Here's the write-up for the La Corbusier Enclave. I expanded on things. If I left anything out or any of the players want to redefine something, please let me know.
For those that want to listen to the actual plays without any knowledge of it beforehand, SPOILERS BELOW
1. Enclave Name
La Corbusier – named after the brutalist architectural mogul in a fit of self-referential irony
2. Location
Chicago suburbs. The high-price and elite status of the architectural school put it far away from the city’s sprawl, barely qualifying it as a suburb. The much bemoaned distance from the airport and other transportation hubs proved vital to the school’s survival during the Crash.
3. Defenses
La Corbusier survives the constant onslaught of casualties through an accident of aesthetics and timing. The experimental architecture of the campus actually made it quite defensible. Certain buildings featured sharp overhangs, sheer surfaces, elevated terraces, criss-crossing ramps, and winding stairways that could easily blocked off and bottlenecked. The campus was also engaged in a massive design competition at the time focused on repurposing shipping containers as family homes. The containers were moved to block off more open spaces, fortified, and used as additional housing.
4. History
La Corbusier survived the crash due to a variety of factors. The most vital contribution in the early days came from an exceptional campus security force, many of whom happened to be veterans of foreign wars. Working with the logistical planning of faculty unwilling to assume the media blackout meant all was well, they prepared a few buildings for defense. These strongholds housed the majority of campus survivors as the first waves of the Crash washed over the city.
But vectors move fast and go where the victims are. As things died down, the faculty contacted local contractors aiding in the shipping container project. In exchange for food and shelter provided for their surviving family and workforces, these construction firms made desperate pilgrimages to the campus under cover of night, dragging along all equipment and materials that could be salvaged from the industrial warehouses and fenced construction zones they had been hiding in. Quick fortifications sealed off nearly the entirety of campus of casualty attacks, and the few vectors left capable of climbing were repelled by heroic efforts from the campus police, inflicting heavy losses on the group.
As things settled down, those that did not flee to other Enclaves or try to make it to the Recession before the border closed came to La Corbusier. Much of the population is made of a random sampling of local and migratory populations, but the primary leadership groups of the academics and the construction workers still hold sway.
5. Top Exports
La Corbusier primarily trades for its education and expertise. The library remains largely unlooted. Rather, the academics use their expertise in third-world development, sustainability design, and logistical management to consult with other enclaves over Ubiq. This expertise comes at a fee, and crypto charged for consulting brings a large portion of the enclave’s total yearly bounty.
Similarly, the contractors that established the wider perimeter sell their construction expertise to struggling enclave projects around the world, sharing experiences in salvaging and building with improvised materials. Machine parts are a major export, utilizing manufacturing skill sets and the advanced 3d-printing and machine shops on campus. In some instances, if save caravans can be established, former construction workers have been known to go so far as to travel and work job sites at other Enclaves. These excursions have been made for construction projects at The Union, the Ivory Field Ministry, and Machine enclaves, though the latter was in the early days before the group became more militant. The on-site construction projects and custom part manufacture provides a major revenue stream
Finally, the remaining undergraduate and graduate population focused their studies almost entirely on sustainability architecture and technology due to the deteriorating environmental situation before the crash. The proprietary innovations of these young inventors have been released across Ubiq, but not before ransom crowd funding projects go up. After some initial success, the crowdfunding efforts of the youth have been contributing an increasing percentage of the enclave’s total income.
6. Top Imports
While some maintained lawns have been converted to gardens, La Corbusier lacks enough food to feed its people. Seeds, fertilizer, and preserved foodstuffs must be constantly traded for or ordered by airdrop, though water has been secured via a clever hack of the former sewer system.
Weapons are also in short supply and sell for a premium. The heroes of campus security supplemented the non-lethal arsenal provided by the college with personal collections of pure gun fetishists, but these weapons are aging, in disrepair, and increasingly difficult to feed. The crime world of “Chi-raq” and improvised melee weapons provide all other defense, but La Corbusier has a very small percentage of this supply. The bulk of the illegal weapons in the city were locked down by other enclaves or lost to the glut of undead that prevents all but the most suicidal salvage attempts.
Finally, the harsh Midwestern winters make fuel of any type a valuable commodity.
7. Competition
Though not a direct threat, the Lake Pirates operating out of Michigan complicate things for La Corbusier. Their raids have all but shut down lake shipments between the Chicago area and northern enclaves, and their tactics are so extreme that they preclude any black market trade with soldiers patrolling the Illinois River Wall. All trade suffers from the predation of these floating raiders.
A rural megachurch, the Ivory Plains Ministry, holds an entire gated community even further away from the city. A combination of evangelical dominionism and prosperity gospel theologies positioned Ivory Plains nicely during the Fall. Much of the infrastructure of the community remains intact, and the gated community seems almost unchanged in the center. Though not extreme enough to be labeled Believers like some post-Crash Christian sects, Ivory Plains is still heavily resented in the area. They’ve been known to exile families for political and judgmental reasons, feeding innocent families to the casualties for innocuous or nonexistent offenses. Furthermore, the group’s religious beliefs preclude them from certain work. This necessitates subcontracting with local takers. Though the megachurch provides valuable income, many crews forgo the money in exchange for avoiding the group’s holier than thou attitude. However, life inside the fence is about as idyllic as life in the Loss can get, and Ivory Fields’ extensive citizen backing means it is wealthy and a leading candidate for DHQS settlement.
The Machine is made up of the remains of Chicago’s political and police structure. In true Chicago tradition, the Homen Square controversy did nothing to teach those in power anything save to hide their corruption better. The Machine is made up of a variety of former CPD black sites for interrogation and the story of militarized police arsenals. The Machine ignores the fact that they are homo sacor like everyone else and still operates off the briefly declared martial law edict passed down over five years ago. They regard all enclavists as citizens bound by extinct US laws and act accordingly. As such, almost no one deals with The Machine. They have been known to arrest and execute those found out in the Loss for “crimes.” They kidnap people under the authority of imaginary evacuation orders and seize property with force citing “civil forfeiture.” The Machine would not be tolerated at all were it not for its intimidating military resources, but their monopoly on force belies a paucity of other assets. The black sites that make up the Machine are widely distributed, hard to get to, and difficult to coordinate. The leadership argues over who actually wields executive authority until they are resettled. The desperate thugs of The Machine survive solely off their equipment, sociopathy, and delusions of legitimacy.
The Union operates out of fortified shipping docks relocated just outside the city limits. Though difficult to travel to by land, the Union is an extremely safe harbor and a vital port trade with enclaves in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the remains of Canada. In the early days of the Crash, they dealt with everyone and acquired a reputation for fairness. However, the recent Lake Pirates problem has affected The Union most of all, and the enclave is in economic decline. Members are fleeing for other enclaves or risking a lake run of the border. Though it still provides some trade, the Union is but a shadow of its former power and will remains so until the lake is again a safe trade route.
8. Social Structure
Class divides from before the Crash have perpetuated themselves into the current political landscape of La Corbusier. The administration of the enclave is run by a small parliamentary democracy of officials elected every year. There are no term limits or checks and balances build into the system. Yearly elections are dominated by too political parties: the Tenured and the Pillars.
The Tenured are made up of the college faculty responsible for saving the school. They are as predictably liberal as one would expect from private architectural college professors. Their stance on defense has grown lax in the latest years, and their opposition to any new rules limiting the freedom of residents is constant regardless of intent. Despite their concern for personal liberty within the enclave, the Tenured insist their forethought and expertise entitles them to their privileged place in the enclave, apparently without irony.
The Tenured are opposed by the Pillars of the Community, or the Pillars, as they have come to be called. The Pillars are made up of the owners of the wealthy contractors that helped establish the shipping container perimeter. They are far more conservative and security minded, but equally entitled to their privilege.
Not enough of the campus security responsible for the early battles against the vectors survived for from a major political bloc, but the gratitude felt towards these veterans makes them powerful political pawns exploited by both sides.
One of the few things the Tenured and Pillars can agree upon is the goal of settlement. Both groups are willing to do anything to attract DHQS settlement of La Corbusier. They imagine the government will rescue them all.
9. Neighborhoods
Day Laborers: The storage container apartment block where the majority of the late refugees live off the farms of repurposed lawns.
Adjunct Row: Low-level academics and those without necessary skills occupy this tent city ghetto. This is the bad part of town.
Admin: The former administration building houses the Tenured elite. Technically, the offices and apartments are to be occupied by whomever among the party is elected to lead, but that never seems to change from year to year.
Patchwork Palace: A McMansion constructed on the former soccer field, assembled from salvaged materials brought in by the Pillars. The building houses many members of the party, but its extravagance is still absurd.
Hanging Gardens: The roofs of every university building have been converted to water collectors and rooftop gardens. Many have rope bridges connected them so that the Detoxins gardeners can move from roof to roof.
10. VIPs
Dean Chevalier: Head of the Tenured bloc
Harold Carmichael: Leader of the Pillars bloc
Professor Clara Bradley-Matterknick: Swing vote and renegade academic, resentful of the Tenured but without sacrificing her influence over them
Former Undersecretary of Housing Dylan Martinele: a visiting bureaucrat caught in the Crash, living among the Pillars on promises of influence when resettlement comes
Synthenia: Low-level pot dealer turned drug kingpin feeding the addicts of La Corbusier
Dr. Epicuras: would-be messiah leading the Detoxins believers infiltrating the caretakers of the Hanging Gardens.
