(In the article banner image we see the beautiful Silver City shoreline, clear blue waters and a wall of silver and glass skyscrapers divided by a strip of beach miles long and dotted with citizens and vacation goers enjoying the warm, breezy climate.)
Silver City:
On the Eastern coast of the Unified States, Silver City gleams like a wall of steel and glass as towering skyscrapers rise just beyond the water's edge. The climate is generally quite warm with mild winters, but heavy rain is frequent during the monsoon season from February through June. Once a smaller beach town known as Sunset Bay, it was eventually annexed into the state capital of Evergreen City in 1957. Due to the relocation of wealth from businesses expanding out of Evergreen City, and with many technological and scientific industries choosing the location for its ready access to nearby shipping lanes, the Sunset Suburb eventually grew large and influential enough to demand independence and on August 15th, 1986, was allowed to become its own city with its own mayoral council once again. The city was formally renamed to Silver City to mark the occasion, and a grand parade was held, and is held again each year on the same day. This pleased the original inhabitants greatly, as they took much pride in being a real city of their own again, although arguably the ones who benefited most were the powerful business owners who funded the push to de-annex and could now establish their own mayors and run their own miniature corporate kingdom with special tax and building permits for their allies.
City Life:
(Here we see ordinary citizen and bus driver James Lawrence greeting his first passengers of the day. Navigating traffic changes caused by unexpected road closures and diversions due to amazing super-battles requires quick reflexes and an even quicker mind- luckily both something the agile and adaptable James has in abundance! Character creator credit: @EannDelacroix)
Life in the big city can be much more hectic than in the country, especially given that almost every major city is an inevitable battleground for superheroes and villains, but for those who can keep up with the grind there are opportunities and experiences like nowhere else and peoples of all colors, skins and stripes flock to Silver City for the climate, the jobs, and the amazing array of shopping, culture and attractions. Traffic congestion is low due to well-organized bus, metro, and biking lanes, and palm trees and small parks dot the clean, well-maintained streets. Silver City is a medium-large city, mostly congregated into a centralized population with skyscraper apartment buildings and few suburbs. Even the wealthy CEOs of major corporations in the city live in skyscraper apartments, and often throw lavish rooftop pool parties for their investor friends and local celebrities. With three large multi-story malls, public recreation and fitness parks both on the ground outdoors and built into skyscrapers indoors several stories up, as well as a thriving arts scene boasting a few theaters and galleries, there is a lot to see and do crammed into the heart of the city. The actual zoning space assigned to Silver City is relatively small for a metropolis of its size, so there is much more focus on building up than out. Some of the more daring corporations have even begun to build down into underground lab complexes where secret projects can bloom like toadstools far from the warm light of Sola.
Horizon Labs:
(Here we see the small artificial island off the coast of Silver City known to the locals as "Rocket Island", where space launches to the moon colonies and beyond take off from on a weekly basis.)
One of the oldest, most powerful (and least corrupt) enterprises in Silver City is the research lab complex and adjoining offshore space launch center Horizon Labs. Founded in 1922 with the building of a large telescope a few miles from the Evergreen City University, Horizon Labs continued to expand into a large, sprawling complex of labs, research centers, manufacturing facilities and finally a full space launch site and mission control center located on a small artificially constructed island a few miles off of the coast of Silver City. The island's official name is "Launch Site Alpha", but everyone refers to it as "Rocket Island". It is connected to the mainland by a military-secured highway bridge, and rockets are brought to the launch site in sections on massive trucks which lift them up into the arms of the launch structure from a raising delivery bed. With the Lunar Colonies expanding in the early 2000's and further exploration of space and its resources a key interest of world governments, the launch center has become a crown jewel of the state, and even the country, bringing in more money and research talent by the day. Offshore rocket launches are a frequent, almost weekly sight, and beach goers often picnic on the bay across from the launch center to watch the rockets as they streak boldly into the sky.
Dynamo Industries:
(The modern Dynamo Industries corporate logo, two mechanical pairs of arms reaching together to spark a red lighting bolt. Somewhat unfitting for a "medical" company, the logo retains the image of heavy machinery and power that the company originally rose to prominence under.)
Based in the Southwestern state of Holston thousands of miles away, Dynamo Industries operates a research branch located in Silver City to take advantage of the lenient, business-friendly development laws imposed by the city council. Originally a heavy machinery manufacturer with ties to mining and offshore drilling, the company poured most of its assets into developing military technology during the East Desert War in the mid 1990's in order to cash in on generous government contracts. As the years dragged on and the pointlessness of the war became more and more apparent, the government poured more and more money into it, trying to justify the continued effort, and companies like Dynamo had a field day taking all they could get and operating under reduced oversight.
It was Dynamo that first began experimenting with bionic limb replacements for wounded soldiers, mainly because there were so many, and creating a PR-campaign worthy "fix" to make the tragedy look better on TV was a lucrative contract. The untold stories of brutal experimentation and agonizing electronic nerve-mapping procedures are still a matter of investigation, but the army quickly saw the potential to abuse the technology to create "super soldiers" that could free them from dependence on heroes and their moral standards, and gave Dynamo free rein and access to as many wounded soldiers and civilian test subjects as they could ever want.
(The East Desert War over political differences and control of strategic resources was a mess superheroes stayed out of- and many soldiers were casualties of the all-or-nothing, sloppy approach the government took in managing it. Dynamo Industries championed the "Building Back Stronger" slogan to manipulate public perception of the war's injuries and legally explore super-soldier cybernetics, but this greedy and corrupted ambition ended up costing the company dearly when their visions of future army development contracts evaporated at the war's end.)
Near the end of the war, the Sovinkha Union of countries in East Krellaknia, a longtime enemy of the Unified States that saw where things were headed and felt the need to prepare countermeasures, pushed hard and managed to shrink and modernize antiquated EMP pulse coil technologies for mobile deployment. With the technology to render a cybernetic soldier crippled in a single hit now easily available, the army gave up the dream of bionic soldiers, and subsequently cut funding of the projects. Dynamo, having liquidated or abandoned its other operations recklessly chasing army contracts, had no choice but to rebrand itself as a medical company in order to continue its work. Some say Dynamo Industries still experiments on more than just medical devices, creating weapons and cybernetic enhancements that "accidentally" fall into the hands of villains a little too easily- an allegation the Dynamo Industries lawyers are quick to deny. Even the best technology in the Universe is still only ever so useful against genuine superpowers, as more than a few vanquished would-be villains can attest to, but the medical and robotic aspects of the technology continue to be perfected by many companies, and although rare it is not exceptional to see a veteran, rehabilitated accident victim, or specialized forces agent with a cybernetic or bionic enhancement every now and then among the crowd in a mainstream city or on TV. So it is that such things exist in the world, but are neither common nor particularly exceptional.
Club Sandbar:
(Club Sandbar, a giant outdoor craft fair, food vending market and band stage, is equipped with loudspeakers, lasers, pyrotechnics and even digital hologram projectors that can create images in the sky or "replay" entire live band performances artificially- not that there is ever a night when some famous or wanna-be group of bands aren't lined up and eager to be seen at the most extraordinary night life scene on the entire East Coast.)
Located on the beach a little ways off from the city is Club Sandbar, an outdoor grand stage, speaker system, and digital laser/hologram projector setup that gleams in the darkness of the night like a thousand fireworks, blasting out music from live performances at twice the volume. Numerous tropical drink bars, food vendors, and fashion/craft sellers pay to obtain permits to setup on the club grounds, and the club is as much a sort of marvelous night market of ever-changing discoveries as it is a place to enjoy listening to live bands. Visitors pay a small cover charge to enter, and then may wander the portion of the beach which belongs to the club freely, exploring what interests them, before finding a seat under one of the many beach umbrellas and tables setup nearer to the stage. Performing during the peak tourism season is an honor even well-established musicians fight tooth and nail for, but during the rainy off-season when attendance dwindles indie performers of all stripes take their shot at wowing visitors with a show that they can only pray catapults their careers to superstardom. In Silver City it is said that there are two launch centers- one for rockets, and one for stars, and watching both from the comfort of the warm sand while drinking fruity beverages is why other cities can only envy Silver City her dazzling nightlife.
Palmtree Park:
(On a rare, bi-monthly closed maintenance day we see one of Palmtree Park's fourteen entrance gates temporarily deserted. The unaccustomed silence is almost unsettling... What secret meetings of heroes or villains might be taking place away from prying eyes in this picture?)
Within Silver City is a miniature city of its own- Palmtree Park. A combination of amusement park, grand hotel, aquarium and nature preserve, the park boasts accommodations, roller coasters, a grand Ferris Wheel and an adjacent 22-mile nature preserve of which a few acres are accessible by guided tours. Tourists from around the world come to visit the massive park, and city residents enjoy a year-round 10% off discount on all admissions with a valid ID card. If Club Sandbar is everything Silver City nightlife is at its peak, Palmtree Park is the city's daylife- rides, games, park-wide scavenger hunt prize events, popcorn, pretzels, hot dogs, cotton candy and soda pop in every color of the rainbow gathered together under the warm sun.
Palmtree Aquarium:
(The Palmtree Aquarium, less popular than the park itself, is a great choice for a date -or secret meeting- in one of the many cozy and otherworldly "underwater" viewing galleries.)
Palmtree Aquarium is a large assortment of exhibits, pools, and "underwater" basement level viewing rooms for those who want to learn about the ocean without actually swimming in it. For those just looking to sit down for a while, the viewing rooms offer vending machines that hum quietly in the dimly lit corridors, offering snacks and sodas for those who choose to stay a while and enjoy the views. In addition to rare and amazing sea life from all over the world in different temperature and climate controlled pools, a 4-mile bay of the adjoining ocean itself is sectioned off by breakers and netting to serve as an ecological preserve where endangered species are allowed to repopulate, or injured sea animals are able to swim and recover safely. Whether school field trips, curious tourists, or locals looking for a fun and leisurely stroll of water gazing away from the laughter and crowds of the main park, the Palmtree Aquarium is a great place to learn, relax, or take your special someone to enjoy a quieter side of the city life.
Palmtree Preserve:
(The 22 square mile nature preserve of Palmtree Park runs partway into the middle of the city, and curves out into the coast, rejoining nature.)
Technically a Federal nature preserve the park has authority to operate in while helping to protect and oversee it, Palmtree Preserve offers wetland habitats accessible by guided walking bridge and small boat tours. Alligators, rare birds, iguanas and even sharks along with countless smaller critters like flying squirrels and insects thrive in the preserve away from city development. The preserve itself is heavily guarded... in key locations. The rest of the preserve is wilderness where the flora and fauna are supposed to live undisturbed, though many evil corporate CEOs and mad scientists trying to smuggle things in and out of the city unseen gladly turn to a number of mercenary smuggler underlings willing to follow secret paths through the swamp. Such smuggling efforts are not as easy as just avoiding the eyes of the law or a nearby superhero however- the preserve is also said to be home to more than a few mutants, genetic experiments gone awry and peaceful but secretive sentient robots who fled the eyes of the world to live in seclusion deep within the undisturbed wilderness of the tress just at the edge of society. Locals call rumors of a hidden wooden cabin village guarded by magical invisibility spells and its own mutant heroes urban legends- but smugglers who claim to have been chased out of the preserve by things in the dark that defy easy description swear that only a very high offer of pay (or little bit of blackmail) could get them to chance sneaking through the preserve's secret heart more than once...
^^Thank you for reading! This is the second lore article after the Prismaris World Lore article I did earlier, and although I had planned to save this for next week the wonderful interest of friends wanting to create their own hero, villain or NPC characters in this world made me want to push this through early so that people can know more about Silver City, where most of the current story takes place. As I mentioned there and added in an update, this is a Superhero world I created with my family and friends for our superhero TTRPG games, like Green Ronin Publishing's Mutants & Masterminds. I fully welcome people to make their own characters and stories in this world, just please read the original world lore article to understand it better, tag your works "Prismaris" so they can be found easily, and ideally tag me in the comments section so I get notified and can see whatever you make right away! Thanks again so much for reading- I hope this made the world of Prismaris feel even more exciting to live in for anyone who wants to create characters and join us all there! ^u^