Crevus

Overview

The Free City of Crevus is a semi-autonomous city-state in the Democratic People’s Republic of Adhomai. It was founded in 2025 CE in Dras’nr as a safe haven for people escaping the increasingly harsh persecution by the Njarir'Akhran in mainland Ras’nrr. The city is a direct democracy. In modern times 2 million Tajara call Crevus home, and identify as Crevan. It is ruled by a Mayor and a city council.

The city is known as a place of incredible vice, tolerance, and wealth. Casinos, bars, smoke shops, and other unsavory businesses line every street corner. Unready Tajara can lose their entire life savings within hours of landing. However the city is also a place of remarkable social equality in contrast to traditionally conservative Tajara society, with Njarir'Akhran rubbing shoulders with Zhan-Khazan. There is a deeply ingrained philosophy of ‘live and let live’, which informs policy and the general attitude of the city. This philosophy maintains order and stability within the city as well as gaining them disreputable stereotypes from their neighbors who disparage the city and its inhabitants, often calling them Cravens in spiteful pun.

A Free Haven

Crevus is a sprawling metropolis on an otherwise lifeless and barren tundra.

Keeping with its original founding, Crevus continues to accept Tajara fleeing persecution - though these Tajara may be accepted with warm and welcome arms, they are still vulnerable to the unsavory elements of the city who will happily fleece them of their savings and belongings. Many residents that set up shop within the city use Cervus as a stepping-stone to enter human space for better opportunities outside Adhomai. The social equity between all Tajara within city are a matter of existential survival - the original refugees could not have survived if they followed the traditional tajara caste system, and this holds true today.

While robust social programs keep anyone from genuinely starving or going without, for large portions of its residents life is a daily grind of work and gambling. The basic subsistence many find lead them into seeking a more fulfilling life in one of the city’s club-wielding gangs or finding an escape from their life through the vices of the city’s underbelly. There are still entertainment venues like theatre, plays, cinema, opera, symphonies, or other high-class activities in more affluent areas of the city. These are still shared spaces with the rich bumping shoulders with the destitute. More often than not one becomes the other after a few hours of bad luck in a casino.

NanoTrasen representatives have several offices in Crevus, offering enticing work contracts for residents in Tau Ceti. NanoTrasen owns the city’s sole shuttleport that gives it access to space.

There is a Little Biesel enclave within Crevus by the river, where a small number of humans live. The first arrival of humans came shortly after actual human contact, and their numbers have waxed and waned in tune with how unstable Adhomai has become. The enclave surrounds a small plaza with a statue dedicated to Pam Hu, the science officer that lead human First Contact with the Tajara when she landed in Crevus.

Geography and The Gondola Wars

The land straddling the river is considered the most affluent area of the city and is where tourists tend to stick to. There are many hotels offering romantic gondola rides up and down the river during the summer seasons and turning that into ice-skating in the winter seasons. The sheer number of gondola businesses has spawned wars between hotels in the past with businesses hiring gangs to trash the other’s hotels. At one point in the 2450’s the turf wars got so bad that rival hotels were trying to sink each others gondolas in intentional ramming actions or sabotage. After several tourists nearly drowned or caught hypothermia the city government had to step in to keep the peace.

Climate

The climate and weather remain mostly stable, with the temperature being slightly warm and humid summers (with a temperature average of 15C) with winters falling below freezing (with the temperature average of -12C. The land that Crevus is settled on remains a barren tundra. During the winters the river freezes over and a cold gust keeps the streets mostly empty.

In the summer the frozen ice around the city melts, exposing the barren, ugly soil.

File:CrevusWinter.jpeg

In the winter there is nothing but snow and ice, leaving the world outside the city lifeless and merciless.

The Gangs

There are several hundred minor gangs that operate within Crevus City. They are treated as a resource by the establishments within the city, with minor gangs being hired as bouncers in casinos, or other businesses. They can also be paid to sabotage rivals’ business establishments. Minor gangs (often made up of only a few blocks at a time) also dabble in all sorts of unsavory businesses like smuggling, or trying to run their own ad hoc casinos with worn cards and broken poker tables reclaimed from the dump.

Gangs form within Crevus as a natural result of wealth disparity, social pressure, and active recruitment by gang members. Young Tajara are often faced with limited prospects within the city itself, and are bombarded with romantic stories about how their life would be so much better with their new family of a gang. Older Tajara are often in similar prospects.

The city police and government tend to hold the same tenuous understanding with the gangs that holds true for the rest of the city. The city is more than happy to street brawls or turf wars as long as they do not explode into wider violence or murder. And if a gang tends to grow larger and more successful, overtaking other smaller gangs, the city also takes notice and works to smash them to return to the status quo. The territories of the city’s gangs rapidly change monthly, with new ones coming to life and dissolving within a matter of years or months.

Most of the city is dangerous to travel at night from gangs roaming the streets and demanding protection money from anyone caught outside, and roughing them up if they are unable to pay unless they are considered ‘off-limits’ - these mostly being the elderly, children, politicians, and/or the handicapped or other helpless people. Hordes of pickpockets clean out anyone that isn’t a savvy local resident. Local code of gangs means most disputes or encounters do not end in murder, instead gangsters tend to typically beat the snot out of their enemies and drag them in front of a hospital with a warning to not do whatever it was that offended them in the first place. Serious injuries are still common as gang wars are often settled with clubs or shivs; guns are ruthlessly and efficiently controlled as a matter of existential survival since the city is filled with soldiers from nations at war with each other. Despite the large number of crime-committing gangs that roam the streets at night, the philosophy of "leave and let live" that the city carries shows in it's relatively low murder rates in comparison to others of its size, with an average of 100 homicides a year.

Politics and Military

As a direct democracy assemblies of citizens come together to vote on any policy forwarded by the Mayor or Council that will affect them. Things that would affect the entire city are put to a referendum.

The city is divided into Wards of around 10,000 Tajara in each district. For the purpose of voting, Wards are what is considered when determining who will need to vote when there is a new policy or initiative that does not affect the entire city.

Alongside the Mayor there is a City Council of which each member is popularly elected. They serve advisory roles and manage the arranging of assemblies.

There is a Crevus Court which handles the mundane judicial affairs of government. Each judge is also popularly elected and serve 2 year terms.

Voting is usually done over several days to give as many people as possible the chance to vote - though turnout varies. For example, a potential new highway that would cut through 8 Wards would need majority approval from each Ward. A new tax policy for the whole city would need a majority vote from the entire population.

The Mayor appoints people they want to run for various offices and these candidates must be popularly elected, and nearly all policy initiatives or major projects must similarly pass public scrutiny. Sometimes this means an unpopular mayor can have an unhappy city effectively shut down the government by consistently rejecting the Mayor’s reforms or candidate. Popular backlash has come be for both justified or (arguably) petty reasons, such as a new road being proposed that would tear down a favorite local establishment. The only qualification to run for Mayor is that a Tajara must be at least 24 years old. Tajara of every ethnicity and age group above 24 have been a mayor at some point in the city’s history.

The city has no standing army, with there instead only being a city police and a small militia made up of part-time volunteers in a single division numbering about 8,900 that also form the city’s fire department. This militia/firefighting unit is called the Free Brigade and is overseen by a Commander popularly elected by the militia/firemen for 6 year terms. The city has one small, ancient destroyer that patrols the ports, the locally famous Mr. Snuffles. The steam powered steel-hulled destroyer was built and earned its name in a popular poll in the 2080’s and dock inspectors often warn smugglers that “Mr. Snuffles is going to get you if you don’t watch it.”

Religion

The city government has always made a conscious effort to remain secular to avoid religious strife. The city is open to all religious institutions as long as they pay tax and do not cause trouble within the city. The tenuous peace that the city tries to maintain holds true between the worshippers of Ma’ta’ke and the Parivara, though due to its location and demographics followers of Ma’ta’ke make up the majority. Many Mayors at several times in Crevus’ history had to awkwardly mediate between the two faiths as tensions flared up.

The huge colossus of the minor Ma'ta'ke god Rredouane that greets incoming ships continues to upset the city's S'rrendar adherents.

Rredouane

Rredouane is often revered as the patron god of casinos and bars within the city. He is the brother of Ma’ta'ke and the god of valor, triumph, and victory and is unofficially the patron God of the Free City in its entirety. He is a powerful warrior and a revered captain of men who is also known for his love of games and gambling. At the northernmost shore on an artificial island, in a former star fort, there is a large colossus of Rredouane that stands 275ft tall from its feet to its raised goblet. Construction was passed in a contentious referendum in 1983 CE, with Suns worshipers deeply uncomfortable with such a huge religious icon for a, to them, false god towering over the city. It shows Rredouane holding up a goblet with an arm outstretched towards the sea, beckoning sailors with promises of games and fun. He holds a sword that displays his warrior status. No casino or bar is considered legitimate until they have a painting or statue of Rredouane.

Crevus is a popular gathering point for Raskara cultists. Cultists are known to come to the city to party their brains out. Repeatedly being uprooted and kicked out of the city for their more deadly or horrific rituals the cult has slowly learned to not wear out their welcome by being public with the things they do; their main gatherings is a particularly seedy nightclub called The Lock where sometimes less people come out than went in. The Lock always relocates and gains its followers no matter how many times its burnt down, broken up by police, or smashed by fearful gangs. There is no shortage of abandoned buildings that can fit speakers, flashing lights, smoke machines, and music. Hopeful entrants into the club only need to speak the 2-word password to get in.

History

The original city founders were disgraced nobility and who lead a large convoy of refugees and exiles. They travelled the Sum’add sea trying several times to make landfall on the coastline of Das’nrra, but they were repeatedly repulsed by local noblemen. They finally managed to make landfall in a remote, barren tundra that none of the surrounding nobles bothered to claim. The region was utterly devoid of life or natural resources.

The rapidly growing shantytown that would become Crevus had to adapt quickly to survive, and this emphasis has shaped the city even to this day. The original leaders were forced to tap into the skills of all of the settlers regardless of ethnic or class divisions - Njarir'Akhran exiles and Hrhar schooled in civic engineering and urban planning organized the settlers into work groups that focused on their merit rather than their ethnicity. They were able to develop their new home into a prosperous port city despite a lack of natural resources.

Crevus struggled to maintain its independence as its growing wealth and strategic importance made it a juicy target for conquest. Several times the city was invaded and occupied by a neighboring kingdom, and even being sacked by a neighbor in 2098 after siding with the loser in a wider regional conflict. After that harrowing experience Crevus’ leadership learned a valuable lesson, and for the rest of its days Crevus would consistently maintain a policy of neutrality, using its vast wealth to pay off potential invaders with regular tribute.

This status quo would end dramatically in 2418. Inmid-summer a strange transmission was repeating on ham radios and wireless receivers across Adhomai, repeating a single message in the halls of the Noblemen and miltary generals who exclusively had use of radio technology. It was Alliance Representative Pam Hu announcing the arrival of humanity and their intended landing in the Free City of Crevus, which was a tributary of the neighboring and much larger Das'nrra Empire. The city regularly paid obscene amounts of wealth to avoid conquest.

The Free City of Crevus became host to hundreds of nobles from all across Adhomai. All of the important leading families came to Crevus. Mayor Juhrakur spent obscene amounts of the city’s funds entertaining the visiting noblemen and the alien dignitaries. Crevans were the first to become translators for the humans. With this and their ability to act as brokers, Crevus became the link between humanity and Tajara. Once Pam Hu and her team integrated into the Tajara language and customs, within a year of forming their permanent enclave members of her science team were in the casinos and clubs doing ‘field research’.

During the Uprisings following humanity’s cataclysmic impact upon Adhomai Crevus’ neutrality was immediately made impossible. It was a hotbed of revolutionaries with popular support forcing the hand of Mayor Su’ta. By 2430 Crevus announced its support for the Revolution and threw its weight against the nobility, deporting a large population of monarchist supporters and Das’nrra noblemen who swore they’d be back. While the Das'nrra Empire was too preoccupied with mass uprisings to retaliate, other factions of the monarchists attempted an invasion from the sea. The city still had Mr. Snuffles at the time, though the incoming transports full of eager M’sai Enforcers were unimpressed by the decrepit and ancient little ironclad destroyer moored to port and ignored it as they approached the mouth of the large river with plans to disembark in the heart of the city.

But Mr. Snuffles launched a torpedo at their escorting cruiser that was following the transports from the rear when it reached the mouth of the river, sinking it, killing the commander of the invasion force, and trapping the confused transports that now couldn’t escape from the blocked passage. On the banks militiamen sprung their trap, and controlled demolitions also blocked the river in front of the transports, leaving them trapped with no room to maneuver or attempt a landing. Despite being old, Mr. Snuffles small, single forward gun easily sunk several unarmored and unmoving transport ships while militiamen on either side of the river rained bullets down on the invaders until the survivors surrendered. The Monarchists were unable to target Crevus again for the remainder of the uprising, and it was able to splurge its finances on considerable loans to the Revolution.

The City was as eager as the rest of Adhomai for the Presidency of Al’marii Hadii. But his assassination in 2451 sparked the civil war that still ravages Adhomai to this day. This moment and its aftermath ended the city’s era of optimism and hopes for a golden age. With neutrality once again impossible, Mayor Mul Shu’yya threw nominal support behind the Adhomai Liberation Army as they controlled swaths of the surrounding regions and could devastate the city if they wanted.

Modern Day

But by 2460, despite paying lip service and extraordinarily large sums of tribute to the Democratic People’s Republic of Adhomai, the city-state allows its ports and businesses to be open to Tajara from any slice of life or nation. It remains a hugely popular tourist trap for Tajara and even a small population of humans. It is one of the only places on the planet where soldiers from the PRA, ALA, and even NKA can encounter each other in bars or casinos. While there is a tenuous peace kept between these factions by the local militia and police, sometimes open brawling in the streets cause portions of the city to kick out all enlisted men from one or all of the factions for weeks at a time.

The current Mayor of Crevus City is Mazula Azaula, a 58 year old m’sai woman known affectionately as ‘Granny’ by the residents. She is formerly the commander of the city militia and despite running the city continues to operate a dive bar in the basement of a local arts and crafts store. All of the coasters in the bar are hand knitted by her 16 grandchildren. She’s 3 years into her term.

Potential Character Concepts

Characters from the Free City of Crevus are likely to:

• Subscribe to any of the known Tajaran faiths.
• Enjoy gambling.
• Have been a refugee at some point in their life or family history.
• Have a laid back attitude.
• Signed up with NanoTrasen to find meaning and adventure outside the city.

Here is an example character from Crevus City:

Nashwa Hanar, 34, is an m’sai bartender who currently works for Nanotrasen, currently stationed on the NSS Aurora. She is quiet and enjoys listening to people tell their stories.

• Hanar is 5’2” and has a slim build, likely 130 lbs. She has decent posture but usually stands with her weight on one leg. She has blue eyes and keeps her hair in a bun.
• Hanar currently lives on Biesel in a tiny single-room apartment in Mendell City, though once a month she returns to Crevus to see her family.
• She sends remittance back to her husband and their two children. Her husband is disabled after losing his legs in a fishing trawler accident and they are trying to save up to give him prosthetics.
• Hanar deeply resents ATLAS for being a potential threat to her future. She has no issues with Vaurca and wishes Tau Ceti did a better job accommodating them. She dislikes the DPRA and PRA but changes who she vocally sides with depending on what is safest in the current conversation. She dislikes the NKA because her family fought against the monarchy in the first revolution.
• Hanar speaks Siik’maas, Tau Ceti basic, and sign language.

Here is a second example character from Crevus:

• Khrazmrrug Nejem, 47, is an njarir’akhran surgeon who has worked for Nanotrasen for 14 years. He throws himself into his work and genuinely enjoys it.
• Nejem used to volunteer in the Crevus Militia and has a deep sense of pride for his civic duty. He keeps his old rifle mounted on the wall of his apartment and takes it down to show off to guests.
• Nejem is 5’3” and has a lithe, athletic build, about 150 lbs. He has great posture and moves with confidence. He has dark blue eyes and spikey hair.
• Nejem lives quietly with his partner of 8 years in an apartment on the Odin. Both of them split the rent for the room, with his partner working as a bank teller elsewhere in the Odin.
• Nejem’s dedication to his work has caused tension with his partner, though Nejem is too stubborn to want to take on less work to see him more.
• Nejem has a hard time liking Tau Ceti because of its exploitative government but finds it better than the rest of the galaxy. He has a deep hated for the PRA for their homophobic legacy and for the same reason detests the DPRA. He tries to avoid talking about politics because he cannot help himself from putting both factions on blast and he knows how dangerous this can be. He has no opinion on the NKA.
• Nejem speaks Basic, Siik’maas, and Siik’tajr.