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Setting
Template, first and foremost, is a city. It has the features of a city, all the amenities of a city and all the problems that a city could possibly have. Grocery stores, businesses, banks, hotels, apartments, restaurants, police, speed limits...

Nothing to indicate that Template is anything less than a normal city, with all it's problems, corruption, crime, and manipulation.

The City

For all its oddities and unnatural occurrences, Template looks and acts much like a large metropolis of the twenty-first century. There are four main districts -- and all cities suffer poverty, so there are also slum areas scattered about throughout the districts themselves:

East Side (Artisan District) . West Side (Business District) . Downtown . The Suburbs . The Slums
MAP
Being a city of considerable size, there are a number of facilities that can be found just about anywhere within Template, as well as those that are specific to certain districts. Locations that can be found in virtually any neighbourhood (although the level of quality varies, as you will find in the slums) are as follows: libraries, rec centers and gyms, clubs, restaurants and pubs, parks and playgrounds, pools and arenas, strip malls, gas stations, theatres, schools, shelters, banks, hotels, apartments and housing, police and fire stations.


Transport

While the warping function of the digital level is ideal for travelling short distances, it has a range of only a single mile, and can only be performed once every hour. On top of this, successive usage can induce strain and fatigue on the warper, and so public transportation is still very much alive and useful in Template.

The Mizuanthe
The Mizuanthe is the river that meanders through the city, winding a snakelike path from north to southeast. It feeds into the North Bay as it comes in, where water locks split its flow between the main river and the canals. It then passes through Downtown, dividing the East and West sides, and into the southern suburbs where it forms Center Bay before continuing on. The Mizuanthe is at least a mile wide in places, and is crisscrossed with both pedestrian and vehicle bridges. Template has been built around the river from the banks outward, which accounts for many of the winding streets within the city.

The Canals
The canals originate at the water locks in North Bay, and the main canal runs parallel to the river all the way down to the south end of the city. Smaller canals branch off throughout various parts of Template, running all the way to the outskirts. Only the main canal is large enough to hold motorboats, but canoes and other small crafts can be taken down the side canals. In the winter, the locks are used to lower the water level, and the canals freeze over for skating.

Buses
Template's bus system runs throughout the city and supplements the subway wherever the trains can't reach. Stops can be found everywhere, marked with poles sporting a blue stencil of a bus. Busy stops also sport convenient schedules on the poles. The buses stop running from two to five in the morning.

Subway
The subways are regularly running trains that run both underground and above ground across the city, crossing the river bridge to connect the two main districts. The Main Line runs east/west, and runs regularly 24 hours a day. The North Line travels north/south and also runs 24 hours, but trains are less regular in the wee hours of the morning. The two lines meet at the Downtown hub, and transferring can be quite the pain during rush hour.

Streetcars
The streetcars can only be found in the Downtown area, where they run more often than buses. They will stop at all marked bus stops, as well as all major Downtown locations, and the ding of their bells and the clacking of the tracks is a common sound throughout the day. The streetcars stop running at 10 PM.

Highways
Template has three interstates, two of which run through the city. The I-19 is north/south and passes right through Downtown via overpasses. The I-34 is east/west and crosses the river north of Downtown. The I-234 circles the city, skirting around the edges of the suburbs -- but to even reach that far means beating the labyrinth that the city becomes, trapping the characters there.


Artisan District (East Side)

Conservatory of Music
The Conservatory is an old, stately building that may once have been a church. Now renovated, it serves as a school and performance venue for musicians, singers, storytellers, and more. It boasts a large performance hall with awe-inspiring acoustics, a music library, a recital hall, and many studios and classrooms.

Museum of Culture and History
The museum is a sprawling, white complex of creative architecture, easily the most eye-catching building on the river's east bank. Fountains and gardens spill off to one side, with a park for children. Inside the museum, great halls describing Template's history direct visitors through another place and time, one of tribal peoples and early settlers -- but something seems to be just a bit off about the information, something that you can't quite put your finger on. It might be better to instead occupy yourself with the collection of impressive artwork or the giant Imax theatre.

Science Center
The Science Center is a large building with several levels dedicated to everything from physics and chemistry to communications and technology to ecosystems and the environment. You can play with projections that respond to movement, rooms that absorb sound, static balls that make your hair stand on end, kinetic sculptures that send colourful balls along complicated pathways; even a living, contained rain forest, complete with hot and muggy air, waterfall, poison dart frogs (in glass enclosures, of course), and a turtle in the pool. Outside there are picnic tables and exhibits such as hydrophones that let you play music with water, or metal sculptures that bend and warp with the sun.

Riverside Shopping Center
The Riverside mall is one of Template's two largest malls, consisting of three floors of stores and a fourth containing a movie theatre. The bottom floor contains an extensive food court at one end, and also leads to the subway and an outdoor bus terminal.

Broadway
Broadway is iconic of the Artisan District, being a series of blocks dedicated to music and theatre. Movies, plays, concerts, musicals, readings, comedy -- all the latest and greatest can be found here, and nowhere else, at all hours of the day and night.

Arboretum
The arboretum is a special park dedicated solely to the growth of rare or special trees. No vehicles other than bicycles are permitted through, and harming any of the trees is considered a serious offense. It's a quiet and peaceful place, consisting of rolling hills and wooded paths, and many of the trees bear memorial markers -- stating the names of people who have come and gone, or who have had trees planted in their honor.

Memorial Park
Memorial Park lies right next to the largest bridge across the Mizuanthe, and is an expansive, grassy park often used for outdoor events of all kinds.

Art and Photography Gallery
An impressive structure with a long glass gallery for performances or for people to take lunch, the Gallery boasts several floors of all kinds of paintings, sculptures, carvings, photographs, jewelry, even short films. There's a geometric garden on the first floor, and a fountain on the second, with a glass bottom that one can stand under and look up at from the first floor. The place is quiet and echoing, with many seats and cushions placed around for viewers.

Peterson Hospital
Peterson Hospital, while it treats all patients, is best known for its treatment of children and people with special disabilities. It is welcoming and warm for a hospital, and the hallways are often decorated with children's artwork.


Business District (West Side)

Germantown
Clean, bright, and high-quality, Germantown is iconic of the Business District, noted especially for its independently owned and run shops. Things here tend to be rather expensive, however.

Nature Museum
The Nature Museum is a curious mix of old and new architecture, ancient stone and new steel combined to make a building that is certainly unique. Inside, exhibits on all the facets of the plant, animal, and mineral kingdoms can be found, including the bones and fossils of species long gone.

War Museum
The War Museum is long and angular, mimicking perhaps a plane or a bird in flight. The main entrance hall leads off into both the gift store and the main museum, but to one side is a small hallway leading into an enclosed room with a bench and a small rectangular pool against one wall. The other wall bears a tombstone to some forgotten soldier, positioned in just such a way that the sun from the narrow skylight overhead touches it exactly at noon. The rest of the museum is less solemn but no less serious, displaying vehicles and weapons of war, common soldiering equipment from all the ages, and descriptions of wars long past -- but with who? None of the descriptions say.

Open Market
The open market is held on a number of blocks of the Business District every day, although it closes early on Sundays. The market streets are lined with restaurants and grocery stores, although vendors from all over the city come to set up awnings and stalls on the streets and sidewalks. Here you might bargain for your goods, or find a little something extra that you wouldn't see on store shelves.

Arts Center
Elegant and refined, the Arts Center is a venue of the highest quality, offering shows of the most highly-rated operas, dance and drama troupes, orchestras, and singers. Conferences are often held here as well.

Mills Shopping Center
The Mills shopping center is situated close to Downtown and is Template's largest mall, arching overhead in a vaulted glass ceiling that covers four floors of stores and a fifth of small businesses such as lawyers and family doctors. The basement floor also contains a food court, arcade, and fountain, and leads to the subways; and the main floor has a bus terminal out front.

The Skate Park
While there are a number of paved outdoor skate parks scattered throughout Template, the Skate Park in the Business District is a massive wooden indoor affair, scuffed with years of tires and tumbles. Rails, half-pipes, pools and bowls, funboxes, quarter-pipes, even stairs mean that this park has challenges for even the most experienced skaters. But be careful: the Park lies close to the West Side slums, and the night skaters can be pretty territorial -- and violent.

Barrow Street
Barrow street is a special pedestrian-only road, lined with the most popular shops and restaurants. At night it is lit up by ornate street lamps and coloured lights set in the cobblestone street itself.

The Courtyard
The Courtyard is both the literal and the social center of the Business District. A large, round, red-tiled expanse, it features a number of clothing stores and cafés, and is littered with patio chairs and tables for people to sit and eat or talk.


Downtown

Chinatown
A location of tiny, crowded shops, street stalls, red arches and gold dragons, Chinatown hearkens back to another time and place, one replete with the ring of bicycle bells and the smell of dim-sum. Try the unnamed store on the corner, or poke your head into that alley that people keep walking into. You may be pleasantly surprised -- or unpleasantly, if you go too far in, as Chinatown also extends right into the Downtown slums.

Central Park
Central Park lies right next to the Chez Hotel, and is a sprawling expanse of white pavement paths and artful gardens, overlooking the river at one end. Many concerts, speeches, and even weddings are held here.

Chez Hotel
One of the oldest buildings in Template, the Chez Hotel is easily identified by its shining copper roof and elegant architecture. Inside it is beautiful and luxurious, featuring a ballroom and a warm cherry bar room on the main floor. The bar room is open to non-guests (as long as they pay an entrance fee), and is the venue of many a jazz band.

The Council Buildings (no access)
The Council buildings are a mysterious old collection of buildings, stretching out across the very heart of Downtown --you're welcome to wander about the grounds, but you certainly won't get any further than that. People can be seen coming and going, but they are few, and none of them are talking. No one knows exactly what is in there, and it may be better to let sleeping beasts lie.

Supreme Court (no access)
The Supreme Court is a large and imposing structure, suitably intimidating for a place that decides the ultimate fate of wrongdoers. Fates that go ultimately unknown, as getting into this building is even more impossible than getting out of a maximum security prison.

City Archives (no access)
All cities generate laws and records, and to be sure, City Hall can't hold them all. The City Archives handle all kinds and types of sensitive documents, locked away from prying eyes. Access to this building is no more likely than getting into the Council buildings or the Supreme Court.

City Hall
City Hall is a bright and modern building made of clean glass and stone. Professional and well-kept, this is the place to go to have your papers processed or to lodge a complaint against the mayor -- if you don't mind waiting in queue, that is.

Cyberdome
The Cyberdome is situated near to the Business District, only a few blocks away from the Mills center. This is a building dedicated solely to play -- purchase some tickets or a timed pass, and away you go. Here you can find every arcade game imaginable, old and new, from racing to shooters to combat to massive multiplayer. There's a simulator capsule, 3-D theatre, laser tag, outdoor go-karting, even old-fashioned street corner games like pachinko and crane games. There are prizes and extra credits to be won, and multiplayer games of all kinds pit you against other gamers. The only limit is your stamina and your wallet.

Law Enforcement HQ
Law Enforcement Headquarters is the hub of the city's police force, a bustling building of officers and lawyers, holding cells and criminals being processed. If you need to speak to the Chief of Police, this is the place to find him.

Landsdown Stadium
Landsdown Stadium is actually the smaller of the two stadiums in Template, but it's no less popular for it. An ice rink and a basketball court on the lower level, and a football/soccer/lacrosse field up top means that all manner of sports are played here, and the covered spectator seats and high-quality food vendors have attracted many a fan.

Central Hospital
Central Hospital is the largest hospital in Template, and the worst cases are often transferred here for treatment. Several massive floors of treatment and patient rooms offer all number of services and cures.


The Suburbs

Little Italy
Little Italy lies in the East Side suburbs, and its numerous restaurants and cafés, proximity to Broadway, damn good pizza, and reputation for being a safe neighbourhood combine to make it a popular spot for dates.

North Bay and Locks
In the North End suburbs lies North Bay and the water locks that split the Mizuanthe between the main river and the canals. North Bay itself is a pleasant beach with a playground, tennis courts, volleyball nets, and outdoor BBQs, and is marked by its trademark willow trees and a large hill that lets you see around the city for miles. The locks are at the south end of the Bay, and are marked off against swimmers and boats due to a vicious undertow. In the summer, only one or two of the three locks are open, forcing the water to flow through the canals. In the winter, all three locks are opened, allowing the water to flow into the river and thus lower the water level of the canals. The waterfalls formed by the locks opening up into a rock valley are beautiful, and the fishing is good, but those who would climb down among those rocks do so at their own risk.

Center Bay and Marina
Center Bay contains the city's marina, and lies just south of the Downtown district. Larger than North Bay, Center Bay is quite deep and swimming in it is a dangerous affair, especially with the many boats and ferries coming and going.

The University
The University is aptly named, being Template's only location for higher learning. A rather large complex that spreads over several city blocks, the University lies on the halfway point between the Business District and the West Side suburbs, and is almost a small city unto itself. It hosts hundreds of programs for students, and there are dozens of buildings divided up between the different disciplines, as well as student dorms, a library, and an athletics facility.

The Royals Casino and Racetrack
The West Side suburbs contain the Royals Casino and attached race track, a gamblers' paradise for anyone with money to lose. Among the many games featured are: poker, baccarat, casino war, blackjack, craps, three-card poker, Caribbean stud poker, Let it Ride poker, Pai Gow poker, roulette, touch bet roulette, Sic Bo, Keno, and slot machines. High-end restaurants and a performance hall provide further entertainment for those not interested in horses or games, and every year there's an annual fireworks competition by the river's edge.

Airport (no access)
The Airport, found in the West Side suburbs, is a rather puzzling place. It obviously exists -- signs on the roads and in the subways point to its location, and planes can be seen periodically flying over the city, landing and taking off from somewhere in the West Side. But no matter how far you drive, or how long you stay on that subway, you'll never quite manage to get there.

Skyzone Amusement Park
Skyzone amusement park is in the North End suburbs, south of North Bay but a fair distance from Downtown. Large and exciting, it features several roller coasters, ferris wheels, tumblers, spinners, rockers, and any other kind of ride you can think of. There's a beer garden and a trades hall, an outdoor stage and fountains with coloured lights where fireworks are set off nearly every night. Games alleys and kiddie rides ensure that people of all types and ages can enjoy themselves here.

Agricultural Preserve
The agricultural preserve is located in the East Side suburbs, and is a sort of experimental farm, where new farming and livestock treatment methods are tested out or researched. A large complex, surrounded by several fields of crops and containing all the amenities of a real farm, the preserve offers hay wagon rides in the summer and fall and sleigh rides in the winter. Berries can be picked in the winter, pumpkins gathered in the fall, and in the summer you can churn your own butter or make your own ice cream. There is a horse stable and corral where you can take riding lessons, and the preserve is always looking for helping hands with the animals.

Barker Stadium
Barker Stadium lies in the South End suburbs and is the largest stadium in Template. It boasts two ice rinks, two basketball courts, a baseball field, and a broad field for soccer, football, lacrosse, track, and just about anything else you can think of. Unfortunately, the field seats are not protected from the elements, and games may be called off due to rain or bad weather.


The Slums

The Church
Located in the Downtown slums, the cathedral is where it all begins and ends for many of the newcomers of Template. Originally neglected and derelict, the church has been restored somewhat through the attentions of well-meaning locals and newcomers alike, and its towering silver spires can be spotted from nearly anywhere in the Downtown district.

Rainer Hospital
Located in the West Side slums, the Rainer Hospital is the most sketchy of Template's three hospitals. The equipment is outdated and they may be understaffed, but it's clean and sterile, and the staff doesn't ask questions or turn anyone away.

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