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New Crobuzon Hero

New Crobuzon

The river twists and turns to face the city. It looms suddenly, massive, stamped on the landscape. Its light wells up around the surrounds, the rock hills, like bruise-blood. Its dirty towers glow. I am debased. I am compelled to worship this extraordinary presence that has silted into existence at the conjunction of two rivers. It is a vast pollutant, a stench, a klaxon sounding. Fat chimneys retch dirt into the sky even now in the deep night. It is not the current which pulls us but the city itself, its weight sucks us in. Faint shouts, here and there the calls of beasts, the obscene clash and pounding from the factories as huge machines rut. Railways trace urban anatomy like protruding veins. Red brick and dark walls, squat churches like troglodytic things, ragged awnings flickering, cobbled mazes in the old town, culs-de-sac, sewers riddling the earth like secular sepulchres, a new landscape of wasteground, crushed stone, libraries fat with forgotten volumes, old hospitals, towerblocks, ships and metal claws that lift cargoes from the water.

Map of the City

800k JPG image Coloured and numbered map.

500k GIF image From the Perdido Street Station book.

Suburbs

Western Suburbs

  • Barrackham (16)
  • Canker Wedge (3)
  • Chimer (24)
  • Creekside (25)
  • Dryside (4)
  • Gallmarch (23)
  • Gross Coil (39)
  • Howl Barrow (38)
    Noted for its homosexual, transvestite and theatre community. The Pretty Brigade who fought valiantly for the Collective during the return of the Iron Council come from here.
  • Kinken (48)
  • Litchford (21)
  • Raven's Gate (1)
    This is Raven's Gate, this brutalized warren around us. The rotting buildings lean against each other, exhausted. The river smears slime on its brick banks, city walls risen from the depths to hold the water at bay. There is a vile stink here.
  • Rim (26)
  • Riverskin (36)
  • Saint Jabber's Mound (22)
  • Salacus Fields (37)
  • Sangwine (18)
  • Sheck (42)
  • Skulford (41)
  • Smog Bend (40)
  • Sobek Croix (17)
  • Spatters (20)
  • Spit Hearth (24)
  • Tar Wedge (2)
  • The Crow (23)
  • West Gidd (27)

Eastern Suburbs

  • Abrogate Green (8)
  • Aspic (15)
    The city reeked. But today was market day down in Aspic Hole, and the pungent slick of dung-smell and rot that rolled over New Crobuzon was, in these streets, for these hours, improved with paprika and fresh tomato, hot oil and fish and cinnamon, cured meat, banana and onion.
    The food stalls stretched the noisy length of Shadrach Street. Books and manuscripts and pictures filled up Selchit Pass, an avenue of desultory banyans and crumbling concrete a little way to the east. There were earthenware products spilling down the road to Barrackham in the south; engine parts to the west; toys down one side street; clothes between two more; and countless other goods filling all the alleys. The rows of merchandise converged crookedly on Aspic Hole like spokes on a broken wheel.
    In the Hole itself all distinctions broke down. In the shadow of old walls and unsafe towers were a pile of gears, a ramshackle table of broken crockery and crude clay ornaments, a case of mouldering textbooks. Antiques, sex, flea-powder. Between the stalls stomped hissing constructs. Beggars argued in the bowels of deserted buildings. Members of strange races bought peculiar things.
    Aspic Bazaar, a blaring mess of goods, grease and tallymen. Mercantile law ruled: let the buyer beware.
  • Badside (10)
  • Bonetown (45)
  • Brock Marsh (43)
    The academic suburb of New Crobuzon. Full of physiks, biothaumaturges and artists of all sorts. New inventions are a weekly occurance, and with luck - it won't run wild.
  • Chnum (6)
  • Dog Fenn (11)
  • East Gidd (28)
  • Echomire (32)
  • Flag Hill (5)
  • Flyside (35)
  • Griss Twist (46)
  • Kelltree ()
  • Ludmead (44)
  • Mafaton (29)
  • Mog Hill (31)
  • Murkside (34)
  • Nigh Sump (7)
  • Pelorus Fields (13)
  • Petty Coil (47)
  • Pincod (9)
  • Saltbur (30)
  • Stoneshell (12)
  • Sunter (33)
  • Syriac (14)
  • Syriac Well (33)

Buildings

The Spike of Perdido Street Station, looking at the Houses of Parliament on Strack Island Perdido Street Station
Location
: The Crow
Image
: Perdido Street Station (6)
The rail hub and central government building of New Crobuzon. This massive building sits in the centre of the city. Both the sky rails and the land rails have their termini here. The ambassadorial suites are also housed here (including The Weaver and the Ambassador of Hell). It is the tallest building in the city, topped by the Spire.

The Spire
Location
: Perdido Street Station
The central, and main Militia building of New Crobuzon.

The Ribs (12)
Location: Bonetown
The ancient bones of a long forgotten monster rise the height of the tallest buildings in the inner suburb of Bonetown. The bones are thicker than trees and harder than stone - many times older than the city which surrounds it and grew to encompass them. No one knows how old they are, what type of creature they were from, or what killed it. Magic and technology continually fail to work in their vicinity. Many believe the area to be at best cursed, or haunted. Treat as a continual supression field.

The Glasshouse (20)
Location
: Riverskin
The Cactacae (or Cactusman) city-within-a-city. A huge metal and glass dome that covers severeal city blocks. Temperature inside the Glasshouse is equivalent to a desert. Only Cactacae live inside, but outsiders can visit on very rare occasions.

New Crobuzon University
Location
: Mafaton

Rivers

New Crobuzon sits on the joining of two rivers. The Tar from the northwest and the Canker from the north meet near the centre of the city to form the Gross Tar, that exits in the southeast. The rivers meet at Strack Island.

Bridges

Bridges that cross the river Tar

  • Odner's Bridge.
    Raven's Gate to Chimer.
  • Hadrach Bridge
    Creekside to Rim.
  • Drud Crossing
    Smog Bend to The Crow.
  • Stentorus Bridge
    Smog Bend to Gross Coil.
  • Mandrake Bridge
    Lichford to Gross Coil.
  • Barrow Bridge
    Howl Barrow to Kinken
  • Nabob Bridge
    Riverskin to Sheck
  • Pigment Bridge
    Riverskin to Petty Coil
  • Cockscomb Bridge
    Flyside to Petty Coil
  • Sheer Bridge
    Griss Twist to Brock Marsh

Bridges that cross the river Canker

  • Khadoh Bridge
    Canker Wedge to Dryside
  • Coins End Crossing
    West Gidd to East Gidd
  • Barguest Bridge
    Brock Marsh to Ludmead
  • Danechi's Bridge
    Brock Marsh to Bonetown

Bridges that cross the river Gross Tar

  • Rust Bridge
    Griss Fell to Kelltree
  • Barley Bridge
    Syriac Well to Echomire
  • Grand Calibre Bridge
    Broken (was between Badside and Dog Fenn)

Railway Stations

All tracks originate from Perdido Street Station. There are two types - Trains which use the land based rails, and Pods which use the Skyrail. Trains / Railway

  • Verso Line
    ->Rim->Creek Slum->Chitin->Low Falling Mud->Chimer's End
  • Sink Line
    ->Outer Crow->Skulkford->East Sink->Lich Sitting->Fell Stop->(ruined station in Rudewood)
  • Sud Line
    ->Spit Bazaar->Sly->Salacus Fields
    ->Spit Bazaar->Sly->Petty Coil->Saltpetre->Trauka->Syriac Rising->The Downs
  • Dexter Line
    ->Gidd->Barguest Bridge->Ludd Fallow->Station Junction->Kelltree
    ->Gidd->Barguest Bridge->Ludd Fallow->Station Junction->Mog->Dark Water->Abrogate Green
  • Head Line
    ->North Crow->Dryside->Hog Leaving->Flag end->Terminus

Pods / Skyrail

  • ->Canker Wedge
  • ->Tar Wedge
  • ->Saint Jabber's Mound
  • ->Sheck->Ketch Heath
  • ->Flyside->Barrackham
  • ->Chnum->Mog Hill