32 - The Jangles [THW]

[Wingshaw]

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

###Latest WIP ###

[Mouse]

OMG! Those poor people!

Hi THW - no one is actually 'late' to start on the city, since there is no deadline.

Your off to a great start. I can see you thought this out really carefully. If we were giving prizes for the best intro you'd be on my list of nominations.

I've linked you up to the Main Index, so your all 'plugged in'

[Straf]

Heheh this is so messed up a concept. It's brilliant It sounds like Dr Custo should be the one having his sanity checked

[Falconius]

Good lord that's a strong concept! Nice job on that alone. This should be pretty exciting to see unfold.

[Tonnichiwa]

Wow, what a horrific tale. Hopefully the whole city doesn't go mad from all of the activity going on in the guild lately! I'm looking forward to seeing how you draw all of this out.

[kacey]

There's plenty of failed experiments coming out of the Biomedical, and Robotics department over in District 13, and the Asylum next door is getting awfully full. It looks like I'll have to send a few of them over to good old Dr.Custo, maybe they'll have a home after all.

[Mouse]

But I'm afraid you can't have any of my orphans!

Well... maybe the genuinely evil ones!

[Chashio]

Note to self: Don't check updates for this thread at bedtime.

Although I am much looking forward to seeing how you render this.

[Pixie]

Most original section, hands down!

You should trademark this part:
"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"

[Redrobes]

Wow ! So I have this rich guys mansion parked up against the favela / asylum ??? I think the gates on wall are going to be shut more often than not it seems.

Love the concept and your image of the water down the crevasse with the strong flow and noise matches up with how I envisioned it. You have Azelors shady district not too far away so this is a baaad part of town. My merchant is rich and lives in absolute luxury but I bet he is a dodgy low life scum at heart - not that you get that on the surface of course. Plenty of places to hire goons and plenty of places to get rid of excess body parts it seems.

Certainly seems to be a strong rich / poor to inside / outside wall thing going on around these regions.

Edit: Scratch that - Azelor is inside the wall. Ok so this is just a shady town everywhere !