The Split
The skeletal skyscrapers of a once-great industrial city rise above a convergence of massive pre-fall highways, and every faction within a hundred miles knows exactly what that convergence is worth. The Split is the only overland route connecting the Nor'East to the western wastes that is not controlled by the Ironworks or flooded by the Missory Bay. That makes it the most lucrative chokepoint in the region, and that makes it a warzone.
No unified governance holds the city. Control of the highway junction changes hands between rival gangs, trading companies, and mercenary forces with a regularity that has become its own kind of economy. Bribes, protection rackets, and the occasional burst of gunfire are the cost of doing business here. Traders accept the price because the alternatives are worse: weeks of detours via Missory Bay ferries or paying extortion prices to the Ironworks rail lines through undead-infested wasteland. The strange gamble of The Split, where the toll collector might change between your arrival and departure, is still faster and cheaper than going around.
The city itself is a ruin. Whatever industry it supported before the Fall has left behind a landscape of empty factories, shattered overpasses, and collapsed parking structures. The highways that made it strategically vital are cracked and pitted but passable, which is more than can be said for most pre-fall roads. Yorkers have staked claims here alongside Old York and Delphia, drawn by the same logic that draws everyone to The Split: position is everything, and this position controls the bottleneck between east and west.
No unified governance holds the city. Control of the highway junction changes hands between rival gangs, trading companies, and mercenary forces with a regularity that has become its own kind of economy. Bribes, protection rackets, and the occasional burst of gunfire are the cost of doing business here. Traders accept the price because the alternatives are worse: weeks of detours via Missory Bay ferries or paying extortion prices to the Ironworks rail lines through undead-infested wasteland. The strange gamble of The Split, where the toll collector might change between your arrival and departure, is still faster and cheaper than going around.
The city itself is a ruin. Whatever industry it supported before the Fall has left behind a landscape of empty factories, shattered overpasses, and collapsed parking structures. The highways that made it strategically vital are cracked and pitted but passable, which is more than can be said for most pre-fall roads. Yorkers have staked claims here alongside Old York and Delphia, drawn by the same logic that draws everyone to The Split: position is everything, and this position controls the bottleneck between east and west.
History
The Split was a pre-fall industrial city at the crossroads of massive highways and freeways south of the Great Lake. Its strategic position at the junction of overland routes made it a contested prize almost immediately after the Fall, and it has remained one ever since.
No single faction has held the city for long. The highways that converge here represent the primary overland corridor between the Nor'East and the western wastes, and every group with the strength to take a section of road has tried. Control shifts regularly between gangs, trading companies, and mercenary forces, each collecting tolls and protection fees from caravans that have no practical alternative route. The Ironworks controls rail to the north, the Missory Bay floods the southern approach, and the wasteland between is thick with undead. The Split, for all its violence, remains the best option.
The city continues to function as a warzone where the stakes are transit rights rather than territory for its own sake. What matters is the road, and whoever holds the road holds the purse strings of east-west trade.
No single faction has held the city for long. The highways that converge here represent the primary overland corridor between the Nor'East and the western wastes, and every group with the strength to take a section of road has tried. Control shifts regularly between gangs, trading companies, and mercenary forces, each collecting tolls and protection fees from caravans that have no practical alternative route. The Ironworks controls rail to the north, the Missory Bay floods the southern approach, and the wasteland between is thick with undead. The Split, for all its violence, remains the best option.
The city continues to function as a warzone where the stakes are transit rights rather than territory for its own sake. What matters is the road, and whoever holds the road holds the purse strings of east-west trade.
