The Big Smog

The Smog is he industrial heart of Skyhome. Dozens upon dozens of factories work 24 hours a day, converting raw imported resources into exportable goods and technology. This makes this ward the most animated part of the city at any given time, as Land Riders, as workers constantly deliver cargo to and take cargo from the district. The Smog smells horrible, more so than any other part of the city (hence its name). The air is terribly polluted, and the buildings are stained with the remains of coal dust, chemical detergent, and microscopic Source Crystal shards. On days when the smog is too thick, the area is cast in a sickly yellow light. When it rains, the cobblestones are painted with rainbow coloured water, as the runoff from the dye factories is dumped directly onto the street. The sound of constant traffic, both by foot and vehicle, and the rumble of factories can be disorienting to visitors to the district, but is ignored completely by the locals who seem to have adapted to the noise. The buildings are a mixture of old and new designs, as large sections of the district were torn down at one point to facilitate the growth of the factories, although portions of older structures can be seen everywhere.
Apartment complexes stand between the factories and warehouses. The bottom levels of these buildings are largely made up of good stores owned by factory and warehouse owners, selling goods directly to the populace. There are also a fair few restaurants and grocers, which are known to have the freshest food outside of The Walled district.

Infrastructure

Large warehouses also dot the district, and are patrolled by mercenary security companies. Small apartments are built on top of the warehouses, where both the security staff and the warehouse workers live together with their extended families. The warehouses contain the raw goods waiting to be processed in the factories and the processed goods waiting to be sold or shipped of island. Several specialized warehouses also serve as the city's larders, as the fruit, vegetables, grains, and meat imported from island waits there before being distributed to the various grocers around the city. There are also a few slaughter-yards, where the corpses of Whales are butchered for their meat, bones, blood, and vital fluids. The Whales blood stains the paving stones, despite the rain, and very few people spend time at the slaughter-yards past nightfall.

Guilds and Factions

For the last four decades, the United Labor Union (ULU) has been pushing for the rights of workers in the Big Smog and other districts. The ULU has had many violent clashes with the Cloud Guard of the Big Smog, sometimes supported by off-island mercenary companies, who attempt to break strikes and harass legal demonstrations.  Recently the ULU has faced division from within, as a group of Elemental Engine engineers have vocally called for the dissolution of the general union, and the creation of a series of more specialized unions that can act on the behalf of each profession.  The union has also distanced itself from a small group of workers in the slaughter-fields, where Whales are butchered. These Butcher Boys are not invited to participate in general organization, and widely avoided by the other workers in the yard. No one can give a clear answer to why they are so despised, but it might be due to the way that they sing as they strip the flesh off of the massive bones, and almost seem to pray as they crack those bones open to harvest their marrow. 
There is also a small, but wealthy ring of smugglers in the district, who skim military grade technology from the factories and sell them on the black market. The Cloud Guard has yet to learn of their existence, and the only thing known about them is their name: the Purple Fingers.

History

Hundreds of years ago, the Smog was once sparsely populated marshland, inhabited by the odd shepherd or druidic hermit. Half sunken ruins, similar to those found in Urgontur, pocked the landscape, and people generally avoided the remains of stone structures for fear of ancient curses. These ruins sunk long before the area began to see proper development, and once the city proper began to grow, what once stood on the land became much less important than what might stand in the future.
As the Smog was once a marshland, buildings were constructed on top of each other to keep above ground level. Once the wetlands dried, this no longer became a necessity, but the original structures still existed, but underground. Indeed, there is a vast network of sunken buildings, tunnels, and basements under the modern Smog. In some places it intersects with the sewer system, the occasional basement has been known to contain a secret passage into the dark labyrinth under this section of the city. The city has barred any form of urban spelunking without express permit of the ward's representative in The Parliament, but it is well known that the curious and morally flexible find their way into these chambers from time to time. Some say that there are still preserved ruins of the Precursor Race hidden at the very bottom of the labyrinth, unexplored, and teeming with the secrets of a forgotten age. As no one has ever reached the bottom of the labyrinth and lived to tell the tale, so one can only surmise that there is something down there.

The clouds above the district had that sickly yellow hue today. It always made John's skin crawl. "Clouds aren't supposed to be that colour, you know? I've been to other islands, and they never have clouds like that. Just as well, the water that comes from them doesn't make your skin all tingly. You really have to wonder what kind of things they're pumping out of those smoke-stacks, and what that does to the people who live here." He let out a little cough, sipped at his coffee, and watched as the odd-coloured cloud cried upon his city.

Alternative Name(s)

Rainbow Road, The Smokes, Pantryville

Location under

Skyhome