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The Saltmines

The Saltmines is a desolate, semi-abandoned district in the northeastern region of Free City, with an estimated population of around 75,000. Once home to thriving salt mines and industrial refineries, it is now a toxic wasteland of collapsed infrastructure, ghost towns, and lawless survivalism. The district is technically within Free City’s jurisdiction, but in practice, it functions as a no-go zone—governed not by laws or officials, but by barter, fear, and folklore.

Overview

Location: Northeastern Free City
Population: ~75,000
Status: De jure part of Free City; de facto unregulated territory
Primary Characteristics: Salt flats, chemical spills, derelict factories, scavenger economy
Atmosphere: Folk horror meets modern paranoia

The Saltmines is a district shaped by environmental collapse and civic neglect. Massive salt mounds, decaying refineries, and permanently tainted soil define the landscape. Once a pillar of Free City’s industrial economy, the mines and chemical plants were shuttered after a series of environmental disasters and unexplained accidents during the mid-20th century. What remains is a poisoned, fog-choked terrain inhabited by society's outcasts, fugitives, and the forgotten.

Environment and Conditions

  • Air Quality: Extremely poor; a constant chemical haze hangs over the district. Most residents wear scarves, gas masks, or makeshift filtration devices.
  • Lighting: Almost nonexistent. At night, the district is pitch-black, interrupted only by the flicker of illegal generators or neon signage from illicit labs and markets.
  • Terrain: Crumbling factories, rusted pipelines, unstable mine shafts, and forgotten railway lines snake through the wasteland. Salt crystals line gutters like frost, and runoff pools shimmer with iridescent toxins.

Inhabitants

The Remnants
Once factory workers and miners, these permanent residents have either refused or been unable to leave. Many are addicts, radicals, or simply too poor to escape.

  • Housing: Repurposed warehouses, underground bunkers, derelict train cars, or shipping containers.
  • Lifestyle: Scavenging for scrap metal, industrial chemicals, or toxic waste to sell or reuse. Filtering water, hunting rats and birds, and trading in dangerous home-brew drugs. Organized into semi-feudal enclaves led by local strongmen or “Salt Barons.”
The Fallen
These are criminals, fugitives, informants, or dissidents hiding from Free City’s authorities or rival gangs.

  • Housing: Hidden compounds in “shrouded zones,” protected by paramilitary groups.
  • Lifestyle: Arms trafficking, narcotics production, assassination contracts. Communication via runners, code-locked crowbars, or encrypted pirate radio. Some sects practice violent religious rituals, especially under the cult of Sanctus Nulli.
Children of Salt
Street children and orphans born in the mines or abandoned during industrial collapse.

  • Housing: Sewers, drainage tunnels, rusted-out buses, and hollowed-out salt towers.
  • Lifestyle: Survive in packs, stealing from scavenger caravans or serving as lookouts and messengers. Often targeted by cults or traffickers. Known for dangerous initiation rites and “games” played in the old mine shafts.

Economy and Activity

  • Scavenging & Scrapping: Residents risk injury or death to retrieve copper, lead, tech scraps, or hazardous waste for black market buyers.
  • Illicit Manufacturing: Dozens of makeshift meth labs, biohack stations, and chemical weapon forges operate deep in the zone.
  • Barter Economy: Clean water is a rare currency. Other tradable goods include antibiotics, batteries, fuel, and ammunition.
  • Folk Religion & Occultism: Secretive sects and cults, particularly Sanctus Nulli, conduct ceremonies in abandoned churches and salt pits.
  • Combat Pits & Trials: Illegal fight clubs and bloodsport arenas attract thrill-seekers and desperate competitors.

Notable Locations

The Hollow Cathedral
A collapsed salt-processing plant repurposed into a sanctuary by Sanctus Nulli, a doomsday cult that worships decay, silence, and chemical purity. The site serves as both shrine and stronghold.
Redline Market
An underground bazaar accessible only by coded tunnels. Vendors trade everything from bootleg meds and stolen embryos to rare tech and cursed relics.
Bunker X-13
A legendary Cold War-era installation beneath the Saltmines. Said to house an immortal mutant or failed military experiment, its existence remains unconfirmed, though many claim to have heard its “voice” through static on old radios. Now an underground techno bunker with the hottest DJ’s in free city.
The Sinkhole
Once a massive open-pit mine, now a foul, crater-like abyss used to dispose of bodies, waste, and secrets. Rumors suggest it connects to subterranean bunkers and lost laboratories.

Myths and Urban Legends

The Saltmines are fertile ground for paranoia and folk horror, with persistent rumors of:

  • Cold War experiments gone awry still roaming the tunnels.
  • Hidden temples to forgotten gods, buried beneath chemical runoff.
  • Underground cities, built by preppers and sects before the fall.
  • Ghost trains still running on decommissioned tracks, transporting only the dead.
  • The Salt Voice, a hallucinatory phenomenon where residents claim to hear the district “speak” through machines and wind.

Cultural Influence

Though feared and stigmatized by the rest of Free City, The Saltmines have exerted an outsized influence on its subcultures. Artists, filmmakers, and urban explorers are fascinated by its decayed beauty and apocalyptic aesthetics. Saltmines fashion—layered, gasmask-chic—has been appropriated by underground scenes, and its music (a harsh blend of industrial noise and field recordings) has a cult following.