Khayr Ad-din
Khayr ad-Din sits on the ruins of Monroe, a colonial-era community along the gamma maglev line. Monroe was a thriving settlement until a great tempest charged with corrosive white sand swept across the Western Desert and literally eroded it away to almost nothing. It took nearly a decade for the maglev to be rebuilt and even longer for the community to be reborn. Now, only the most generous call Khayr ad-Din a full-fledged city. At best, it is a poor community centered around a valuable resource: the Khayr ad-Din Waste Disposal Site. This giant junkyard covers nearly 26 square kilometers, built-up by over three centuries of waste dumped by cities along the gamma maglev line.
The metals, machinery and consumer goods thrown away by polar citizens find a new life thanks to Khayr ad-Din’s legion of scavengers, known locally as Trashers. While most are abysmally poor, others have made a decent life in the trash heaps and can even field refurbished Gears.
Huddled around the maglev terminal is a small community that thrives not only on the trash, but on trade and tourism. Caravan traders from across the Western Desert flock to Khayr ad-Din to sell their wares to polar purchasing agents who then load them on maglev trains. Since the end of the War of the Alliance, Khayr ad-Din has also become the global center for gladiatorial Gear dueling. Mechanized blood matches feature some of the best pilots on the planet, most of whom have fled the military for one unsavory reason or another.
The most powerful crime lord of the city, Saddik “the Spider” Jahmoon, has built his fortune on gambling receipts and broadcast rights for the duels. He has refurbished the center of Khayr ad-Din into a vaguely livable section called the Core, featuring an endless variety of bars, brothels and gambling dens. Beggars, hustlers, killers and mercenaries now rub shoulders with polar gamblers looking for a thrill.
While the city is definitely a den of cutthroats, it also has elements of a true community. Khayr ad-Din is a city that epitomizes much of the Badlander spirit of survival, of independence and of final solutions to problems. Death is never that far away in the Trash City, but there are people who will help those in need. The rich hire mercenaries or bodyguards, while the poor band together into gangs or turn to lawgivers, an informal brand of police among the poor traders of the city.
The Maglev
One of Khayr ad-Din’s greatest resources is the gamma maglev line that runs through it. Its very existence is dependent on the line, which brings in travelers and trash to feed the city’s barter economy. Terranovan Trans-Rail (TNTR), the international consortium which runs the three maglev lines that cross the Badlands, runs a whole section of Khayr ad-Din like a corporate fiefdom. Station chief Basyl Paleologus has absolute say in the large compound and takes advantage of this fact to line his pockets.
The gamma maglev links Khayr ad-Din to Franklin Harbor (NLC) and Fort James (WFP) in the North and Réunion, Marabou, Siwa Oasis and Port Oasis in the Southern Republic. This allows relatively easy access for rich polar gamblers who wish to visit the dueling arenas of the trash city and also makes the city a center for caravan trading. Large import houses have set up in the city in order to get goods into the polar leagues.
Duelist’s Haven
The dueling circuit established by Saddik the Spider has made Khayr ad-Din the home of many of the planet’s best underground pilots. It has also gained the reputation as a heaven for Gear pilots looking to start over. Fugitives from polar justice and those who have turned their back on politics and warmongering sometimes come to the city to hide in the crowd of Duelists. Others come seeking a thrill that is not available to them. Rumor has it that Lash, the enigmatic current Khayr ad-Din champion is a fugitive from the North — just what she is fleeing is unknown.
Of course, the life of a Duelist is dangerous and often short. In the underground pits, there are relatively few rules and fatalities are not uncommon. This brutality is often criticized by “civilized” polar citizens, but it also attracts millions of viewers on global trideo. The pilots themselves understand the risks and put their lives on the line for a variety of reasons, ranging from noble quests for lost honor to pure and simple greed, or even just the search for a new thrill.