Londres Nova is the capital and largest city of Mars, located in the northern reach of the Aurorae Sinus. Approximately 40,000 people live and work there.
It is partly underground, and consists of a webwork of tunnels under the Martian permafrost, created over generations of colonists and prototerraformers, using the soil as insulation and radiation shielding in lieu of a planetary magnetosphere. Many of the tunnels are now used as tube stations. There are also ten domes pressing out to the surface; Salton is located under the largest agricultural dome.
The government buildings of the Martian Congressional Republic are located in the city's downtown, Aterpol. There is also a large university in the city; it consists of the lower university in Breach Candy, which is one of the oldest complexes in both the city and on the planet, and the upper university in Salton.
Roleplaying Game Description[]
Londres Nova, “New London,” is a city located in the northern reach of the Aurorae Sinus. Like most Martian cities, it’s a partly underground webwork of tunnels under permafrost, dotted with tube stations determining the social structure of the long since built-up residential areas. Ten agricultural domes press out to the surface, and seven neighborhoods radiate out below the surface. The oldest parts of the city bear the early marks of colonization, the scars carved into the planet by automated construction robots and the preference of the earliest colonists for function over form. Aterpol is considered the “downtown” of the city, with tube connections to all other neighborhoods, and shops and restaurants catering to the high-class residents able to afford the neighborhood. The Martian Congressional Republic keeps their offices in Aterpol, right beside the downtown area known as Olympia. The government regularly broadcasts sessions in debate, but few find them as lively as the byzantine politics of Earth. Salton has a high-speed surface monorail to the observatory at Dhanbad Nova, neatly connecting the upper university and technical clinics with the lower university in middle-class Breach Candy. Londres Nova’s two former industrial neighborhoods, Nariman and Martineztown, are struggling to reinvent themselves in the wake of obsolescence from technological development, with mostly lowerclass families living there. The worst parts of town are Innis Deep and Innis Shallows. Each has only a single tube route, making them cul-de-sacs and havens for Belter-like Martians: antisocial, independent, intolerant. Despite this, they’re perhaps the most welcoming to outsiders (if only because outsiders can’t get an apartment anywhere else), and Martians involved in social outreach move there to help the dispossessed. Drug dealers prowl the underbelly of the city, recruiting young chemists from the university to cook high-quality narcotics for sale to the Martian population.[1]
Neighborhoods[]
The city consists of seven communities[2] (called the neighborhoods):
| Neighbourhood | Notes |
|---|---|
| Aterpol | |
| Salton | |
| Breach Candy | |
| Nariman | Contains heavy industry |
| Martineztown | |
| Innis Deep | |
| Innis Shallows |
Trivia[]
Londres Nova, is composed of two words, with Londres referring to a Romance Language designation for London, and Nova is Latin for New.
References
- ↑ The Expanse Roleplaying Game, chapter 9 Mars
- ↑ The Expanse Novella: Gods of Risk