike the other rings, neither the corporations nor the Da Li care much for the fourth ring. A loss of a middle ring, or even lower ring, citizen means other citizens become fearful and corporations more inclined to pull out and the, as well as a loss of human capital. If someone dies in the fourth ring, well, there are always more where they came from. The wars in the rest of the nation’s insure a constant supply of refugee’s hoping to find peace and stability in Ba Sing Se.
Not that they will. The Dai Li don’t even begin to try to police the fourth ring, only coming in should something disrupt the workings of the rest of Ba Sing Se. Otherwise, the ring is left to itself, and in the absence of any force of law gangs and strongmen take of the territory. This can range from area’s where the gangs are the laws, and as long as one does not cross them, it’s possible to live in relative peace, to areas where they are little more than random killers, to warzone’s where gangs clash over territory. As one author wryly commented “the fourth ring is the Earth State’s in miniature. All the nations in a single city, in both ethnic makeup and political stability.”
OOC: Okay this is getting way to big, and writing in this pseudo-in universe bit is getting really annoying. So I’m going to stop it and start writing as more in a “author’s notes” tone. Because if I don’t I’m never going to finish.
So yeah, the fourth ring is essentially every slum, shanty town and favela combined and turned up to eleven in the rational cyber punk manner. Life kinda sucks, and there’s even less hope for advancement than real life. Ba Sing Se is not a society that encourages advancement or social mobility. A few, lucky few, might get a company to vie for them and get a citizenship and place in the lower ring, but that’s about the number in the real world that go on to be millionaires.
Couple other thoughts on the lower ring. Infrastructure is iffy at a lot of times, as such, most structures that actually really on power tend to be self powered. The tech is really scitzo, the people are dirt poor, but its cyberpunk, even dirt poor tech is still more advanced than anything we know. (for a real world example, look at the popularity of cell phones in Africa). On interesting idea I had is that all the garbage dumps are located in this area, and are considered valuable. Scavenge the tech, fix it up and you have working internet ports, computers, holovids, etc. Wars have been fought over garbage dumps of the upper ring trash.
In general, you don’t see any official businesses, but a lot of low level entrepreneurship goes on. Set up a generator (or, in many cases, a decent lightning bender), get a few wireless computers, and you have an extranet business. Keep a few turkens-in your backyard to sell, and of course, prostitution, protection rackets and drugs are as popular as ever. (the bandwidth for high level VR feed insures that drugs tend to be cheaper). The secondary economy of the fourth ring is huge, especially since the unemployment level is enormous.
A quick note on the difference between lower rung workers and outer ring workers. Both are factory workers, but they are very different in terms of their lives. First, lower ring workers are citizens of Ba Sing Se, which means they don’t have to worry about crime at home, can attend a lot of the mass events of Ba Sing Se, and get a basic education. As such they tend to be higher value, more productive workers, and tend to have jobs in the more machinery intensive factories, while the fourth ring workers tend to have jobs in the more labor intensive factories, and tend to be fire and hired on a whim in response to industry demands. Essentially, think of lower city workers as US auto workers circa 1950* while fourth city workers are a fusion of factory workers in 18th century Britain 20th century china.
* If they existed in an Orwellian state that monitored your every move and might drag you away and brainwash you if you ever rebelled. While they have it better than the fourth ring, it’s not like their life is “good”.
So yeah, that’s Ba Sing Se. If it’s seems like a lot more developed, well that’s cause it is. I know the “story” stars in Ba Sing Se, and I’m actually not sure it would ever leave. The original Avatar was fantasy, and as such had a big need to go out and explore the work. But in cyberpunk, well a massive state-city is a perfect setting, and large enough I might just opt to make every character exist in Ba Sing Se and not move out. Edit from the future. Thinking about it some more, they’re leaving Ba Sing Se, I’ve already got one story I’m doing that’s completely set in a massive city.
The Setting: A world much like the Avatar we know, but also, very different. Glittering skyscrapers rise up from the capitals of the Water Confederation, the Fire Nation, and the various states on the Earth continent., robot servants cater to the wealthy’s every whim, while in the slums below people would kill over a single cred chit, King’s and lords have given way to corporations conglomerates, people may not know of the spirit world, but anyone can jack-in to the virtual world. Waterbenders help to harmonize the chi to help bodies adapt to their new cybernetic implants, while far away earthbender usecareful applications of sonic vibrations to scout for new sources of oil.
Welcome to the world of cyberpunk avatar.
The Fire Nation: Like I said, not a fully developed AU, and the fire Nation suffers the worst of it. So far I’m generally leaning to a few characteristics.
1. Fire Nation is nominally a democracy, but is in fact effectively ruled by corporations (because what good cyber punk fiction doesn’t have all-powerful corporations)
2. It’s generally a higher tech and research orient economy, compared to the production of the earth kingdom.
3. Much less military presence than canon, wars are generally simply unprofitable in this day and age, though corporate security forces are small armies unto themselves.
4. Largest corporation is the Fire Nation Energy Co., nominally an energy corporation, it has it’s fingers in every pie.
The Water Confederations:
After Ba Sing Se and The Fire Nation, the Water Confederation is probably the most powerful state. Its unique situation along the Northern Pole makes it the perfect way point for ships (both water and air), to transport goods. To their credit, the Water Confederation made good use of the intial boost from trade, investing in technologies and waterbending research.
The corporations of the Confederation are somewhat different from other areas, being powerfully linked to family. While other corperations do tend to have “dynasties” at the upper end, the northern companies take it much further, with every family member being hired. While some Fire and Earth economists/businesspeople have argued this makes them less competitive, it has not proven to be to odious a burden, as it also insures a degree of loyalty and makes investing in training less risky.
The second unique point of the Northern Corporations is the number who work abroad. While earthbenders will occasionally contract to build in the Fire Nation, and Fire Nation technical experts will occasionally come to see new plants in the Earth States, these tend to be small scale temporary operations. By contrast, Waterbending Chi and body-manipulation requires doctors on sight. As such, corporations will tend to have significant presence in other area’s with permanent postings in forign lands that rote between doctors.
This phenomenon has given rise to two others. First in order to prevent fragmentation, certifications as trained doctor’s are only available in the north itself, and teaching techniques to those who do not attend would be grounds for official expulsion (and unofficial assassination). Secondly, in order to protect their doctors in the often volatile Earth State, they corporations have developed a nasty, but effective policy, any state that is found to have killed or failed to prevent the killing of a water tribe doctor will have all doctor’s forbidden from entering the territory.
One other…. Unique, aspect of the Northern Confederation is it’s women. Officially, most companies grant equal status to women, forbidding discrimination (though even that is not completely true). Unofficially the statistics speak for themselves. Women tend to work less, earn lower wages, and rarely achieve high level positions. There are no women CEO’s in the Northern Confederation, though there are usually one or two on the boards-of-directors.
Numerous arguments over the reasons for this have popped up. More cynical commentators argue the only reason there is even any overt claim of fairness at all is that companies doing business in the Fire Nation are required to be equal opportunity employers(by gender at least), and the positions on the board are tokens. Occasion crusades to enforce the laws more harshly have come up, but have always been defeated, doctors are simply to useful.
Others point to the family culture of the Northern Confederation. The Northern Confederations tends to reject robot servants, especially in domestic tasks. As well as early childhood services. Many women drop out of the work force when the is first child is born, and while many do rejoin one all children are in school, it creates a rather large gap.
Recently, the Northern Confederation have begun massive terriforming the project on the pole’s themselves, creation artificial domed cities with controlled climates.
The Southern Confederation? That what? The Southern Pole is deserted; there are a few scattered tribes, but nothing important. (well a few natural resources, but that’s it.)
The Earth States
The Earth State’s are a catch all term for all the nations that inhabit the major landmass of the world. It’s often joked that there’s no point in listing all the countries, by the time you finish, half of them will have been deposed or conquered. While not quite true, it’s not too far off. The earth states are intensely volatile, with wars and revolutions constantly shifting the borders. Because of this, trans-national corporations wield considerable power, often helping to fund revolutions to put in place more “friendly” governments.
The earth state are the largest source or raw materials for the rest of the world. The Northn Pole’s having little in the way of mines or agriculture (though the recent projects are changing that), and the Fire Nation has exhausted it’s supplies. At the same time, the volatility of the region discourages heavy investment or infrastructure (more than one corporation has been known to invest heavily in an area only to have the warlord decide to nationalize the assets or a war break out).
Technologically, the earth states are a bizarre mix. Not only can development heavily fluctuate between nations, but can often fluctuate within nations and people themselves. It is not uncomment to see palaces filled with robotic servants while 5 miles away fields are harvested by hand. Nor would it be surprising to see the farmers living in a crudely earthbent dirt hovel while also owning a holo-vid phone.
In general the Earth States tend to have three areas of tech that are heavily used. The first is military hardware. The second are large scale luxuries, imported for the more tyrannical of the warlords. The final tech, favored by the common people, tends to have three main characteristics. Portable, durable and easily hide able.
The Sky Traders
While the largest scale Northern Ocean trade is handled by large ocean liner, the inter Earth States trade requires a different breed of trader. Flying trade is used for inner earth kingdom trade for a number of reasons.
1. Flying means you don’t have to worry about crossing through warzones.
2. The only tariffs that apply are those of the two nations your transporting between
3. Does not require infrastructure (roads, railroads)
All of this adds up to make the Sky Traders a vital part of the Earth States. In general two types of sky trader vessel’s exist. Large scale, slow-flying sky “barges” used to transport raw materials and quick flying planes used to transport smaller, expensive goods.
Sky trader’s are a people apart, holding allegiances to no nation or state, or even each other. Each vessel is run by it’s own rules and laws. Sky trader’s can come from anywhere, a number come from people in the Earth State who last homes or family, but there are always adventurous souls from the Fire Nation, Ba Sing Se or Northern Pole.
Ba Sing Se
Last but not least is the city of Ba Sing Se. A sprawling megalopolis that is a nation unto itself. Technically Ba Sing Se’s physical position would classify it as part of the Earth States, however several factors make Ba Sing Se unique. First, and most importantly Ba Sing Se is stable, it had a consistent, continuous government for over a thousand years. While a mayor (who, interestingly, is elected by an unrigged popular vote) nominally holds power, it is the Dai Li who actually run things.
The Dai Li
The Dai Li, also known as the cultural protectors, have run things in Ba Sing Se for as long as anyone can remember. The Dai Li is an organization of paradoxes. They broke no challenge to their power, yet keep in the shadows, preferring pawns and intermediaries. Everyone know of them, yet few can speak of them. They run an oppressive, all monitoring police state, yet the gang warfare in the fourth ring is as bad as anything in the Earth States.
Much of the Dai Li can be understood by understanding two twin paradox’s. The first paradox is the paradox of control. Ba Sing Se is unbelievably huge, hosting over fifty-million people. To maintain, control, a massive organization is required. Yet a large organization run against the Dai Li’s own paranoid, the larger the force, the more weaknesses within. The greater a chance for other’s to spy, and while the Dai Li like keeping their eye on others, they are not so keen on the reverse.
The Dai Li have handled this problem by three methods. First, they work through proxies, the “core” Dai Li are in incredibly small number, while no one knows the true numbers estimates run from as little as five-hundred to as many as five-thousand, either way a tiny number for the size of the city. To supplement that an official police force, that is commanded but not trusted, in used.
Secondly, the Dai Li use a number of force multipliers. The most overt of these are the separate rings of Ba Sing Se, which allow the Dai Li to separate troublesome areas from easier to maintain areas, with checkpoints in between.
Other measures exist as well. Each citizen or “guest worker (even if they don’t actually have a job” has an ID chip implanted within them, identifying who they are, their area of residence, an crimes, and bending ability, as well as any other information the Dai Li feel necessary to know. These chips can be scanned at a distance, and tracked if needed.
Finally, the Dai Li employ’s a sophisticated surveillance system of autonomous cameras, motion detectors, and other monitoring devices throughout the upper three rings, as well as select areas of the fourth. The shear amount of data insures that even hundreds of workers would be capable of observing it all; instead it is coordinated by one of the most advanced AI’s in the world, codenamed KYOSHI.
The second Paradox of Ba Sing Se is the struggle between the corporations’s (both international and domestic) and the Dai Li. To the Dai Li, the corporations are like a snake that lays golden eggs. On the one hand, they threaten the Dai Li’s control over Ba Sing Se, and seek to subvert it whenever possible. On the other hand, Ba Sing Se relies on them for its power and prosperity, the Dai Li have seen what happens to nations that attempt command economies and close trade with the outside world. Ba Sing Se would not survive,
Thus, the paradox. Since the Dai Li will broke no overt challenges to their power, they must offer a carrot to go with the stick. The Dai Li’s carrot of choice is stability. While the constantly changing nations offer much chance for profit, they are also extremely risky, no sane company would risk placing expensive machinery there. Thus, Ba Sing Se has become the de-facto-manufacturing capital of the world (the Fire Nation is second, but higher wages means Ba-Sing-Se is the place of choice). Aside from attracting corporations in the first place, it also provides the Dai Li with a secondary advantage. Every corporation knows that the stability is the result of the Dai Li, and that killing them would be the equivalent of destroying the goose that lays the golden egg.
That said, while both sides understand that they need each other, they are more than willing to squabble over smaller disputes, each trying to get the best deal. But that just one of the many things that makes Ba Sing Se a unique and exciting place….
The Areas of Ba Sing Se
The upper ring is composed of two areas. The first is the inner ring, or upper ring “proper”. It many ways, stepping into the inner ring (if one were allowed to) is like stepping into another world. Wide avenues, walled compounds, and low buildings all seem disorienting out of place with the rest of Ba Sing Se. In fact, the only building more than two stories tall is the central government headquarters. An imposingly opulent building located at the absolute center of the inner ring.
Aside from the central government buildings, the inner ring is dominated by walled compounds. Because of the central location, as well as the building height, compounds in the inner ring are among the most expensive pieces of land in existence. In fact, a study by Ba Sing Se university, concluded that, based on per-hector land prices in the western in the western earth kingdom, one could literally buy a small country for the same price as the land of one of the compounds (thought the study pointed out that this assumed even price for all land, and ignored non-land assets). Because of this, three types of people hold compounds in the inner ring. The first groups are guests, holding houses granted to them by the Dai Li. The second group are “old money” who inherited the hereditary land from their ancestors and have been either successful enough, or prideful enough, to avoid selling. The final group are the ultra-ultra rich. The heads of the largest transnational corporations, whose net worth dwarves several countries.
Aside from the “inner” upper ring, there is “outer” upper ring. Uniquely in the planned, managed districts of Ba Sing Se, the outer ring is scattered. The outer area consists of a number of penthouse suites and houses located on the top of the largest buildings (mostly located in the middle or outer ring). What distinguishes as outer-upper ring residence from a mere penthouse suites is what is known as a “writ of estate”.
Writ of estate: Writ’s of estate are yet another example of the interplay between the Dai Li and the other powers they must contend with. Writ’s of estate grant the user and “estate” of a certain footage (varies per each one) and of no more than two stories. Writ’s of estate’s have several benefits, but there are two key ones.
The first is that, it allows privacy, the Dai Li are forbidden to enter, or bug, and the person is free to do whatever they wish, barring “threats to the state”. In practice it’s a little more complex, the writ of estate is not a promise that the Dai Li won’t spy on you, more that if you do managed to block them off (firing plants, destroying bugs, lead lining your house) they’ll won’t arrest you for it, which means that skilled and vigilant owners with good staffs can maintain privacy (expect for the “guest” houses, which are entirely government staffed). Because of this, estates are actually the preferred area of Ba Sing Se, to conduct business deals.
The second major advantages is that estates grant permanent passage to the upper level of Ba Sing se to any owners, residents and staff. (and, given Ba Sing Se’s tier system, this means they also grant them access to any other area, should they so wish).
The middle ring
The middle ring is a mixture of office space and apartments. Unlike the Upper Ring, tall buildings and cramped spaces are the order of the day. Within the middle ring, entire families living in a single bedroom apartments are fairly usual. However, the space premium should not be mistaken for poverty, these same apartments tend to also include robotic cleaners, high definition holographic media systems, advanced computers stations, and just about anything else that can be crammed in them.
In addition to its residential buildings, the middle ring holds the lion’s share of office buildings, both government bureaucracy and cooperate buildings. Residents of the middle ring tend to fall into three categories, mid-level managers and paper pushers for corporations. High level Earth based Xue researchers (as the only stable kingdom, almost all EarthXue research is located in Ba Sing Se), and government bureaucrats, (whose placement in the middle ring is a result of assignment, their wages tend to be lower than the other groups.)
The middle ring tends to be the most heavily monitored of the rings. Unlike the upper ring, individual people do not have the power to make monitoring problematic, and unlike the lower rings, they’re still important enough to matter.
The lower ring: The lower ring is similar to the middle ring, though the buildings tend to be not quite as tall and the residents much less luxurious. “Clean and plain” would be the watchwords, the apartments are not luxurious, but unlike the outer ring, they are usually well maintained. That said, it is important to note that this is a generalization, given Ba Sing Se’s sheer size, various areas of the lower ring can range from nearly middle ring level to dilapidated, falling apart hovels barely separate from the outer ring.
In addition, because the lower ring is the only ring which all citizens of Ba Sing Se have access too, it tends to be the site of major public events, such as sports arena’s (though more exclusive ones, such as recital halls, may prefer the middle ring).
The industrial ring: The Dai Li like a clean, orderly city. As such the industrial ring lies several miles from the edge of the lower ring, connected by massive mass transit systems. This is the beating heart of Ba Sing Se’s economy. A veritable sea of factories stenches outward , it is estimated that as much as 60% of the world base manufactured goods lie here (with 20% in the Fire Nation, and the rest divided up between the Water Tribe and other Earth Nations).
The factories of the industrial ring are a rather interesting mix. While technology is employed when necessary, much of the work is done by hand. For all that the inner areas of Ba Sing Se are technological marvels, for the mass of Ba Sing Se’s lower and working classes, as one factory owner puts it “machinery is expensive, more workers are cheap”. Thus, while Ba Sing Se supplies the worlds industry, it mainly relies on hand and bending power, with machinery being used only when necessary.
The Dai Li has very little interest in the factories, aside from insuring the function and do not threaten their power, and even then low level corporate security forces are permitted. As such factory conditions on entirely the purview of the cooperation running them range from “decent”, to “abysmal”, with most falling on the decidedly lower end of the scale.
The Fourth Ring: The Fourth ring has no official name. Unofficial names include, “the outer ring”, “the outer lower ring” “the wastelands” and the ever popular “piece of shit”. All are apt descriptions, running from the edge of the city proper all the way to the edge of the industrial ring; the fourth ring is a slum with a population dwarfing several smaller nations. While no census has been preformed, estimates run anywhere from 20 million to 40 million, which if true would make it larger than the entire population of the other rings Ba Sing Se (estimated at 25million). Unlike the middle and lower ring, the Fourth Ring is home to almost not gleaming sky scrapers, instead it is composed of massive slums of dirt buildings earthbent from the ground, those some would disagree that they should be dignified with the term “building”.
The fourth ring holds the mass of Ba Sing Se’s “guest workers”, immigrants who are allowed to live within the ring and fuel the industry Ba Sing Se relies on, but are not formal citizens, and as such cannot enter any of the proper rings. Unlike the other rings, neither the corporations nor the Da Li care much for the fourth ring. A loss of a middle ring, or even lower ring, citizen means other citizens become fearful and corporations more inclined to pull out and the, as well as a loss of human capital. If someone dies in the fourth ring, well, there are always more where they came from. The wars in the rest of the nation’s insure a constant supply of refugee’s hoping to find peace and stability in Ba Sing Se.
Not that they will. The Dai Li don’t even begin to try to police the fourth ring, only coming in should something disrupt the workings of the rest of Ba Sing Se. Otherwise, the ring is left to itself, and in the absence of any force of law gangs and strongmen take of the territory. This can range from area’s where the gangs are the laws, and as long as one does not cross them, it’s possible to live in relative peace, to areas where they are little more than random killers, to warzone’s where gangs clash over territory. As one author wryly commented “the fourth ring is the Earth State’s in miniature. All the nations in a single city, in both ethnic makeup and political stability.”
OOC: Okay this is getting way to big, and writing in this pseudo-in universe bit is getting really annoying. So I’m going to stop it and start writing as more in a “author’s notes” tone. Because if I don’t I’m never going to finish.
So yeah, the fourth ring is essentially every slum, shanty town and favela combined and turned up to eleven in the rational cyber punk manner. Life kinda sucks, and there’s even less hope for advancement than real life. Ba Sing Se is not a society that encourages advancement or social mobility. A few, lucky few, might get a company to vie for them and get a citizenship and place in the lower ring, but that’s about the number in the real world that go on to be millionaires.
Couple other thoughts on the lower ring. Infrastructure is iffy at a lot of times, as such, most structures that actually really on power tend to be self powered. The tech is really scitzo, the people are dirt poor, but its cyberpunk, even dirt poor tech is still more advanced than anything we know. (for a real world example, look at the popularity of cell phones in Africa). On interesting idea I had is that all the garbage dumps are located in this area, and are considered valuable. Scavenge the tech, fix it up and you have working internet ports, computers, holovids, etc. Wars have been fought over garbage dumps of the upper ring trash.
In general, you don’t see any official businesses, but a lot of low level entrepreneurship goes on. Set up a generator (or, in many cases, a decent lightning bender), get a few wireless computers, and you have an extranet business. Keep a few turkens-in your backyard to sell, and of course, prostitution, protection rackets and drugs are as popular as ever. (the bandwidth for high level VR feed insures that drugs tend to be cheaper). The secondary economy of the fourth ring is huge, especially since the unemployment level is enormous.
A quick note on the difference between lower rung workers and outer ring workers. Both are factory workers, but they are very different in terms of their lives. First, lower ring workers are citizens of Ba Sing Se, which means they don’t have to worry about crime at home, can attend a lot of the mass events of Ba Sing Se, and get a basic education. As such they tend to be higher value, more productive workers, and tend to have jobs in the more machinery intensive factories, while the fourth ring workers tend to have jobs in the more labor intensive factories, and tend to be fire and hired on a whim in response to industry demands. Essentially, think of lower city workers as US auto workers circa 1950* while fourth city workers are a fusion of factory workers in 18th century Britain 20th century china.
* If they existed in an Orwellian state that monitored your every move and might drag you away and brainwash you if you ever rebelled. While they have it better than the fourth ring, it’s not like their life is “good”.
So yeah, that’s Ba Sing Se. If it’s seems like a lot more developed, well that’s cause it is. I know the “story” stars in Ba Sing Se, and I’m actually not sure it would ever leave. The original Avatar was fantasy, and as such had a big need to go out and explore the work. But in cyberpunk, well a massive state-city is a perfect setting, and large enough I might just opt to make every character exist in Ba Sing Se and not move out. Edit from the future. Thinking about it some more, they’re leaving Ba Sing Se, I’ve already got one story I’m doing that’s completely set in a massive city.