“The buildings around start to twist and warp and stack haphazardly. Wooden and plaster boxes tower over you bent, rotted, and chipped away from time and neglect and ridiculous oversight. The water beneath grows murky, and pulpy; littered with debris from a time you weren’t here for. Reminds you of home. Forlorn filth.”
– Glass entering The Stacks
The Stacks is a district of Cohv located in the eastern part of the city. After the Siege of Cohv was broken in 1562, Qothic engineers constructed a plethora of temporary bunkhouses to house workers tasked with rebuilding the city, as well as survivors who’ve lost their homes in the Great Flame. Since then, the city’s renovation only drew in more Siltrian refugees that have fled from the Nanzuul, resulting in countless adhoc housing expansions, often without architectural oversight. It is one of the largest and most populous districts in Cohv that it has fielded its own militia, The Nerkogos.
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The Stacks proper stands as the impoverished, heavily polluted, crime ridden part of Cohv. It is composed of three areas, Hangler’s Bay, Rusted Jag, and Firebreak City. These areas are plagued by clogged ports and water channels, with some bodies of water being so polluted one can “walk on over it“. Many of it’s old “temporary” bunkhouses have long since been crammed full, so haphazardly stacked dwellings were built upon them twenty-fold. Lack of regulations make these buildings prone to fires and structural collapse.
Due to rampant diseases like “The Peels“, Qothic personnel seldom traverse the district, being especially vulnerable to it. Instead they delegate it to The City Watch, and The Nerkogos, the latter being the more “overbearing” authority.
Areas
Hangler’s Bay
Once a fishery, now turned into a cluttered port, it’s name is a portmanteau inspired by the grizzly sights of those unfortunate to have crossed the Nerkogos, then hanged from the yards of ships docked in the Triumph.
Large parts of the bay still have naval spikes erected from the Siege of Cohv, the likes of which played a key role at repelling an amphibious assault from the Nanzuul. As a result, large parts of Hangler’s bay are heavily polluted from debris. This, combined with overall neglect and careless littering, has turned the consistency of the water to a turbid slop, driving away the local ecosystem but causing an invasive species of blister-headed eels to flourish.
There is an underwater boneyard of Nanzuul ships, with many opportunists to this day dredging the ruins for a way out of The Stacks.
Rusted Jag
The Rusted Jag is a panhandle shaped district, it is home to many impoverished workers dedicated to the massive scrapyards, crankeries, and steel shops that crowd the area. In its alleyways, often in the shade, nefarious business is standard. Rendacine dens litter every corner and illegal weapons are traded, sold, and sometimes created. The Rusted Jag has the largest red-light district in the city, with one popular brothel being known as “The Pious Palace.”
Firebreak City
Firebreak City is an urban enclave that resides in the central part of The Stacks. Originally an old Mandaskan fort, it earned its name during the Siege of Cohv, when the Great Flame ravaged only the city around it, leaving its walls along with the citizens inside intact. While Shintarics have deemed this event as an act of great providence, the fort has long since been turned into a colossal, twisted, slum.
Firebreak City is composed of cramped, interconnected high-rise buildings that dwarf even the largest tenement apartments in the nicer parts of Cohv, making it the densest district in Cohv with 75,000 inhabitants. In the lower levels, there’s little to no sunlight, and many areas are prone to flooding, especially during rainstorms; though there has been efforts to maximize drainage. Firebreak City hosts plethora of markets, shops, businesses and even factories.
Firebreak City has developed it’s own tight-knit community, united under hardship. Though most of its population is composed of Pasturists, hunters that inhabit the district are fiercely protected by their neighbors.
While many think its a miracle the city hasn’t burnt down, Shintarics deem it’s inhabitants (mostly being Pasturist) as “too lazy to cause any spark.”
