The city quest continues - with moved goal posts!

[sparkindarkness]

And added bonus of all the suggestions is it showed some more objections I didn’t know I had :) I was aware of them as possible but didn’t think I’d have many options so I thought I may have to give up on them.

So, extra conditions I’m taking into account (AKA Sparky‘s Moved Goal Posts):

1) The Sept of Gaia Triumphant was a Croatan Caern that was brutally stolen/nobly liberated by the Silver Fangs. Part of the ongoing theme of peacekeeping in the plot will be making overtures to the other Native tribes - the Uktena and the Wendigo.
Soooo... the city cannot be in areas that are canonically Uktena or Wendigo (northern Canada, south west US)

2) The sept of Gaia Triumphant was also conquered relatively early in the settlement of the US - ideally the city shouldn’t be tooooo far west (it doesn’t have to be an OLD city, since it could have been conquered long before humans got there, but it does have to be an area that western Garou would have been able to reach)

3) Hopefully, canonically, it will have the right werewolf populations that I have in my Septs.

4) The urban Sept is dominated by Glass Walker werewolves which, in turn, are rather out matched by a large and powerful vampire population. This really means that the city has to be rather large and have a powerful and/or diverse economy otherwise it simply wouldn’t interest the Glass Walkers enough or support the vampire presence

5) There has to be an element of back of beyond to the forest. This is not a forest where people go picnicking and hiking. This is the trackless wilderness where Red Talons will EAT YOU nom nom nom if you get too close to the Sept.


I was doing a lot of research on each city (political history etc) but first I think i need to weed out the options that my moving goal posts can’t let me have. So a list of those that I’ve had to put aside. To come debates on which one to go for!


Firstly I have to remove any city that has a British city’s name - because it’s going to cause all kinds of mental gear grinding. No matter how often I say “Birmingham Alabama” I’m going to think of lots of Brummies running round.

Because the city has to be relatively decent sized (at least it has to be big enough that I can expand it to suit the chronicle without completely ruining any research I may do) that counts a few cities out. Ideally the population would be 250,000+ and much bigger for preference

Maryville, TN Beautiful surroundings, great, close national park but just far too small - if I increase its size then I might as well make up a whole new town. Tomah, WI Is also out due to it’s small seize. Bangor, NH and La Crosse, WI aren’t so small that I couldn’t expand it but I would have to maul it a lot to bring it up to scale and if I do that then there’s not much point me researching it?

My need for a city that’s at least fairly east has stymied me more than a little - but I can’t get away from the story need of the Caern being taken from the Croatan by force and early in America’s settlement:

This rules out Seattle, Porland (Which is a crying shame), Salt Lake City (which, frankly, nearly made me throw out my “needs to be fairly eastern” requirement because there‘s a whole load of forests round there) Billings, MT, Denver C... uh, what‘s the second letter you use for Colorado anyway? CO? Probably CO

I need a city that fits the werewolf populations I have. I can’t have my extra-diverse Sept if they’re in an area that’s canonically dominated by 1-3 tribes (which is why I ruled out Europe). In particular this means avoiding Uktena, Wendigo and Fianna territories:

So anywhere that’s slap bang in the middle of Appalachia, or too close to Appalachia is out. Chattanooga. Anchorage is pure Wendigo territory (though having hunt down Palingites - evil Wyrm creatures of corruption would have been fun). Atlanta is out because of the situation with the city’s vampires and DC is out because of the issues running in the capital would bring

Comments

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

Why is Appalachia out?

Have you considered Huntsville? It's in Alabama, similarly close to wilderness areas, has a really nice clash between the technocrats (heavy space/NASA industry) and the hick rednecks culture (it is Alabama after all.) There are a bazillion and one nearby caves and wilderness areas -- some of which are Nom-Nom-Nom territory. It's fairly small as a city, but it's still city-sized.

[drharper.livejournal.com]

Might consider Nashville, TN. It's been booming pretty good and, although it's pretty far from the Smokies, there's a large number of State Parks in easy driving distance.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Just as a stray thought, had you considered using a decomissioned military base? Almost all military bases have towns built up around them, are widely multicultural, and many are in very strange locations. Ft. Leonard Wood might suit some of your needs, or at least give you some more on the "can't/gotta have" lists.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Ottawa, Canada still fits all your needs.

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

Raleigh, NC is a large city with a substantial high-tech industry (good for Glass walkers) and financial and social presence (good for vampires). It has the advantage of being in the area that was traditionally Croatan - the mid-Atlantic seaboard. It might be too close to the Appalachians for your taste.

You're going to have some trouble with 'Croatan but not near the Appalachians', depending on what the Croatan range was exactly (I'm out of touch with the more recent round of WW setting stuff). I always think 'Roanoke Colony', since that's where they got the name from.

How close do the urban and rural septs need to be?

Take a look at:
http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS

And in particular:
http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=stateView&state=nc&map=nceast

I especially like:
"The smallest of North Carolina's designated Wildernesses is just south of Great Lake in the middle of Croatan National Forest. The lake is acidic, the Wilderness a trailless pocosin (see Pocosin Wilderness, above), and the few who visit are a hardy breed who can cope with the deep muck, alligators, biting insects, poisonous snakes, and tangled masses of vines and shrubs. People come to see the wildlife and plants, but they rarely stay long. In case you fancy yourself to be the exception to that rule, be forewarned that there are no campsites."

Unfortunately, the Carolina coast isn't heavily populated. Raleigh's the nearest large city, and it's about 100 miles away. Though actually...you could look at Norfolk, VA. It's a large city with plenty of industry to interest the Glass Walkers (it's home to the largest US Navy base, major shipyards, etc), it's among the first settled areas of the US, and there's certainly wilderness nearby that isn't much touched, though it's more 'swamp' than 'forest'.

[gnarlycranium.livejournal.com]

Harumph. How early is early, anyhow? Seattle was settled in 1851 (by some very bright people that kept trying to put it back up after it kept getting flooded away at high tide), dunno where that falls in your plan.

Although, the indians are a problem. Washington and Oregon have some pretty massive reservations (as such things go. Like 1/6th the total area of Oregon, for instance). Great places to get fireworks. The main reservation in Washington is across the Sound, over by the Olympics and such.