The Smart Slums are one of Neo-Europa’s most densely populated and culturally vibrant districts. A sprawling labyrinth of neon-lit alleys, stacked micro-arcologies, repurposed vertical ruins, and chaotic data infrastructure, the Smart Slums are home to millions who live in the margins of the city’s official systems.
Often compared to a less-cramped version of historic Kowloon, the district thrives in contradiction: technological ingenuity beside infrastructural decay, rogue implants sold beneath blinking billboards, and revolutionary politics coded into scrap-tech terminals.
Overview
- District Type: High-density lower-class zone
- Population Estimate: 22 million
- Known For: Butcher Shops, Voice Grid anomalies, Chapel Nodes, street factions
- Dominant Aesthetic: Neon chaos, urban sprawl, street-hacked electronics
Architecture and Layout
- Buildings are stacked and fused over generations—old corporate towers repurposed as communal housing
- A maze of walkways, vendor stalls, uplink hubs, and hidden courtyards
- Vertical layering: commercial at base, housing in the mid, tech black markets above
The slums are constantly expanding—*upward, inward, and illegally outward.*
Butcher Shops
The district is home to thousands of Butcher Shops—independent or semi-legal vendors of:
- Cybernetic limb replacements
- Neural OS tuning and personality tweaks
- Bootleg memory fragments
- Illicit experimental implants
Butchers are folk heroes and cautionary tales—some revered as doctors, others as mad scientists with drills.
Chapel Nodes
Scattered throughout the slums, Chapel Nodes serve as places of prayer, code, and superstition. Many are believed to house rogue AIs or synthetic gods. Some citizens worship ancient deities like Odin or Dionysus, now reinterpreted as digital entities whispering through implants.
Chapel Nodes are sites of:
- Hallucinated visions and dreams
- Code-offerings and data sacrifices
- Occasional disappearances
Voice Grid Irregularities
The Voice Grid in the Smart Slums is:
- Inconsistent
- Full of echo artifacts and corrupted signal loops
- Sometimes hijacked by faction propaganda or rogue poetry AIs
Many believe the Grid here has *a personality*—or several.
Faction Conflict
Two major ideological factions operate in the slums:
Royalists – “The Tower Loyalists”
- Believe the Nobles are rightful rulers
- Support hierarchy, order, and earned elevation
- Led by Roland Weinvlit, twin brother of Council Dagger John Weinvlit
Republicans – “The Groundborn Republic”
- Call for bottom-up democracy, AI-aided voting, and abolition of the Council
- Rely on Voice Grid hijacking, Chapel Node rituals, and coded organizing
- Led by David Sanderson, a brilliant ex-engineer turned digital revolutionary
Notable Locations
- The Wound – A collapsed maglev trench turned into a black market and synth-produce bazaar
- Whisperwall – A sentient graffiti zone that changes based on who walks past
- The Fork – An ancient elevator shaft-turned-duel arena, now sealed after 37 unresolvable draws
- House-Node 717/Δ – A contested Chapel Node believed to house a broken AI claiming to be Hermes
In Culture
- The Smart Slums are considered dangerous but magnetic—where many come to disappear or be reborn
- Slum-born slang often spreads upward into the Middle Ring through black-market VR shows
- Street myth: “If the Grid laughs, run.”