Dirtside is the capital of Farport and the largest city. Around 2 billion permanent inhabitants are packed into around 20,000 km2 city over 4 levels, not including the transient populace and those coming and going from the city from off planet or other cities. It is what is known as a “proto-hive”, there is evidence from plate construction and several lower levels have already been converted into hab domes over hab blocks. The cramped and crowded nature of the city makes it popular with hive dwellers, though it is still “spacious” in many areas in the mind of many hive dwelling migrants.
Dirtside is divided into a number of “Zones”, many gaining nicknames of their own. In the very centre exists the “6 Spires” as they are commonly known – Immense skyscrapers that dwarf others, where the 6 sector corporations exist. These buildings stretch several kilometres into the sky and are the beating heart of commerce on Dirtside and all of Farport. The other dominating feature of Dirtside are the plates.
The three plates of Dirtside are not true solid structures but a tangled mess of expanding skywalks, crawlspaces, abandoned construction works and reinforcing spars between the achingly tall buildings. In essence each plate is a vast warren of interconnected walkways, access corridors and service ducts from construction plans, which were simply never removed on completion of construction, be it from budget shortcuts to simple convenience. Most early construction contracts for the first plate were awarded to the migrant workers of House Delaque and the rumour persists that they have deliberately constructed the complex warrens to ensure they always have secret access to any building. While there are three primary “plates” there are several levels and honeycombed habitation and industrial blocks which add to the sprawl within several sectors.
Plate 3
Plate 3 solely extends across the 6 Spires within the Centre of Dirtside. The wide plazas and walkways are above the pollution and filth further below the 6 Spires. Here among the opulence that the rich demand, the fate of the planet is decided.Plate 2
Plate 2 covers the central district of Dirtside, within the city centre the higher managerial workers for the sector corporations, the Ministorum and the Ecclesiarchy. Key to this area is the immigration services through the Ministorum and Necromundan House industrial house offices. Primary worker districts and massive Manufactorum.Plate 1
Plate 1 began construction after the 3rd major influx of Necromundan immigration in M36, where the ability to house the population was becoming a strain. There was also the issue that anyone visiting could not help noticing the squalor and it was recorded the Imperial Governor of the time want to “put a lid on it”. Like many early construction contracts, Plate 1 construction was awarded to House Delaque, particularly after the construction equipment of House Orlock, the other primary bidder was found to be heavily faulty by a surprise Mechanicum inspection.Ground Level
Ground Level is the surface of the planet and is almost universally dark due to the plates overhead. Riddled with collapsed and disused Hab blocks, domes and factory works it is a tangled mess of shanty towns and works. Despite this, centres of industrial power exist on ground level for the Houses, free from the interference of the Corporations, and so despite the ancient nature of it, there are centres of Necromundan civilisation. Oh all the Zones of Ground Level, several Zones comprise the "slums" of the North Eastern Quarter, including Zone 7. Of all the slums, Zone 9 is the worst, a ruin bearing the corpse of Magna Petrum. More than any other level, Ground level is a tangled industrial mess, as structures have been built one on top of another. It contained large areas that are cramped dark corridors, that do not actually touch the "ground". There are other areas that open into twisted rusting vistas with sludge pools and effluent wastes.
Population
Corporate Employees largely live in the conditions of plate 2. Most work done by the Corporations on Dirside is actually performed by the Necromundan Houses on Contractor Subcontractor contracts, meaning the number of actual Corporate Employees is low. These largely comprise of brokers, managers and analysts, specialist and skilled employees rather than the general labour. Compared to the rest of Dirtside they are highly educated and live a life comparable to the wealthy of other planets. Nevertheless they are employees and their contracts can be terminated, which in the ruthless corporate life occurs, leaving a former employee without a cred to their name to drift to the Ground Level of Dirtside.
Corporation Boards of Directors form a special class of citizen all of their own on Dirtside. They live in opulence and luxury akin to the nobles of other worlds and look every bit as such. Each Corporation has it's own Headquarters here. It is surprising to some that so many Sector wide Corporations maintain major headquarters here but the truth is that Plate 3 of Dirtside is the home of mercantile political intrigue. Word of new trade opportunities reach Farport often before anywhere else in the Sector due to it's status as a Hub world, new mineral claims, or Forgeworlds looking for new weapon contracts reach here first, rumour and hearsay the bywords to riches. Reconquered worlds need new colonists, word reaches Farport, the Corporations provide the Foodstuffs and colonists, armies need new weapons, the Corporations broker the contracts or supply them themselves, all because that Corporation got to it first. In the highest reaches of Plate 3 the palatial residences of each major Corporation resides. On other worlds this would be the nobles of the planet and to outsiders the board of directors of each corporation is exactly, that, titles are often inherited while others are achieved (though rarely save Hydra allow others outside the families in). The upper Spire of Plate 3 is simply put the most heavily defended area of the planet, and should invasion ever reoccur, it's own orbital craft are ready to take the elite of Farport away from whatever hellscape it would become.
The Immigrant Houses of Necromunda came to Farport in great swathes following Farports transition into a trading hub. A large proportion of Dirtsides population remains part of the Industrial Houses from Necromunda and share the same name and customs barring a few differences. The House members are largely on Plates 1 and Ground Level, with the House Headquarters location different for each House. You can read more about the immigrant houses HERE
Administratum workers for the mass of plate 2, though some high offices are on Plate 3. Whether a administrator is employed directly by the Imperium or by the Corporations are irrelevant, the day to day running of the Administratum is overseen by the Corporations here. Of all the factions and intrigue that Farport sees from the Corporations, the Administratum is the neutral territory. No Corporation, dares risking the ire of the Administratum, it is slow, inefficient and ponderous, but if it's anger falls upon a Corporation, it will be swallowed wholesale by those very same faults. Nevertheless, Administratum workers are forced to work no better than anywhere else, 12 hour days, 7 day weeks, one half day for Ascension Day. Most of the work here is focussed on logistics within the system, however rumour has it with the instability from the war, the Administratum will move more workloads on Farport, increasing the profits of the planet overall. Only the palatial office of Head of Administratum, Lord Micah, is on Plate 3.
Lord Micah, Head of the Administratum
Lord Micah has sat as head of the Administratum for as long as anyone can remember. An old man in appearance who is known to have had 'juvenant treatments on more than one occasion. It was Micah's idea to subcontract the Corporations into assisting with the running of the Administratum on Dirtside, drastically increasing their power and reducing his own role. Many Rogue Traders, Militant Attaches and Mechanicus Logitai visiting in system know better than to bother asking Micah, who spends his days locked within his Palatial residence. Even the Imperial Governor, Lord Bryant Percival has stopped bothering to ask for reports from Micah.
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| Lord Micah used to be more interested in his work |
Indentured workers or Helots are workers born into the Houses but not part of it. Very technically free within the Imperium, they, and their lives are tied to the contracts that tie them to factories or whatever employment is required. Corporate law dictates failing to perform ones contract is a capital offence, effectively signing Indentured workers to a life of Slavery. Should a factory fall into disrepair or be abandoned the Helots are similarly abandoned. Labour is cheap and so is life. Helots make up a large portion of Dirtsides population and every House, even Cawdor has large numbers of them. Over the last 30 years Chaos Cults have most often formed within the Helot populations and frequent purges are performed to ensure no Helot gets any ideas. The workers of Dirtsides Corporate Brothels are all Helots, some of the only Helots directly employed by a Corporation, similarly, anyone not married within 5 years of adulthood is seized and forced into Helot contract in Corporate registered brothels. Needless to say that most citizens are married very quickly, even if they never meet their spouse, it's better to be married to a stranger than become a Helot owned by a Corporation.
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| Life is short and brutal for Helots |
Transient Workers are an unknown quality on Dirtside. They are not part of official populace numbers and so are not factored into Tithe calculations (much to the relief of the Imperial Governor Percival). They do however form a significant unofficial chunk of Dirtsides population. Most are from Voidborn families and workers from ships moored at Dirtside. Most take on temporary work as Hired guns, and some form their own guilds and workforces, stealing contracts from the Houses for a short time. However just as a swell in transient workers can cause a downturn in some House fortunes, other Houses fair very well.
The Guilds are, like Necromunda, locally independent economic powerhouses on Dirtside. Due to the intense rivalries and bloodshed between the Houses, as well as the intense intrigue of the Corporations, the Guilds responsibilities cover utilities and essential services that, without their presence require inter-House and inter-corporation cooperation. The Water Guild control the water ways and the Power Guild the cities power Generation, though there are many other Guilds. They are effectively the grease that keeps the economy of Dirtside moving. That is of course not to say their control is universal on utilities, numerous smaller power grids are under the control of the Houses or even individual gangs (particularly the Van Saar) and the Corporations would never dream of surrendering control of their utilities to a small upstart Guild. However for most tenements of Ground Level, Plate 1 and Plate 2, Guilds are part of normal daily life. Within the slums the Guilds have little presence though, having given up on bothering with them some time ago. However the persistent rumour is if the slums ever become more lucrative, they may attempt to reassert their control over their economic fiefdoms.
"Natives" are those that claim to be the original inhabitants of Farport. They are elusive and secretive, avoiding contact with the rest of the population as much as possible. Most of the inhabitants of Dirtside never see "Natives" moving unseen throughout the city, mostly staying to the ground level. It is known that they call themselves the "Yeh-vree" and refer to Farport as Too'Wah, claiming this was the lands first name. They refer to all other inhabitants as "A'low'vey'la" which roughly translates to "Sky People" or "Sickness". Those natives which are found are generally driven off or wiped out, as they do not belong to a House, Corporation or Imperial organisation by contract or membership, they are considered outside the law. Over time the Yeh-vree have been repeatedly scape goated by the Corporations, an easy target along with "Traitor insurgents". Indeed many view them as the same. For their part the Natives most wait for the day that the world turns on the A'low'vey'la and the land is once again theirs. Some of the Natives, whether through tragedy, misfortune or visions believe the only way to rid themselves of the Sky people is with force, these groups quickly form bands and despite their low technology are vicious killers that exploit the land to their advantage. The wildest rumours of the Natives is they live in Greater numbers in unpopulated areas, and are gathering in strength for a war. This has never been substantiated of course, but makes a great drinking hole story.
News Outlets
The Daily Dirtside is one of the official news outlets of the Governors Palace on Farport. Distinctly Dirtside centric the Daily Dirtside focuses on local issues within the capital. It's a well known rag well read but also accepted that it would never ever stray away from the propaganda of the Imperial offices.
Truth Famaris are one of many pirate news reporting outlets on Dirtside. Believed by the Arbites to be centred around disenfranchised groups, there have been rumblings that the reporting service actually propagates propaganda from Xenos or even Cult sources. There is little to no evidence of this so simply remains a rumour. What is true is Famaris frequently encourage sedition within the populace and are openly critical of the status quo, leading them to be a continued source of investigation.
Federacy News are the The Federacy's propaganda arm. Throughout the Aleph Sector the Federacy continually works hard to undermine the rule of the Imperium and encourage more planets to join the nascent empire. The Federacy News always includes propaganda reporting from within the Federacy itself. This is standardised recordings which are smuggled to Imperial Worlds and edited into local reports, targeting specific disenfranchised groups, often comparing the squalid conditions of Imperial worlds with the improved conditions of the Federal worlds. Of course this never tells the full story, the Federacy being more than happy to show itself in the best of lights. Nevertheless "Federacy News" is a seditious pirate news reporting service that always manages to spring back up should the Arbites manage to shut one source of it's "news" down.
Law and Order
Arbites
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| "To be just, our law must be cruel." |
Farport has only a small presence of Adeptus Arbites on the world and has done for the past 10 years. for two decades it had a considerably larger presence, due to the recent Chaos invasion and ongoing threats of resurgent Chaos Cultists which were within the Arbites remit. However, the long wars against Xenos and Chaos within the Aleph Sector, the coming of the Cicatrix Maladictum and continuing civil unrest in conquered or reconquered systems has meant the System Precinct down to just 100 Arbites as forces are continually reassigned elsewhere by the Subsector and Sector Precinct Marshall's. In theory, there should be the equivalent of at least one or two Regiments Adeptus Arbites within confines of Dirtside alone, what with its status as a major trade and jump point. Furthermore, each city on Farport, requires a city Precinct due to the heavy tithe demands. There is however, simply neither the resources to supply or maintain the Precincts, and so each city Precinct stands empty save Dirtsides city Precinct, which is the de facto system headquarters for the Adeptus Arbites.
Normally, most day to day enforcement of planetary laws is the sole remit of the office of the Imperial Governor, with Farports status as a jump point to other systems, Sector Corporate interest and it's heavy Tithe, the Arbites would normally take a far more active role in law enforcement. This is to avoid any risk to the Imperial Tithe and to prevent contamination to other systems. This is clearly impossible though and so, day to day law enforcement is not currently part of the Arbites remit. Over the last few decades the Arbites have only needed to threaten intervention on a few occasions - all focused on the Corporations squabbling and feuding risking tithes, the most well known being the last attempt of a Corporation attempting to claim the ruins of Magna Petrum. However with their desperately low numbers and stretched resources they simply do not have the man power to stop escalations or corruption. The reality of life on Dirtside is Corporate law and Imperial Law to the average citizen are one and the same thing, the most frequent visible enforcers of the law are hired fighters from the Houses or the personal troops of the Corporations. House Van Saar in particular make a good trade in taking up the slack of the Arbites around the Spaceport, guarding visiting dignitaries a lucrative resource.
Notable individuals
High Marshal Shilo DeVessier - Arbitor Senioris, Command of the Court. High Marshal of the Precinct Superior Farport System
Shilo DeVessier, High Marshall for the Farport system and so all Arbites are under her command in system. She is a tall women who appears to be in her mid 40's, which is a young age for a High Marshall. Known to both shrewd and cunning, she possibly the best person for the abyssal situation the Arbites of Farport are in. As High Marshal she theoretically can mobilise a force the equivalent of several Astra Militarum regiments if needed. This is only on paper due to the meagre forces of the Arbites in system. Instead she focuses on what she can influence; the heads of the Corporations and the Imperial Governor. The most common site to see the Adeptus Arbites is those places of greatest risk to the Imperium, the Space Port and Plate 3. Shilo makes it the business of the Arbites to have representatives in as many Corporate meetings as possible, with many troopers trained in diplomacy and educated in corporate politics. This focus has given the Corporations free reign to enforce whatever law they wish in the city and planet itself, which has caused numerous friction with her subordinate Marshall Greyling.
Marshal Greyling - Arbitor Senioris, Marshal of the Precinct Dirtside City.
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| Marshal Greyling |
Recent History
The Chaos Invasion
The Pox Plague
Zone Nine
Zone 9 is one of the worst places on all Farport
Zone Nine has always been considered a Slum. In it's earliest form, Zone Nine was a Ghetto to the "Cawdor problem" and always had a large Cawdor population until the Chaos invasion 30 years ago. During the invasion most of Zone Nine was destroyed by the dramatic collapse of Magna Petrum - a massive skyscaper that was one of the largest buildings in Dirtside after the Six Spires. Most of the Cawdor capable of fighting had already abandoned Zone Nine to join the Planetary Defence Force in defence of their homeworld, however this meant only those incapable of fighting remained. Little aide was rendered to the civilians trapped in Zone Nine and those that did survive were easy prey to the most predatory and base of humanity. Zone Nine became a ruin and utterly lawless, effectively forgotten by most on Dirtside side save for the persistent rumours of great riches held within the ruin of Magna Petrum.
Magna Petrum
Magna Petrum today
Magna Petrum was said to be the "7th Spire" one that would rival the six Spires and demonstrate the pre-eminence of the Magna Corporation. Magna Corporation had been in a boom period in the lead up to the Chaos invasion and their value had risen tremendously having attracted investors from as far away as the Ultima Sector.In 0512.009M42 Moonface desperately launched his last gamble to conquer Farport. It was not the Moonface but his allied Orks that rampaged throughout the the streets of Dirtside in running battles with the inhabitants. It is unknown whether it was bombardment from the Orks, Moonface or other nefarious means but amidst the fighting Magna Petrum dramatically collapsed. Magna Petrum toppled into Plates 1 and 2 crashing them both and into the Slums of Zone Nine and bedrock beneath, shattering the whole Zone. In the aftermath Magna suffered a dramatic drop in stock prices that sent the whole economy into a depression even with the boom from the War on industry. Soon it conspiracy theories raged both the splendour of Plate 3 and the squalor beneath Plate 1 that the buildings collapse was not enemy attacks, but sabotage from within. The most persistent gossip was that agents of House Delaque were involved as it was no secret that Magna Corp had snubbed one prominent member of the Delaque from joining their board and the collapse of the building was revenge. Even wilder rumours was that Magna Petrum was a source of Magna Corps secrets and their research, even the rumour of tech heresy and hordes of archetech gathered throughout the Segmentum. Of course all of these were just rumours, in the panic of the financial crash Magna did not salvage the contents of the building and the other Corporations dared not move in for fear of starting a Corporation war. Plenty of other smaller attempts to access the corpse of the building however the heavily reinforced structure has always been proof against the resources of enterprising gangs. This changed 4 weeks ago when the PDF conducted a sweep in the area and shot mortar rounds into Magna Petrum out of boredom. By chance this appears to have shifted debris, triggering an artificial earthquake and the building started to move!
All the fervour of the conspiracy theories restarted in earnest as word spread of the new situation. Rumours of the inside of the structure now being accessible spread like wildfire throughout Dirtside The Corporations immediately fell into paralysis as they dared each other to make the first move, the politics of plate 3 was that if Magna moved to secure their building it would in the minds of the corporate nobility confirm every rumour and the other corporations feared once again triggering a war between the Corporations. The most persistent rumour - that at the very least the contents of Magna Petrum would be highly valuable, has triggered a gold rush into Zone Nine.
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