Sansu-Sesu

Hansun's beating mechanical heart

When the wind blows just right and the smog begins to clear... you'll be witness to our most famous city, rich with history and absolutely full to the brim with modern innovation.

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— Sansu-Sesu Tour Guide

In an ancient location where a small group of humanity first walled themselves off for protection after the gods died stands Sansu-Sesu -- a massive industrial city, and the smog covered capital of the superpower country Hansun. It's a tapestry of old and new woven together; brick pathways and stone foundations from thousands of years ago sit below modern behemoths of iron and steel that devour electricity and exhale great clouds of smog that so famously blanket the city.

A Patchwork of Metal and Masonry

Sansu-Sesu is old -- nearing the 2,500th anniversary of its founding. It's gone through multiple near total catastrophic events, and had much of its buildings built and rebuilt time and time again. As a result, there's a mostly cohesive, but sometimes abrupt, blending of historical and modern construction throughout the entire sprawling city.
The capital city is sprawled across a lightly rolling plain with a large east to west flowing river known as the Sannan River meandering through it; to the south east of the plain is a small chain of sharp mountains, tall peaks with plenty of cliff faces, which act as a natural defensive border to that portion of the city. Most of Sansu-Sesu is built upon the central plain, with the highest concentration of buildings and factories located immediately along the Sannan River.

Layers of Stone and Wood

Different eras of Sansu-Sesu can be picked out visually by what material they were made from. The oldest, and most rare, are buildings and fortifications built from old white stone. Few ancient walls remain built of this material, and even fewer fully standing structures, though many of the foundations used by mid-ages and modern buildings come from this initial period.
Atop the ancient stone is a myriad of other construction materials; though of them all, brick and wood are favoured most heavily. In most cases brick is used for low walls, pillars, and pathways -- where as the dark and solid wood found in the region is used for constructing the majority of other buildings in the city. Thick wooden beams and columns, exposed trusses and joists, and elegantly curved roofing are all iconic features of the architecture within Sansu-Sesu.

by Farrel Nobel

Continent

Vir Tenera

Country

Hansun

Population

1.78 million

Hansun

Hansun is one of the superpower countries of Cathedris; it's known for having an incredibly strong national military force, and also happens to be the location where the Legion keeps its main headquarters.
Unbeknownst to most outside of the Regiment for Humanity, the Legion have recently and silently taken over Hansun's high council located in Sansu-Sesu, and now quietly steer the country from the shadows.

Other Cities

While Sansu-Sesu is Hansun's most famous city, it's not the only popular location within the massive country; a few other cities have gained a certain notoriety worldwide as well.

Malun-Chaujun

The Tide of Hansun
A city of two centers. In the summer months, when the river floods the strong stone houses of the lower city, the people move to and live in the light and open buildings of the upper city.

Soom-Shida

For the Resourceful People
Built within incredibly treaturous mountain terrain where outside help is rare and limited. The people here have grown hardy and resourceful in their difficult conditions.

If you're looking for some advice... try not to move down river. The further down you go, the worse the conditions get.

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— Sansu-Sesu Local

by Clark Gu

Historic Districts; Rebuilt and Renowned

Drought and famine followed by periods of extreme fortune, war and fire that turn to times of intense reconstruction; Sansu-Sesu has been the location of many great tragedies and triumphs. Many times it was nearly destroyed, it seemed to come back stronger with renewed vigor -- working hard to adopt whatever technologies and building techniques that were the most cutting edge at the time. Due to this, Hansun's capital has often times been a place of innovation and early adoption of new ideas. However, traditions have never fully been destroyed, and those in the city cling to their rich and varied past -- as parts of the city march unstoppably towards the industrial future, other sections remain firmly rooted in the stone foundations of what came before.

You work at the factories, you live near the factories, you die near the factories. That's life.

— Sansuco Steel General Laborer

The Sannun River forms the core of Sansu-Sesu; it dictates much of how the city is laid out, where certain districts are placed, and which areas are more affluent than others. Rapid expansion of the city's massive industrial district, known for its production of iron and steel, has occurred along the Sannun's banks over the last 10 years as industrialization has swept across Cathedris; large portions of what used to farmland or slums were destroyed in order to make space for large pollution spewing factories.
These factories needed workers, however, and so the same companies that built the steel and iron mills then built complexes of cramped housing. These living quarters were located downriver of the factories themselves of course, as any land found upstream was considered too valuable to use for such a basic purpose as worker housing.

by Ant Rozetsky

Money moves mountains, and when electricity and the production of steel began to become worldwide industries, those that were currently in control of Sansu-Sesu wasted no time in inviting industry into the heart of our city. Along the river, slightly to the west of the center of the city, was the obvious location for factories to go. All they'd need to do is demolish a few neighbourhoods, each with a deep history of rebuilding and renovation, and repurpose some farmland for an entirely different sort of production. It didn't matter if history was being obliterated in those sites, because it meant future history was being made -- a future wrought in steel and blanked by smoke.

— Sansu-Sesu local

by Clark Gu

The factories form a sort of festering shell around the core, the Sannan river; they conveniently dump most of their refuse into the river, which flows west and becomes more and more polluted as it passes the workers housing, and later the new slums of Sansu-Sesu. However, beyond this shell, and further up stream, the city becomes more and more dense. Ruins stacked on ruins with new builds jamming themselves between or on top of older structures; districts become full of complex winding streets, dead-end alleys, and momentary gasps of sanity in the form of private courtyard residences.

However, while sludge and trash flow west within the river, the ever present eastward wind blows smoke and pollution over the remainder of the city. The more prosperous districts of Sansu-Sesu may not have to deal with the slime and ooze present in the west, but the impact of the factories is still felt in the form of an ever present cloud of smog, a toxic miasma that makes life difficult.

In general, outside of the industrial district, the workers housing, and the slums of Sansu-Sesu, the city is not really split into distinct districts; rather it's a web of complex streets that weave from hub to hub, where markets, stores, and businesses are often found. Outside of the city's main population, which is partially enclosed by walls that have existed for thousands of years, are where most of the farms have been relocated. As these producers of food have been moved so far from their source of water, massive pipes have been routed through, over, and within the rest of the city in order to bring irrigation to the farms once more.

by rawkkim

Watch and Rule

Upon the highest point of the city, located to the south east along the small chain of mountains, is where the ruling elites of Sansu-Sesu live. Their homes and communities become more exclusive and more private the higher up on the mountain slopes they go -- rising out of the miasma that encompasses the city below, up to the highest and most respected place within the city, Ag Dwan Palace, the home of Hansun's high council.

Much of these rich structures are newer than that of their counterparts below; yet they mimic or "honor" the older buildings found within the polluted districts below by constructing them in a similar style and with similar materials such as dark wood and newly cut stone foundations.

The mountain districts follow a lot of the motifs found in the older cities below as well, but with none of the drawbacks; complex and winding pathways done for leisure rather than as a result of constraints, as well as thick stone walls not as a result of prior protection but instead as markers of property and aesthetic. It's become something of a point of pride for those living upon the mountain, for no matter how recent it was constructed, the older your building looks, the more respect it gains.

by Alexa Soh

The Royal Avenue

A new addition, or rather subtraction, to the city occurred within the last 100 years, when the ruling class at the time decided that respect for those who lived above the masses was altogether far too low. They had decided that it was time to both bring more attention to Ag Dwan Palace, as well as make public demonstrations and the creation of city pride easier.
Those in control demolished a massive cut of land, wide enough for an entire avenue to pierce straight through most of the city; destroying homes, ancient ruins, and relocating essential public services in the process. This "renovation" became known as the Royal Avenue, as it leads straight to the south eastern mountain range where the elites and the Palace is located. The avenue is reserved generally only for those who "deserve" to use it; only government approved business can line the sides of the royal avenue, and otherwise it's generally only used for demonstrations and celebrations to increase country and city pride.

Ag Dwan Palace

In contrast to the rest of the structures upon the south eastern mountains, the palace is actually one of the oldest still standing buildings within Sansu-Sesu. While the building is nowhere near original anymore, as it's been destroyed, renovated, and rebuilt numerous times, it's still thought to contain enough of the first structure to still claim historic status.
The Palace is built of the very best solid wood found in and around the capital city, and it uses the same solid white stone foundations that were first hauled up the mountain thousands of years ago during the building's initial construction.

Not What They Seem

Ag Dwan Palace is home to the ruling elite -- the High Council of Hansun, a group of 12 members that make up the legislative and executive branches of Hansun's government. In order for any ruling or decision to be made, a majority of 8 council members must agree to the set terms, at which point the council is considered to have decided and have their instructions passed along to the rest of the government, and eventually, the country.
However all is not okay within the halls of Ag Dwan Palace, as in a daring and secretive operation, the Legion have secretly infiltrated the Council, replacing or coercing members until they "controlled" a majority awarding 8 members.

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