Renegade Rodian
- Intent: To flesh out a city as the personal stomping grounds of the Helix Syndicate.
- Image: Space Factory by Joakim Olofsson
- Canon: No
- Links: N/A
- City Name: Civola
- Classification: Metropolis (Population of 3.8 Million)
- Location: Cantras Gola (landlocked - no major sources of surface water nearby)
- Affiliation: Cantras Gola Planetary Government / Civola City Government (Currently Civolan Democratic Front Controlled, de jure)
- Demographics: 93% Human, 4% Near-Human, 2% Ithorian, 1% Other
- Wealth: Medium, previously Low. CDF initiatives have made the city far more appealing to businesses than could be attested to previously. Factories are reopening in the industrial districts and small, family owned and entrepreneurial businesses are making a comeback.
- Stability: High, previously Low. CDF initiatives have gone a long way in repairing the infrastructure of the city, alleviating the suffering of the impoverished, and cleaning the streets of crime. Sort of. The Helix Syndicate’s secretive guiding of the CDF into less-than-legal methods of keeping order and eradicating non-affiliated corruption have done a decent portion of the heavily lifting.
- Description: Civola is the third largest city on its continent. History has not been terribly kind to it until recently. There had been, for example, a severe explosion in crime and economic downturn came as a result of Mandalorian Crusader occupation. This confounded with the local government falling under control of a negligent political party didn’t do the city any favors either. However, things are beginning to turn a corner under the Civolan Democratic Front administration.
- Kiak District: In addition to middle-class residences, the Kiak District is considered the commercial zone of Civola. Many business parks, offices, promenades, and shopping centers can be found in this district. A major spaceport is located in this district. A Helix Syndicate Collections Facility can be found here as well.
Nwhama Park: Located in the Kiak District, Nwhama Park is a remote stretch of green park in an otherwise dreary urban center. The park is incredibly large and well maintained. It is purportedly named after the Ithorian philanthropist who originally purchased the colony of Civola from Helldrill Mining. - Onatima International Spaceport: A large, sprawling spaceport. It serves as the primary gateway between Civola, the rest of Cantras Gola, and the rest of the galaxy. It primarily attracts those who are visiting Civola on business.
- Black River Square Mall: The largest shopping center in the entire city, the Black River Square Mall covers some six million feet and stands about six stories tall. It has been nicknamed the Great Mall of Civola.
[*]Hawik District: In addition to middle-class residences, the Hawik District is the administrative center of Civola. Many federal and local government buildings are found here, including the city hall. The headquarters for the Civolan Democratic Front can also be found here.
- CDF Headquarters: A tall, imposing, and well-defended skyscraper from which the CDF coordinates itself. It is rumored that most of the important decisons in the city are made here as opposed to the town hall.
[*]Kwakina District: In addition to lower-class residences, the Kawkina District is a center for manufacturing in Civola. Factories and warehouses are a dominant feature in this district. It was once considered a “no-go zone” by law enforcement, but things have since settled down.
[*]Halon District: In addition to lower-class residences, the Halon District is another center for manufacturing in Civola. Factories and warehouses are a dominant feature in this district. While not as crime-ridden, the Halon District was largely abandoned by manufacturers before the CDF took over.
[*]Niza District: In addition to lower-class residences, the Niza District is another center for manufacturing in Civola. Factories and warehouses are a dominant feature in this district. Several parts of the Niza District are being renovated as part of historical heritage sites. Further development of the Niza District has led some to believe that there is a gentrification problem in process, but these detractors are frequently muted by Syndicate operators.
[*]Matsak District: In addition to upper-class residences, the Matsak District is essentially the culture and entertainment district of Civola. Upper-class theatres, museums, opera houses, nightclubs, casinos, and stadiums dominate the Matsak District. Like the Halon District, the Matsak District was also largely abandoned and in disrepair before the CDF took over. A major spaceport is located in this district, as is a Helix Syndicate Resort Casino.
- Hwathi International Spaceport: Compared to the Onatima International Spaceport, Hwathi International is far smaller. That is because it caters mostly to tourists and the wealthy. The sort people who come to Civola on their own private shuttles and probably have no intentions of venturing out of the Matsak District.
- Nuxuk Stadium: The largest stadium in the city is a popular destination for concerts and sporting events. At maximum capacity, it can comfortably seat approximately sixty-five thousand people.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Civola’s history dates back many thousands of years, as with most prominent cities on any number of planets in the galaxy. This is not to say that the history is very interesting or even remembered that well. Cantras Gola was first colonized in 55 BBY. Civola was not the first site to be colonized, but it was somewhere in the first ten. The records are sketchy at best. Cantras Gola was a temperate, continental, agreeable planet with many untapped resources. It thus attracted a lot of different corporate investors and individual homesteaders.
The colony of Civola was established by the Helldrill Mining Company in 52 BBY. As one would expect, it was a mining colony. The miners drilled and drilled until the land was stripped bare. The land was then sold to a wealthy Ithorian philanthropist with the intent of revitalizing the land. They were successful, and the land surrounding the Civola colony became lush once again. The Ithorians turned several swaths of land into environmentally friendly, self-sufficient farms.
The idyllic lifestyle of a farmer appealed to many of Cantras Gola’s inhabitants. There was a lot less destruction involved in farming and it was a welcome change of pace from the grit of mining. Humans and Near-Humans flooded the area, eventually outnumbering the Ithorians. Civola grew to such a size that the Ithorian philanthropist no longer thought it prudent to consider himself the “owner”, and thus the autocrat, of the settlement. A democratic government was set up, but without the guiding hand of the Ithorians…
Many of the profits from agriculture went into industrialization. Farmland that was no longer fertile became converted into industrial zones, which refined the minerals brought in from other settlements. Mercifully enough, the planet was largely ignored during the Clone Wars. Of course, most Ithorians left the wayward humanoids to their ill-fated desires during that time. But a small group stayed in the hopes they could sway things back in their direction.
They were wrong about that, obviously.
Civola continued to grow, at one point becoming the most populous and productive settlement on Cantras Gola. But since it wasn’t owned by corporations who could do as they wish, it quickly fell behind to other, more unscrupulous cities. Pollution became something of an issue, but most ignored it aside from the few remaining Ithorians. In 2 ABY, the PowerOn Conglomeration approached the mayor of Civola with an interesting proposition. It is reported the interaction went something like this.
“Please, sell us your city,” they requested.
“I don’t think I can legally do that,” said the mayor.
“But,” said the PowerOn Conglomerate, showing them an Imperial decree. And a blaster rifle. “You’re going to.”
The mayor retrieved the deed from his filing cabinet. "Okay," he said.
The PowerOn Conglomeration thus forcibly purchased the entirety of the planet of Cantras Gola on the authority of the Galactic Empire. Civola was put under corporate administration for the rest of the Galactic Civil War. Things did not go as well as most people would have liked, but they went on. Many Civolans were bitter over the loss of their democratic traditions, something the rest of the planet just didn’t get. Probably because they never had any in the first place.
With the establishment of the Pentastar Alignment, of which the PowerOn Conglomeration was a founding member, things proceeded much as they did. PowerOn became more exploitative to the planet and dissident political factions began to form in Civola, opposing the PowerOn and Pentastar regimes. These were ruthlessly oppressed by the Pentastar authorities. It was not until the Pentastar Alignment entered its twilight that meaningful change came to the planet.
As the Pentastar Alignment shrank, the PowerOn Conglomeration wanted out. The Alignment’s answer was to kidnap the children of an important Conglomerate official in order to keep the pressure on them to stay. This ended in disaster for the Alignment, as the children were inevitably rescued and PowerOn defected to the New Republic. However, the New Republic was skeptical of corporate leadership, and so mandated that an independent democratic government be established on Cantras Gola.
The clamor of the reform lasted ten years. At one point Civola took a leading role in the transition and almost became the capitol for the planetary government. This did not end well, because several times after the reform period, populist pro-Imperial dictators regularly rose and fell. Civola endured a lot of warfare as Republic troops had to restore order in the wake of random militia attacks.
When the dust finally settled, Civola was a shadow of its former self and other cities took on the spotlight in terms of Cantras Gola’s internal affairs.
Many centuries of passed. Periods of rise and decline, war, and that sort of thing. Cantras Gola was a rather innocuous world. It was spared the horrors of many calamitous events, like the Thrawn Campaigns, the Yuuzhan-Vong War, the One Sith terror campaigns, and so on. Where other worlds burned, Cantras Gola survived solely on its lack of interest. So did the PowerOn Conglomerate, who remained influential in planetary politics despite not being able to directly rule.
Civola survived into the galaxy’s golden age, only to be promptly wiped out during the Gulag Plague. Civola experienced a population boom after the Netherworld Crisis, with many random people appearing in or near the city despite having not vanished from the area. Many of them just elected to stay.
In its recent history, Civola has been on a bit of a downturn. The ruling party of Cantras Gola’s planetary government, the Cantran Environmentalist Party (led by an Ithorian, believe it or not) also controlled much of Civola’s city government. Since Civola was not what many believed a “priority area”, the needs of its constituents were largely ignored. Local party officials were continually frustrated and unable to break the status quo of being, by and large, ignored. Crime blossomed, infrastructure crumbled, poverty rates rose, businesses shut down or left. The city was on the edge of anarchy but received little or no support from planetary officials.
Recently, a scandal regarding corruption ripped through the CEP’s ranks. The resulting outrage resulted in a schism. CEP officials headquartered in the city of Civola, led by regional manager Archibald Skimpole, disavowed the CEP and formed the Civolan Democratic Front. The CDF vowed to make repairing Civola as their foremost priority, a promise that resonated with many of Civola’s embattled citizenry.
The CDF was originally written off in CEP internal communications, but several more scandals in CEP ranks drove things home. Despite all odds, the CDF began to sweep local elected positions - either with individuals who were members of the CDF or affiliated with the CDF. With the CDF in control of the city and wholly focused on its revival, things began to take a turn for the better.
The construction of a debt collection center and a resort casino by the Helix Syndicate prior to the CDF’s takeover went mostly unnoticed. What many people failed to realize was that the CDF was, essentially, a front organization for the Helix Syndicate in order for them to take control of the city. Archibald Skimpole and most of his cabinet were blackmailed into seceding and the CDF’s popularity was heightened by the scandals orchestrated by the Helix Syndicate. This included an engineered riot to paint the CDF as a small, grassroots organization going up against “the man.”
The truth is a lot more grim. Local officials who did not join up with the CDF willingly were harassed, extorted, and blackmailed by the CDF’s paramilitary wing until they agreed to tow the line. The ones who didn’t wound up missing.
Media coverage of these conspiracies and wrongdoings remained scarce, largely because the Syndicate has become so adept at controlling information and “convincing” reporters or investigators to spend their time on other matters. What matters now is that the Helix Syndicate exercises near-total control over the goings on of Civola through the CDF. The criminal gangs that survived the merciless purges have been coerced into complicity and are just as much an arm of the Syndicate as the city’s law enforcement and paramilitary guard.
Most of the improvements Civola has enjoyed come as a result of the Syndicate’s extra-judicial meddling. Judging from its sweeping social reforms, some would suspect Civola has access to more money than its tax base would imply. Investigations launched by Cantras Gola’s planetary government have found nothing so far. Public backlash against these investigations, thanks to the Syndicate’s media outlets spinning them as harassment and punishment for prosperity, have so far completely stalled any chances of discovery.
