Citrus City & the Gardens of Eden (A little get-off-the-mark)
I'm gonna start out by apologizing for any misspellings, unfinished sentences or any unintentionally offensive jokes about pregnant ducks, greased door handles, dimples or whatever you may find sacred. There will be some religious content, but as an atheist I try to treat all religions equally. None of my further content is meant as anything political, religious or commercial by any means. I simply do this for fun. I'm only a modest guy trying to entertain.
I don't expect anyone to actually read all of the following (it turned out to be a lot more than I first had planned), but who knows? Maybe one of all you guys out there will find this interresting and fun to read, and it'll only take one happy reader to make my work worth continuing. Anyway, by reading this, you will get a good hint on what's to come as well as a little background enabling you to better relate to my future updates. This particular region consists of 9x8 large city tiles and only one of them is fully developed at this stage. I'm aware that it will be a total pain to finish it off, but I still intend to do so, giving you more detailed updates along the way ending up with full region pictures starting as soon as possible.
Maybe I should tell you that none of the content in the cities is my own. I have a plugins folder the size of Russia and all of it is randomly downloaded as I felt it was needed. There is no way I could possibly give credits for all you people working your kaboozle off making it, but if you recognize any of your work, please feel free to state so in a comment. All of you truly deserve the spotlight.
1. Shrine of the Pond of Time (Historical background)
Citrus City & the Gardens of Eden Conurbation area is the official name of a relatively new conurbation area, built on a site where a very old, very important forest used to grow. Today the site is known as the Gardens of Eden and it hosts places of utmost religious importance. The main attraction for tourism in the area is, and has always been, the Shrine of the Tree of Knowledge. The tree is, according to tales, supposed to have provided some random people, by God, forbidden fruit a long time ago. A lot of you have probably heard of this somewhere. It is mentioned in many famous literary works such as the inscriptions of a certain 'caveman', of whom nothing is known more than the few lines vaguely translated from a runestone dating as far back as 13000 bc, the christian bible and muslim/jewish equivalent, as well as being found depicted on mesopotamian cylinder seals more than 5000 years old, etc. However, to everybody's big dismay, the tree has now withered away due to countless years of rain, sunlight and other natural events. The second most famous tree, the Tree of Life, is still standing tall in the Seven Shrines' National Park in the southern parts of the CCA.
Apart from the villages connected to the seven shrines, the city started out as a logging camp, a paper mill and a small port. But as soon as the first railroad was implemented in the 1940s, the villages started growing rapidly due to the many religious pilgrims that decided to reside near the biblical sites and by the year of 1973 they had merged to form the first official township in the area, Eden City. Only five years later, the port of Wakefield had grown into a town as well and the people have never stopped moving in since.
2. Shrine of the Blossoming Forest (Geographical and Political traits)
The CCA is the second largest metropolitan area in a 'well doing' country named Limonia and is mainly situated on the southern coast of Eden Bay in the southern parts of the country. Apart from the heavily eroded coast, the region is rather flat with few drastic elevation differences, although it is slightly more hilly on the lesser populated, north side of the bay. The Citric Conurbation houses more than 3 million people, divided into a Metropolis, five Municipalities, three Townships and several smaller Villes (all but the latter are represented on the Citrus City Coat of Arms at the top of the page). These constitutions are not only divided for political purposes, but also in some cases, serve as cultural and sub-cultural borders. The entire region is covered by a lush forest, even in most of the urban areas. This, and the fact that the green Lime is a citrus fruit, has rightfully given the city the nickname 'The Green City'.
The constitutional zones are divided into Metropolises, Municipalities, Townships and Villes according to size and political importance. The main constitutional zones (1 metropolis, 5 municipalities and 3 townships) of CCA are as follows: Metropolis Citrus, Eden City Municipality, Whatland Municipality, Garden of Eden Municipality, Wakefield Municipality, Arthory Municipality, Township of Mark, Township of Granadine and Township of Woodland. Some of the more notable Villes are Lovepond Ville, Hemperville and Shroudtree Ville, known for various reasons.
3. Shrine of the Heavenly Journey (Transportation)
Most CCA citizens are regular users of the free of use CCA Service Network that includes commuter trains, trams, subway and buses to get to wherever they wish to go. The subway mainly serves the Citrus City Downtown area and the trams are only in use in the older parts of the CCA. The vast railway network however, reaches more or less every corner of the region and if you can't get there by train, you usually have multiple bus line options to choose from. The road network on the other hand is largely in need of a reconstruction as highways are rare and traffic congestions are common in all downtown areas in CCA. The main artery, the E1E (Eden 1st Expressway), only supports the coastal municipalities, thus leaving the inland towns to fend for themselves. Luckily the population density is relatively low and public transport is free.
Secondly, CCA is home to a few cruising ship companies with private docking and the old trading port in Wakefield. From there, you can reach the northern docks of Porose, the Harbour of Metroport on the outskirts of the country capital Minardon and also a few international ports in distant lands. There are also two international airports in CCA. The Global Citrus International Airport and the Eden International Airport, both of whom can take you virtually anywhere in the world.
4. Shrine of the Tree of Life (Health and Safety)
The health care in CCA is free and with unquestionable quality. Although the citizens are generally both fit and healthy. Many of the countless parks and recreational areas are supplied with webs of paths making them very inviting for exercising. Despite the widespread fastfood chains, the average CCA citizen is 'thin as a pin' according to a nationwide analysis and this is said to help the population stay healthy. It is also what the people of CCA usually blame their lack of football trophies on. For your own personal health, I strongly suggest that you avoid coming across a discussion on that particular subject.
The Police and Fire Departments are run by the same authority, the CCA Police and Fire Department Authority (duh). The crime rates are low in most of the region. The only real exception is Whatland. A deprived, partially delapidated municipality with loads of lower class neighbourhoods, highrises and welfare projects earning it nicknames like 'Grey City', 'Commonwealth Paradise' and 'Buttox', which is in fact the name och a Whatland suburb. Fires are also more common in Whatland than other parts of CCA due to the lack of funding and a general public interrest in setting other people's belongings on fire.
5. Shrine of the Tree of Knowledge (Education and sports)
The schools in CCA are on a nation average according to research and the number of students going on to further education after highschool at a tertiary school (university/college) is constantly on the increase. There are several smaller colleges throughout the CCA, but a few of them are more special than the others. Examples of that are the Eden Shrine College in Garden of Eden and the Royal Academy College and University of CCA in Citrus City.
The three main sports in Limonia are Baseball, American Football and Soccer (the kind of football that is actually played using the feet), but as I earlier mentioned, football is not to be spoken of within the CCA region. The CCA is home to no less than 5 teams in any of the three top divisions in the country. The biggest sports venues, the Lemondome (mainly soccer) and Cougars' Stadium (baseball) with a capacity of 90000 and 72000 respectively, can both be found in the Citrus City Downtown District or nearby. The teams playing there, attracting the highest attendance are Citrus FC (soccer), AC Metropol (soccer) and Citrus City Cougars (baseball). Sports in general is considered a very important aspect of the CCA lifestyle and the star players of the top teams all belong to the exclusive elite culture in the country and most of them have thousands of supporters combining nude cheerleading and chanting with occasional, appalling hunts for autographs.
6. Shrine of Divine Spirits (Religion and Culture)
Being a region of great religious importance, with people originally immigrating due to religious motives, a significant chunk of the population in CCA is somewhat religious, going to church, mosque, synagogue etc on a regular basis. The number of atheists is increasing however mainly because of the mutual understanding between different cultures and it is believed to keep on doing so for a very long time to come. The centerpiece of all religious activity in the CCA is ofcourse the seven shrines. All religions repesented within the CCA, with the protestant church being the largest one, all have their own 'houses of belief' as they are called, scattered throughout the region.
Central Citrus City is the self proclaimed home of the rich and the famous. They call themselves the 'Elites' and a large portion of them consist of young athletes, movie stars, entrepreneurs and heirs. The older generation of wealthy people have their own favourite spot in Woodland which is known for being the home of one of the fanciest and most delicate set of restaurants and shops in the world. On the other tip of the scale, Whatland have skyhigh unemployment rates and the most popular activities in Whatland often involve some kind of criminal act. Ofcourse CCA also houses a middle class, but they are rather dull and average. The smaller villages on the outskirts and surrounding the metropolitan area are usually middle class only.
7. Shrine of the Well of Eternity (The Future)
Constructiona on a brand new commuting alternative has already begun in affluent areas. The CCA Monorail is planned to be completed in the year 2018 and will serve the younger, northern part of the region as counterpart to the older trams in the south. The Citrus City Downtown and the Financial District in Arthory are constantly under Construction as big companies are queueing at the department for tower building permits. There is also serious ambitions to build a completely new urban center that will be ultra modern, but according to the mayor of Artory Municipality, that is still only a dream.
First update to look forward to will be the City of Eden!
Thank you for your time! I hope you enjoyed reading it, because I sure enjoyed writing it! Most of it spontaneously made up from scratch.
Mvh
LemonLime
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