Graton: an Introduction

by Guest Sat Sep 14, 2013 12:55 pm

The land itself appears to have very little of that, despite being the largest continent at 22 million square miles. The many structures and buildings covering the land seam to dwarf every aspect of it. There are very few buildings less then six stories tall, though their height beyond that varies widely. Many buildings support bridges between one another around the 20th story, however the layout of these bridges is hardly helpful to travelers. (Usually installed for people performing labor of some sort.) Someone asked where the people live and work, the answer to both is most often 'in a building' or 'in the streets.' The number of people working on buildings or underground is a surprising minority, now that so much of the land has been built upon. The roads within this land are surprisingly narrow, as if to discourage travel. Most vehicles are forced to navigate a maze of one-way paths, though a near-complete 'GPS' system sold with most vehicles makes traveling such mazes possible. Several of these tunnels are actually used to transport large amounts of filtered ocean water between many destinations, including De-salutizing plants, then farms.

Parks in Graton exist, but are either on large roofs, or fairly small. Animals can be common, however they are most often feral or domesticated breeds. 'Wild' animals are limited to varieties that are either small (like rats/bugs) or migrate with the seasons.

Underground structures are very rare, as most underground work is actually support work to support the massive weight that the land endures. Because of this work, there are a vast number of tunnels under the land. However, the tunnels change with every construction or reconstruction, and have become a maze that few can navigate successfully. There is no known system of navigation, however recent discovery of the internet now working below ground has lead to efforts to map out this maze.
The most common forms of travel is walking, surprisingly. The next most common methods are monorails, helicopters, subways, motorcycles, taxi, then buses and vans. For travel to other continents we have jets, boats, then more standard planes.

Fun Trivia!

The tallest building (currently) spouts a height of 302 stories, and sits somewhere around 5,500 feet tall. Its weight is actually supported by the other skyscrapers around it, in a network known as the 'pyramid-scraper superstructure.
The largest free-standing building is the 'Roboplex' factory, which sits 3,200 meters tall. This factory specializes in building 'militant' technology, and find itself funded by a variety of sources.
The largest park is 'Super-Mallplex Park' which sits on the roof of the 'Super Mallplex' building. The park is the size of a small golf-course
Several rooms in the Mallplex were scrapped to make room for a large lake to be built into the park, which has a variety of coral, fish, algae, and other aquatic life growing happily inside..

The land of Graton has more imports then exports. Graton's greatest import is people, and the land seams to thrive from the massive variety they bring with them. Customs, cultures, traditions, skills, foods, and anything else they bring is tested and tried in this land. And 'fads' are surprisingly common. This leads to a wide variety of anything, including buildings, books, styles, games, hobbies, and interests. Graton seams to absorb them all into itself, and expand with them. Despite everyone speaking a common language, many people in Graton seam to have their own dialects of it. Depending on the area you visit, the same language can sound very different.

Graton has lots of work, however it has little employment. All employment in Graton is done through contracts, and there are whole communities that won't work with contracts. Even then, people can work on the various 'jobs' available to non-contracting workers. Pay isn't kept in something as simple as currency, but in giving their workers assets. There has been many attempts to define such, however no-one is willing to put trust in a single entity defining the worth of their goods. Many corporations are outright against the idea, seeing as it would limit their business. In many cases, the assets are directly supplied from the work itself, such as farming. However, excess assets are traded off for other things the owner wants or desires. As the owner no-longer desires something, he attempts to trade it for something he does want. In this world, very little is simply disposed of, as there are many ways to recycle things.

Farming in Graton is actually done indoors, within specially monitored environments. The largest farming facility takes up a ground area of 1,500 square feet, and has about 56 stories. Each story is about double the height of a 'standard' story, however, making it one very large building. Entire sections of the interior are support structures to keep the building standing properly against any odd weather. They also grow the widest variety of foods, with top-tier agricultural technique. Many such buildings exist, and usually sell their goods on both the ground floor and 20th floors. Their water is processed ocean water that has been specially treated. It is drawn from the underground tunnels.

Medical knowledge in Graton is actually quite advanced, seeing as they actually develop most of their medical knowledge, unlike much of their imported knowledge. Prosthetic limbs are easily as good as their real counterparts. They can re-grow any missing limbs in a lab, then surgically re-attach them with relative ease. Diseases are very common, however the cures are also very common. Plague-level diseases have been relatively wiped out across the planet due to Graton's influence. (Loosing 90% of all customers and staff is rarely profitable.)
As of last year, advances in medical technology have allowed for reconstruction of several sections of DNA. Through use of specialty RNA computers, they can split and reform DNA in certain areas of the body, allowing for a very wide array of different treatments. Surgery is so well practiced, it has become an art form. As a result of those two advancements, finding people with animal traits or extra eyes is possible. Due to pricing, such people are uncommon.

Power in Graton is mostly electrical power developed underground, and brought upward with power lines. Surprisingly, nuclear power is probably the most common source, as DNA and RNA computers can precisely manage them with almost no errors. The occasional errors that do pop up, have yet to exceed correctable limits. Advancements in this field have allowed for the near-complete negation of radiation, and a vast decrease in size. These power stations usually sit 2,000 feet underground, and take up the space of a single-van garage. These stations form a network, and computer servers for popular internet providers can often be found within them given the many connections between these stations.

As electricity is drawn from a wide variety of stations, it is actually distributed at no cost to the residents. Most businesses dealing with maintaining these stations also run the servers attached to them. As such, electrical devices are entirely too common within the world. Everyone has some form of portable communication device on them, and the wide variety of services offering such are very competitive. Cell phones are seen as the most common, and very few of them fail to be as capable as a small computer. Navigation systems are built into every such device, as this information may change suddenly with any major business deal.

Computers are very common, and always advancing. Memory limits are massive, and attention to graphical detail is nearing a point where the human eye can't tell the difference. The largest twist, however, is that they are not programmed in binary. Given their ability to precisely control the flow of electricity, they can measure a far more distinctive level of energy beyond 'off' and 'on.' As a result, programming is far more fluid and capable. Even though the upper limits of technology has advanced greatly, their uses of such technology is still lagging behind. '3D' viewing technology has only recently become common, and 'full VR' environments are still limited or being developed. With the invention of 'lazer' technology, they have special low-output variations that they are attempting to adapt to holographic imagery. However, such technology is limited at best.

As for Security systems, they are in vast abundance. It can be difficult to find a street that isn't monitored by someone, somewhere. In fact, that knowledge is rather guarded information. Even when they don't use cameras, they have lasers, dogs, gates, bullet-proof glass, microphones, guards, and a variety of this and other security both inside and outside. What are they watching for? What are they looking to stop? It is very dependent on the person who owns the system. Many are simply installed for the information it provides, good or bad. There are probably a fair handful that have even lost their owners and sit there forgotten. 'Lazer' technology also allows for 'energy shutters' that can damage people attempting to get through them, however they are surprisingly rare given how recent the technology is.

As common as weapons are, they are not commonly seen. It is often suspected that those who bring weapons to business deals only ever do bad business. Despite many attempts to reduce the count of weapons carried, it is suspected that one in four people conceal a weapon on them. Despite the risks of being looked on disfavorably, many people consider the risks to their lives with businesses like Zajer around to be a more credible threat. Businesses that deal in weapons often work in the shadows, and rarely openly worked with. (This is the main reason the Vrian Corporation is met with high controversy.)

The most common weapons in Graton are self-defense weapons, such as tasers, mace, and other such weapons. These make up around 50% of the weapons people carry around. Depending on the area, however, that number can vary widely. Martial arts are less common, but still more common then most other lands. Around one in thirty people know some form of martial arts, and around one in 100 know at least two. Again, this scale is overall. Some areas may have as high as nine-in-ten martial artists. The next most common weapon are hand-held firearms. Gunpowder firearms are the most common, due to low-cost maintenance, however not the best on the market.

The best weapons involve use of a relatively new technology known as lazers. Though they have some properties of light, and consist of mostly energy, they don't respond quite like a laser would. Instead, lazer energy tends to cling to itself, and change velocity as a whole. It is also possible to shape this energy, though the process involved in such is not openly available. This allows for a wider variety of weapons, such as lazer swords, guns, and walls. The energy itself tends to cut things as it makes contact, and any energy used in the cut tends to draw other energy to that point. So despite the energy 'cutting' things, the cuts themselves appear to be spherical. However, the velocity of the lazer can 'spread' these cuts, so most lazer 'bolts' fired will cut along a more linear path.

Vehicles in Graton are set into two categories, ground transports and air transports. Among ground transports are your typical motorcycles and cars, bicycles and carts. (Carts are usually mobile shops.) Any powered vehicles are mostly limited to electrical power, though a few use odd fuel types made from strange things like corn. Once you get to air vehicles, a much wider variety takes place. There are many vehicles that are recreated boats, adapted with specialty electrical engines designed to allow for airborne travel. (The abundance of electricity supports such tasks.) Smaller boats are the most common, but larger boats exist. Helicopters are also very common, and helicopter parking lots actually exist in some areas. The next most common is simple mobile 'hover' storage crates refitted to house shops, tiny homes, and the like. The weight inside those crates reduces max height, so they are more commonly seen near the ground. Beyond that, experimental tech can be found imported from other lands. Some boards that have said 'hover' technology, jetpacks, and [i]very[i] rarely an armored and weaponized transport.

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