December City Districts

The following is to give players an overview of the regions the city is divided up into as well as a basic 'feel' for the city. Feel free to use this as a springboard for where your character lives/works/plays/plots and nothing is 'claimed', so if you want to say your character has a secret lair beneath The Menagerie, or owns the Wingfield Art Museum, the city is literally your playground...including making up businesses for your character and placing them in the appropriate district.



1. The ‘Eye’:

Like it’s more reputable counterpart to the south, the ‘eye’ of December City possesses a label that seems at odds with the more logical names of the other areas of the city. Ask a resident about it and the usual explanation is that if you look at the map of the city as a whole it very roughly resembles the head of some great, weird beast, and the Eye is where, naturally enough, the eye would be located.
Far from the importance one might think such a location would have, the Eye is the part of town that people are advised to avoid if at all possible. It’s the poorest, most sparsely populated and the most dangerous…a region of rundown buildings, abandoned railroad tracks, furtive drug deals (and other, even more sordid negotiations) conducted on dimly-lit street corners, crumbling sidewalks and poorly maintained roads; a sharp contrast to the glitter and sophistication the rest of the city so proudly displays.

There are a few legitimate businesses clinging to life here; cheap motels, convenience stores, gas stations, faded family diners and the like along with the paper mill and the aircraft parts manufacturer that are the last two industrial plants remaining in the city, but the Eye is more known for the far seedier establishments like the sex shops and strip clubs. Most of December’s homeless population is found here as well, though whether they naturally drift to the area or are discreetly dropped off to keep them away from the tourist spots is up for debate. Housing here occupies the lowest end of the spectrum…decrepit apartment buildings, small tent cities that occasionally crop up among the scant clusters of woods and rusted mobile home parks. What few proper old houses that are left from decades past have been boarded up and left to rot.

2. Market District:

Acting as a buffer of sorts between the depression and potential danger of the Eye and the suburban homes of the ‘Neck’ is the Market District…so called because the bulk of the ‘normal’ residents of December can actually afford to shop and make their living here. The Market District is a slice of commercial middle-class America and is the main connector between December City and the interstate.
There is some trickle down of the crime that’s rampant throughout the Eye but in general you can expect emergency services to arrive in a decently timely fashion and walking outside at night isn’t viewed as an open invitation to be mugged, or worse.


4. City Center (Business District):

Also known as the Business District, the center of December City is a sea of glittering glass and metal towers where corporate sharks and savvy business moguls, corrupt or otherwise, conduct their affairs. It's the financial and administrative hub of the metropolis, and is where the hospital, police and fire departments, as well as the port authority reside. The December City zoo and Aquarium is here as well, and the only museum outside of the Art District…the Cumberland Natural History Museum.

The heart of the DCM is located almost in the dead center of the district; and its labyrinthine tunnels snake out beneath the city to stations in every district except the Eye and the Neck. Other, far older tunnels can be accessed from some of these, with a few even tapering out to caves on the coast itself. From time to time thrill-seekers will ignore the warning signs and clamber over the protective barriers in search of excitement and maybe even hidden pirate treasure.

 Some of these people never come out again, and the December City police often issue public reminders that the metro tunnels are off-limits to everyone but official city employees.

  Mysterious tunnels are the least of December’s worries though. The Archer Building, once the tallest in December City, was a forty story marvel of modern engineering that stood a few blocks from the marina and housed the main offices of three of the wealthiest corporations. Less than a month ago, however, the city was rocked by an explosion so powerful that the entire skyscraper was brought down; leaving behind only a desolate ruin of charred concrete, steel, ashes, and shattered glass. Several nearby buildings were heavily damaged, but nothing even close to the grim fate of the Archer tower itself. The crater of the footprint is still barricaded off for safety while the cause of the explosion is being investigated by local authorities.

5. Club District:

As the name suggests, the Club District is the go-to destination for nightlife entertainment in the city. There are pricier options to be had here for both shopping and socializing, but the area mainly provides distractions for people of all but the poorest income brackets. Waterfront restaurants and public beaches on one side and the fact that the suburban neighborhoods of the Neck border the other has created a reality where the more mundane bars and other hang-outs occupy the eastern and western regions of the District and the classier, exotic, more niche, and/or more expensive clubs are located in the north, middle, and south.


6. Crown District:

There are no illusions at all over who this part of the city was built for…the rich, the powerful, the influential, the elite. Million dollar beachfront homes, private, tightly guarded gated communities. Yacht clubs, golf courses, luxury spas, resorts, their own private marina, and very much private beaches. Going here for a regular citizen virtually always involves either a huge splurge to go to one of the five star restaurants here, a student receiving a scholarship to attend the affluent Grayson College (most December City college students who don’t leave home to go to school choose the Fairfax Community college or the December City branch of the University of Virginia; both located in the City Center) or being lucky enough to be afforded an invitation by an actual resident of the district.

The actual city port lies on the southern coast of the district, and the docks and warehouses that surround it, but for the most part the Crown District is the kingdom of the December City elite.

7. Arts District:

The Arts District is the epicenter of fine art and culture in December City, most notable for its charming horse-drawn carriage tours, tea houses, wine bars, galleries, theaters, and the Wingfield Art Museum (which used to be the Wingfield Sanatorium).  At the middle of the District lies the neatly manicured trees, lawns and flowerbeds of Poe Park, December’s smaller but still sprawling echo of NYC’s Central Park. More morbidly the southeast corner of the region is dominated by the somber, wall-encircled spectacle of the Tranquil Gardens Cemetery; an expanse of elaborate tombstones and above-ground mausoleums that attract goths, genealogists and architecture buffs alike.

8. Park District:

The Park District is the heart of December City ‘family friendly’ tourism. The boardwalks, fishing charters, public beaches, mini golf courses, and the flashy spectacle of the modern amusement park Arcadia and the Mattaponi water park five blocks away are all found here…as are the bulk of the condos and non- 5 star (but still not cheap) hotels.

9. Sarkany Island:  

Accessed by boat or the Meriweather Public Ferry, Sarkany Island is a relic of the past. If you want water slides, thrill rides and wave pools, then head to the Park District, if you want the nostalgia of amusement parks of yesteryear, then Sarkany and its still functioning park The Menagerie is for you. First opened in 1901, The Menagerie boasted rides and attractions that were cutting edge technology for the time, as well as a darker legacy…the freakshow. The freakshow closed in 1936, but a small museum of ‘oddities’ remains.

There’s something enigmatic about the island with its haunting, empty beaches and dark woods; a fitting setting for the vintage park possessing a pair of wooden roller coasters, an old-fashioned ferris wheel, funhouse, mirror maze, pond with swan and dragon-shaped boats, and the centerpiece of it all…a gigantic antique carousel replete with over 50 hand-carved animals. The only house on the island is the old mansion originally belonging to István Mészáros- the creator of The Menagerie.