Chicago

"Looking at Chicago from outside the city in daylight is one of the most depressing sights in the world."

- Neo Tribes

Chicago was founded in the state of Illinois during the year 1833 as a town, and later in 1837 officially recognized as a city, by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. It quickly became the staple of a city that was common with gang related crimes, as it quickly rose up to it during the late 1960's.

Bio-Plague of 2012
Chicago was a city hit hard during the Collapse, ''especially in the beginning. ''Chicago after this point was absolutely devastated, but, this amount of damage could not compare to the events of the infamous bio-plague that attacked the city. Although people thought it was a derivative of the Ebola virus, the bio-plague was actually created by the Federal Government. The bio-plague was primarily made by the research of many universities, the most deadly of research done in places like Heartland.

Heartland was a secret complex in Chicago built during WWII under the University of Chicago, originally made for the Manhattan Project. When primary research was going much faster than planned, the complex sat in disuse until the early 1960's. Just before the Vietnam War, the Heartland complex was turned into a large bio-agent and chemical research facility. It's funding came from the NSC/DIA, and literally billions were poured into it. Most of America's bio-arsenal came from there. Despite their successes in biological warfare, Heartland eventually closed. The facility was too cramped and outdated to bear another remodeling. But, the thing was, there was some things they couldn't remove without tearing up parts of the University. So they left them alone, which saved them millions in the process.

So, years later, after the facility closed much of what was being worked on and already made remained there. Samples of the worlds most deadliest diseases on the entire planet just sat there. Collecting dust. When the worst of the Collapse came, there was nothing the government could do that could change the situation. Eventually, the NSA filled the entry corridors with cement, slapped bio-hazard warnings all over the place and left off to fight a war against the government and military with the rest of the Gang of Four.

Much later during the end of 2011, reconstruction on the University of Chicago began. The reconstruction companies demolished much of the old buildings on campus, and when the complex was discovered they ignored the bio-hazard signs and started demolishing it, releasing many of those diseases that Heartland was creating. After that, all hell broke lose.

Within six months, the entire city of Chicago had been destroyed. The death toll was close to about 200,000. Although some parts of the city were still livable, most residents moved to safer parts of the country. After the plague, Chicago Port was built by the U.S. Military after they realized that without Chicago Great Lakes shipping was crippled.

Chicago still remained a wasteland; nomad heaven.

Post-Collapse
After the Collapse, most of Chicago remained empty and destroyed. It is said 90% of all of Chicago is empty. A true husk of what it once was. Algae and overgrowth ran rapid across the city, and the rust on old buildings glared proudly in the sunlight. It seemed nothing could be done about this old city. That was until Storm Technologies entered the scene.

Storm Technologies (often abbreviated StormTech), is a technological company started by Dr. Richard Storm in the late 90's. One of the many huge and lucrative projects StormTech wanted to accomplish was the successful reclamation of Chicago. When toxicity levels in the city went down to manageable levels, StormTech was able to negotiate a lucrative deal with four of the seven Nations to start the reconstruction of Chicago.

StormTech, since 2017, has been sending groups of people into Chicago to salvage certain critical resources. They have slowly been able to reclaim and rebuild a certain parts of Chicago, like The Loop and New Town. Though there are still other parts which aren't so lucky. Nowadays, Chicago is mainly traversed by Nomad groups and gangs looking to make a living.

The Loop
The Loop is the part of downtown Chicago that is encircled by the elevated train tracks that run above the streets, forming a circle around a good part of the downtown area. This is where most of StormTech's reconstruction efforts have gone. Locals consider the inside of the Loop to be the entire downtown area. There we can find Magnificent Mile, various museums, luxurious theaters and many more other buildings of Pre-Collapse Chicago. On Michigan Avenue, you can still find the old Chicago landmarks. Tribune Tower, the Playboy Building, the Old Water Tower, and the John Hancock Center. The JHC has been the center of StormTech's reclamation efforts. It has been fully decontaminated and now the local headquarters of StormTech. The building can be seen soaring into the skyline, with the neon StormTech logo clear in front of it.

Emerald City
Underneath downtown are several underground streets which traverse almost the entire Loop area. The Emerald City gets its name from the various green florescent lights that illuminate the streets underground at all hours of the day. Emerald City is inhabited by the Morlocks, a group of people who have no other way of life. Emerald City has power because of the reconstruction effort, so enterprising Raffen ran a jumper to the lighting controls for parts of Emerald City and tapped enough juice to run the lights. An underground thoroughfare designed for pedestrians runs parallel to the Chicago River, but is separated from the rest of Emerald City by a brick wall with one or two large holes in it. Once lined with restaurants, it is now home to rat-holes, bars, and rooms that only the most desperate hide in. The pedestrian traffic is never heavy because of the filth. The smell is horrendous, especially during the summertime. This is Emerald City.

New Town
Located on North Rush Street is New Town. It was once an up-scale residential area that was then run into the ground after the Collapse, but it has been fairly cleaned up now. Single-story homes are commonplace, with lawns turned into small vegetable gardens. After work in the evening, many nomads work to prepare houses for wintertime. New Town is home to many families. Most are nomads, but some are employees of StormTech. If any disturbances break out, StormTech and the dog-soldiers show up and heaven help the perpetrators. The area is well patrolled after dark, and lightly patrolled in the daytime as well.

Old Town
Old Town is located on the tip of North Wells Street (not to be confused with North Rush Street). This two block stretch, like New Town, looks like it's name suggests. It was once a residential area and is filled with two-story brownstone apartment buildings. Mixed in are also the strangest collection of businesses to ever grace one street: this is where the nomads who make a living entertaining other nomads hang out. It is also where the majority of drinking, wilding and fighting happens in new Chicago. In some bars, you'll find extremely attractive women (who turn out to be men), transvestites, and others. Most bars (deemed Smart Bars) serve, instead of alcohol, flavored drinks high in phosphotydle chlorine, a neuro-adrenaline producer.