Old York
The skyline still stands, though nothing about it is straight anymore. Old York rises from water that swallowed the lower floors generations ago, its towers leaning at angles that seem to defy both engineering and gravity. What remains is one of the largest settlements in the wasteland: a vertical city where life stacks upward because the ground floor belongs to the flood.
Trade flows through Old York in volumes that few other settlements can match. Its docks handle cargo from the eastern seaboard, its markets deal in everything from salvage to secrets, and its population includes representatives of nearly every Lineage and Strain the wasteland has produced. The density breeds both opportunity and danger in equal measure. Entire communities occupy single buildings, and the politics between floors can be as complex and lethal as the politics between settlements.
The city draws people who want to be somewhere that matters. Whether that ambition leads to prosperity or a knife in the dark depends largely on who you know and how carefully you watch the stairwells.
Trade flows through Old York in volumes that few other settlements can match. Its docks handle cargo from the eastern seaboard, its markets deal in everything from salvage to secrets, and its population includes representatives of nearly every Lineage and Strain the wasteland has produced. The density breeds both opportunity and danger in equal measure. Entire communities occupy single buildings, and the politics between floors can be as complex and lethal as the politics between settlements.
The city draws people who want to be somewhere that matters. Whether that ambition leads to prosperity or a knife in the dark depends largely on who you know and how carefully you watch the stairwells.
Demographics
Old York's population includes representatives of nearly every Lineage and Strain the wasteland has produced. The density of the vertical city breeds communities that occupy single buildings, with the politics between floors as lethal and complex as the politics between settlements. The city draws ambitious survivors seeking opportunity in one of the few places where the volume of trade and population creates real economic mobility.
Government
No centralized government structure is detailed in available records. The city's scale and population density suggest multiple competing power structures operating across its vertical communities. What governance exists likely varies building by building and district by district.
Industry & Trade
Trade defines Old York's economy. The docks handle cargo from across the eastern seaboard, and the markets deal in everything from salvage to secrets. The volume of commerce flowing through the settlement rivals any other in the wasteland, sustained by a population large enough to support specialized trades and services that smaller settlements cannot maintain.
History
Corebook Era
The earliest records describe Old York as a half-drowned gang-land warzone. From Yonkers to Brokelands to Iron Gardens, the remains stood as testament to humanity's refusal to lay down and die. Where the city sank, Survivors took to the upper floors and sky-ways, while those on dry land built strongholds against the ever-present horde lurking in Old York's dark and forgotten places. The corebook describes a city where every creed and color could be found doing their level best to survive.
A sprawling post-apocalyptic metropolis rising from flooded ruins, one of the wasteland's largest and most active population centers.
