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New Old York

Retrohistorical Polity

New Old York
Image from Steve Bowers

New Old York Habitat - Terran Federation. (Not to be confused with Nu-New York on New Earth, or New New-York on Terranova, and so on).

New Old York is a TF retroist habitat based on the lost city of York, United Kingdom, Old Earth (known as Old York from the Interplanetary Age onwards). It is housed in a single McKendree cylinder with counter-rotating light-collection systems.

This habitat is divided up unto a large number of different time zones, where citizens can roleplay as inhabitants of Old York at different times in its history. These zones are known as
  • Ebrauc - the ancient British settlement that predated the Roman invasion.
  • Eburacum - the Roman colonia and fortress on different sides of the habitat river.
  • Eforwick -The Anglo-saxon town centred around the early cathedral and school.
  • Jorvik - the Viking capital of the DaneLaw.
  • Yorrke - the medieval seat of the Archbishop and the Council of the North.
  • York- a major railway centre in the early Victorian Era
  • York City- A twentieth century (c.e.) town popular with revellers
  • Old York - the twenty-third-century (c.e.) European City of Culture, with its interactive historical museums and spacious mosque.
New Old York was constructed in 5445 AT, and for many centuries the time-zones remained largely separate, due largely to Authenticist influence. But by 7000 the inhabitants of these zones were regularly mixing with each other, blurring the boundaries between the (already fairly inaccurate) historical zones. The Victorian railway builders extended their steam-powered lines to all the other sections of the habitat, and citizens who worked in the various zones began to live in other zones and use these trains to commute. Legionaries in the Roman sector would live in the (relatively) modern comfort of the 23rd Century city and board the hissing steam trains to their camp; the hairy Danes would travel for a night out in the 20th century town to get drunk on the infamous Micklegate Run, and roleplaying Richard III enactors would have dinner with the chief of the Parisii and Mayor Hudson, the Railway King.

Despite the Authenticists' best efforts, by the ninth millennium the various time zones were hopelessly mixed, with vactrains carrying charioteers to worship in the vastly extended Universalist cathedral/mosque, and the retro-habitat became a peculiar temporal hybrid that drew tourists in its own right. The brief Plantagenet/Roman war was inconclusive, mostly because both sides attempted to use 23rd century weapons such as war-drones and smart-dust, but the local TF Bureaucrat stepped in and inhibited the function of these technologies.

In the current era New Old York is mostly famous for its night-life, and some echoes of the curious temporal-hybrid culture remain, making the hab a historical curiosity preserved by human roleplayers and humanoid charactervecs.
 
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Appears in Topics
Places and LocalesTerran Federation
 
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 02 September 2015.

 
 
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