Blacksand City - Lower City

The Lower City is a tangled mess of alleys, corridors and even tunnels built in the canyon bottoms. Some areas are underground, mainly where a passage has been forced between one canyon and another, and later some additional chambers have been added. Other parts are made from disabled space vessels. Most of the Lower City is essentially a ramshackle town with an environmentally sealed roof over it. The city is subdivided sufficiently that a breach will not kill everyone, but breaching the outer skin – or having a weapon that can do so – is punishable by death. Indeed, this is the only external law imposed on the Lower City. Apart from this, the place is officially lawless.
However, no society can survive without some sort of rules or code of conduct, and in the Lower City there are numerous groups willing to impose their own code upon others. Sections of the city are run by gangs or warlords, others have what amounts to a neighborhood watch. All areas are very rough-and-ready. Nobody cares if you steal from someone they do not know, or if you kill someone in the next street. However, everyone reacts to threats or actions that harm them directly, and the usual reaction is violence. Getting roughed up is considered a lucky escape in the Lower City; many people consider it simpler just to kill those that offend them.
Essentially, law and order in the Lower City, such as it is, comes down to ‘take care of yourself; nobody will help you unless it’s in their interests. If you become a threat to someone or a group, they will deal with you if they can.’ In some areas of the city it is considered to be in the interests of local businesses or residents to enforce some kind of law, and in these areas the city is not so much safer for innocents as more dangerous for wrongdoers. Motivations for these enforcers are almost entirely self-centered – it is easier to conduct business if there are no robberies and gunfights going on outside.
Sometimes a building will be ‘red flagged’, which indicates that it is subject to the Law of the Lords. This is enforced by the Widows. Elsewhere the Widows will eliminate anyone who threatens the environmental integrity of the city, and occasionally others for reasons they do not discuss, but do not otherwise intervene in the affairs of the Lower City.
A large section on the fringe of the city is given over to wrecked starships and spacecraft. Known as the Scrapheap, this area is home to a small population who live in the wrecks and dismantle them for sale to anyone willing to pay for potentially stolen or damaged components. There are other purveyors of starship components elsewhere in the city, but the Scrapheap is a good place to find rock-bottom prices… for a reason.
The House Without Questions is another curiosity of the Lower City. It takes people in and looks after them, no questions asked, providing they do not make themselves unwelcome. Its denizens will also quote a price for any task requested of them, providing it is physically possible. If the fee is paid, the task will be accomplished. It is not wise to ask how, and in any case no answers will be furnished.
The majority of the Lower City consists of dingy residences, workshops, bars and marketplaces where anything and everything is for sale. High-end mercenaries and professionals in various fields tend to maintain offices in the Upper City, but there are many who would prefer to maintain a low profile and work out of some bar or noodle shop in a back alley. There are also numerous street gangs, most of which are little more than small-time thugs who will prey upon those they think are weaker than themselves. Some style themselves ‘blood gangs’; others have different names. All are willing to kill and injure people for their property and even their organs. For those that like blood sports, the Blood Pit is an arena where all manner of fights are staged. Gangs, individual combats, battles against or between exotic animals…all of it can be found in the Blood Pit, but then the same could be said for the streets of the Lower City.

Type

District