I N F O ; M A P S . & . L O C A T I O N S
the world of singularity
Project 916c, Asphodel, and its orbiting terraforming station Sacrosanct, are located near the galactic core of what may or may not be the Milky Way. Asphodel is a slightly irregular Mars-sized (20,000 km circumference) planet encircled by the station (30,000 km circumference), with a lifebearing capacity of 23,000 and 281,000,000 respectively.
In short? You just ended up somewhere huge.
For that reason, mapping the entire playing space is not just difficult, it's impossible. Each of Sacrosanct's 16 metropolises are subdivided into over 500 town-sized neighborhoods, intelligently designed to ensure everything a resident could possibly need is close at hand. It's not that we won't give you the maps for all this; it's just that we can't.
That said, the following guide provides an overview of Singularity's locations and a few key visual guides. It's not the sum of what Asphodel or Sacrosanct have to offer, but it should give you an idea.
sacrosanct
Sacrosanct is divided into 32 alternating garden and residential zones, numbered 01 through 16. Most are fairly regular in size, although there are exceptions.
The station's ecosystem is so designed as to be self-regenerating. A single, Mississippi-sized river runs the entire center length of the orbital, with tertiaries, synthesized rotation and the wild zones' natural waterfall, rock and sand formations ensuring continual flow and highly accurate filtration. Oceanic zones, volcanic zones, rain forests and other natural areas all support a self-perpetuating, completely stable (to within the limits of measurement uncertainty) internal weather system. Even if Sacrosanct's automated farms and animal ranches were to cease operation today, the completely wild zones would afford enough sustenance to keep a quarter of a billion people thriving for centuries, provided nobody hogs all the honey bees.
Networked invisibly throughout Sacrosanct's 32 zones (34, when including Zone 00/the Junkyard and the Rear Shipping Berth) are high-powered cameras, holographic projectors, string resonators and quantum teleporters. As a result, no part of Sacrosanct is ever remote. Not only can characters easily reach any part of any zone in seconds via teleportation, but advanced touchable holography and augmented reality allow users to literally be in two (or more) places at once. A good thing, too, because otherwise you'd never see even a millionth of it.
sacrosanct's 32 life-support zones
00the Junkyard. Sacrosanct's former shipping berth, now home to a spacetime membrane fissure.
G01Garden Zone 01. Small jungle. Llama ranches. South American-style farmland.
R01Residential Zone 01 - Kurzweil. Variant A template. 512 neighborhoods. Starting location for all visitors.
G02Garden Zone 02. Swampland. Scenic tours available.
R02Residential Zone 02 - Hawking. Variant B template. 508 neighborhoods. Science museum and quantum engineering library.
G03Garden Zone 03. Woodland, cliffs, high mountains. Hiking and cave exploration.
R03Residential Zone 03 - Guin. Variant C template. 533 neighborhoods. Marine center, Olympic-standard aquatic training centers.
G04Garden Zone 04. Meadows and plains, forests, mid-range mountains. Camping destination.
R04Residential Zone 04 - Lente. Variant D template. 510 neighborhoods. Largest theaters on Sacrosanct. Theme parks.
G05Garden Zone 05. Sub-arctic forest. Canadian-style tree-products harvesting. Snow.
R05Residential Zone 05 - Gibson. Variant A template. 512 neighborhoods. Best shopping centers for body mods.
G06Garden Zone 06. Arctic zone. Glacier hiking. Best approached in scheduled winter seasons.
R06Residential Zone 06 - Doctorow. Variant B template. 508 neighborhoods. Media and culture library. Gaming epicenter.
G07Garden Zone 07. Sub-arctic plains, summer fields. Primary alcohol refineries.
R07Residential Zone 07 - Stross. Variant C template. 533 neighborhoods. Parks, major tradeboards. Best lobster restaurants.
G08Garden Zone 08. Swamps and jungle. Perfect for soldiers.
R08Residential Zone 08 - Hayles. Variant D template. 510 neighborhoods. Center for cybernetization and body transfer.
G09Garden Zone 09. Desert zone. Major purification plants.
R09Residential Zone 09 - Jardin. Variant A template. 512 neighborhoods. Home of the famous Unicorn Chaser museum!
G10Garden Zone 10. High desert, dry lakebeds. Ideal for offroading.
R10Residential Zone 10 - Katayama. Variant B template. 508 neighborhoods. Rare octopus aquarium, Little Big Akihabara.
G11Garden Zone 11. Mountainous zone, cliffs and caves. Memorable box canyons!
R11Residential Zone 11 - Steakley. Variant C template. 533 neighborhoods. War history museum, currently closed.
G12Garden Zone 12. Volcanic zone. Excellent extreme sports destination.
R12Residential Zone 12 - Herbert. Variant D template. 510 neighborhoods. Famous spice markets.
G13Garden Zone 13. Oceanic zone. Attractive beachfronts, cliffs.
R13Residential Zone 13 - Kress. Variant A template. 512 neighborhoods. Sleep therapy centers, long-rest hotels. Shopping centers.
G14Garden Zone 14. Dense forest, animal ranches.
R14Residential Zone 14 - Shirow. Variant B template. 508 neighborhoods. Major shopping centers now holding their annual cyberbrain sale!
G15Garden Zone 15. Dense forest, animal ranches.
R15Residential Zone 15 - Banks. Variant C template. 533 neighborhoods. Library of Pan-Dimensional Cultures: major resource on all universes known to Hypatia.
G16Garden Zone 16. Deep mountain valleys, mixed snow and spring zones.
R16Residential Zone 16 - Niven. Variant D template. 510 neighborhoods. Lampshade warehouse.
The residential zones are each pristine, future-minded mega-metropolises subdivided into more than 500 neighborhoods apiece. These neighborhoods are based off of more than a hundred aesthetically consistent templates, mirrored and remixed to make sure that while all residential areas are familiar, nothing is dizzyingly repetitive. High-rises, entertainment districts, parks and other recreational features are all immediately accessible, and thanks to realtime augmented reality navigation, you only have to get lost if you want to.
Although long distances are crossed by teleporter, walkways, flying shuttles, transport platforms and silent high-speed rail are also common. Of course, given the scale in comparison to its population, traffic congestion really isn't an issue.
It would be impossible to exhaustively list each of the residential zones' features. They are, simply put, havens for humanity. Anything you would expect to find in a major metropolis is here.
Some common destinations, services and commodities include:
- housing: barracks/youth hostels, small apartments, large apartments, luxury apartments, hotels.
- food: soup kitchens, fast food, sit-down restaurants, luxury restaurants, crazy avant-garde restaurants, normal and gourmet grocery stores, specialty markets, pet food, fueling stations.
- recreation: parks, gyms, theaters, bars, clubs, museums, libraries, arcades, theme parks, racing tracks, golf courses, game fields, etc.
- shopping: clothing, accessories, gadgets, wearable computing, games, ebooks, applications, mods.
- hospitals: fully-equipped for emergency and non-emergency procedures.
- clinics: fully prepared to dispense whatever happy pills you ask for.
- child care: day cares, schools, automated nannies.
- repair stations: tune-ups and mods.
Light emitters along the inner wall control day and night features, following a conventional human 24-hour day. Synthesized sunlight is balanced to create a naturalistic emission rate, but isn't as harmful as Earth's sun. Those wishing to tan will have better results in indoor salons. Sacrosanct's weather system is also carefully designed in accordance with the natural atmospheric conditions generated by the garden zones. However, owing to the tedium of the activity, station AI Hypatia doesn't always forecast phenomena in advance.
Visitors to the station have general access to all public areas. Upon arrival, they are pointed toward the free hostels and soup kitchens; moving into a private apartment and gaining access to other food options requires work credits. The hostels are clean, maintained by automatons, and generally set with bunk beds and common areas accommodating 25 men, 25 women, and three cargo-sized entities. There are dozens of them in any given city, but they don't offer a great deal of personal space or security.
Housing standards are universal across Sacrosanct, and there are no "poor" or "unsafe" districts unless residents make them that way. Apartment sizes and features scale up according to a resident's work credits, going from studios and modest one-bedrooms all the way up to occupying entire upper floors of a building. More luxurious apartments will come fitted with automatic maids and cooks. Most automatons are stored within apartment walls and navigate on tiny seam-rails, cleaning designated areas; however, android and gynoid servants do exist. Visit the Job Board for a more complete breakdown of housing and service availability by credits.
Teleporters are large, distinctly-designed gray metal pillars that many residents may notice are able to fit occupants much larger than the rest of the station seems to accommodate--typically about 30 feet. These are lit from the inside and out, operate at all hours, and are spaced quite frequently in most residential areas. Characters use their wearables to program their destination prior to stepping into the teleporter. If they die after emerging at their destination, they are automatically respawned at that destination point, with (usually) no genetic or cognitive loss.
Garden zones can be entirely wild, entirely farm and ranch, or most commonly a mixture of both. Teleporters are more infrequent in garden zones, usually housed in rock alcoves or near farms. Visitors can check out shuttles, hiking and camping equipment near most garden zone teleporters. Oceanic zones include beaches and cliffs, but the water spaces are wide enough to lose sight of land when sailing out to the middle. Animals are plentiful even outside of ranches, and while most are the conventional Earth variety, visitors may occasionally run into something more exotic.
Formally known as UTC Project 916c, the rough rock was nicknamed Asphodel by the initial human survey team. Arranged evenly over its surface are carbon plant stations designed to force-engineer the elemental conditions which will give rise to a life-bearing planet.
The carbon plants are completely automated, although they have maintenance walkways and ladders in the event a human repair crew is needed. The major pylons each stand about 70 stories tall and are usually completely visible from Sacrosanct, unless there's storm cover. Which there often is.
To stand on the surface of the planet--which isn't advisable under any circumstances--would be akin to standing on the crust of an active, planet-wide volcano. Volcanic activity is common across the planet, and the heat and toxic atmosphere are forbidding to most organics. Synthetic organisms can occasionally withstand it, but not without some damage to their casing or wiring.
At present, while automatons work to modify the atmosphere, life on Asphodel is restricted to the carbon plant stations and deep subterreanean maintenance tunnels, which criss-cross the entire planet's crust. Many of these maintenance tunnels are in disrepair and can pose hazards for inhabitants. However, even the tunnels without oxygen typically have their outer-wall heat shielding intact, ensuring that the surface temperature won't boil visitors alive.
Officially, Asphodel is deserted of human life. Unofficially, the tunnels are home to a nomadic insurgency group known as the Underworld. This group of cyborgs, cast-outs, and terrorists might have their origins among the original human survey team, or they may be outsiders just like the visitors to the station. Their location is constantly shifting, to stay one step ahead of Hypatia's roaming automaton patrols. Gaining the Underworld's trust, and learning its current location, are much the same task. Characters who think they may have business on the black markets or want to learn more about the insurgency's fight against Hypatia have to gain the trust of Lev first. Or just snoop onto one of his transmissions, if they can.
There are teleporters arranged around Asphodel just like those on the orbital. However, they only exist along grid lines, meaning an awful lot more walking or tram time. Due to Sacrosanct's orbital spin moving faster than Asphodel's natural rotation, quantum teleportation between the planet's surface and the station is impossible. Travel between them is accomplished by short-range shuttle instead.
Characters who wish to visit Asphodel may do so freely, provided they observe a one month visitation limit. After that time, the station habitation certification printed on their atomic structure expires, and station airlocks will not recognize them. Characters who find themselves locked out can use the network to petition Hypatia for readmittance.
There is one loophole to this system, although it's not a pretty one. If a character's last teleportation is on Sacrosanct, and they die on Asphodel without going through any planetside teleporters in between (good luck) they will respawn on the station, regardless of how long they have been on Asphodel. Dying on Asphodel and respawning on Sacrosanct will automatically reset the certification to normal.
Crime on Asphodel is regulated solely by the Underworld, which, while cutthroat, dislikes outsiders coming in to disrupt a careful balance. Particularly, because the insurgency does not under any circumstances use teleporters, death is a permanent condition for them. For this reason, check the Requests page before having your character do something that's going to get them a double helping of mob justice.
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