Skadi
Many tourists claim that the entire city of Skadi is permeated with the sweet smell of fresh cut saguaro wood. While this is an exaggeration, it is true that Skadi is the lumber capital of the NLC. Huge saguaro forests are nurtured and cut down every year in the countryside around Skadi. Dozens of lumber mills and factories transform Skadi’s forests into furniture, building materials and paper products. Skadi’s lumber companies avoid deforestation problems by logging in a planned, systematic manner and by fertilizing the local soil to help the rapidly growing saguaro trees grow even faster.
The people of Skadi have a reputation as a loud, boisterous crowd. Despite their rough lumberjack persona, Skadians are known for their biting wit and their fine palate. Many of the North’s best gourmet cooks graduated from Skadi’s Culinary Academy. The school is best known for its specialty of roasted treeclimber lizard in hot sauce.
Among the Northern Guard forces stationed in Skadi (most notably the 12th Gear brigade) is the 55th Gear regiment, the Gun Dogs. The Dogs is a regiment of convict-soldiers, assigned to drudge work to work off the rest of prison sentences. The Dogs are boisterous crowd kept in line by the iron will of Colonel Gaël Malabar-Synn. The Dogs are currently under a great deal of pressure because of rising tensions with the South. In wartime, the Dogs are a front-line unit often thought of a s disposable, and most of the troops think they are about to be transferred to the front lines. In the meantime, the soldiers are trying their best to have a good time — and some have even taken to deserting. The Colonel has had to double her MP contingent, but already some soldiers are on the run from military justice.