New Vance City Timeline

2060–2068: The Long Slide (Pre-Collapse)

2060

• Jan–Apr 2060: Freight slowdowns and a record smog winter force the metro to pilot neighborhood microgrids. (Lays groundwork for @The Solar Guardians’ later solar-infrastructure doctrine.)

• Jun 2060: Water tariffs triple after a regional drought; private distributors consolidate “for efficiency.” (Proto-@The Hydro Hegemony.)

• Nov 2060: Underground repair crews unionize ad hoc to keep trains moving amid parts shortages. (Seeds for the @The Gear Rats’ ethos of salvage-for-service.)

2061

• Mar 2061: Public Health posts a brief on “post-encephalitic automatism” clusters in elder care; memo is pulled in 48 hours. HINT at Shamble origins (suppressed neurology note, no outbreaks).

• Aug 2061: City Hall revives a continuity-of-governance plan (“Citadel Protocols”) after a blackout scare. (Future frame for the @The Citadel Council.)

2062

• Feb 2062: “Greywater blend” trials begin in west-side districts; residents complain of metallic taste. HINT (treatment changes + off-notes in water).

• Oct 2062: Pirate radio show “The Hiss” claims EM interference causes mass hallucinations near repeater towers. (Later co-opted by @The Static Cult mythos, but still just fringe talk here.)

2063

• Apr 2063: Hospital procurement logs flag an unusual order for neuro-barrier antivirals; FOIA requests are denied for “panic prevention.” HINT (policy secrecy around an unexplained syndrome).

• Sep 2063: Former logistics brokers form a quiet cartel to route “unofficial” supplies into food deserts. (Becomes the backbone for @The Shadow Syndicate's black-market discipline.)

2064

• Jan 2064: A “temporary emergency” hands reservoir operations to a private compact with enforcement rights. (Formal birth of @The Hydro Hegemony practices.)

• Jul 2064: Rooftop heliostat pilot shows promise; [Kara Solis, currently a member of @The Solar Guardians,] leads a volunteer fire-response drill using solar-charged foam units (early proof of “radiant checkpoint” tactics).

2065

• Mar 2065: Transit maintenance budgets are gutted; rail yards become scavenger commons after dark. (Cultural DNA of the @The Gear Rats—work now, ask forgiveness later.)

• Nov 2065: “Chrysal filament” mold reported in disused sublevels; city says it’s cosmetic. HINT (substrates later correlated with pathogen survivability—but unknown now).

2066

• Feb 2066: Old telecom bunkers are audited; one contains sealed cryo crates labeled “NV-Series Tissue Study.” The crates vanish into federal chain-of-custody the same week. HINT (biomedical provenance without conclusions).

• Aug 2066: [Viera Senn, currently on the @The Citadel Council,] authors the “Arcology Wardens” whitepaper—argues for block-by-block civilian order marshals.

2067

• May 2067: “Anoxia events” spike in factories abutting drainage canals; cause listed as “solvent misuse.” HINT (early misdiagnosed hypoxia incidents).

• Oct 2067: [Gideon Rake, currently with @The Hydro Hegemony,] organizes the first “leak teams” to control unauthorized taps—establishes ruthless water-for-work exchanges.

2068

• Jan 2068: AR-overlay marketplaces appear in the subways to dodge patrols; [Marius Vale, currently with @The Shadow Syndicate,] standardizes escrow and protection rules—order in the black market.

• Jun 2068: Health Ministry circulates “cadaver handling updates” citywide after unexplained post-mortem twitch cases; memo urges “quiet compliance.” HINT (procedural shift, still no @Shamblers).

• Dec 2068: A heat inversion locks the city under brown haze; microgrid rooftops outperform the main grid for the first sustained period. (Validates @The Solar Guardians’ solar-first emergency doctrine.)

2069–2070: The Collapse, Consolidation, and the Founding of New Vance City

2069 — The Collapse & Rapid Re-Order

• Jan–Mar 2069: Cascading Breakdowns—grid trips, food convoys vanish, civic apps go dark. Hospitals overflow with acute neuro-respiratory cases; first true Shambler incidents erupt at two morgues in late March. Panic breaks containment.

• April 2069: @Shamblers spread along drainage and transit lines. [Kara Solis, currently a member of @The Solar Guardians,] coordinates ad-hoc “radiant corridors”—heliostat-guided burn lanes at surface stations. Doctrine: incinerate fast, hold narrow.

• May 2069: Water riots at valve yards kill dozens; @The Hydro Hegemony fortifies intakes and sells ration tokens for labor. [Gideon Rake, Hydro Hegemony,] negotiates truce zones: water against shambler-clearing shifts.

• June 2069: @The Gear Rats under [Graft “Rat-King” Calder, currently a Gear Rats foreman,] restore select subway feeders using scrap dynamos; in exchange they claim salvage rights and tunnel sovereignty customs.

• July 2069: @The Shadow Syndicate imposes a “Black Ledger”—price caps, dispute courts, and bonded couriers—making underground trade predictable even in chaos. This weirdly reduces looting and keeps meds moving.

• Aug 2069: Citadel Protocols are invoked; civic archivists, ward captains, and remaining bureaucrats form a provisional @The Citadel Council in the Old Records Rotunda. [Viera Senn, Citadel Council,] issues the first citywide Curfew & Corridor order tied to Solar/Water safe routes.

• Sep 14, 2069: Founding of @New Vance City (NVC)—the Citadel Council proclaims the Charter at the Rotunda steps, redefining the defended core as New Vance City (the ring outside it becomes the Ruins Belt). Charter pillars:

  1. Solar Corridors ( @The Solar Guardians control)

  2. Water Sovereignty ( @The Hydro Hegemony stewardship & ration law)

  3. Trade Sanction ( @The Shadow Syndicate adjudication)

  4. Salvage Compact ( @The Gear Rats maintenance rights)

  5. Civic Code ( @The Citadel Council curfew, muster, and record)

• Oct–Nov 2069: “Radiant Checkpoints” harden: mirrored kill-boxes at surface entries; flamers and arc lamps are standardized. @The Solar Guardians become the de facto quarantine/fire corps. @The Hydro Hegemony pipelines bypass tainted canals and establish chlor-ozone sterilizers. Shamblers are pushed from the inner wards.

• Dec 2069: First whispers of new masked observers moving untouched through @Shamblerzones—later known as @The Silent Walkers (no prior mentions). They ignore commerce, mark walls with chalk sigils, and vanish; city records simply note “unaffiliated non-hostiles.”

2070 — One Year After: Why Order Snapped Into Place

• Jan 2070: @The Citadel Council finalizes the Five-Bloc Accord (CC, SG, HH, SS, GR). Each bloc gets powers only inside its lane; cross-lane violations go to Citadel courts (public trials at the Rotunda re-legitimize law).

• Feb 2070: @The Solar Guardians complete the Helio Spine—a chain of rooftop heliostats and battery banks anchoring the surface grid above the subway trunk. This enables predictable daylight clearing runs and the “incinerate-and-sweep” rhythm seen in the Undernet today.

• Mar 2070: @The Hydro Hegemony opens the Clearwater Vaults (sub-basements with positive-pressure UV bays); ration tokens become hard currency. Water safety + predictability = population calm.

• Apr 2070: @The Shadow Syndicate licenses AR markets under the Black Ledger citywide; contraband is still contraband, but prices and deliveries are enforced—smugglers wear bonded badges. Violence drops because everyone needs the lanes open.

• May 2070: @The Gear Rats formalize the Scrap for Service program: any citizen can trade salvage for power, ventilation, or carriage rights. They repair, you get air. Win-win.

• Jun–July 2070: The Subway Undernet stabilizes into what it is now: radiant checkpoints near surface lines (SG), leak teams patrolling the drainage veins (HH), AR bazaars behind rusted terminals (SS), and rat-run workshops (GR). @Shamblers shuffle in the open but get culled whenever they mass.

• Aug 2070: @The Silent Walkers sightings logged without incident; the Council classifies them “observed, non-aligned.” No policy—just watch.

• Sep 2070: Refugee intake restarts under a points system (skills, water discipline, corridor compliance). The headcount climbs, and the city’s “order” looks sudden from the outside—but it’s really a year of pre-existing pilots and ruthless lane discipline snapping together.

A brief summary:

• @The Citadel Council (order, nostalgia, civic ritual): Their authority is the legal wrapper that lets rival blocs operate without open war. They had the protocols before the Collapse and made them public during it.

• @The Solar Guardians (solar tech + precise incineration): Their corridor doctrine is a direct continuation of 2064–68 rooftop experiments led by volunteers like [Kara Solis, Solar Guardians].

• @The Hydro Hegemony (water control, mafia-style discipline): Born from 2064 privatization; hardened by 2069 riots; now they trade water for labor with sterilization standards no one else can meet.

• @The Shadow Syndicate (structured black market): The “Black Ledger” is the reason trade didn’t implode—[Marius Vale, Shadow Syndicate] turned crime into contracts.

• @The Gear Rats (organized raider-engineers): From unpaid night crews to city-saving mechanics—[Graft “Rat-King” Calder, Gear Rats] codified salvage rights in exchange for uptime.

• Raiders: Many were bought off, deputized, or pushed out by the corridor regimes. Those who stayed outside became the Wasteland Outposts that still harry the Ruins Belt.

• @The Silent Walkers: Appear only after the Collapse; currently classified, minimally engaged.

The @Shambler Virus Origins (pre-2069, never named publicly)

• Water Handling: Greywater trials (2062) and taste/odor complaints suggest a treatment vector that officials would rather not publicize.

• Neurology Memos: Pulled advisories (2061, 2063) and cadaver protocols (2068) point to unknown post-mortem phenomena recognized internally.

• Infrastructure Substrates: “Chrysal filament” (2065) in sublevels may have been an environmental stabilizer for whatever agent later drove Shambling near canals and tunnels.

• Crated Biomed (2066): The vanished NV-Series Tissue Study implies a research pedigree—whether accidental release, mishandled storage, or something else remains unresolved.