Landmarks & Spots — An Illustrated Register

This article is an entry in the citizen-edited encyclopedia "Animalopedia." Its source of record is Animalia-Map. For district history see TMA-History-Animalia; for its bearing on daily life, TMA-Daily-Life; for how to get there, TMA-City-Guide. The illustrations for each entry are submissions from the citizens' sketching society and its night-view chapter 〔for some, the name of the one who drew it has not survived〕.

The Landmarks & Spots Register is an illustrated catalogue of the principal buildings, plazas, and burrows scattered across the city of Animalia. Entries lead with the "public face," and rumor is recorded afterward, as rumor. In keeping with the city's manners, what cannot be verified is left unverified 〔citation needed〕.

1. The Central District — At the Tower's Feet

The quietest downtown in the city, with the lowest crime rate of any ward. Administration and cutting-edge technology gather here. "Under the tower, carry an umbrella" — the saying refers not to rain, but to being watched.

Chronos Clockworks

A colossal clock tower that keeps standard time for the whole city. Its ticking, they say, can be heard anywhere in the Central District. The tower is said to house historical records from Animalia's founding era, though these are not open to the public. A children's nursery rhyme survives: "The day the clock stops, this city ends."

The Archive Vault

An information vault connected to the sublevels of Oracle Tower, holding the records of every citizen. Birth, relocation, betrothal, death — a citizen's entire life is said to sit here, one volume apiece. A request to view them has never once gone through. The ghost story that "whoever sees their own page forgets that they saw it" is one the staff decline to deny 〔citation needed〕.

Nexus Lab

An advanced research facility. Officially, a laboratory for climate tuning and public infrastructure. The occult magazine Moonside Monthly, meanwhile, runs screeds in nearly every issue on "biological modification," "memory rewriting," and "the scientization of the mystic arts," to which the city responds each time with "baseless rumor." The neutrality of this section is disputed.

The Oracle Broadcast Tower

The transmission tower for municipal broadcasting (in operation since AE 92). The popular verdict on its programming is "dull but accurate" (→ TMA-Media). Letters arrive at the radio station at regular intervals reporting that "a voice not on the schedule slips into the late-night signal," though each is said to be explicable as receiver malfunction.

Elysium Towers

Luxury residences towering over the Central District. Fitted with species-specific climate control, private elevators, and round-the-clock security, with rents starting at 6,000 AMT a month (→ TMA-Economy-AMT). Residents joke about "the coexistence of wealth and surveillance" — that here, being heavily guarded and being watched mean the same thing.

Crystal Skywalk

A transparent aerial walkway linking the skyscrapers, 300 m above the ground. The Central District's premier night-view spot. Those who have crossed it often say "the air up there is strangely easy to breathe" 〔by whom?〕. Ask them why, and they invariably mumble.

Oracle Tower

Animalia's tallest tower, at the heart of the Central District. It houses the headquarters of the administration and the city police, and ordinary citizens may not enter. To the citizenry, Oracle is "a well-made civic AI," and hardly anyone minds being shut out of the tower. "Mr. Oracle is watching" is a stock phrase for disciplining children.

This entry has long seen attempts to describe the sublevels, but however many times the text is added, it is gone by the next morning. No edit history remains, either. — And so this register depicts only the outside of this tower. As for what lies within, not knowing is a citizen's good manners 〔citation needed〕.

2. The Neutral Zones — Places That Are No One's Turf

The cluster of districts protected under Article Five of the Five-Family Accord, or held neutral by custom. Places where no weapon is drawn; places where people gather regardless of Family.

Neon Crossroads

A vast crossroads where the districts of the Five Families meet. Lined with stalls open around the clock, where AMT transactions and the barter economy mingle. A neutral market where the custom of "the crossroads where no one shoots" arose naturally out of the battle-weariness of the Decade of Blood, and where informants, arms dealers, and mystics stand shoulder to shoulder. The day begins with the steam rising from the Dawn Congee Stall (→ TMA-City-Guide).

The Memorial Wall

A wall of remembrance (AE 50) carved with the names of the dead of the Decade of Blood (AE 38–49), regardless of Family. It is held to be the one sanctuary in the city where no one draws a weapon. The flowers never run out, whenever you visit. Who lays them, no one checks (→ TMA-Religion).

Aurora Park

A giant park in the north. Holograms project an artificial aurora. One of the few peaceful places where citizens gather regardless of Family, and a standby for families with children. That said, the same bench can, by night, become the stage for a clandestine meeting or a deal 〔citation needed〕. That a place changes its use between day and night is the norm in this city.

Echo Station

The old central station, opened in AE 18 and closed in AE 71. The closure was announced as being "for a switch to a new line," but no successor station was ever built, and the reason for the closure has to this day never been officially explained. Covered wall to wall in graffiti, it has been rumored since the AE 100s to be a hideout of the underground resistance (→ TMA-Underworld).

Echoes Library

Animalia's oldest library, dating to the era of the Founding. It holds forbidden books and ancient texts and falls under the protection of Article Five of the Accord. Reading is free, but taking anything out is strictly forbidden, and the regulars' etiquette is "read and run rather than borrow." Late at night, they say, the sound of pages turning comes from stacks where no one should be.

Reflection Lake

A silent lake within the forest park. Because no signal reaches it at all, it has long been used as a secret meeting place. A legend holds that "the water's surface reflects the future," and now and then someone peers into the lake and goes home pale 〔no one will say why〕.

Tree Market

A market spread across the rooftops and skybridges of the high-rises. Business among the arboreal species is at its liveliest by day. Alongside rare goods and information, the market is famous for the signboards openly advertising "permit brokerage," and to walk past them untempted is considered the mark of a seasoned hand (→ TMA-Politics).

Nightfall Academy

A "shadow school" jointly funded by the Five Families (AE 58). Here the young of each Family study the combat, espionage, and mystic arts that the public schools do not teach (→ TMA-Education). Neither its location nor its admission requirements are made public, and its graduates say with one voice: "I was already enrolled before I realized it."

3. Nightlife and Spectacle

The cluster of establishments that come into their own only after the lamps are lit and the city's population has turned over. They wear two faces at once: entertainment, and coded socializing.

Nocturne Arena

An underground arena. The stage for "proxy duels of honor" between Families, it has functioned as a safety valve against open, head-on warfare. The etiquette of the stands: "praise the victor, see off the loser, and never speak of how the bets came out."

Blood Arena

An illegal underground arena said to lie in the deepest part of the Shadow Layer. If Nocturne Arena is "honor," this, they say, is the home ground of naked spectacle and gambling. Those who know where it is say little, and those who talk have usually never been 〔citation needed〕.

Masquerade Theater

A masked theater. Because audience and performers alike wear masks, you cannot tell who is seated beside you. Ostensibly an eccentric little playhouse, it is the subject of endless rumor as a coded social venue for bosses and informants — a stage for secret parleys and clandestine meetings.

Theater Tiatr

A secret theater that opens only at night. The audience, they say, is more mysterious than the program, and market prices are set in the small talk between acts. Along with the shadow-play house Silhouette Theater, it is a leading example of a "nighttime information exchange."

Mechanical Den

A gathering place for technicians (those versed in technology). A prime example of a "bad-signal" establishment, its regulars range from tinkering hobbyists to distinctly shady sorts. Here, they say, gather those who study — half as a hobby — a way of living that does not lean entirely on "convenient civic services."

White Noise Café

A café whose special building materials block all incoming signals. The moment your phone drops out of range as you step inside is the sign of a "winning seat," and the regulars are informants, engineers, and those who would rather not be seen. It is said to sell quiet more than coffee.

Midnight Café Noir

A late-night coffeehouse that comes into its own only in the small hours. Known as a perch for informants and fugitives, its regulars are remembered not by name but by "their usual seat." This too is a "bad-signal" establishment, and when the no-service icon appears, that, they say, is the cue that you may get down to business (→ TMA-City-Guide). The proprietor may remember a customer's face, but by the next day, by agreement, he forgets it.

4. Waterways, Underground, and Margins — The Blank Space of the Map

One page down from the center, and the outer rim. In this city, the more a place overflows the official ledger, the more eloquent it is.

The Veil Waterway

A network of waterways wrapped in mist through the Central District. With its stone bridges and the neon reflected on the water, it is one of the finest date spots — and, at the same time, a smuggling route of long standing. Its banks are an upscale residential quarter for aquatic species, and a night on the water is said to be best under a full moon (→ TMA-City-Guide).

The Underground Network

A network of passages spreading beneath the city, making use of the abandoned old subway. Said to be used in secret by the Five Families, it has no accurate complete map. Testimony that "I passed the ghost of a white rabbit with red eyes" has, for some reason, continued unbroken across the generations 〔citation needed〕.

The Shadow Layer

A lawless zone spreading underground. Fugitives, dissidents, and outlaws lie low here, and it has an economy all its own. "This is the one place the eyes of those 'above' can't reach," the hidden believe — but no one has gone to confirm whether that is true and come back (→ TMA-Underworld).

The Midnight Metro Line 13

A phantom subway that appears on no official route map. It runs only between midnight and 3 a.m. and is said to serve clandestine meetings between Families and the transport of contraband. There are those who claim to have "ridden it," but no one has ever been shown a ticket. The timetable appears in TMA-City-Guide, too, as a single line — it merely appears there, and no more.

Dustborne Slum

A slum that is, in effect, one continuous stretch with Broken Burrow. Unplanned additions have piled up ever since the Great Fire (AE 24), and many of its inhabitants have no residence registration. Poor, but fierce in mutual aid, its first law is "Never refuse a light" — if someone asks you to share the fire from your hearth, you never refuse.

5. The Eastern Otherworld — The East You'd Do Better Not to Approach

The old Eastyard industrial belt. Since the first observation of the electromagnetic anomaly "the Glitch Zone" in AE 108, most of the district's residents have moved out. "What you pick up in the east, return to the east" — the superstition that carrying off an item originating in the Zone brings a curse has spread across the whole city.

The Glitch Zone

An electromagnetic anomaly zone in the east. Electronics malfunction here, and even the streetlamps will not light. Testimony of the mirror-image kind — "I passed a resident with my own face" — has spiked in recent years. The occult magazines run an annual feature on "the place where you dream of Oracle." The old-timers who remain call this stretch "the Zone's edge" (→ TMA-History-Animalia).

Phantom Factory

An abandoned factory swallowed by the Glitch Zone. A remnant of the former manufacturing belt, it is now rumored to serve as a secret base for weapons manufacture and the production of counterfeit goods. The neighbors say that at night the sound of machinery leaks out, though no one should be running it — but the neighbors themselves are by now nearly all gone.

The Lunatic Sanatorium

A psychiatric hospital standing on a hill at the ward boundary. In recent years, they say, "voluntary admissions" have been on the rise — patients who complain that they "remember the same events differently from their families" (→ TMA-Daily-Life). Ghost stories of illegal human experimentation and memory manipulation never cease, but those who go to confirm them, it is said, do not come back 〔citation needed〕.