Ashanti
Ashanti, a resort town located on the north shore of Lake Esperance, is known for its beautiful beaches, its well-manicured roads and its lavish hotels. This teeming city is home to many of the South’s celebrities. Ashanti is also home to the avant-guarde of fashion. The local fashions are considered daring by most Southerners and utterly scandalous by most Northerners. Because of the extremely hot temperatures that bombard Ashanti throughout the year, most Ashantites do not wear a shred of fabric except as scarves, headbands or wristbands. Instead, jewelry, tattoos and paint adorn the body of the average citizen.
Ashantites believe in decorating the body to enhance beauty, not to protect modesty. Because of this belief, tourists from the Humanist Alliance and the CNCS are easy to pick out: they are the only ones wearing bathing suits on the beaches. This freedom of the body has produced a pervasive free love environment that dominates Ashanti society. There is no stigma attached to sexual relations before marriage, to how many sexual partners one has had or to extramarital affairs. Ironically, Ashanti is one of the only cities in the Republic to have outlawed prostitution (Ashantites consider asking money for something that should be freely available extremely distasteful — akin to charging an air tax). Contrary to popular belief, however, men and women from Ashanti are not ‘easy’ and for them, no does indeed mean no. Their various laws on sexual crimes are particularly harsh.
While Ashantites believe in beauty, they remain typical Southerners. Despite appearances, Ashanti is neither a harmless nor a defenseless city. The trained observer will notice carefully hidden defense walls and camouflaged trapdoors, as well as security cameras and alarm systems. The city has its very own Gear defense force and is constantly patrolled and monitored so that trouble can be dealt with at a moment’s notice.
In mid-Spring, the entire city plays host to the Ashanti 200, a 200 km speedboat race in Ashanti Bay. The boats used for the race resemble more aircraft fitted with a power keel than actual boats. Around a hundred contestants may enter the race (for a fee of 1,000 dinars each), providing that they are rated professionals (i.e. that their rank according to the Ashanti Power Racing Council is above 2,000 points). The difficulty of the race resides not so much in turning, but in resisting the various and unpredictable winds at the surface of the water and which may easily turn over a boat. Every year, nearly twenty careless pilots get killed in spectacular crashes (which, incidentally, is one of the main reasons why people watch the race). This exciting race is carried live by many Hermes 72 video channels. It is especially popular in the Badlands, where the very concept of racing vehicles across millions of liters of water is astonishing. The winner receives a 100,000 dinars prize. The pilots in second and third place get 50,000 and 25,000 dinars respectively.