The city of Cuenco, which is sometimes still referred to as Colijas because it's within the old city's ruins, was a mining and industrial center for Arenia in pre-war times that took advantage of the deep reserves of minerals across the region. The city was founded on the north coast of a large salt water lake that's formed from the remains of a volcano who's top collapsed in on itself approximately 20,000 years ago, referred to as Colijas, the name sake of the city. In the Early States Era, the settlement was a small but important city-state where its easy access to a variety of crucial metal ores, especially iron, made it a frequent visit for early traders, making it very wealthy and the mesa's surrounding it made it easy to defend. A lesser known historical fact about Colijas, was the fact the city-state was infamous in the early days of the Arenian Empire as it held out on accepting Ascension for a good number of centuries, wanting to maintain it's greater autonomy that it had with the Commonwealth agreement. Colijas would eventually be conquered by the Empire rather than peacefully drawn into the Arenian Hegemony, as the Third Alianza War would kick off Colijas became a tragic victim in the bid of early Imperial Expansionist policy. Colijas at this point has been a free city for nearly five centuries, and attempted to fight back against the imposing Imperial Military to keep it that way. The fighting would last for nearly a decade, with much of the Imperial Army distracted by the fighting in the Aredian and Illagua, which contributed to much of the success of Colijas. Eventually though the city's resistance wouldn't last, as Imperial forces would reallocate their resources into taking the city in a dramatic show of force rather than giving up on the chance in getting Colijas into the hegemony. In the Imperial narrative, the capitulation of Colijas has been made out to frame the city's small council of Magocrats as corrupt and cowardly, hiding behind the people of the city to preserve their status, though post-war academics would challenge this claim as new sources emerge from the city's ruins.
During the Industrial Revolution, Colijas boomed in population as mining concerns used the city as a center for their operations, and then boomed again at the dawn of Nuclear Energy. The Extracción de Minerales Corporation headquartered here because of the abundance of mineral deposits just below the surface of the province, in particular copper, lead, zinc, iron and a surprising amount of titanium deposits. Much of the urban development is mostly filled with modern Arenian architecture, with older buildings dispersed around the coast because of it's historically small population. With the surrounding environment being particularly harsh, much of the city's economy was mostly focused on being self sustaining and revolved around the growing population, making Colijas construction workers some of the biggest contributors to mega-infrastructure projects across the Empire only second to the capital.
When the bombs dropped, the city was abandoned by it's residents to avoid the fallout of the nuclear detonations in La Delta, and was left in a state of decay up until it was partially resettled by desperate scavengers who noticed that radiation levels decreased to a tolerable amount. The words of the first group to settle here are immortalized in a red paint on an old green street sign in front of the walls of Cuenco that welcome visitors with a simple saying, "Good enough." What is regarded as Cuenco city limits is surrounded by a scrap metal and concrete wall where many of the old buildings that were built along the coast of the Lake of Colijas are contained. The walled off city offers enough roofs over the heads of all the residents, however it often involves people bunking up with each very closely, at about an average of four people per room. For many residents, it was encouragement to build their own shacks which cover much of the city, and the ruling class of technocratic water barons who have an unusually relaxed regime have even weighed in, forcing people not to completely cut off streets with their construction. Points of interest in Cuenco and the ruins of Colijas are the Extracción de Minerales headquarters building, a massive skyscraper in the middle of the ruins that is now tilting about 10 degrees to the east. The Governors Palace within Cuenco, a large ziggurat at the coast of Colijas, the equally ancient walls at the entry ways of the city that are now in disrepair, and the Viento-12 power plant and desalination plant. One of the 12 Viento reactors was still in operable condition when Cuenco was founded and is currently operated by the Concejo de Cuenco, the governing body of Cuenco, and is entirely made up of engineers and scientists from both the CSC and CMP juntas who know how to keep the plant operational and water flowing. It's main resources are relatively safe scavenging areas and reasonably priced water, but the quality of mercenaries that come from Cuenco are sometimes understated as the rough surroundings and encounters with violent nomad clans generate veterans at a pace close to a nomadic clan.
During the Industrial Revolution, Colijas boomed in population as mining concerns used the city as a center for their operations, and then boomed again at the dawn of Nuclear Energy. The Extracción de Minerales Corporation headquartered here because of the abundance of mineral deposits just below the surface of the province, in particular copper, lead, zinc, iron and a surprising amount of titanium deposits. Much of the urban development is mostly filled with modern Arenian architecture, with older buildings dispersed around the coast because of it's historically small population. With the surrounding environment being particularly harsh, much of the city's economy was mostly focused on being self sustaining and revolved around the growing population, making Colijas construction workers some of the biggest contributors to mega-infrastructure projects across the Empire only second to the capital.
When the bombs dropped, the city was abandoned by it's residents to avoid the fallout of the nuclear detonations in La Delta, and was left in a state of decay up until it was partially resettled by desperate scavengers who noticed that radiation levels decreased to a tolerable amount. The words of the first group to settle here are immortalized in a red paint on an old green street sign in front of the walls of Cuenco that welcome visitors with a simple saying, "Good enough." What is regarded as Cuenco city limits is surrounded by a scrap metal and concrete wall where many of the old buildings that were built along the coast of the Lake of Colijas are contained. The walled off city offers enough roofs over the heads of all the residents, however it often involves people bunking up with each very closely, at about an average of four people per room. For many residents, it was encouragement to build their own shacks which cover much of the city, and the ruling class of technocratic water barons who have an unusually relaxed regime have even weighed in, forcing people not to completely cut off streets with their construction. Points of interest in Cuenco and the ruins of Colijas are the Extracción de Minerales headquarters building, a massive skyscraper in the middle of the ruins that is now tilting about 10 degrees to the east. The Governors Palace within Cuenco, a large ziggurat at the coast of Colijas, the equally ancient walls at the entry ways of the city that are now in disrepair, and the Viento-12 power plant and desalination plant. One of the 12 Viento reactors was still in operable condition when Cuenco was founded and is currently operated by the Concejo de Cuenco, the governing body of Cuenco, and is entirely made up of engineers and scientists from both the CSC and CMP juntas who know how to keep the plant operational and water flowing. It's main resources are relatively safe scavenging areas and reasonably priced water, but the quality of mercenaries that come from Cuenco are sometimes understated as the rough surroundings and encounters with violent nomad clans generate veterans at a pace close to a nomadic clan.
Colijas Founding Date
1100 BAI Cuenco Founding Date
2321 ISC Pre-War Population
631,712 Cuenco Population
Approximately 20,000 Elevation
5,711ft.
1100 BAI Cuenco Founding Date
2321 ISC Pre-War Population
631,712 Cuenco Population
Approximately 20,000 Elevation
5,711ft.
Type
City
