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Time to create a little map of Elon Isle. I've done this very thing quite a bit, but I feel it's time to create a truly comprehensive idea of everything that exists here.
Elon Isle being the setting for a whole bunch of my stories, if you recall, from the Moville collection to Astral Falls. I've been considering tossing Mother Meki into the pot as well, since that story's undergoing massive changes at the moment, and since the whole Eutopia franchise is finally taking up more of my time than Mother Meki (the first story to do so in years).
As I said in the Astral Falls/Black Saturday thread, I created Elon Isle by thinking of it as an open world game. Whenever I play sandbox games, I tend to hold them to several standards— one of those standards being if the world is lively, diverse, and engaging.
It doesn't matter how thematic a game world is either. If it feels like there's no difference from one end of the map to the other, or if it's a chore to get around in this world and I don't care to explore it, then it's fundamentally failed its whole purpose as a wide-open sandbox. You can have a city that's grimy and dirty and dystopian, or bright and magical and whimsical, or anything in between and still have extreme diversity with loads of landmarks and hidden treasures that makes me want to explore that world. Likewise, you can have a game world that has a whole bunch of biomes and districts but ultimately feels like a big blob of nothing. The Saints Row series is guilty of both at the same time with the conflicting cities of Stilwater and Steelport. The former is a stock sandbox city that I consistently rank as one of my favorite game worlds ever; the latter is an uber thematic city that was so god-lifeless and awfully designed that it actually hampered my enjoyment of the third and fourth games in the series.
And I say 'cities' but it extends to any environment, really. If there's nothing to do in your world— nothing to explore, nowhere to enter, no one to meet when you're not playing missions— then no one will like your game world. The only way to get around that is if you have a really, really stylistic world, and even then you can run out your welcome if there's still nothing to do (see: Gravity Rush). Also, I mentioned that there's going to be bad times if it's too much of a chore to get around in your world. If there's a way to get just about everywhere without too much hassle, and there's fast travel available, and especially if your world is beautiful, then this can be forgiven (see: Just Cause 2). You can easily fuck this up, however, if you scatter everything around and make it so that you sometimes have to go out of your way to get around, and then you turn down the beauty of the world and take out what was so awesome before in lieu of memes (er.... see: Just Cause 3).
Well.... With that in mind, I began to design a world that I'd love to play around in.
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It just so happened that this world worked well with my various baffling, bizarre, and frightening story ideas for futuristic realism/slice of tomorrow.
Elon Isle itself actually composes of two separate states. The island itself is technically part of the United States of America. However, most of the place is under the jurisdiction of the city-state of Elon.
When I first talked about Elon Isle (back then, it was named Yuli Island), I said that it's about half the size of Just Cause 2's map, which would put it at 200 square miles in size. I've since come to realize that this is nowhere near enough. So I've upped the size to ~15,000 square miles— a little smaller than the size of Switzerland.
There are 5 municipalities on Elon Isle.
- Elon
- Duryset
- Babenshire
- Falstead
- Pilkington
ELON: the namesake of the island itself, is composed of a whole mess of different municipalities within the main one. Because it does not control the entirety of Elon Isle, it is considered to be a "pure" city-state and is considered to be America's Singapore.
The various towns within Elon include:
- Metropolitan Elon: downtown Elon, filled with skyscrapers and starscrapers
- Sun City: a district-wide elevated city located on the 58th floor-per-Burj Maliki, complete with its own municipal functions.
- Van Norlon: financial/CBD district of Elon, including where the stock exchange is located
- Neo-Shibuya: Tokyo-themed district located near the Elon Metro, full of neon and entertainment venues. Heavily sponsered by Izumi Corporation (which ultimately means you'll find a lot of syndicalist and Vyrdist promotion)
- Tetrix: location of Izumi Corporation's headquarters, as well as other sci-tech companies
- Dellville: another skyscraper and starscraper-infested district, this one largely filled with metafarms
- Danbury: densly populated residential district— one of many, but arguably the most famous
- Severn: residential area filled with big houses, boulevards, mansions, and the city park
- Dursley Park: the city park, which takes up many, many cues from Central Park in NYC and New Orleans' City Park
- Soho: the oldest section of the city, where elements of the city's originally experimental design still linger
- Belle Maison Violette: Paris-themed district located near Soho, close to Severn and part of the uptown districts. So named for the general violet color scheme
- Kensworth: Lower-middle class area in the city
- Plymouth: the "communist bloc" district, where everything is worker-owned and managed, and Izumi Corporation has a high presence. Surprisingly less automated than other places on the map
- SXG: oceanfront parks, houses, restaurants, and general areas
- Phineas: residential area filled with restored projects and public housing, much of which is being converted into newer buildings
- Charlestown: Industrial area of the city
- Bennet: residential area near Charlestown; lower-middle class and working class. As you can imagine, the population here is dwindling as more move into central housing units, so derelict homes and projects are common sight
- Tilman: Residential area filled with skyscraper housing and automated urban farming constructs, most well known for how densely packed the buildings themselves are (and thus a mecca for freerunners)
- Elon West: Residential suburbs
- Dragonsfield: Venice-esque district filled with canal transports
- Enders: Brightly colored entertainment district, known for its huge pirate ship attraction
- Mosly: Industrial district, mostly dedicated to energy production and waste management
All these places must be different. And I'm not even sure this is the final list either. In fact, I'm relatively sure it's not.
Elon is wealthy, and there are many power plants in the city (almost all of them centered in either Charlestown or Mosly). It's powered by fusion for the most part, with chunks of solar and one fission reactor that's close to being retired.
Elon is a megacity, with a population of 102 million. Because of how densely packed it is, it's nowhere near as large as other megalopolises in the world in terms of size— it fills about half of Elon Isle's total size. That said— it is half the size of the island itself. Hence why Elon Isle had to get bigger. 400 square miles wouldn't fill more than a couple of districts of Elon Isle these days.
The city of Elon was built on rolling hills, meaning that much of the city resembles San Francisco or the cities found on hills in the Mediterranean. At the same time, much of it was also built either on flat ground or ground that was flattened to make way for construction— whether that's at sea level or elevated. Also consider Sun City, which is already elevated. There are several parts in the city where the ground level meets Sun City.
There are many, many landmarks in Elon. I've mentioned how it has recreations of many of our most famous futuristic buildings: the Burj Khalifa, Oriental Pearl Tower, Taipei 101, Emerald Plaza, Shanghai Tower, and more. There are also other major buildings, such as:
Burj Maliki: The King Tower, the Burj Maliki is the tallest building in the world and ironically one of the first "starscrapers" ever built. It stands at 1.4 miles high, and is reinforced at its base partially by other starscrapers along with it. Sun City built out from its 58th floor. I didn't name it after myself, as hard as that may be to believe— "Burj Almalik" means "King Tower", and it was changed due to a bastardization of that name.
alphaDyne Tower: Another starscraper, this one standing at 1.1 miles high. Headquarters of alphaDyne-Janvier.
Trinity Starscraper: 1 mile in height.
Fortean Truss: a starscraper that is almost a mile in height, standing 1.5 kilometers tall. This is a purely residential place, though you can imagine that it also serves as a bit of a city-within-a-building.
Heaven District: A whole cluster of starscrapers that are all 1.3 kilometers tall. These are dedicated metafarms that can feed millions. Partially privately owned, partially municipally owned.
Hell District: Another cluster of starscrapers that are also 1.3 kilometers. These are dedicated data centers for the city's super AI.
Taiden Tower: A kilometer-high starscraper that marks one of the ends of Sun City.
Arizmendi Tower: A kilometer-high starscraper located in Tetrix that acts as the HQ for Izumi Corporation.
There are other landmarks that I can mention, but these aren't necessarily supertall skyscrapers/starscrapers. In fact, I didn't even list off all starscrapers— just the ones I can name off the top of my mind right now. But I needed to end this somewhere.
Full name: Republic of Elon
Common name: Elon; Elon City
Common acronym: ELN
Population: 102.3 million
GDP: $10 trillion
Per capita: $93,000
GDP Growth: 6.8%
Unemployment rate: 31%
Ownership index: 72%
Literacy rate: 100%
Gini: 0.25
HDI: 0.9899 (No. 1 in World)
Poverty rate: >1%
Economy: Free market; social market; Vyrdist reformation
Government: Social democracy; corporate democracy; AI-influenced representative democracy
Motto: "Tomorrow Is Today"
Interesting facts:
- Elon Isle was originally named "D'Uberville Island" before the city-state of Elon led to a democratically-chosen name change.
- Elon City began as an experimental city to test out various internet-based technologies, the first part of which being set down in 1994
- Elon's economy is largely democratically managed, due to the power of Izumi Corporation— the world's wealthiest worker cooperative
- Contrary to popular opinion, Elon was not named after techno-industrialist Elon Musk (though the relationship has been retroactively established), as the city was created well before Elon Musk's rise to fame. It was actually named after the Hebrew name meaning 'Oak Tree' (by which the island is infested), as well as after one of alphaDyne's founding members— Benjamin Elon.
- Originally, Elon Isle was said to be a worthless island with few precious goods, hence why the land was so cheap. However, vast deposits of lithium and helium-3 have since been discovered, which have turned Elon into an energy superpower
- Most of Elon's energy comes from nuclear fusion. The only reason all of it doesn't is because Elon's original leaders did not want the city-state to become dependent upon a single energy source
- Most of Elon is privatized, which leads to an interesting scenario where private entities consist of worker cooperatives, soviets, and technates
- Yuli Baba was never the president of Elon, despite popular perceptions
- Much of the Trinity Starscraper is composed of a single computer dedicated towards artificial intelligence
- Trinity also heads the Trinity Biomodification Clinics
- There were three towns that were originally located where Elon now sprawls. Bennet and Phineas have existed since the 1800s and retained their names. Only Caldwell— which was renamed Danbury— lost its original name.
- Elon technically has a military, but it is entirely composed of artificial units. Otherwise, it relies on private military companies and mercenaries for military protection— one mercenary group actually being created by Izumi Corporation and allegedly having a role in the hellish conditions on the mysterious island located to the northwest.
- All drugs are legal in Elon. Despite this, drug use is relatively low.
- Despite having a fully mechanized military, Elon's police force possesses many fully biological and partially augmented humans.
- Elon has an elaborate sewer system that has been the subject of various conspiracy theories.
- Elon's subway directly connects to Duryset and, strangely, an unnamed town in the middle of nowhere. The train to the unnamed town is not open to the general public, and no trains have ever been seen coming or going from there, suggesting (but not proving) the town may have been a failed expansion of Elon.
- Though the Burj Maliki is the tallest building in the world, there's an even taller building under construction— also in Elon. When completed, it's expected to reach 2 miles into the atmosphere, and act as a base for a future space elevator.
- Elon has no welfare, instead relying on a universal basic income, helotism, common stockholding. The basic income comes from taxing businesses, while the common stockholding comes from automated labor. Helots, of course, are commonly/publicly-owned technotarians.
- Elon has approximately 9 million helots and growing, making it one of the purest "digital Athens" cities in the world. These helots are greatly responsible for the city's cleanliness, even in the poorest areas.
- There is no clear ethnic majority in Elon, greatly due to its recent construction. Many of its current residents come from China and East Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.
- Elon has a sister city— Yang Xi— located on Mare Serenitatis on the moon.
Entering the USA....
DURYSET: This is a college town, famous for being the birthplace of John Henry Vyrd. I've yet to figure out all the various districts within it, but there are various landmarks.
The biggest one being: Menistrus University. A hot bed of left-wing radicalism and birthplace of Vyrdism. It's a rather large town, and it has a mixture between upscale neighborhoods and wards. There are a few low-level skyscrapers in the town, hence why some erroneously refer to it as a 'city' even though it's officially considered a town.
Duryset has a strangely high number of drug users and peddlers, despite the fact drugs are legal in Elon. In particular: psychedelic drugs. This may be due to the fact magic mushrooms, cannabis, and peyote are naturally common in the area (on top of 4-leaf clovers). It also has a high number of spiritualists following alternative religions— primarily Druidism, Wiccanism, and Cyber-Shamanism. However, there is an undercurrent of Satanism in Duryset, due to the presence of a cult known as the "Order of the 23rd Star". This Satanism is not of the atheistic, neo-Pagan, or hipster varieties either, but a Theistic and neo-fascist variant similar to the Order of the Nine Angles.
BABENSHIRE: Smaller than Duryset but larger than Falstead or Pilkington, and located in the center of the island, Babenshire is a town that's dying as more and more of its population leaves for Elon. It can be seen as a larger, more depressing version of Falstead where it lacks both the ruralburban nostalgia of Falstead and Pilkington as well as the economic self-sustainability of Duryset or, heaven forbid, Elon. There are a few casinos and factories, and the farms on the peripheral of the town remain active, but it's brightest days are decades behind it.
FALSTEAD: This one is a true small town, located in the southeast of Elon Isle. It was preserved by Yuli Baba as a callback to the town in which he grew up: stereotypical rural Americana. This is where the wealthy, farmers, and the romantic tend to stay. This is where you'll find people who have tired of the big city or of the radicalism of Duryset and settled down for a quieter life. It's also a hotbed of paranormal activity. And I mean a true hotbed. Falstead's famous for how 'haunted' it is, regardless of how little scientific proof there really is. Falstead's primary economic activity comes from either its farming community or its paranormal-themed tourist industry. Outside of that and its business district full of strip malls and supermarkets, it's a very snug place.
PILKINGTON: This is another small town located on the west side of Elon Isle. Because of this, it's also a port town. It is slightly larger than Falstead. It has more than one 'main street' (which is more than can be said for even Falstead) but it's not a bustling, happening place on any level. A few major factories can still be seen spewing industrial smoke, but no one knows how long they'll last at this rate.
Pilkington, Falstead, Babenshire, and Duryset are the original cities on Elon, back when the island was known as "D'Uberville Isle". Back then, they were all of comparable size; it was only after Elon arose that Duryset and Babenshire exploded in size. Falstead and Pilkington were 'preserved' simply because of how quaint they seemed. Naturally, they're perfect settings to show of slice of tomorrow fiction.
Between these places: greenery. There's quite an extensive woodlands on Elon Island, full of hills and even a dormant volcano to the extreme south. You can find some loners out in the woods, as well as many animals and caves and other hidden goodies. And, of course, the dark things...
The Elon Isle underground is also hardy and deep, and there are hidden places under there as well.
Even though the city of Elon composes half of the island, it follows London's example— by all technicality, Elon is a forest because it contains so many trees. Never mind Dursley Park, which actually is a traditional forest. There are several clusters of trees scattered throughout the city, and you often can't go very far without finding at least one patch of greenery. Boulevards are one of the most beautiful examples of this.
Severn, for example, has a particular boulevard where the houses are separated by a massive, football-field length median that's either a plain green field or filled with trees. Other boulevards in Severn, Soho, and Belle Maison Violette otherwise have quite a few trees in the central median and on the sidewalks.
Outside of Elon, green dominates (for a good chunk of the year, at least).
I always imagined Elon being located somewhere near New England, so its climate is predominately that of what you'd expect in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and even Vermont.
Falstead, I keep imagining as a smaller version of my own hometown. Basically: there's a main street, there's side streets, there's a college, there's a commercial district full of supermarkets and chain stores, there's a small municipal airport, and whatnot— but it's a rural place. You drive too far out from the center of the city (which only takes about five minutes), and you're passing through woodlands, trailer parks, and even farmland.
That said, it's not like this is the 1800s and these places are totally self-contained because they have no choice but to be. There's highways all across Elon, including one in the sky. The Highway in the Sky is the domain of passenger drones. There's also a hyperloop that connects every town except Falstead. There's a train that connects every town including Falstead.
The western edge of Elon Isle is scraggly, filled with marshland and archipelagos. That means Elon and Pilkington have to accommodate this. Pilkington obviously doesn't need to do much with this, but Elon should have some way of utilizing this area.
Finally, to the northwest, there is a mysterious, industrialized island that is actually very heavily inspired by Medine (which you may or may not remember as being the totalitarian island in Mother Meki). Same deal as in Mother Meki, this island (whose name is pending) is supposed to be a North Korea-esque madhouse, except far, far worse. Basically taken over by some ultra-extremists from Menistrus University and turned into an Orwellian hellhole with no outside contact with the world.
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