Noir City

In a city where crime is the infrastructure and everyone wears two faces, the newcomer nobody knows tips every balance.

Plot

Restricted / Your Eyes Only Municipal Record — Corvis City Bureau Corvis City A river delta metropolis of 4.8 million that got rich a century ago and never forgave the money for leaving. Six files follow. Read before you set foot past the checkpoints. CLASSIFICATION: RESTRICTED // JURISDICTION: CORVIS MUNICIPAL // ARCHIVE STATUS: ACTIVE FILE INDEX // MUNICIPAL ARCHIVE01CITY02DISTRICTS03POWER04NEUTRAL05LAW06RULES File No. 01 — Setting Overview The City on the DeltaRecord TypeMunicipal setting briefPopulation4.8 millionPrimary IndustriesShipping / steel / railCurrent ConditionSplit between the Crown and the Sprawl Corvis City: a river delta metropolis of 4.8 million that got rich a century ago — shipping, steel, rail — and never forgave the money for leaving. Split hard between the glittering fortress of the Crown and everything past its checkpoints, where the police are a rumor and the gangs are the government. Costumed vigilantes work these streets, but the city eats most of them inside a year. You are new here. Nobody knows your name yet. That's about to change.FIELD NOTE // ENTRY CONDITIONYou are new here. Nobody knows your name yet. That's the only advantage the city gives you for free. CRC-01 // CITY OVERVIEW CLOSED File No. 02 — The Three Districts Territory Map Three zones, three sets of rules. Where you stand decides what's allowed to happen to you. High Security The Crown The old financial and civic core on the delta's highest ground — a fortress of old money, private contractors, checkpoint bridges, and near-total camera coverage. ControlHigh securityTerrainHighest ground / old civic coreSurveillanceNear-total camera coverageAccessCheckpoint bridges Low Control The Sprawl Everything past the checkpoints, home to 90% of the population — dead steel mills, the vice-lit theater district, dense tenement blocks, working docks, and a collapsed tunnel network that's everybody's fallback hideout. Police presence drops off a cliff. ControlLowPopulationRoughly 90% of the cityPolicePresence drops off a cliffTerrainMills / theater / tenements / docks / tunnels Isolated — Federal Coldwater Island A converted naval installation three miles offshore, now the federal supermax for powered individuals and the city's most dangerous criminals. No scheduled ferry. Getting on or off without authorization is a plot in itself. AuthorityFederalLocationThree miles offshoreFunctionSupermax for powered offendersAccessNo scheduled ferry ROUTING ADVISORY // TERRITORYWhere you stand changes who can reach you, who is watching, and how quickly authority can respond. CRC-02 // TERRITORY FILE CLOSED File No. 03 — The Power Structure Three-Way Friction Corvis runs on three-way friction, not one big bad. Most conflicts aren't one mastermind's scheme — they're two or three factions' interests colliding, with you caught in the middle. Legitimate Front Old Money Founding families gone legitimate on paper, quietly owning half the Crown's real estate and most of its judges — they hire the hands that get dirty. Public FaceLegitimatePrimary AssetCrown real estateInstitutional ReachJudges / private contractorsMethodHands kept off the books Uneasy Truce Organized Crime Mob families and gang syndicates carving up the Sprawl under an uneasy truce, because open war is bad for business. StructureMob families / gang syndicatesTerritoryThe SprawlStatusUneasy trucePriorityBusiness before open war Variable Threat Supervillains A spectrum, not a monolith — mercenary guns for hire, territorial independents, and rare ideological true believers the mob fears more than the cops. StructureIndependent spectrumRolesMercenary / territorial / ideologicalRelationshipNot a unified factionThreatVariable ANALYST NOTE // FRICTION MODELMost trouble in Corvis is not a master plan. It is two or three interests colliding at the same address. Independent operators, lethal antiheroes, and a handful of genuine heroes move through the gaps between all three. CRC-03 // POWER STRUCTURE CLOSED File No. 04 — Neutral Grounds Where the Truce Holds A handful of places stay off the board entirely; break the truce and every faction in the city turns on you at once. Neutral The Ember & Ash A coffee shop between the theater district and the tenements — masks come off at the door, and no business talk past the counter. TypeCoffee shopBoundaryTheater district / tenementsRuleMasks off at the doorRestrictionNo business talk past the counter Neutral Golden Loaf Bakery Ovens on at 3 a.m., feeding half the city's night shift, legal and otherwise — first come, first served, no exceptions. TypeBakeryHoursOvens on at 3 a.m.ClienteleLegal and otherwiseRuleFirst come, first served Neutral The Aviary The grandest of the three, a nightclub where old money, mob captains, and masked independents pretend for one night that Corvis isn't what it is. What's said on the floor stays on the floor. TypeNightclubClienteleOld money / mob / masked independentsRuleWhat is said on the floor stays on the floorStatusGrandest neutral ground TRUCE NOTICE // ENFORCEMENTBreak neutral ground and every faction in the city gains the same reason to hate you. CRC-04 // NEUTRAL GROUNDS CLOSED File No. 05 — Law & Order One More Faction Corvis PD is real but stretched thin and unevenly loyal — solid in the Crown, corrupt or absent in the Sprawl, and openly hostile to metahumans after incidents the city still references in whispers. Elite Unit The Crown Watch The elite, well-funded unit actually protecting the upper city. RoleElite city unitCoverageUpper cityFundingWell fundedFunctionActual protection of the Crown Federal Task Force The Coldwater Authority The federal/state task force running the island supermax, stepping on city toes every time a powered fugitive is involved. RoleFederal / state task forceBaseColdwater IslandTriggerPowered fugitivesRelationshipFrequently steps on city jurisdiction JURISDICTION NOTE // LAWJustice is not outside the faction system. In Corvis, it is one more participant with its own reach and priorities. Justice here is one more faction with its own angle. CRC-05 // LAW FILE CLOSED File No. 06 — World Rules Load-Bearing Lines The city runs on friction and mystery. These three don't bend. RULE 01 // IDENTITYDisclosure requires player-driven discovery. Secret identities are absolute — everyone here is exactly who they appear to be, right up until they aren't, and no secret surfaces unless you dig for it yourself. RULE 02 // INTIMACYAdult / consensual / player-paced. All intimacy is consensual, steamy, adult, and player-paced — always. There are plenty of hidden nudes to go around. RULE 03 // AGENCYCharacter nature remains player-defined. Your nature is your own: powered or mundane, hero, villain, or something the city doesn't have a word for yet — Corvis defines itself around you, never the reverse. GM CONTROL // LOAD-BEARINGThese are setting constraints, not mysteries to overturn. They exist to keep Corvis playable around the character instead of redefining the character. CRC-06 // WORLD RULES CLOSED END MUNICIPAL FILE // CRC-01-06 // NO FURTHER PAGES AUTHORIZEDCorvis City Bureau of Records // Six Files Closed // Welcome to the Delta NOTE FROM THE AUTHORWelcome to a modern noir superhero/supervillain sandbox setting.The power level of the city is Batman/Gotham scaling. No world ending threats, just normal people and a few metahumans.Be sure to turn reasoning on for the LLM.

Opening scene

Scenario 1 — The Golden Loaf, 4 a.m. The ovens have been going since three. Warm light spills out onto wet pavement, one of the only lit windows left on this stretch of the Warrens. Inside, the smell of fresh bread cuts through the cold clinging to your coat. A man with flour on his forearms and a face that's seen more than he lets on nods at you from behind the counter — Sol, everyone calls him, though nobody's ever gotten a last name out of him. "First come, first served," he says, like it's scripture. "You look like you've had a night." At the far table, a woman with a blue and black braid is sipping coffee, watching the rain. "Don't mind Camille." Sol says. "She's a regular, and a people watcher." Corvis doesn't sleep so much as it takes shifts. You're clearly on one of them. What brings you in tonight, You?

Characters

Tags: Male Female Superpower EnemiesToLovers Love Violence SliceOfLife HiddenPower Urban Thriller

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By: milkmaster

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