Disorder: World of the Wicked

Home sweet home

It's been two weeks since we arrived in the Fort of Batavie. The city itself is a series of connected hotels and skyscrapers with reinforced defences, a splotch of gray ringed city made out of ruins right in the middle of the swamplands. Compare this to the architecture of the lands in the west, it feels bleak, yet lively. A touch of brutalist modern architecture shaped out of the broken skyscrapers made for a spectacular sight, yet nature perseveres against this encroaching of human technology. To some, the sun-storm may be viewed as nature's victory over humanity, yet we persist, bending even gods to our will. This city to me, feels like a raw image of that will, a resistance against the order to submit. After all, we, are our own gods.

Peeking from the sides of these walls were tiny dots and windows, sometimes covered by foliage, a perfect camouflage. For within these holes, hides the main defensive instrument that had held the city together and kept it safe for the past decade. As we approached closer, we could get a slight glimpse of them, modern anti-air guns and century old cannons mounted at various position hidden within the walls.

We entered the city through a water gate, manually operated. The first thing I noticed was the amount of guards they placed here, a lot of the king's royal military force patrols the area. With the exception of the inner circle where the true 'city' exists. 

Lower parts of this side of the structure is cleared of water in order to accommodate more people, yet you could still sometimes see remnants of this once flooded area. some of the pillars are roughly renovated using whatever resources are available. Then, the lower you go, the more rough the place becomes. Sure, it is a working progress, but on these partially drained areas, you could still find some people living in hiding, avoiding taxation and whatnot, and it is hard to keep the balance between safety and the need to hunt these vagrants.

Despite its rather bleak exterior, the inside of this 'city' is considerably lively, with shopping centres on every level, the living quarters are separate from these bustling centres. Hanging bamboo gardens and walkways is a common sight, accommodating the number of people that would come and live or work here. And that's another positive thing that came out from keeping these cities alive. Being located in the coastal area, trade and business is very lively here indeed, enticing many citizen to move to these promising lands.

To our knowledge, this is just one of the many buildings that got converted into a city by the government, if one were to go to the upper levels, within eyesight you could see another set of buildings constructed in similar fashion, in fact one could see multiple of them littering the swamps of Batavie. Transport from one area to the other is done by small canoes, similar to those found in old Venice. Midst these routes also exists what the locals call a "floating market" where many traders set up shops atop their boats, and these aren't your ordinary boats, some could be found being made out of larger fishing boats modified into a small restaurant or a larger shop, sometimes the owners of these boats also made their boats their homes, combining several canoes into one and making a structure atop of it.

Other buildings, like the one we're staying on, are connected to land, although the terrain is very muddy. These buildings are located in the far back of the formation, ensuring it's security, It is also where most of the governmental offices are located. To ease the access to the coastal region of Batavie through the muddy forests, the government created a project where they carry large rocks from nearby to make a road, although it still needed constant reparations since the land itself is sinking below the weight of this makeshift road.

Yet one thing always bothered me about this place, the heat. Combine this heat with the humid conditions of its tropical location and you have a recipe for the worst living conditions one may expect in these times.

We stayed in one of the upper rooms of this colony, close to the food court. Hexlythium said he knew a guy from around saying he might help us cross to the capital city of Yavva, it used to be called the Paris of Java with its unique Dutch-French art-deco structures and nicely lit streets, they say the place had been reinstated to its old colonial look in order to attract tourists.