Redmond
 | |
| The Seattle sprawl’s broken eastern edge. | |
|---|---|
| Law comes late, if it comes at all. | |
| Touristville smiles for the slummers; Glow City glows for the dead. | |
| Bring your own medkit, signal booster, and exit plan. | |
| Location Creator | Tubatitan88 |
| Archetype | District / Barrens |
| Metroplex | Seattle |
| Neighborhood | Redmond Barrens |
| Background Count | 1-3; higher near toxic, violent, or irradiated sites |
| Noise | 2-4; higher in ruins, dead zones, gang territory, and Glow City |
| Faction | Various gangs, squatters, smugglers, street docs, toxic cults, and local fixers |
| Coordinates | 47° 40' 0.00" N, 122° 7' 0.00" W |
Description
Redmond is one of Seattle’s most infamous Barrens districts: a collapsed suburban sprawl of abandoned corporate parks, half-dead malls, squats, chop-shops, gang turf, toxic lots, and desperate people. Official maps still call it part of the metroplex, but most residents know better. Redmond is where city services fade, contracts lapse, and the people left behind learn to survive without expecting help.
The district is not uniform. Touristville sits on the safer, more profitable edge of the Barrens, where clubgoers, slummers, runners, and gangers mix under flickering neon. Deeper in, roads break down, Matrix coverage becomes unreliable, and whole neighborhoods are governed by whoever has food, ammo, medicine, or bodies. The core rulebook treats the Redmond Barrens as a Z-security area, comparable to the Chicago Containment Zone, with High Threat Response measured in hours rather than minutes.
Redmond is also environmentally dangerous. The Redmond Barrens are specifically called out as a place where toxic soil and water can cause long-term illness, especially among children, the elderly, and people too poor to leave. :The most notorious example is Glow City, a heavily polluted and irradiated zone formed after the 2012 Trojan-Satsop reactor partial meltdown. Renraku travel guidance labels Glow City off-limits due to radiation and polluted soil and water.
Distinctive Features
Touristville
Touristville is the face Redmond shows to people who want danger with an exit route. It has clubs, crash spaces, pawn shops, black-market vendors, street food, gang hangouts, and enough nightlife to convince Downtown kids they have seen “the real Barrens.” In practice, Touristville is a buffer zone: safer than the deep Barrens, but still dangerous enough that gangers, predators, and shadow recruiters can operate in the open.
A known Redmond example describes a target living in Touristville in a large, rundown house used for parties, ganger gatherings, and informal pit fights. The same source notes the area’s mix of squatting, stolen utilities, gang presence, and shadow-adjacent recruiting.
Glow City
Glow City is Redmond’s poisoned heart. It is heavily irradiated and polluted, with dangerous soil and water, scavenger settlements, toxic rumors, and enough urban legends to keep thrill-seekers coming back until they stop coming back at all. The region’s contamination traces back to the Trojan-Satsop reactor partial meltdown in 2012.
Recent rumors place the dracoform Kalanyr in the area, allegedly studying ways to combine advanced magic and technology to cleanse the radiation. Renraku dismisses stories of “radiation magic” and cult activity as products of damaged minds, which naturally means most shadow chatter assumes there is at least some truth buried under the corporate spin.
The Street Ecosystem
Redmond runs on informal power. Gangs, squatters, community defenders, smugglers, street docs, talismongers, chop-shop riggers, scavenger crews, and local fixers all fill roles the metroplex government cannot or will not handle. Clubs and public spaces may look chaotic, but many are governed by unwritten truces. Break the wrong rule and the official police response may be irrelevant compared to the neighborhood response.
The Redmond crowd is described as a mix of everyday locals, slumming outsiders, and a sizable gang presence, including Crimson Crush orks and Desolation Angels colors in one club scene.
Vertical Squats and Drone Nests
Some Redmond residents avoid ground-level danger by going airborne. Rigger culture has adapted to the Barrens with dirigible dosses and lighter-than-air hideouts floating above rough districts, a trend specifically noted as growing in places like the Redmond Barrens.
IC Information
Notable Associated Characters
Kalanyr — dracoform rumored to be active around Glow City, studying methods to cleanse radiation through a mixture of arcane and technological techniques.
Crimson Crush — ork gang presence seen in Redmond nightlife.
Matrix Search Table
| Threshold | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Redmond is a Seattle district commonly referred to as part of the Barrens. Public safety warnings advise visitors to avoid the area after dark. |
| 3 | Redmond contains Touristville, gang-controlled zones, abandoned corporate property, and several areas with unreliable public services. Emergency response is slow and inconsistent. |
| 6 | Glow City remains dangerously irradiated from the 2012 Trojan-Satsop reactor partial meltdown. Rumors connect the dracoform Kalanyr, toxic cult activity, and illegal research teams to the area, though corporate advisories deny most of the stranger claims. |
Area Knowledge:Seattle Table
| Threshold | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Redmond is the Barrens. Do not go there without a reason, backup, or someone local vouching for you. |
| 3 | Touristville is the “safe” edge where outsiders go slumming. It has clubs, fixers, gangs, and markets, but the rules are local and unofficial. |
| 5 | The deep Barrens are divided by gang turf, squatter communities, toxic zones, and private arrangements. Glow City is not just polluted; it is irradiated, magically strange, and tied to persistent rumors about Kalanyr and radiation-cleanup experiments. |