[center][h1]New York City[/h1][/center]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/f082kDh.png[/img][/center]

[hider=Territory][b]Territory:[/b]

	The government of New York City maintains its core in the traditional five boroughs of New York: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Surrounding major communities like Jersey City, Newark, Yonkers, White Plains, and various Long Island suburbs are also directly controlled by the city government: this has brought important prewar facilities like Newark International Airport, the Tappan Zee Bridge, and various ports under direct control and security.[/hider]

[hider=Regional Map]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/y6qTAC0.png[/img]

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[hider=Local Map]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/Z7KddsY.png[/img]

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[hider=History]

[b]History:[/b]

	New York City was the largest prewar urban center in America, functioning as a population center for 18 million people, industrial powerhouse, shipping center for billions of dollars’ worth of commerce, and a strategic military location. Most of all, the head of America’s worldwide economic dominance was centered on Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. The crucial part that New York played in America painted a target on its back: it received a lion’s share of the bombs and missiles launched at the mid-Atlantic region. Despite the best efforts of New York’s state-of-the-art air defense missiles and laser weapons, the saturation bombing of the city got through and caused severe damage.

	The scale of the attack decimated the city. Millions were killed outright, with many more succumbing to radiation injuries later on. The scenes of New York were a mirror reflection of Washington DC, Boston, and other metropolitan areas: those who were not dead or dying slipped into anarchy as the last vestiges of government and society died with the old war. Through this and the ecological disasters caused by the black rain and radiation storms, New York would be a dead city for a hundred years. People organized themselves into bands of raiders and other survivors, squabbling over territory and resources in the apocalypse.

	Deep beneath downtown Manhattan, in a secure bunker guarded from all threats, an artificial intelligence laid dormant. While it had been operationally disabled by the nuclear blasts of the Great War, it was still able to receive and process the vast amounts of data that eked into its memory since the conflict. This was The Economist, an incredibly powerful computer built before the war to manage the American economy: it accumulated data of stock movements, corporate reports, and production results and generated predictions of the future. While it had predicted the Great War by taking note of an uptick in defense contractors’ stock values, its warnings were not seriously heeded by the prewar Americans.

	As the radiation storms lessened and groups of raiders coalesced into solidified tribal communities in the city’s neighborhoods, one settlement would become the unwitting leader of the city’s revival. In 2232, a thriving community located in the campus of the World Trade Center, known as the Twin Towers for the skyscrapers that most people lived in, made an incredible discovery. Helen Napolini, an engineer in the community, stumbled upon an unknown maintenance shaft when looking for the source of a standard electrical problem. She climbed down, discovering the dormant AI. When she awoke it, an error message greeted her. The curious engineer secretly began her work, finding a maintenance manual in her tower’s library and diagnosing the machine’s problems. It took Helen two years to identify and source the parts to fix The Economist.

	In 2234, The Economist spun back up underneath the Twin Towers, rebooting its systems and finally holding dialogue with Helen. She spent long nights speaking with The Economist about the old world and the new. When presented with the question of how to solve the problems in the wasteland, The Economist gave solutions. Helen realized that this was more important than her and, after a week of learning about the AI, presented it to the council that ran her settlement. This group made the decision to take The Economist seriously and recognized that they were bestowed with a responsibility to bring order to the wasteland around them. Helen was made the custodian of The Economist until her death in 2278: her daughter, Sandra, still maintains the role.

	The Twin Towers quickly appointed their military and diplomatic strategists to the task of reuniting the city. Using The Economist’s guidance, the adjacent bands of settlers and raiders were either folded into the council’s governance or conquered. The Twin Towers, upon establishing a beachhead in Brooklyn, renamed themselves in the vein of the old world’s New York City. They took the flag, colors, and symbols of the city as a way to unify the disparate communities inside. By 2249, after fifteen years of struggle, New York City grew to encompass its territories.

	Brave leaders like James Hastings made significant sacrifices such as in the Battle of Newark, which netted the city government its airport at the expense of their general’s life. Ismael Jones, a skilled diplomat, negotiated with the ghoul settlement of Yonkers to rejoin the city and take a seat on the council to address ghoul-specific issues. Based on priorities given by The Economist, the New York City government began a generational struggle of repair and decontamination. Led to sites of knowledge and production such as factories, the city government stripped old world technology in daring patrols outside the city limits so they could train future doctors, lawyers, engineers, and public servants in the city.

	The city experienced its brush with major factions like the Brotherhood of Steel who, on their quest to find new lands, brushed past the city’s skyline in their airship in 2282. The underground slave evacuation route set up by the Railroad ran through and into the city, bringing synthetic humans from Boston to places as far away as Washington DC. The council’s security of the city is not in question, but what to do after is: policy formulates as the New York government makes decisions on how to handle the rugged terrain outside the city. As they meet more factions in the wasteland, their role in the wasteland’s precarious political ecosystem takes further shape.

	Despite the ravages of the war, New York is a centralized city state with a relatively normal population. Agriculture innovatively based out of former warehouses and high rises feeds the citizens inside. Industrial centers from before the war were repaired and function to supply the small city, although their growth capacity is in question. People return to life, enjoying culture and art and relationships not purely confined to survival. Much like the cities of the West, New York is starting to resemble a post apocalypse. With this development comes major problems: societies develop in the wasteland, and New York must find some way to deal with them. The Economist maintains its role as an oracle for the city, but requires more data to find a way forward.

	It is 2298, over 200 years since the bombs fell. New York is not alone in the east coast’s wasteland, and a new great game of power and influence has developed. The city, while successful in and of itself, has significant growth ahead of it. If it can further live in the wasteland, it will need to adapt to the pressures of its time.

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[hider=Pressing Issues]

	[b]Pressing Issues:[/b]

	By the very nature of New York’s position as a major metropolitan city state, it is surrounded by danger on all sides. Radiation storms in the northeast continue to make life difficult for New Yorkers attempting to explore the wasteland in search of useful leftovers. Raiders, bandits, and mutants occupy the northern upstate regions that have been untamed by civilized control. Similarly, Long Island is a pressing strategic objective for the city’s security. A unique, exotic threat manifests in former New Jersey.

	Internally, the city grapples with its former tribal borough governments competing for resources and influence. It also is not spared from the discrimination and rights issues facing its ghoul and growing synth populations. Additionally, concerns of resources and power are starting to become an issue as the population grows. Tempting targets of opportunity like farms and prewar power plants lay outside the city’s borders, requiring action. All of these issues, both old and new, keep New York City occupied as the 24th century approaches.

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[hider=Significant Organizations]

[b]Government:[/b]

	[i]City Council[/i]: The City Council is the main body of representatives from each territory of New York. They make all decisions regarding the city's governance, advised by the City Divisions and their chiefs as well as The Economist itself. 11 representatives come from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Jersey City, Newark, Yonkers, the White Plains Territories, the Bergen Territories, and the Elizabeth Territories. It is well known that most of the power lies within Manhattan and its traditional seats of power, with the five prewar boroughs generally forming a decisive power block over newer additions to the city-state.

	[i]Custodian of The Economist[/i]: The Economist, a massive prewar artificial intelligence, was initially designed to predict the movements of financial and economic markets. Since the Great War, The Economist has somehow developed into a mystical oracle-like seer that has guided the city's government. A caretaker with the special ability to engage with the AI and bring out its conclusions was formally established following the activation of the computer beneath the World Trade Center. Helen Napolini was charged as the machine's custodian. While she passed away in 2278, her daughter Sandra has taken custodianship of The Economist. She reports directly to the City Council with its advise on their plans.

[b]Divisions of City Government:[/b]

	[i]Administration Division[/i]: With the recovery of prewar information, the Administration Division is charged with the maintenance of information and operation of systems to manage and organize the city. Clerks, bureaucrats, computer operators, and librarians all collate and categorize incoming knowledge and manage the running of a large city. Widely derided for bringing paperwork back from the old world, the AdminDiv runs nonstop to organize the many departments and divisions of government. The culmination of AdminDiv's efforts is the direct input of data into The Economist's vast computational arrays. This function provides The Economist with information that it needs to generate its crucially important calculations and predictions.

	[i]Medical Division[/i]: In a world ravaged by sickness and radiation poisoning, the doctors and nurses of MedDiv are responsible for operating a healthcare system in the city. MedDiv operates numerous clinics, hospitals, research facilities, and supply lines for medical equipment and various medicines. They are also well known for contributing to the relationship between the Wasteland Aid Society and the New York City government. Aid Society schools and physicians often cross-train with MedDiv staff, resulting in a cadre of highly competent medical professionals who attend to various matters of public health and individual treatment.

	[i]Nuclear Division[/i]: NucDiv holds the mandate of nuclear energy production and distribution across the city. From small fusion cells to large regional reactors, NucDiv is responsible for managing and operating every facet of atomic power within New York's borders. The city's success hinges on their efficiency, as without power there will be no further growth. This "no fail" approach has led NucDiv to garner a harsh reputation as cutthroat: there is zero-tolerance for mistakes within this division.

	[i]Sanitation Division[/i]: Once a department dedicated to managing the complex mechanisms of waste disposal and public health in America's densest urban area, SaniDiv's mandate is no less crucial after the apocalypse. While the old problems of garbage, sewage, and infectious diseases have not gone away, SaniDiv now has been charged with the essential duties of cleaning radiation and mutant abominations from the city's scarred landscape. Their work often takes them into the dangerous subterranean city beneath New York, rediscovering lost infrastructure below the streets.

	[i]Security Division[/i]: Commonly known as SecDiv, this is the city's organized armed force. They assume both domestic guard duty, policing, security and military actions and patrols in areas of the Wasteland outside of city limits. As a result, they are a hybrid organization with competing hierarchies and interests. With scarce resources and muddled priorities, SecDiv is often overstretched and undermanned. Compounding the issue is the City Council's view of them as a "multitool" to solve problems that do not neatly fit into any one division's area of responsibility, further stretching the force.

	[i]Trade Division[/i]: Perhaps the most powerful division of New York's government, TraDiv is responsible for the overall management and regulation of the city's powerful commercial and trade activities. They register and tax caravans, riverboats, motorized transportation, and anything else that passes through New York's many trade zones. They are similarly responsible for generating economic data on activities in order to further refine New York's policy priorities.

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[hider=Characters]

[b]AdminDiv:[/b]

	[i]Samuel Powell:[/i] A close friend of Sandra Napolini. He works directly in the Twin Towers at the forefront of data collection from across the city, feeding The Economist's decisions with raw data to analyze.

[b]Brooklyn AA&E:[/b]

	[i]Mario Leonetti:[/i] The manager of Brooklyn AA&E's energy weapons department. He seeks a greater market share as he sells weapons to anyone and everyone across the Wasteland.

[b]Custodian of The Economist:[/b]

	[i]The Economist:[/i] A complicated prewar artificial intelligence buried beneath New York City that has been repurposed into guiding and planning the city's government after the bombs fell.

	[i]Sandra Napolini:[/i] The daughter of Helen Napolini, the original Custodian. She is the human interface for The Economist, conversing with it to take its advice straight to the Council itself.

[b]NucDiv:[/b]

	[i]Arthur Sanchez:[/i] A former colleague and friend of Clifford Smith who stood by as NucDiv leadership fired him for an accident he was never responsible for.

	[i]Clifford Smith:[/i] A disgraced nuclear plant manager who finds new purpose in restarting Indian Point.

[b]Port Newark:[/b]

	[i]Anna Pawlowksi:[/i] Formerly Clifford Smith's apprentice, she becomes the new manager of Port Newark's nuclear reactor upon his departure.

[b]SecDiv:[/b]

	[i]Charlie Park:[/i] Aimless and without clear direction, he finds most of his work taking security jobs on freighter barges up and down the waterways of New York's territory.

	[i]Sanjay Knight:[/i] A loyal, if slightly immature junior SecDiv man with a propensity to get in trouble at the absolute worst of times. 

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