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New Babbage is a steampunk city currently 12 regions in size. Builders, Scripters and Roleplayers live here.

Founded and originally owned by Shaunathan Sprocket in 2007, until during the elections for new mayor in 2008, Mossveno Tenk won and bought the sims, becoming the new mayor. Roleplay is common but optional. The city is renowned for its active community, distinctive culture, and many high quality steampunk builds. Together with Caledon, Steelhead, Steeltopia, Armada Breakaway and many others, New Babbage is considered a fundamental member of the broad Steamlands steampunk community in SecondLife.

Backstory[]

Founded by refugees from the Steamland of Caledon on the remains of an ancient and ruined city, New Babbage quickly emerged as an industrial powerhouse, specializing in manufacturing, invention, and commerce. Nominally governed by a Mayor, New Babbage practices an extreme laissez-faire form of governance, where the primary (some would say sole) responsibility of authority is to keep the city's clocks wound - giving rise to the official title of owner Mosseveno Tenk: Clockwinder. Hereditary titles and hierarchies have little meaning in New Babbage, which prizes work above all else - especially its natural environment, which is among the sootiest and smoggiest around. Among New Babbagers, if you're not dirty, you're not working hard enough ... or as many a Babbage wag has said: cleanliness is next to laziness.

Of course, such a lawless, hardworking place is a breeding ground for the strange and fantastic. Mystical behavior is officially discouraged but unofficially (grudgingly) acknowledged. The city is regarded by adherents as the Holy City of the Church of the Builder, and dark rumors have emerged of sinister subterranean cults worshipping Old Gods. The city also features a large unwashed population of street urchins, extensive unexplored sewers and subterranean caverns, the Steamlands' most extensive (and award-winning) underwater settlement under the Vernian Sea, and more than its share of talented builders and architects (for which its famed Academy of Industry serves as a focal point). The city also serves as an unofficial graduate academy for Evil Geniuses, who seem to emerge with regularity to terrorize the city's denizens ... if they can be distracted from their labors long enough to take notice.

Babbagers, intent on their labors, face uncertainty and Change with a sanguine self-confidence, perennially asking of each new day: "what could possibly go wrong?"

Facts[]

Geographic[]

  • Location: The original Babbage Square sim is located on the main grid at (630,1005). Its sister sims have emerged in concentric circles, making up the current grid of ten.
  • Area: 786,432 m2, land and water combined
  • Maritime Claims: Vernian Sea, right of navigation on commerical sea lanes
  • Climate: Temperate Seaonal
  • Terrain: Alluvial salt marsh, largely reclaimed and urbanized, with rocky outcroppings.
  • Elevation Extremes: Sea level to approximately 25m
  • Natural Resources: 138,750 prims; large quantities of soot and ash
  • Land Use: Industrial, with pockets of Mixed Urban Residential/Commercial
  • Natural Hazards: Collapsing slag heaps, wiggyfish, Evil Geniuses, Air Kraken

People[]

  • Population: More than 300 regular and itinerant residents, growing
  • Age Structure: spotty, weighted young (street urchins) and aged (immortals, Evil Geniuses)
  • Population Growth Rate: 25% annually, about two sims per year
  • Sex ratio: Even, mostly
  • Ethnic Groups: Majority humans, minority furries and other; unacknowledged Fae subculture.
  • Religions: (Hmm?) Church of the Builder, Old Ones Cults
  • Languages: English, American, LSL, PHP
  • Titles: None. Elected mayor: Clockwinder (mayor); Appointed vice mayor: Maceholder.

Government[]

  • Capital: Self (city-state).
  • Legal System: None, except for occasional petitions to the Clockwinder.
  • Diplomatic Representation: None.
  • Flag Description: Smokestack, hammer and pipe wrench rampant on blue field.
  • Military: Spontaneously deployed New Babbage Volunteer Militia, with Land, Air, Naval, and Cavalry divisions.

Economic[]

  • Imports: cavorite, perishable foodstuffs, green things (other than weathered copper).
  • Exports: raw ores, machine tools, heavy industry, maritime and lighter-than-air manufactures, manufactured consumer products, vehicles, automatonic devices, aetheric products, slag, ash, soot, architecture, Drama.
  • Expenditures: Undisclosed
  • Reserves: Undisclosed
  • Currency: The Linden Dollar, Drama.

Communications[]

Transportation[]

  • Streetcars: Steam-powered trolleys operated by the New Babbage Transportation Authority. Three lines (Academy, Port, and Canals) currently running from Central Station.
  • New Babbage Railway: Freight line operating out of Central Station and into the badlands to the north.
  • Ports and Terminals: Port Babbage, Clockhaven.
  • Lighter-Than-Air: Palisade Mast (city-operated), fifty-plus private masts under license. Licensing of private airships abandoned due to volume.
  • Merchant Marine: Active.

Transnational issues[]

  • International Disputes: None. New Babbage enjoys broad commercial ties and avoids Dramatic Entanglements.
  • Refugees: None.

External Links[]

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