Derisive Umbaran
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: Another private colony operated by the Commerce Guild. They just can't help themselves.
- Image Credit:
- Original Art: Petri Levälahti on Twitter
- Banner Art: The inimitable Arage Bao
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links:
- The Hunt for Big Magweer - Recent events pertaining to the Commerce Guild and Manaan
- I'm On A Boat - A historic event in which the One Sith destroyed Ahto City
- Landmark Name: Ahto East
- Classification: Region - City District
- Location: Manaan, Ahto City
- Affiliation: Commerce Guild
- Size: Small (2.541km2)
- Population: Heavy (55,000~)
- Demographics: 37% Selkath, 28% Clantanni, 21% Human, 7% Near-Human, 7% Keshiri
- Accessibility:
Ahto East was publicly accessible via monorail or walkway from the rest of Ahto City. It possessed a single spaceport, which only accepted traffic from large-scale starliners or Commerce Guild-affiliated freighters. Most of Ahto East was orderly and peaceable, and therefore lightly policed by the Silver Shield Group. Canton 3, however, was more tightly guarded.
- Description:
Ahto East was a subdivision of Ahto City, the capital of Manaan. Political control and administration of Ahto East was leased to the Commerce Guild under an arrangement made with the Ahto High Court. Like the Commerce Guild's other planetary holdings, it was governed independently through the Commerce Guild Provisional Authority.
Under the administration of the CGPA, Ahto East became one of the more densely populated and vibrant districts of Ahto City. Many selkath migrated from their deep-ocean cities to Ahto East due to the sudden availability of housing and perceived opportunities. Immigrants were likewise enticed from various destabilized fringe worlds, particularly the Clantaano System.
Major industries included: tourism, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment manufacturing, and kolto production.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Canton 1
Canton 1 was a network of neatly maintained shopping centers and promenades, lined with all manner of businesses, interspersed with small, pleasant parks. A modest, if not altogether original, tourist hotspot.
Notable Locations:
Rom Kallung Spaceport - Ahto East's only spaceport, which only accepted traffic from large, starliners and Guild-affiliated freighters. It was named after a heroic pilot who distinguished himself during the Siege of Salyrini.
Procopian Square - A luxuriant plaza, flanked by several banks and office buildings constructed in the procopian style. Operated by the First Bank of Procopia. Derided by more cynical members of the general public as "a gaudy, miniature tax haven."
Canton 2
Canton 2 was home to blocks upon blocks of apartment buildings, as well as a number of small businesses and shopping plazas which catered to locals. Beneath the well-maintained façade, it was said to have a decidedly different character from the rest of Ahto East, and perhaps Ahto City itself.
Notable Locations:
Purple Haze - A popular cantina operated by a Keshiri family, known for its authentic cuisine and delightful hookah. It was also the favored location for powerful clantanni family leaders to meet and discuss "business." Considered a "no-go" zone by Silver Shield Contractors.
Five-Ring-Run - A series of five clandestine gladiatorial fighting pits set up in the abandoned maintenance levels beneath Canton 2. Each pit was run by a family-gang of clantanni. Some had higher standards for prospective combatants than others. If the Provisional Authority was aware of the Five-Ring-Run, they took no action against it.
Canton 3
Canton 3 was where the majority of Ahto East's residents were employed: processing kolto, manufacturing medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, and packaging them for shipment off-world. It was more tightly guarded by the Silver Shield Group than the other cantons.
Notable Locations:
Hall of Resonance - The largest research facility in Canton 3, which additionally doubled as the Provisional Authority's primary administrative center. It was ornately built with strange attention to acoustics. At the direction of the local viceroy, a mean-spirited kallidahin, the skeleton of the Progenitor-descendant Big Magweer was mounted for display in the atrium.
The Long Dive - A ward of warehouses, which boasted a gargantuan deep sea elevator that connected Canton 3 directly to the Hrakert Rift. Constructed and maintained by Azimuth Industries, who likewise coordinated the kolto harvesting effort.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The most recent incarnation of Ahto City had been suffering from neglect by the time the Commerce Guild set their sights on Manaan. Having long been maligned by history and now reduced to mere bit-players on the galactic stage, there was increasingly little justification to maintain a floating city that off-worlders could access.
That was until the Commerce Guild developed its own interest in kolto production. Agents of the Commerce Guild made contact with the Ahto High Court, proposing to re-ignite demand for kolto and restore some of Manaan's lost prestige and relevance. In order to facilitate this, the Commerce Guild only desired sole harvesting rights to the Hrakert Rift and to be given a lease on an abandoned stretch of Ahto City: Ahto East.
It was not a generous deal and it was not without its detractors. A sustained public relations campaign in addition to under-the-table meetings with High Court officials ultimately saw the arrangement go through.
Ahto East was reconstructed as a personal demesne for the Commerce Guild, engineered primarily for medical manufacturing and tourism, in addition to kolto processing. Immigrants from devastated planets were brought in to supplement the local population's labor force, which brought its own share of problems.
This reconstruction culminated with the killing of Big Magweer, a massive descendent of the Progenitor, to facilitate easier access to the Hrakert Rift.
