Traction City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Philip Reeve's Hungry City Chronicles, Traction Cities are vast metropolises built on tiers that are capable of moving on gigantic caterpillar tracks. These cities hunt smaller cities (in order to tear them apart for resources) which in turn hunt towns which in turn also hunt villages and static settlements. This practice is known as Municipal Darwinism.
Traction Cities were first formed by an engineer from London (which subsequently became the first of its kind), Nicholas Quirke after the Sixty Minute War. After the devastating war, the world collapsed into a post apocalyptic state, and immense geological upheaval (such as earthquakes, tidal waves and glaciers) threatened the world's surviving cities. In order to survive, urban areas were mobilised into vast vehicles that move on caterpillar tracks. Naturally this required vast amounts of fuel, and as the earth became stripped of its natural resources, cities resorted to the practice of Municipal Darwinism and began to consume each other for energy. The traction cities were opposed by the Anti-Traction League which sought to return the Earth to its former state and viewed the inhabitants of the cities as barbarians and savages. In turn, the Traction cities also view the Anti-Tractionists as barbarians. Later, a fanatical splinter group of the League called the Green Storm wages war on the cities with its vast military forces including Stalkers. This has led the various cities to form unions to defend themselves including the Traktionstadtsgesellchaft and the Mobile Free States.
Traction Cities range in size from enormous metropolises (or Urbivores) with populations of millions, to tiny hamlets propelled by sails.
There are also aquatic equivalents called "raft-cities" which travel across the oceans hunting smaller raft suburbs and island settlements. Notable Raft Cities include Puerto Angeles, Grimsby, Brighton and Marseille, most of which are coastal ports in the real world.
As well as standard traction cities and "raft-cities" there are combinations of raft and traction cities which are called "amphibious cities" such as Tunbridge Wheels, that work as standard traction cities on land until they reach water at which point a series of quick processes to activate underside floatation tanks or hovercraft systems and propulsion devices.
There are also cities called "ice-cities" which utilise massive iron skates for travel over the frozen seas of the north. Notable Ice Cities include Anchorage, Arkangel and Wolverinehampton. There are also oil drilling cities on Antarctica. There are also conurbations which are formed by the coupling together of multiple suburbs, most notable Panzerstadt-Bayreuth and Panzerstadt-Linz.
There is also a Traction city that travels the skies, by use of light alloys and a nimbus of hydrogen balloons (hydrogen is referred to as lift-gas), called Airhaven. Airhaven is the only Traction City in the books that does not follow Municipal Darwinism - it survives by trading and providing fuel and supplies to passing airships, and since it is airborne it is well out of reach of other cities. Brighton also has a circular airborne park connected to it called Cloud 9. It is the residence of the city's Mayor.
Traction cities in the books are often named after cities in the real world, such as London, Anchorage, Paris or Prague, and sometimes their names have been slightly modified for comedic effect; for example, Tunbridge Wells has been named 'Tunbridge Wheels'.
The most common method of travel and trade between cities is by airship. Railway is impossible due to the mobile nature of Traction Cities, and seaborne ships would be easy prey for any raft-cities.
At the beginning of the series, the most common area for Traction Cities to be found is Europe and Northern Asia, which is now a great wasteland called the 'Great Hunting Ground'. They are also prevalent in South America (known as Nuevo Maya) and Antarctica (where they drill for oil); North America has supposedly been reduced to a nuclear wasteland by the Sixty-Minute War (With the exception of several offshore islands, most notably the one where Anchorage-in-Vineland settled after its journey across the Atlantic), Australia's condition is not specified and South-Eastern Asia and much of Africa is the stronghold of the Anti-Traction League and later the Green Storm.
Municipal Darwinism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Municipal Darwinism is a concept first described in Philip Reeve's Hungry City Chronicles, which refers to the practice in the post apocalyptic world described therein, in which large mobile metropolitan areas, known as Traction Cities, consume one another by gathering other, smaller cities in large hydraulic jaws. Captured cities are melted or salvaged for parts, and their citizens either resettle in the city they were just eaten by, or - in less ethical cities - are enslaved, often to work in the predator city's engines. Technology and small goods of value are looted as well.
The larger metropolises consume smaller cities, which consume towns, which consume villages, hamlets and stationary settlements. This is an obvious but interesting satire of the animal kingdom and Darwinism's theory of "survival of the fittest". The parody is not limited to the predator/prey relationship; the positions of scavenger and parasite are also filled. During Mortal Engines, the main characters find an empty and abandoned city being slowly stripped of goods and scrap metal by scavenger crews from small towns and airships, reminiscent of a decaying carcass being decomposed by bacteria and insects. In Predator's Gold, airships are seen hovering around a large city and sifting through its exhaust smoke to recover minerals, similar to flies hovering around a larger animal. Later in the book, a small aquatic vessel secretly attaches itself to the underside of Anchorage like a barnacle or limpet, and the crew sneak into the city at night to pilfer valuables.
Municipal Darwinism is opposed by such groups as the Anti-Traction League, which sees Traction Cities as obstacles that hinder the recovery of the Earth to its natural state and view their citizens as barbaric. Traction suburbs also view Anti-Tractions as barbarians and often use "Mossie" to refer to Anti-Tractionists. In Infernal Devices, a radical offshoot of the Anti-Traction League called the Green Storm wages war on the Traction cities.
Interesting, dontchathink?
I always thought Reeves concept was brilliantly thought out, mabe civ4 can utilise this...
