32 - The Jangles [THW]
Well, I'm a bit late to the party, but here's my first WIP.
Site Description:
This site is squeezed into a valley with steep limestone formations on both sides of it. An underground river flows into the sinkhole lake. Part of the roof of the river has collapsed and been washed away, leaving a pit-like opening that reveals the water below. The sound of rushing water that rises from this pit is known as The Roar.
District Description:
The district was originally one of the suburbs of the city, and so inhabited by those too poor or otherwise disadvantaged to purchase or rent land within the city walls. A petty marketplace formed near the Roar, while shacks and hovels rose in favela chaos up the slopes of the hills, giving rise to the district's current name: The Jangles.
About 130 years ago, the Jangles became home to a very large psychiatric hospital. The Hospital was founded by the Society of Concerned Citizens and Reeves, with support from the Benevolent Society of Guild City, the Sacred Order of Whisperers, and the August Grandmaster of the City himself, concerned by the rising mental instability of some of the Jangles' residents. Sadly, despite the generosity of many wealthy benefactors and societies, the hospital was insufficient for the purpose. Although the Hospital kept on expanding, building new wards, dormitories, confinement cells, etc., the number of deranged people kept on coming.
Dr Samuel Custo came from a faraway land under a bit of a cloud. He had trained as both a bio-engineer and medical psychologist, and claimed to have perfected a method of restoring an individual to his or her senses. Madness, he argued, originates from a deficiency in the rational aspect of the brain. Machines, however, are exceptionally logical. Thus, he posited, replacing portions of the patient's anatomy with machinery would serve as an effective remedy to the insanity that plagued them.
The hospital gave him the position of Surgeon-Engineer and allowed him to begin work. His methods were immediately effective in alleviating the suffering of his patients, although it also had numerous side effects, such as mechanical malfunction and decreased social compatibility among the patients. Dr Custo began introducing changes to the hospital. Numerous chimney-stacks were erected to provide additional power to his mechanical operations. Dr Custo began using converted patients as labourers in the very factories that created parts to be inserted into other unfortunate people.
In the case of particularly badly affected patients, Dr Custo resorted to welding the concepts of anatomy, machinery and architecture together: patients became part of the brickwork, with pipes linking their vital organs all over the building, boilers providing the necessary fuel to power such bio-architecture.
Not many people will venture into the Jangles anymore, although people afflicted with a malady of the mind are still deposited at the edge of the district. The few people who are seen in the streets of the Jangles tend to have particularly blank expressions on their faces...
Neighbours:
16: Thomrey: the ribald king's domain [?]
17: Azelor: a place full of shady people
18: Daniel: weavers of shadowy things and black lacey things [?]
30: Redrobes: water merchants
33: ...
THW
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