Philadelphia

Philadelphia, known as the City of Brotherly Love or simply Philly, is the capital of the United States of America and the site of its founding. The fifth-largest city in the States, and forming a third part of the triad of major cities in the Northeast Atlantic megalopolis.

Relatively untouched by the Incursion, Philadelphia retains a 20th Century charm and looks very unlike most other postmodern cities. With its brick row houses and suburban sprawl, it retains its character and culture, while not forsaking the future entirely with its rising and expanding skyline.

Despite seeming quaint compared to the European ecumenopolis or the multidimensional and cultural nexus of New York City, Philadelphia has a long tradition of metahuman intolerance that stretches back to its earliest days. The Freemasons, who had an active hand in building this country, were one of the few organizations that pursued equal rights for those touched by the supernatural.

Today, Philadelphia is home to the Vanguard and one of the largest ratio of metahuman-baseline population in the world. While the Anthony Fields Preparatory magnet school for special youths has not re-opened since the 80's when it was shut down by government pressure, the general culture is very accepting of its own.

Unknown to most of the population of the mainline, Philadelphia is the temporal replacement for Washington DC after the Erasure superweapon removed the American capital from the timeline. Through an unknown temporal agency, however, history was fixed so that Philadelphia became the capital of the United States and a cascade of paradoxes did not destroy mainline reality.

District Columbia
Separated by law from the City of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania, the capitol of the United States is a self-contained municipality which contains such landmarks as the Capitol Building and the Pentagon. The residence of the President has been moved to New York City due to his second duty as president of the Organization of American States, along with most of the diplomatic embassies, but the large diplomatic district remains and is now occupied by many national lawmakers and special interest groups.

University City
Found in western Philadelphia, this mostly suburban and residential area surrounds the University of Pennsylvania as well as Drexel University, and covers much of the western area. It is the center of the arts and sciences, with many museums and the local SOURCE expo center. It still maintains mostly pre-Incursion architecture and is a picture of American life of the 20th century.

Despite this, it suffers greatly from crime and poverty, and massive "superblock" development projects cast a (literally) long shadow, as these prison-like apartment buildings house a increasingly dissatisfied population. With the economy reaching a plateau due to limited resources worldwide, pressures are mounting upon the mostly lower class population.

The old Anthony Fields Preparatory high school is still found here, abandoned and covered with graffiti and vandalism. Most of the district is served instead by Lowe High, named after native celebrity and war hero Jude Lowe, the current War Engine and leader of the Vanguard.