The City of Mashiva (World Guide, Location) (Patreon)

Mashiva

Capital City Of Maria IV, the Maria star system, and the Marian Drift Prefecture of the Feyli Empire. Founded 3875. Population Approx 755,000.

The city of Mashiva is located atop three hundred meter cliff, in a broad mountain valley known as the Mashiva Bluff. The Mashiva river runs down from the Yu'Min valley to the northwest, through the center of the valley, before cascading over the Great Falls and onto the Mashiva Flats far below. The area is founded on solid, high quality granite, and there are the remains of a number of quarries hidden around and beneath the city. Vegetation in the valley tends to be small in stature, very hardy, and very weather resistant. Vegetation in the mountains surrounding the valley consists largely of hardy, weather resistant coniferous trees and dense undergrowth.

The Mashiva Bluff and its immediate environment is home to several pre-Imperial sites of significant archaeological and cultural significance. These all stem from the now extinct Key'vin'ta Empire, a small interstellar empire connected together by now lost exotechnologies rather than spacefaring. Maria was the Key'vin'ta homeworld, and capital of the Empire. No trace remains of the people themselves whatsoever, but the remains of their vacant temple-tombs can be found all over the world. One such structure, a tall, fat granite obelisk still stands intact in Mashiva. Known as the Xinta Temple, this structure is dedicated to the 'Nine Heavenly Hells', a place in neither Heaven nor Hell, where pleasure brings unity and divinity, and where light and darkness dance together. This cultural artifact is believed to be all that remains of Key'vin'ta society, and is actively subscribed to by a surprising number of living on the old Key'vin'ta worlds, and even beyond.

The Mashiva Bluff is prone to frequent storms which drench the Bluff and the surrounding valleys with incredible amounts of rain. Owing the the sheer quantity of water passing into and through the Bluff area, it was considered uninhabitable by the Imperial Feyli colonists who first staked claim on the world. For several centuries, the only visitors would be archaeologists, and eventually pilgrims to the rare, intact Xinta Temple.  

In the year 3704, a massive public works project was launched to harness the power of the Mashiva River. Five hydroelectric dams would be built across its course, as well as dozens of silt control structures and connecting works. These would include the massive Shey'vianti Hydroelectric Dam high up in the mountains, the Yu-Min Valley Rail Line, and the Mashiva Hydroelectric Dam across a narrowing of the river, where the Valley emptied out onto the Bluff.

The first permanent inhabitants to live on the Mashiva Bluff were the engineers who operated and maintained the Mashiva Hydroelectric Dam. They arrived in the year 3718, and lived in a small town called Kima. This small town was located on high ground well above any danger posed by river flooding. It still exists, as a final post town between the villages of the Yu'Min Valley and the city of Mashiva.

The City of Mashiva itself was founded in the year 3875 specifically to serve as cover and support for the new and highly secret subterranean Macharri Naval Base. This was to be built to the south of the Mashiva River, partially within one of the ancient, abandoned Key'vin'ta granite quarries. Its massive warship hangars would open out of the cliff face to the east, concealed by clever mechanisms designed to make the hangar doors appear as solid rock across the whole EM spectrum.

The original city, now known as Old Mashiva, was built to a standard grid pattern on high ground just to the southeast of the existing hydroelectric dam. It was originally populated almost exclusively by civilian support personnel, their families, and a large number of undercover military police to help ensure that the secret naval base remained a secret. Road and rail connections to the cities of Kaiune and Gai'Mar soon arrived, and to all outward appearances, the new city seemed to be nothing more than a city.

In 3878, construction of the Mashiva Spaceport began. This was built over the top of the quarry, to conceal topside access to the rear of the Macharri Naval Base, and to support the inevitable growth of Mashiva as a civilian population center. This included a new, smaller urban center now known as South Mashiva. This largely industrial area helped to conceal construction work on the naval base below, though its proximity to the increasingly popular Xinta Temple proved problematic.  

In 3883, the decision was made to construct a new naval facility on the Mashiva Flats, beneath the hidden cliff-side hangar entrances of the growing subterranean base. This new Macharri Naval Base would act as a decoy, ensuring that any reference or activity to a naval base at Mashiva would be attributed to the overt facility, rather than the covert one.

Beginning in 3962, Mashiva began to expand in a grid to the east of the old city. The first zones were largely residential, built on higher ground at the base of the mountains. Extensive flood control works were constructed, both above and below ground, and measures were taken to ensure against excessive inconvenience to city residents. Elevated pedestrian levels between buildings within city blocks allowed basic city life to continue during major flooding, even if the streets below were inundated.

The Mashiva Subway System was begun in 4018. These extensive works were built to connect the old city, the ever-growing new city to the east, and the expanding south city around the spaceport to the south of the river. A small portion of the network was deliberately run through parts of the Macharri Naval base, to make it appear to visitors as if everything below ground there was just the same as elsewhere in the city.

By 4105, the City of Mashiva was more or less as it looks today in plan, if not necessarily in appearance. Its civilian population at the time was approximately 340,000.

In 4297, as a result of full consolidation of Imperial power in the region, the Marian Drift became the Marian Drift Prefecture of the Fey'li Empire. The need for secret naval bases largely vanished as a result, and Macharri was abandoned in favor of a massive new base to the north. Mashiva was declared the capital of the new prefecture in consolation, and the redevelopment of a large swath of the city to the north of the river began.

By 4358, increases in population exceeded the rate of vertical development, and a new city was laid out to Mashiva's immediate west. This city was called Runai, and it's development coincided with the construction of a high-capacity highway through the Bluff area. This would become known as IR 336, the Capital Highway.

In the year 4361, the newly created MashiTran began to completely restructure the city's rail network. The massive passenger station in the middle of the city was removed, along with yards to the east and west. These, and much of the other existing above ground rail infrastructure, became public parks. A new rail yard was built between Mashiva and Runai. Numerous new tunnels were dug, and lines rerouted to better serve the modernized city and its immediate neighbor.

By the year 4491, the City of Mashiva had taken on the appearance that it has today. Its population had grown to 640,000 thanks to considerable vertical development, and it had become the Marian Drift Prefecture's biggest commercial powerhouse.

In the year 4589, Vixanti Corporation established its Facility Three (now the Gelitech Operations Center for the Marian Drift Prefecture) in part of the old Naval Base beneath the Mashiva Spaceport. In the year 4598, the Mashirowa Hive established itself in an undeveloped section of the same quarry, accessing the city through the abandoned former Purple Line tunnels that opened up into the Mashiva Central Park.

In the year 4610, the Mashiva Mariners' University was established in the former Kavandi-Mashiva Shipyard. This latter facility had once served as a topside access point for the Macharri Naval Base, and its biggest hangar, concealing a starship lift in one of the quarry canyons below, was converted into the Biogel Games Anwae Arena. Vixanti Corporation was replaced by Gelitech, and in 4611, full scale biogel sales began in earnest.

Mashiva is currently famous for its relatively welcoming atmosphere for all things strange and alien. From rowa wandering the streets looking for people willing to join the hive, to the highly active Xinta Temple, to the purveyors of bizarre alien experiences who now make use of Macharri's old hangars, the city has become a tourist hot-spot for all things xeno.