Night City
Demographics
Multicultural and multinational. Split between the super wealthy and the hyper poor. Gangers, Edgerunners, and others of violent inclination are common.
Government
Politically, the current Night City is more or less run (and we use the term loosely indeed) by a junta of old city government, Edgerunner and Nomad factions, and the few Corporations whose assets have survived the War. This City Council is dominated by the most aggressive or charismatic members of these disparate factions, including:
- The Nomad Families.
- The Edgerunners, including Netrunners, Solos, Rockerboys, and other "cyberpunk" types.
- The old City government.
- The Corporate interests of Biotechnica, Continental Brands, Danger Gal, Militech, Network 54, Petrochem, Rocklin Augmentics, SovOil, Trauma Team, Ziggurat, Zhirafa and (recently and covertly) Arasaka.
- The local sections of the Data Pool.
- Zoning designations for Corporations and neighborhoods.
- Road and infrastructure taxes (collected from Corps, factions, and neighborhoods).
- Freelance PI and Police licensing.
- City contracts for construction and justice services.
Law and Order
Between the War and the Fall of the Towers, law enforcement in Night City literally fell apart. Gradually, random Solos and Law Enforcement Officers began to reassert control over the roving gangs and looters on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. The more money the locals had to throw at the problem, the better these ad hoc police units were, with Corporate "rent-a-cops" getting the best vehicles and hardware overall. With their limited assets, Lawman bribery is common and corruption the standard. The only real survivors of the old Night City PD are the members of the C-SWAT aka MAX-TAC aka " The Cyberpsycho" Squad. Incorruptible to the last and still led by their commander, Max Hammerman, this lone bastion of the NCPD maintains an iron-fisted control over any and all suspected cyberpsychotic elements in the City.I Don't Need No Stinking Badges
While Night City (and most Reclaimed City Zones) maintain their own Citywide police forces, other areas just hire a Security force to protect key city buildings like the local Records Hall and Council Offices. For these guys (and others) law enforcement services are instead licensed to a variety of professional, Neocorporate, private police, and local forces deputized to patrol/control a specific area by the owners of that area. These include:MAX-TAC
Once a part of the Night City Police Department, MAX-TAC is now a fully independent organization in its own right. It contracts with neighborhoods, governments, and even private citizens to take care of the most egregious assaults on the public: hostage situations, cyberpsychos, military class weapons, terrorists, etc. MAX-TAC is run by the incorruptible Commander Max Hammerman, late of the original Night City Police Forces. Hammerman is a man on a mission: to maintain law and order and protect the innocent. MAX-TAC has an impartial code that it follows to the letter—it ends fights, no matter who starts them. If you're a security service guy fighting a bunch of boosters, you'd better put your weapons down when MAX-TAC shows up or they'll open fire on you too. MAX-TAC doesn't hold prisoners; arrestees are remanded to the local Hall of Justice/ Security Facility.Security Services
These are represented by the thousands of uniformed "rent-a-cops" hired to patrol urban areas, office blocs, and upscale living areas. The largest of these is Lazarus Security, the heir to the 2020s' ubiquitous Arasaka and Militech. These Security Services have arrest authority, but maintain no jails; prisoners are remanded to whatever local Justice/Security Facility is in the area. Corpo Security Similar to Security Services, these are forces directly related to a Corporation. They often do not have arrest authority or the right to maintain jails, but rumors abound of covert prisons beneath Corporate HQs.Personal Bodyguards
These are personal security forces that have been licensed and bonded by the local City government, much like getting a Private Investigator's license in the old days. Personal bodyguards are licensed to use maximum force only in the event their clients are in immediate physical danger. Without arrest authority they must call local Private Police Forces or Security Forces to take prisoners.Freelance Police
A variation of personal bodyguards, these are Solos hired to provide security and protection for a neighborhood. Protectors "patrol the beat" of their area, dealing with threats as they turn up. Freelance Police have arrest authority, as granted by the neighborhood they work for. They sometimes have holding cells, but more often as not remand prisoners to the local Hall of Justice/Security Facility.Industry & Trade
The business sectors of Night City include manufacturing industries, international trade and commerce, information services, electronic technologies, security services, and so on. While cities like Tokyo, New York or Singapore have been overrun by corporations by the 2000s, Night City was the only city in the world that was built by the corporations. Some of the biggest megacorporations in the world contributed to the construction of the city and many were located in the Corporate Center in 2020. After the war, and the subsequent reconstruction of Night City, Corpo Plaza became a symbol of the megacorps' grasp on the city.
Night City was founded through the efforts of a partnership of five major corporations, and as of 2077 it continues to serve as a haven for numerous global corporations due to its status as a free city and pro-corporate government policies such as a 0.7% tax rate on corporate profits. Night City's biggest ally is Arasaka, which provides employment for many citizens and ensures the city remains independent by backing it with its military strength.
Infrastructure
Night City hosts an extensive network of urban freeways and rapid transit networks. Getting from the city's various districts is seamless and effective except for in districts where the infrastructure has been damaged such as in Pacifica. Also, the spaceport is an aerospace center in Night City, allowing for space transportation.
In 2020, Night City was part of the intercontinental Maglev Network. It was abandoned during the Fourth Corporate War.
Operating as an autonomous territory separate from the rest of the NUSA, Night City's borders are patrolled by Arasaka contractors. The Night City Police Department holds jurisdiction over domestic security, although the personal security detail of the mayor is handled by a team of handpicked corporate huscle (hired muscle).
Public Services
Hospitals
The two public hospitals established in the 2020 years (City Medical Center and Crisis Medical Center) are still in existence in the Central Night City area, but they suffer from lower-level flooding and regular disruption of services such as water, power, and communications. The hospitals are, however, the last stand for major surgery and the ability to handle the periodic plague outbreaks that were common in the period right after the Fall. There are now a number of constantly shifting clinics which have become the Time of the Red's main source of medical care; outgrowths of the often-covert ripperdocs of the 2020s, they're where most people go to get medicine, emergency care, and moderate level cyberware installations. The City also maintains a large cryobody bank, a holdover from the days immediately following the Fall when corpses were choking the streets; these cavernous, refrigerated chambers are packed with racked cold slabs filled with bodies.
Information
Data Terms, established in the 2010s, are still located on the corners of many (30%) City Streets, and can be used to access information, computer services, fax-mail, and NET input. It's a testament to how indestructibly they were constructed that they still operate even under the most rudimentary conditions. However, enterprising Netrunners, Techs, and Fixers have taken to rewiring some terms to require a pass card or other payment system in order to access their chosen ‘Terms. Most Data Terms are also patched into the local Data Pool system, allowing them to be used to phone booths, message services, news readers, and Pop Media access points.
The Net
Overall, the War has totally wiped out most NET traffic outside the City; what has survived the destruction of NET nodes and wiring infrastructure was severely compromised by a deadly cyber virus that ravaged the Ihara-Grubb protocol systems at the War's end. This "DataKrash," rumored to be the creation of deranged master Netrunner Rache Bartmoss shortly before his death in 2021, has made running the greater NET an almost suicidal proposition; the remnants of Netwatch (the global police of the NET), have pretty much banned Netrunners from large sections of the Architecture to keep the Krash from spreading.
The Data Pool
The Data Pool is a Citywide information network built on the backbone of the earlier Data Term systems of the pre-Red era. Information servers and exchange systems designed for open use within the limits of a city, Data Pools produce free, open content created through the collaborative efforts of a community of users. In design, they're similar to the hyper-stack "page" system attempted and then abandoned for the NET in the early '90s.
Transport: Freeways
Night City is on State Highway 828, which runs east to connect to I-5. Ground transit to San Francisco is about 4 hours (due to road gang activity and bad roads to LA is about 6 hours.
Transport: Night City Metro
The local airport, handling both domestic and international flights. If there were any. Once again, the chaos of the War disrupted most regular transit—private jets and aerodynes exist only for the wealthy. As part of the reclamation of the City, plans are underway to establish an orbital spaceplane/delta massdriver launch site on Morro Rock (A volcanic batholith, it is the most geologically stable area in the entire region).
Transport: NCTC
The Night City Transit Corporation (NCTC) provides bus services on most major city thoroughfares. NCART (Night City Area Rapid Transit), a public corporation with some private (read: Corporate) funding, has mostly been submerged under several hundred feet of salt water with the collapse of the Night City water table, but there are plans to rebuild the flooded sections above ground and extend the new monorail to cover the growing suburban areas of: North Oak, New
Westbrook, Pacifica, Heywood, and Watson.
The most reliable transportation in or out of Night City comes via the services of the Nomad Clans. Individual Clans sponsor heavily armed convoys to cities along the Coast, the West, and even to the edges of the New United States. These convoys, often made up of over a hundred vehicles ranging in size from giant multifamily Kombis to small armed escort cycles, are capable of fending off even the most determined road-gangs and rogue mercenary groups. Sea-based Clans have commandeered everything from abandoned luxury liners to gigantic container ships and pressed them into service; these are also a reliable way to get out of Night City via the sea lanes.
Transport: By Air and Even Space
Need to travel faster? Nomad Clans now control a sizable percentage of the Aerozep (modern cargo blimps) traffic around the region and overseas, usually backed up by satellite snub fighters and AVs. There are few actual commercial jets or other winged aircraft available (too expensive to operate), but if you're really in a hurry, there are an assortment of ex-ESA (European Space Agency) or Orbital Highrider pilots commanding their own suborbital scram-jets—like the
legendary Han Solo, these "Deltajocks" go out of their way to avoid legal entanglements and will move any cargo (including you) for the right price.Districts
Night City is a city in the process of rebuilding even now. The old Neighborhood Zones of the 2020 period have been rearranged, renamed, or even scraped off into the Bay if they're still too radioactive. Instead of neighborhoods, locals now refer to these new areas based on the type of environment they're dominated by: Hot Zone, Rebuilding Urban Center, Executive Zone, Overpacked Suburbs, Reclaimed Perimeter, and The Open Road:
Hot Zone: The area most affected by the Night City Nuke, this is blasted terrain full of wrecked, twisted skyscrapers, burned-out vehicles, and entombed bodies of the unlucky.
Rebuilding Urban Center: These are parts of the city that escaped the worst of both the War and the bomb. In the Rebuilding Center, cranes and construction gear are everywhere, building new Corporate towers and crowded urban megabuildings.
Executive Zone: This is a special area of the City that has been cordoned off and gated for the use of High-Level Corporate executives and their families only.
Combat Zone: The most dangerous and lawless part of the city which grew out of the original Combat Zone in the wake of the 4th Corporate War. The only justice here comes from the barrel of a gun.
Overpacked Suburbs: Now filled with sprawling tent cities and unregulated refugee camps crammed with the displaced of the War, this is a place on the edge of disaster, where once safe and secure "Beavervilles" stood.
Reclaimed Perimeter: This is the area just outside the City's sprawl. On the edge of lawlessness, save for the areas controlled by the Nomad Families.
The Open Road: This is the open highway, populated only by people in transit or roving boostergangs on spiky ground cars and motorcycles.
In addition to this urban re-designation, each new area has now been given a Threat Rating by the City Council: a designation of just how dangerous the area is and what kind of threats might be encountered there. You can find more about these Threat Ratings below.
Threat Ratings
In Night City, Threat Rating are used to profile armed opponents and levels of overall danger that may be encountered within major areas of the City. Here's a brief rundown on each: Executive: This is a secure gated neighborhood which is only accessible to the ultra-rich and powerful, who live there, playing golf and tennis under the protection of armed security. This is connected to the Rebuilding Urban Center via maglev so you can go to work. Corporate: These are parts of the city patrolled by Corporate security which are safe from the carnage of the Combat Zone. However, they have their own kind of danger. Danger with a much higher budget. Moderate: These are the parts of the city that exude out of Corporate Zones, where the people who can't afford to live there do so here in relative safety... that is compared to the carnage of the Combat Zones. Unfortunately, what happens in the Combat Zones doesn't always stay there, and sometimes it leaks into the Moderate Zone. Combat: These are the worst places in the city, where people die, and nobody cleans it up afterwards. Outskirts: This is the area just outside the City's sprawl.. The only laws here are the ones you make for yourself. Likely, you'll only run into road gangers and Nomads if you're out here. Note that while the majority of a region might fit into a specific Threat Rating that doesn't mean a region may not have other Threat Ratings in and around the main classification. An area undergoing reconstruction or gentrification may have several Threat Ratings, or even be transitioning from one Rating type to another. The Hot Zone Threat Rating: Combat This is the area that used to be the central city Corporate Zone. While much of this area has been bulldozed into the Bay as fill, the remainder is still a haunted landscape of wrecked, twisted skyscrapers, burned-out vehicles, and entombed bodies of the unlucky. Although the radiation has subsided, it's still present, and most people have abandoned the area to the worst of the gangs. If you go here, you probably are either a ganger, suicidal, or driven there to find something that's hidden in the endless wreckage. Old Neighborhood Zones included in the Hot Zone Wasteland are: The Old Bank Block: Housing all of the old banks of Night City, the Bank Block is mostly rubble but it was never cleared out officially. The Old City Center: Only radioactive ruins remain of the once-bustling City Center. The Old Corporate Center: Once the heart of the Corporations of Night City, the Corporate Center is a ruin of its former glory. The Old Medical Center: Largely irradiated, the Old Medical Center houses many hospitals buried under rubble. The Rebuilding Urban Center Threat Rating: Corporate/Moderate Not all of Night City was obliterated in the holocaust. Already heavily built up with skyscrapers and densely packed urban construction, a considerable amount of the urban center has survived. But the detonation and subsequent destruction has damaged the seawalls and breakwaters that kept the Bay and the outer Pacific Ocean from overwhelming the fill the majority of the Central City stood on. Periodic flooding is a regular occurrence, and power and water are chancy at best. The NCART subway still runs, when it isn't flooded by the tide; the City planners are working to raise the majority of the track into a new monorail configuration, but that will take time and money the City scarcely has. In the Rebuilding Center, cranes and construction gear (like the ubiquitous Zhirafa mechanoids) are everywhere. The looming skeletons of new corporate towers rise from the ruins of the Old City, patrolled by vigilant private armies and mechanical sentry drones. The work never stops, and the Center is always alight with the slam of heavy machines and brilliant with construction arc lights. Chief among these new constructions are the rising mega-buildings of the Watson Urban Reconstruction Zone; all-in-one mini-arcologies designed to house the millions of people who were forced to leave their homes when the Nuke went off. Neighborhood Zones included in the Rebuilding Urban Center are: The Glen: A burgeoning new district which contains most of the important governmental buildings of Night City. Little Europe: A divided district composed of tightly knit neighborhoods made up of old brick buildings and tall sky scrapers alike. NorCal Military Base: A heavily fortified military base north of Night City, staffed primarily by Militech soldiers. Mostly shut off from the rest of the City. Pacifica Playground: A largely Corporate sponsored district built around the Playland by the Sea amusement park, which is in the midst of massive development. Upper Marina: A bustling urban district with a mix of old industrial zones and gentrified "International" style neighborhoods built around a well-maintained marina. University District: A slim district on the edge of the Combat Zones which houses the city's only still functioning university. Watson Development: A developing district where megabuildings and arcologies are being built to house the thousands of homeless from the War. Much of Night City's Asian population has moved to the Watson neighborhood colloquially known as Kabuki. The Executive Zone Threat Rating: Executive This area is a special gated and heavily defended community reserved for High Ranking Corporate Execs and their families. As well as luxury homes, this area has its own shopping and recreational facilities, including golf courses, private spas, and clubs. The Executive Zone: A new Zone with only one district for the safety and pleasure of the Corporate elite, carved out of the open hills surrounding the City. The Combat Zones Threat Rating: Combat Gangs are the absolute rulers of the Combat Zones. Moving between the slums, tenements, and ruins of abandoned city blocks, the gangs and their allies divide up turf, control the limited resources, and kill anyone or anything that gets in the way. There's no reconstruction going on in the Combat Zones, although sometimes Corporate or City Lawmen drop down on the area like a ton of ferrobrix and start killing the gangers wholesale, a process the City likens to trimming back kudzu. Neighborhood Zones included in the Combat Zones are: Old Japantown: A once, popular Japanese cultural center that fell into chaos and disrepair during the 4th Corporate War. Much of the population has moved to Watson and the area is now mostly empty save for the gangs. Little China: A sprawling, dangerous Chinatown with many small communities fighting to stay alive and fend off the gangs of the Combat Zones. Old Combat Zone: A district of the City long ago abandoned to the gangs and psychos, the Old Combat Zone is the seed that the rest of the Combat Zones grew from. South Night City: An industrial sprawl, filled with trigger-happy gangs and abandoned warehouses repurposed into hide-outs and headquarters. The Overpacked Suburbs Threat Rating: Moderate/Combat In the aftermath of the War, most of central Night City was uninhabitable, not because of residual radiation, but from the loss of power, sewer, and water services. The suburbs became host to a huge number of tent cities and unregulated refugee camps smack in the middle of what had previously been safe suburban corporate "Beavervilles." While huge mega-buildings are under construction to house the refugees, this region is crowded, crime-ridden, and on the edge of disaster all the time. Neighborhood Zones included in the Overpacked Suburbs are: Heywood: A truly overpacked sector of the City, housing a large percentage of the City's population and already starting to divide based on wealth and power—The rich in the north, the poor in the south (who call the area Santo Domingo instead). Heywood Industrial Zone: The largest industrial zone in the City, overflowing with warehouses, construction equipment, factories, and even some derelict cargo ships. New Westbrook: An urban sprawl built in the remains of the original Executive Zone, still gleaming with glitz and glam, but now packed with homeless citizens who either fled other areas of Night City because of the War or who were pushed out more recently by the ongoing gentrification of the Rebuilding Urban Center. Rancho Coronado: A vast stretch of old Beaverville style housing, taken over by tent cities and industrial zones that have grown out of the corpses of previous mini-malls. The Reclaimed Perimeter Threat Rating: Outskirts While Night City was the regional hub, it was surrounded by a constellation of smaller towns and suburbs. Most of these were abandoned during the 2000-2020 period, as they were too far out to protect from the roving gogangs that plagued the area. Now, supported by Nomad Families and private security, the Reclaimers are attempting to make new homes for the dispossessed of the City in many of these abandoned places. Neighboring Cities included in the Reclaimed Perimeter are: Atascadero, Avila Beach, Cambria, Los Osos, Paso Robles, Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, and San Simeon. The Open Road Threat Rating: Outskirts In the 2020s, the Open Road was home to roving gogangers and well-defended Nomad caravans. But as the Nomad Families take greater control of the world's commerce and shipping, they're using surplus military hardware to drive out the gogangs and make the roads safe for travel. The roads are still open, wide, and dusty, with dead and burned-out vehicles littering some areas, but more and more the Open Road is looking a bit more like Route 66 than Mad Max. Old Highways included in the Open Road Zones are: California State Route 41, California State Route 46, California State Route 58, California State Route 99, California State 828, Interstate Highway 5, and Interstate Highway 101.History
Inception (1990 - 1992)
Richard Night, a successful businessman who during the early 1990s was concerned by the violence and disruption of the impending Collapse, saw himself in an unique position to deal with the forthcoming issue. Working mainly on corporate-funded projects, Richard decided to start a side company known as Night International, and began to plan an ideal new city — an environment that would be controlled and ultimately be safe from the ravages tearing the world apart. His new city was to be completely planned, self-sufficient, and capable of holding off even the most determined criminals. It would boast planned neighborhoods dedicated to preserving the feel of different types of nationalities and cultures, as well as a super-modern corporate center that would stand as a shining beacon of enlightened capitalism. It was ambitious, far-reaching, and visionary in its approach. Eventually, Night managed to secure the unheard amount of capital needed to finance such a large-scale project. With the Collapse, many corporations had been looking to establish their own urban areas — controlled zones free of crime, poverty or debt. A place where governments would be corporate-run, allowing optimum zoning and no anti-business elements to interfere with corporate growth. Ideally, it would be a capitalist mecca of opportunity. Night's dream city was tailor-made for their purposes and so he provided the design and construction capacities while these corporations lend in their funds. By 1992, Arasaka, EBM and Petrochem had all signed on with the project, leading to the formation of the Coronado Partnership.Planning (1992 - 1994)
Needing lots of land for his new infrastructure development, as well as access to both sea ports and modern highways to deliver the huge amount of materials that he would need to construct it, Richard Night sent scouting teams to the East and West Coasts of the United States. Although in the end it was a small article in the San Francisco Chronicle that caught his eye — the article described a dreadful incident that had taken place in a small town called Morro Bay, along the Central Californian coast. Now a ghost town, Night was able to purchase the land where Morro Bay stood for a very low price. Petrochem helped in the acquisition, as the corporation had already taken over the town's then-abandoned Dynergy power plant and was already planning to set up an offshore port and oil terminal site.[2] A leveraged 132 million dollar purchase secured the remaining parcels[1] — including areas of Los Osos as well. Bankrolled by Merrill, Asukaga & Finch — who wanted to make the new city a financial hub — Night and Petrochem employed the Arasaka Corporation to remove the gangs and make the area a safe zone for construction. Further funds came from external investors lured to the project by the promise of lucrative building contracts and possible sources of extralegal income. In order to erase the stigma of the incident, the Partnership renamed the region Del Coronado Bay to make way for their new project of Coronado City. However, thanks to the rather out-sized personality of its founder, it soon became colloquially known by locals as "Night's City. By 1993, the outlining of Coronado City required more terrain than what the geology of the bay originally had. Thus, the Partnership leveled the surrounding hills and dumped them into the ocean as fill, reshaping the bay in order that the formerly narrow sand spit to the west was widened to about 10 miles. They also re-dredged the harbor, making it capable of porting the large ships needed to build the metropolis, with the remaining dirt also ending up as fill on the western edge. The location was also the ideal place to build a station for the Planetran intercontinental maglev.Construction & Renaming (1994 - 1998)
Construction began in May of 1994. Although Petrochem and MA&F were the major bankrollers for the Coronado Partnership, they weren't construction companies, and as such they needed someone who could bring in the machinery and workforce to actually dig the holes and put up the steel, an issue that eventually led to employ the mob.[2] The West Coast Mobs — such as the Mafia, Yakuza, and others — had maintained a stranglehold on heavy construction in the region for decades. They controlled the construction unions, transport unions, and most of the governmental agencies in charge of construction licenses, environmental impacts, and other building necessities. By investing a large amount of money into the Partnership, the organized crime mobs hoped they would not only make a huge return on lucrative construction work, but also have the inside track on future gambling, prostitution, and drug franchises in the new city. However, Night's plan required the use his own advanced building techniques and materials; which excluded a number of established unions and construction firms controlled by his new partners. This displeased them, and Night's further insistence that his new city would be safe and crime free angered them even more. During the first four years of construction, there were daily threats against Night's life, and when the threats escalated to the level of sabotage and intimidation, he called in his corporate partners, who dealt with the issue swiftly and ruthlessly. However, despite his influence and his allies promising to deal with it, Night's luck ran out. On September 20th 1998, he was shot and murdered in his penthouse suite at the top of the newly constructed Parkview Tower. Richard Night's killer was never apprehended, and in his memory, the newly appointed City Council officially renamed Coronado City as "Night City" in his honor.Interim (1998 - 2005)
A year after her husband's death, Miriam Night restructured Richard's company and founded Night's Foundation, with the primary goal to protect and promote her husband's vision of the perfect city. This foundation would eventually be reorganized to become Night Corporation. Night City's Combat Zone appeared sometime between 1998 and 2000. Ever since Night's death, the corporations and organized crime of that time carved up the city's resources, which resulted in the Night City Police Department becoming completely ineffective. Gangs, backed by corporate and Mob sponsors, established themselves in the suburbs south of Central Night City and in time, these gangs became so entrenched that the only way to remove them would be to demolish the entire area and start from scratch. There were many discussions on whether or not Night City should had walled it off, but in the end, no agency, either civil or corporate, was willing to take the initiative to began such a massive undertaking. The following years were chaotic as the different powers battled for control of Night City, while the mob bosses who had killed the magnate began to appropriate of most of the metropolis.Mob Rule (2005 - 2009)
By 2005, the mob was the dominant force around Del Coronado Bay. They had been left alone due to the corporations having little to no interest in running Night City, and had most of their corporate strongholds in the outlying "beavervilles" and their lofty Corporate Plaza. In the meantime, the City Council was unable to lead the metropolis without corporate masters to pull the strings and provide the muscle. The organized crime organizations were great in what they did, but it wasn't the same running a whole city. Between 2005 and 2009, much of the city's government was replaced by corrupt mob-selected puppets, and even Petrochem and MA&F found themselves shoved aside in the rush to make the quick illegal eurodollars. Between selling contracts to their colleagues, setting up drug and extortion deals, and generally inviting the worst of the Collapse into the area, the mobs managed to turn a relatively clean, modern metropolis into an embattled war zone. Crime, drugs, prostitution, random violence, and cybernetic terrorism soon became the rule of law. By 2009, the name Night City had taken on a grim and deadly new meaning. These were among the worst years for Night City, with more murders in that four-year span than there were for most cities in ten. The mob ruled the city with an iron fist, destroying anything in its way. Gang activity was at an all-time high during this period, with notorious gangs such as the Blood Razors or the Slaughterhouse making their debut. Night City soon became the closest thing to hell on earth; a war zone where someone were just as likely to have their car blown up as have their radio stolen. The number of unsolved murders documented by the Night City Police Department rose into the thousands.Mob War (2009 - 2011)
After four years of street warfare, the corporations around the city finally began to take matters into their own hands. From 2009 to 2011, during the period of conflict known as the Mob War, the corporations battled the underworld for control over Night City. They didn't go to war to help the citizens, but because it was business. Like a rival corporation, the mob had its own goals, and these didn't fit into the corporate agenda. If the mob was not ready to play by the rules, the corporations would deal with them on the same level. Led by Arasaka-trained paramilitary troops in assault vehicles, fan tanks, and combat aerodynes — a wave of bombings, assassinations, and outright street battles descended upon the mob's ill-prepared members. When the smoke cleared, the corporations had utterly destroyed the mob's power base in Night City. From that point onwards, any time the mob crossed one of the corps, they would make sure to do it by their rules. At the end of the Mob War, the corporations placed a puppet mayor in power and started cleaning up the rest of Night City. The newly elected City Council — faced with the return of chaos in the city — deputized corporate security forces and allowed them full authority within city limits. Soon after, the corporate and city centers were cleaned out and restored to their pristine states. The same was done to the other neighborhoods, to varying degrees. Corporate Rule (2011 - 2021) After the governamental changes, the new corporate draconian policies contributed to the city's chronic homeless problem, as anyone who didn't have enough money to pay for the renovated version of the place they were living in were kicked out by force. This put hundreds on the street as affordable housing was upgraded and used to house the troops the corporations needed to maintain order. In the following years, this situation eased as fewer enforcers and security teams were needed to keep the streets safe. As negotiated in the Northern Separation Treaty of 2012 between the Californias, Night City was considered to be part of the Free State of Northern California; however, access was guaranteed to travelers from Southern California. By 2013, much of the worst excesses of Night City had been crushed under the ruthless heel of the megacorporations. The basic services such as police, firefighters, and support services had been reestablished. If the corporate masters were oppressive, at least to the average citizen, it was better than dodging gunfire on their way to the convenience store.[2] In April the 13th of that same year, famous rockerboy legend Johnny Silverhand held a riot and concert outside Arasaka Tower in order to lead a strike team into the building to rescue his girlfriend Alt Cunningham. Many rioters and employees died in the event, including the American branch CEO Toshiro Harada, who was murdered during Johnny's assault.[12] The tower was damaged badly, and over the following years was eventually replaced by the newly built towers. By 2020, Night City was a rapidly growing urban region, still rife with urban violence and street crime, but with strong economic growth in the corporate sector. It had evolved into a busy, successful, yet perilous metropolis, but possessed an urban slick and stylish cool that made it unique. The city had all but healed from the ravages of its bleak past. The Corporate Plaza was still pristine, and the NCPD had enough power to keep the downtown streets fairly safe during the day. However, like many other American urban areas, Night City had also devolved into an armed society. It wasn't strange to see as many guns as briefcases on the crowded city streets. The city government kept the control, but when things got out of hand they depended on the corporations to step in. Deals got made, money changed hands, a few people got killed, but others managed to avoid death in turn. Night City was far from Richard Night's original dream, however it worked well enough.Fourth Corporate War (2021 - 2025)
Like many other cities around the globe during the Fourth Corporate War, Night City was also caught up in the power struggle between Militech and Arasaka. Due to its Free State status, NC was home to units on both sides of the conflict, and as such, it suffered badly from it. There were constant urban fights all over Night City, especially around the City & Corporate Centers, where both factions maintained substantial office complexes. Even before the nuclear event that wiped the downtown area out, people were abandoning the city in droves, doing whatever they could do to avoid getting sniped by drones, crushed by tanks, or just gunned down by corporate kill squads. A large area of Night City was wrecked and people were climbing all over themselves to get to safer spots like Heywood and Pacifica. Among all the chaos, both sides went over the line when the bomb went off. The 140th floor tall Arasaka Towers were the North American base of operations of the Japanese corporation. The complex was among the tallest buildings that existed at the time, being the largest in Night City. On August 20 2023, a Militech incursion team led by Morgan Blackhand and Johnny Silverhand attempted an infiltration mission into the Towers in order to destroy Arasaka's Reliquary Database Project. The idea was to render the project unusable for the rival corp by using a tactical nuke with the planned area, a heavily shielded complex, to absorb the impact of the blast and prevent massive destruction. However, somehow the nuclear device prematurely detonated on the 120th floor of the southern tower. The explosion instantly obliterated the Arasaka Towers, splitting them in half and causing both structures to collapse outward. The entirety of the City & Corporate District turned into ruins within seconds, with almost everyone in the immediate area dying. The blast instantly incinerated over 12,000 people in the vicinity of the Towers, and fatally injured upwards of half a million more. Another quarter million died in the resulting aftermath over weeks and months. This event would be known as the Night City Holocaust, or the AHQ Disaster. Being technically an air blast detonation, it lessened the overall long-term radioactivity, and most of the remaining radiation penetrated only the huge skyscrapers surrounding the blast area. Since much of Night City and its surroundings were built on fill, and because the elevation was originally very low, the nuke caused a minor earthquake that liquefied parts of the fill and flooded the inner parts of the city. The huge blast turned the tons of raw concrete and steel of the buildings into particulate debris that covered the entirety of Northern California and far out to sea for many months, as well as igniting a fierce firestorm that covered thousands of acres beyond the city. The metropolis was barely habitable within 24 hours of the detonation. Lots of Night Citizens were unaffected by the initial fallout as they were mostly cybered up or had radioactivity filters installed in their bodies already. However, the firestorm destroyed a large portion of the city's housing, forcing people to move over to either the suburbs on the other side of the bays, or to the areas further out. The liquified shaking soil caused by the explosion broke gas mains, water pipes, and electrical grids. The combined dust cloud caused by the event spiraled up into the sky and turned it red with particulate matter for almost two years. Even many years after the explosion, suspended particles caused the skies at dawn and dusk to glow a lurid red, inspiring people who lived through that timespan to call it the Time of the Red. Within hours of the disaster, then US President Elizabeth Kress — former Militech CEO — nationalized Militech through the expedience of their current CEO — General Donald Lundee — and his reserve commission, placing them under the control of the still sizable United States military. Kress blamed the Night City attack on the Japanese corporation and banished all of the Arasaka forces from the continental US. However, she was soon able to determine that the actual weapon used had been supplied by a Militech strike team.The Recovery (2025 - 2035)
Bringing the full force of her military and propaganda resources to bear, President Kress decided to paint a lurid picture of Arasaka as an evil foreign megacorporation run by a madman, who wanted only the destruction of an American city in the pursuit of personal power. Arasaka's charters to operate in the NUSA were immediately revoked, its members and board were declared terrorists, and its assets either seized or driven off-shore. The Big Lie pushed forward by Militech and the US was that Arasaka themselves had blown up the Corporate Center of Night City in an area denial attack to stop Militech from seizing control of the Arasaka Towers. The truth is it was never formally decided who had triggered the explosion. In the public's eyes, the reasoning for the nuclear detonation was never uncovered. Some believed it was Militech's overzealous desire to crush Arasaka, while others believed it was an area denial weapon set off to protect the Arasaka Towers. Despite all the political play, President Kress showed little to no interest in helping Night City recover. Much as previous Presidents during the Collapse had done, she wrote the city off as unrecoverable and offered sanctuary in a New United States to the surviving refugees. There were two reasons for this; first, with the resources of the NUSA already stretched to the breaking point, there were too few options left for her. Second, the American President saw this as the perfect way to bring the wayward Free State of Northern California back into the government's control. Night City however, resisted the rule of the New United States.The Rebuilding (2035 -)
Roughly two million people in the greater Night City area were left homeless due to the bomb, either directly or because of the flooding from the liquefaction of the city's foundations — which were built on fill and sand. Survivors fled into overcrowded tent shanty towns in the surrounding suburbs of North Oak, Westbrook, Pacifica, Heywood, and South Night City. But soon enough it was obvious that something needed to be done quickly. The remnants of the Night City government and its citizens turned to outside resources, calling in old markers and favors from a wide variety of people — including nomad families, small corporations and edgerunners. Recovery was led by the Aldecaldos nomad clan and their allies in the StormTech Corporation. With a lot of experience in city rebuilding due to the Chicago project, StormTech and the Aldecaldos were uniquely equipped to construct extensive temporary housing from shipping containers, and afterwards formocrete modules brought in by rail and sea. Firstly though, the ground needed to be cleared to put up even these rudimentary structures. Most of the central corporate zone had been destroyed, including the government buildings. The wreckage was far too vast to dig up and cart to distant landfills, so the survivors used bulldozers and jury–rigged main battle tanks — abandoned by both sides — to shove the debris into the bay. Night Corp offered generous rewards to anyone willing to help clean up the crater of radioactive rubble at ground zero. Both the corporation and the City Council claimed that casualties were kept to a minimum, while at the same time they didn't provide official statistics to substantiate said claim.[14] Much of Night City's inner neighborhoods had already been razed to the ground in the ceaseless battles preceding the Fall of the Towers, so the wreckage became the fill that new megabuildings and old cityscapes used to rise again, once more ready to challenge the smog-filled skies. Many of the old districts had become a part of the new Combat Zones, and the original heart of the metropolis was still completely devastated. During the Time of the Red, an "ad hoc, loose grouping" of states known as the Pacifica Confederation was occupied restoring much of the infrastructure lost to the war. They allowed Night City to continue as an independent "city-state" of sorts, granting it the opportunity to become a free trade zone within the Confederation, as well as becoming an entry point for the rest of the world that did not want to deal with the US in any way. By the 2040s, most cities in the Confederation had CitiNets and Data Pools thanks to Ziggurat. By 2045, Night City was still in the process of rebuilding. This ongoing rebuilding period cemented Night City's relationship to the outer world. Abandoned by President Kress and the New United States, Night City had no intention of ever going back into their failing fold. At that time, there was a rampant speculation that the NUSA government had used Arasaka as a scapegoat for the nuclear detonation, obtaining with this the opportunity to slander the corp's reputation. It was at some point of the early 2040s when the truth was finally unveiled.Architecture
Coronado City truly reflected its creator's eclectic vision. Instead of a huge construction of steel and glass, Night's urban plan broke the city into a series of neighborhoods, each with a different architectural style and theme. It included elements ranging from many notorious North American cities like New York and San Francisco, to faux brownstones and pseudo-Victorian gingerbread homes, while the Asian-like neighborhoods reflected its individual cultural styles.
Night also paid homage to the small former township of Morro Bay by recreating much of its original layout in an open-air environment reminiscent of a seaside village. The city and corporate centers were going to be the glittering locations of high-rises and parks, and it was here where Night showed off his personal architectural skills in the designs of the many corporate skyscrapers, which would become the most visible sign of the city's rising affluence.
Geography
Night City is located on the West Coast of the New United States of America, within Del Coronado Bay area. Nearby city travel ranges from 4 to 6 hours to San Francisco and Los Angeles, depending on road gang conditions and road quality.
Night City was devastated during the Fourth Corporate War. After the nuke, the majority of the population became homeless and the sky was red for decades — a period known as the Time of the Red. During the next decades, Night City was in the process of rebuilding. The old neighborhoods of the 2020 period had been rearranged, renamed, or even scraped off into the bay if they were still too radioactive. Many of the old districts had also become a part of the extended Combat Zone, and the original heart of the metropolis was still completely devastated. Locals began to refer to these areas based on the type of environment they were dominated by. In addition to the urban re-designation, each new area was given a "threat rating" by the City Council — a designation of how dangerous the area was.
Climate
Night City's Northern Californian location gives it one of the most pleasant climates in the Western part of the NUSA. Normal temperatures range from the mid 80°F to low 50°F (26°C to 10°C), with misty white fog blanketing the City in the early mornings and evenings. Night City receives around 21 inches of rainfall each year. Of this water that drops, around 35% contains toxic chemicals which is higher than the current government standards for the United States produced vehicles, clothing, and food. On average, if a person's vehicle and clothing are rated above SP 12, adverse effects (staining and ablation) will be negligible.
When one visits Night City, they should wear light to medium weight clothing, with an optional light armor jacket or ballistic-cloth overcoat. A filter mask and supplemental oxygen, hedges against inversion smog and acid rain fog, are highly recommended as well. That being said, acid-proof slickers, umbrellas, and air masks are readily available from the sidewalk vendors or smaller street stores during smog warning periods. The average cost of these items can range from €$20 to €$35.
Founding Date
1994
Alternative Name(s)
Coronado City (formerly), NC, The City of Dreams, The City of Tomorrow
Type
Large city
Population
Unknown
Inhabitant Demonym
Night Citizens, Night People
Included Locations
Characters in Location
