A quick paragraph (hah, quick indeed) on each of the city-states in the Northern Lights Confederacy. You never know when something like this will come in handy... VALERIA-PORT AURORA Twin city, the capital of both the Northern Lights Confederacy and the Confederated Northern City-States. Contains one of the only spaceports on Terra Nova, and is where the governments and militaries of the North are centred. After suffering heavy damage during the St. Vincent's War, it was rebuilt into a truly grandiose capital. INNSBRUCK Situated high in the Tershaw mountains, and is the premier mining city of the NLC. It also has a strong heavy industrial base. However, it's more famous for being the home of the Innsbruck Death Track 1000, an annual Heavy Gear competition halfway between gladitorial dueling and car racing. It's more famous again for being the brewing capital of the North - home of such favourites as Cascade Beer, Innsbruck Ale and Fenris Lager. KENEMA The motor city of the NLC, home of six automotive and defense contractors including Nova Motors and Shaian Mechanics along with many smaller manufacturing firms. Unfortunately also a hot spot of Norlight crime, with street gangs and underworld organisations fighting a bloody street war. Special police units try to keep the peace but are fighting a losing battle. LIVINGSTONE The "City of Steel", a heavy industry town where the vast majority of the citizens are factory workers. The most powerful groups in the city are labour unions. Kathe Adjanni, president of the NLC, calls this city home. PETROPOLIS Situated atop a mammoth petrolium deposit and little more than a giant oil pumping station and refinery owned by Northern Petrochem, it supplies more than half the petroleum consumed by the CNCS. Rated "Worst Place to Live" by Terra Nova magazine. "Best Average Income" in the North, report Arctic Economist magazine. Constantly enshrouded in thick yellow smog and nasty oily stench. That it's livable at all is largely due to the efforts of Thor Hutchinson, as Petropolis was his first congregation and he used the church as a rallying point for a powerful reform movement that swept the city in the TN 1870s and 1880s. SORRENTO Agricultural community centre, most famed for being the birthplace of the Gentle Prophet, Mamoud Khodaverdi, and for being the place his lifelong companion Nathani Reiss returned following the Prophet's death to establish the Sorrento wing of Revisionism. Since the formation of the church, approximately one-third of the city's population is pilgrims visiting the various sites from the Prophet's lifetime, moast notably the four "miracle churches" (each built on a site where Mamoud performed a miracle). Sorrento is the centre of Northern Revisionism. EXETER Perfect, model Norlight community. Clean streets, NLC flags flying on almost all private residences, beautiful white marble city hall, almost non-existant crime rates. So pleasant that it tends to unnerve visitors, and is a favourite topic of conspiracy theorists - untracable sedatives in the water supply, government testing mind-control drugs, alien psychic lasers etc. Heavily reliant on agriculture, especially dairy products. Home of the famous Pride of Exeter brand of ice cream. FRANKLIN HARBOUR Located in the mountains on the southern shore of the North's largest body of water, Lake Clearwater. Bustling tourist town, with health spas and resort facilities. Famed for its mud baths, mineral springs, saunas and fresh mountain air. Also a major producer of health foods (indeed in the Badlands, serving "Mountainfresh" spring water to an honoured guest is considered a sign of great wealth). Houses several Jerusalemite communes and has seen some religious conflict recently. KOSSUTH Along with Petropolis, Kossuth is one of the NLC's biggest energy producers - its infertile ground has been given over to ten thousand square kilometres of wind and solar farms. The city in the centre is a giant service station surrounded by private homes and a few energy-hungry industries. The entire region is the property of state-owned corporation Norlight Power. Contains the largest Norlight commune of the semi-religious Order of the Blue Crescent. SESSHU With outrageously generous social programs funded by a hastily-signed agreement with the NLC several hundred cycles ago, Sesshu is primarily a town of students (as opposed to people who study) and artists. Contains the Sesshite Dispensation District, where morality laws are suspended, which provides a useful outlet from the morally strict Norlight mainstream and attracts a great many tourists. SKADI The lumber capital of the NLC. Surrounded by huge forests and containing dozens of lumber mills and furniture, building material and paper factories. Inhabitants have a reputation as being loud, boisterous lumberjack types with biting wit and a fine palate. SMOLENSK The NLC's most important grain centre, a gray island in a sea of gold. Pipelines ship the grain harvests from the outlying villages into the city. Also home of state-owned NLC Rail, and its main headquarters and many of its maintainence and storage facilities are here. YELE The most important pharmaceutical production centre on the planet. Hundreds of different medicinal plants are raised by local farmers and processed by Yele's giant drug companies. Also home to the Yele Medical Centre, reputedly the best hospital on Terra Nova, and able to perform the most advanced medical treatments known to Terranovan medicine, including genetic reconstruction, viral surgery, tailored anti-pathogen viruses and advanced cryogenics. ZAGAZIG "The most boring place north of the equator", a quiet community with an unusually mild microclimate that makes it a popular retirement spot. Contains the prestigious Wententhal University, famous for its engineering and architectural programs. Also contains the CNCS' main landship shipyards, including civilian shipyards and the headquarters of Overland Cruise Lines. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | This is pointless and will only promote in-jokes and cliquism.| -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-