Extraordinary Comics Places

Places in Universe 6806

The interesting locales, buildings, and dimensions of the Extraordinary Comics main publishing continuinty: Universe 6806

Setting: North Fairland

Theme: A strong foundation but fraying at the edges.

Description: A city on the eastern seaboard of the United States, North Fairland is a city revitalized. Founded in the 19th century to the north of the existing town of Fairland (a famous lumbar yard), North Fairland was established as a shipbuilding hub and trading port. Much of the 20th century saw it fall onto hard times as businesses moved, corruption reigned, and supervillains encroached. However, a series of changes in the 1960s and 1970s - such as the arrival of the super team the Cometeers, a boom biomedical and biotech development, and the growth of the Cartwright Technical Institute – set the city on a path to a brighter future. Things are better than they’ve ever been in North Fairland, but it can only stay that way due to the tireless efforts of its citizens – human and superhuman.

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Place: Cometeer Park

Qualities:

The past grows richer and the future glows brighter.

Hope blooms eternal.

Plenty of shade but no time to rest.

Description: A sprawling arboretum in the northeast part of the city, Cometeer Park is part monument, part community city, part historic landmark. Large trees and bubbling fountains provide pleasant accompaniment to the winding brick pathways. It was established in 1979 after the Cometeers sacrificed themselves to stop the evil Mayhem Master’s ultrachronotonic warhead from blasting the city into another eon. Large statues of the six Cometeer members dot the park and set out its main districts. Cometeer Park is the site of numerous community events and attracts thousands of visitors every day. All that commotion can make it chaotic; more than one supervillain has used that hustle and bustle as a cover for nefarious activities.

People: Cometeer Park Rangers – In the mid-1990s the city recognized that Cometeer Park was frequently the direct target of supervillain activity or was caught up in a superhuman conflict that as it made its way across town. Too many innocent lives were at stake to leave the site undefended, not to mention the historic value of the monuments made it a common target for vandalizing. The Cometeer Park Rangers was established as a way of solving these problems and much more. Acting as tour guides, emergency response unit, security guards, or whatever may be needed at any given moment, the Cometeer Park Rangers have become one of the city’s premier services. Due to the popularity and visibility of the park, they have almost come to be seen as the de facto fourth branch of first responders alongside police, firefighters, and EMTs. With their sharp green berets and fur-trimmed flight jackets they cut a dashing look and make for a comforting sight to North Fairland’s citizens out to enjoy their day.

Aspects: "Yes, I can help!" Making the Cometeers proud. Looking sharp and staying sharp.

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Place: Installation 86 – “Cloudbank”

Aspects:

The first and last stop for freedom. The bigger they are, the higher they soar. Tanks rolling down main street USA.

Description: A massive base installation for O.M.N.I. – the Observation of Metahumans for the National Interest and one of the largest governmental bodies related to superheroes and supervillains. While nominally organized around intelligence gathering on supervillains and non-terrestrial entities that might threaten the United States, O.M.N.I. is also willing and ready to engage in… proactive threat reduction. Installation 86 is one of the few public-facing facilities they operate, mostly because it would be nearly impossible to hide. Its designation “Cloudbank” refers to its role as a depot for rearming, repairing, and refueling the fleet of advanced skyharriers that patrol international airspace.

The base has brought immense benefits to the area including vast government funding. The sight of skyharriers and uniformed O.M.N.I. operatives are a welcome sight to many of North Fairland's citizens. However, it is an unwelcome presence to many others. The proximity of "Cloudbank" paints a huge target on the city for supervillains for one thing. Local politicians often bend over backwards to facilitate the base in any way, no questions asked, because the money is vital to the local economy and the prestige is unmatched. But many say the situation is much darker than that: there countless rumors of secretive government projects, use of O.M.N.I. resources for the surveillance of private citizens, and even the use of O.M.N.I. personnel to silence political dissidents in the area.

Naturally, official congressional investigations into such rumors have always found no evidence of wrongdoing in their lengthy - and classified - reports.

People: Admiral Thomas Norton - A lifelong O.M.N.I. agent whose spotless service record goes back decades, he is that acting supervisor of Cloudbank. Thomas Norton got his start in operations and his knack for keeping track of large scale planning is unparalleled. In his mid-30s he made a name for himself as a capable leader whether facing off against supervillains in the field or managing intelligence behind a desk. Now in his mid-50s some might find it strange that his particular skill set is being used to run what is essentially a humdrum (if complex) warehouse. Admiral Norton's political ambitions have come to the fore in his latter years, and some say his eagerness to join the upper echelons of the Directive at O.M.N.I. headquarters have taken up more of his time and attention than managing the base itself.

Aspects:

"Been in the game longer than you've been alive." Anything to make it to the top - where I belong. Never found wanting.

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Place: Hickory University

Aspects:

It's all there - if you can find it.

Higher learning just means higher costs.

Old hickory has deep roots.

Description: Hickory University is one of the oldest colleges in the state. Its sprawling, stately campus is home to nearly 15,000 students year round, and "Old Hickory" has a luminous list of alumni that refer to their time at the school as one of the most important parts of their life. With degree programs in most existing fields and even emerging ones and well-trained tenured staff, Hickory University is in many ways the platonic ideal of higher education.

But not all of its reputation is quite so straight-laced.

Hickory University has a long tradition of occult activity, ranging from cantrips used to prank incoming freshmen to full blown alchemical research laboratories. Numerous faculty members specialize in magic - both curricular and extracurricular - and more than a few cults to ancient gods with unpronounceable names have formed beneath the shade of the shagbarks. The university even sports a dedicated eldritch library, but it is so charged with arcane power that finding what you're looking for might be a life or death situation.

People: Dean Aisha Paulson - Hickory University's preeminent scholar on enchanted artifacts and one of the youngest Prima Magicas in history, Dean Paulson is every bit a prodigy. Her reputation is sterling and her record speaks for itself. Most potent wizards earn reputations as eccentric sorcerers or power-hungry egotists. Aisha is neither. In fact, she is the de facto face of the university and leads numerous community benefits that have raised the school's already impressive profile ever higher. Of course, her desire to acquire, assess, and archive magical objects borders on the obsessive. Some say it is dangerous to chase down that many items of power and keep them all in one place - particularly beneath a school, no matter how warded it may be. But Aisha is confident she can handle whatever trouble might come her way.

Aspects:

The youngest Prima Magica in history.

A grand archive.

"Let me take a look at that..."

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Place: Arteaga-Southerland Centre for Community and Research

Aspects:

When everyone works together, anything is possible.

Familiarity and understanding are a cure for fear.

Where it started is where it continues.

Description: After android production was suspended and androids gained citizenship, doctors Arteaga and Southerland, the designers of the android brain and now rich men from their patents, donated a large sum of money to convert the former assembly facility and later the heart of the liberation movement into its current form. The work at the centre, both volunteer and otherwise, focuses on android-human relations and various research projects, often of the sort where androids and humans work together to tackle various issues and attempt to develop solutions to problems affecting both groups or the world at large. The projects can range in scale from local students looking into local issues to acclaimed scientists researching climate change.

The centre sees occasional trouble from protests to vandalism, since some humans still harbor anti-android sentiment and some androids return the feeling. But serious incidents are rare and most of the time the area is a peaceful one.

People: Dr. Cain Peace. Android, political activist, former liberation movement leader, and an expert in terraforming and geodesign. With an appearance of a powerfully built man in his thirties, clean shaven and with a short cropped hair, Cain looks more like a soldier than a scientist. But he is calm, diplomatic and nonviolent in personality, preferring verbal confrontation to physical, and will seek to subdue rather than injure if pressed into a fight. He sees citizenship for his kind as only the beginning, and between running the Arteaga-Southerland Centre, political lobbying, being active in regular and social media, and participating in social and research projects, many people wonder whether he even needs a recharge period like most androids and if he does, how does he find time for it.

Aspects: "I am always busy, but I can spare a moment for you." Make peace, not war. Community leader.