Saint Anastasia Orphanage and School
Many children have been left orphaned over the years in Edge City, left behind as the city surges forth into the future. The corrupt criminal gangs have left quite a body count of those stupid enough to stand up to them, or unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. City social services are overloaded and underfunded. The Illuminated Church of the Golden Sun saw its opportunity to raise a new generation of the faithful, and established the Orphanage and School in The Lowlands where it was needed most.
The orphanage is barely able to stay afloat. Mother Despina Sagona manages to embezzle most of the contributions meant to fund them. They scrape by via the diligence of the Sisters who run the place, and community volunteers who pitch in. The education provided by the school is lacking at best. The students are known to stray into the arms of local gangs who can better provide them with a living, often falling to drugs or prostitution. The Sisters do what they can.
Unbeknownst to the administration, their humble Archivist Niles Bennet is actually the vigilante Mother Superior, and has raised a team of heroes known as the Nightstalkers from students who display the right balance of faith and Shifted abilities.
Purpose / Function
The school is the home of about twenty staff and five hundred children, ranging from babies to teenagers. The campus was originally designed to house a third of that. Twenty or so live in staff are on hand to care for, and teach, the residents. The older children are forced to, by necessity, do much of this work. Most are happy to do so as it is the only home they have ever known. More than half the staff were once students here.
Many of the children there have the last name Lambros, granted when the childs original surname is unknown. They are allowed to choose their own last name if desired, but out of pride most keep it until marriage, not wanting to pass it on to their own children.
Alterations
The exceedingly special and durable agreements the church made prevent any installation or maintenance of infrastructure on church properly. As such, the wiring and plumbing in the school is highly decrepit, and no network connectivity has ever been established. Even wireless connections have difficulty piercing the old walls, and those students lucky enough to have devices must go outside to connect.
The residents have become quite handy at keeping things going with no resources. Some students have easily found careers as plumbers, electricians, and handimen based on their experience here alone. They often bring back new knowledge and resources to keep their old home chugging along in a world that has moved along without it.
Architecture
The small campus is an oddity in The Canyons, a sequestered campus with classic architecture. The walled space is crowded with boxy dormatories and classrooms, all centered around an auditorium and administrative building. The stone walls are ostentatiously decorated with faux parapats, arched roofs, and embedded statues of Illuminated saints. The many charitable or just childless Illuminates who came to expand their family by adopting found great comfort in the familiar feeling of the homeland. The reproduction of classic Albian gothic architecture seemed odd at the time, especially amongst the bungalos and skyscrapers of 1920s. The extensive cellars and basements also were strange, given the vast empty lots surrounding the campus. Even more bizarre, no official record of the plans or construction were ever filed with the city.
But when the The Great Quakes came, the structure stood strong. The valleys of Alba, historical home of the church, were fraught with earthquakes, and the clerical engineers were pedantically specific about how things were done. When the aftershocks finally subsided, its walls were the only ones standing nearby, and only a stones throw away from The Devil's Belt.
Despite the excess and pretense of the design, the small village lies in the shadows of the archologies and megascrapers that surround it. Even the nearby squat housing tenaments dwarf it in size. It not a tragedy lost on its inhabitants that for a property of the Golden sun only a scant bit of sunlight ever falls on it these days.
History
The school was purchased back when land was plentiful and cheap, miles from the center of the old city. Over the years the city spread out
The church was powerful then, and made a unique deal where the site (much like all their deals back then) had special protections from interests that may someday threaten it. Thus, as the city sprouted around it, many offers were ignored by the clergy for the property despite it seemingly being a burden on the fading and cash strapped organization. One might think it had a deeper purpose.
Founding Date
1912 CE
Alternative Names
St Annes
Type
Orphanage
Parent Location
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
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