Livingstone
The NLC city of Livingstone is an old city that dates back to the first century of colonization. Antique stone monuments are scattered about the modern city, creating a striking contrast between old and new. Livingstone’s economy is dominated by large, heavy industries. The two most important of these corporations are Noveren Materials, an advanced composites manufacturer, and Brok Enterprises, a machine tool and heavy machinery producer.
Generally viewed as a quiet blue-collar town, Livingstone has few cultural centers or exciting attractions aside from the Grascaü Point Museum. Much to their dismay, Livingstonians are stereotyped by other Norlights as undereducated factory workers. This uncultured image is reinforced by the heavily slurred local dialect.
The mainstay of the Livingstone economy has historically been steel, alloy and composite production, although other forms of heavy industry are also quite common. The leading employer is Novoren Materials, responsible for much of the advanced materials used in construction across the North. The factory workers who actually produce these materials make up the bulk of the local population and their labor unions are the most powerful political and social groupings in the city. The People’s Party, which currently leads the Norlight government under President Kathë Adjanni, originated in Livingstone and still calls the city its home. Adjanni herself was born and raised in the “City of Steel.” The realities of actually running a nation and a government have forced Adjanni and the party to make certain compromises, including occasionally siding with big business over worker interests. This has eroded some of the People’s Party’s core support, but its record remains strong enough that the electoral races that count in Livingstone occur within the party for nomination. Other parties have little hope of electing candidates.
Edith Lawrence, mayor since TN 1929, is a rare exception. A member of the small Progressive Union Party, she was elected during a schism within the People’s Party. She has managed to govern effectively and has begun to move political debate out of the party’s back rooms and into the public forum. Ironically, her election has led to stronger People’s Party unity before the upcoming national elections because of fears they could loose to other compromise candidates.
Some national parties have tried to make inroad in Livingstone, with only limited success.
The city, although strategically unimportant, is nonetheless a far neighbor to Valeria. As such, the CNCS has an infantry division protecting the city along with Kenema and Smolensk. For the military history enthusiast, the city offers guided tours to Grascaü Point, the nearby site where the 6th Gear Regiment — Maüler Khans — was completely eradicated, down to the last man, by an advanced reinforced scouting party of the Colonial Expeditionary Forces, thus buying enough time for the civilians in Livingstone to finish evacuating the city. The event, although tragic, was a welcome act of heroism at a time when morale was down (Spring TN 1915 was particularly difficult for the Terranovan forces) and helped inspire the troops.
The corpses have been removed and replaced by carefully maintained statues, but the Gears that rust on the battlefield are those that were destroyed during the War of the alliance. On every 21 Spring, Maüler Remembrance Day, the open air museum commemorates the sacrifice of those troops led by Colonel Grascaü by having actors recreate the events that led to the destruction of the Maüler Khans.