Stalburg

The City of Stalburg (SB) (Swedish: Stalborg; Finnish: Staalpuri) is the capital of the fictional Scandinavian country of Stolland (TSL) and the Stalburg Region. Stalburg is located on Baltic sea with Hanseatic and Novgorodian origins. City has nearly two million citizens living within it.

Early middle ages (before 1200)
There were small unnamed fishing village in the area of current ‘Fishermen bay’

Late middle ages (1200–1400)
Hanseatic league and Novgorodian traders founded Stalburg as iron mining settlement, in the area of currently known ‘Old town’. They also constructed small castle to protect the new founded settlement of Stalburg Between 1200’s and 1400’s the settlement grew and granted full city rights. Castle was also expanded.

Renaissance (1400–1600)
During 1400’s the original settlement suffered great damage during the Stalburg Fire. After the fire the city was decided to be relocated to the current site of the city center at a bay 5km east of the original location due it’s obscure location for port and rough cliffy terrain. The old castle was abandoned and new fort were built to cover the location of the new Stalburg.

Neoclassicism (1600–1800)
The city started to grow fast and it became a wealthy and important harbor and trading city in the Baltic region. Many new sea forts were built to protect the important port. INFRA: Game Design Document

Industrialization (1800–1900)
The city’s status as important port and iron mines allowed the city to industrialize fast, boosting the city’s growth and economy even more. Many factories were constructed in districts around the times city limits and coast, such as ‘Foundry’. Railroads were also constructed. On the flip side of the coin, the fast industrialization caused many people seeking jobs to migrate into the city faster than new apartments and tenements could be built built, forming slums around the city. During that time the city also suffered some sanitation, pollution and health issues. During the late 1800’s work started on improving the sanitation and water quality. Sewers and water pipes were built under the city and some of them are still operational to this day.

Modern times (1900-)
At early 1900’s to further improve the water quality (and to response the growth of the city), city contracted Bergmann to construct water tunnel from the northern lakes. During the early 1900’s the slums we’re removed and replaced with proper housing.

World War II
During WW2 Stalburg suffered a lot of damage from German bombings. Many people quoted that "Stalburg was flattened to the ground".

Post-War
After the events of WW2, the city contracted the Bergmann Group to construct many of Stalburg's underground infrastructure. Bergmann got lots of help from a local company called Stalburg Steel, who supplied them with steel to aid in the construction of the vast underground tunnel networks. Another company that benefited from Bergmann was Hammer Valley Hydro, who relied on Bergmann's water tunnels to keep their two dams, Hammer Valley Dam and Two Gorges Dam, operational. During the early 1980s, things started to go wrong in Stalburg. It started with the Bergmann Group going bankrupt due to the disappearance of Xeander Berg, who had plans for an invention that would change the world of construction forever, textile-reinforced concrete. Eric Kleinmann was forced to sell his company to Jeff Walter. Next was Stalburg Steel. The SNW wanted Stalburg Steel gone to incite civil unrest, which would cause the enforcement of Martial Law and military mandate over civilian legislative bodies, as well as bury sensitive information about S.N.W Mikhail Rosenthal acquired through his 'criminal connections'. And finally, Hammer Valley Hydro. After the Bergmann Group was gone, no one could maintain the tunnels that Hammer Valley Hydro relied on to keep their dams operational. The CEO of Hammer Valley Hydro, Alex Hartman, after being forced to sell his company to Jeff Walter, got really mad at what Jeff was doing, and since then, he was searching for Walter to seek vengeance. Alex found Jeff at Rosenthal's villa in 1986, where he murdered him in cold blood. From then on, Stalburg was never the same. Many former workers of these companies ended up in Obenseuer, a crumbling part of Stalburg to which homeless people are taken.

Corruption Scandal
Between 1979 and 1982, most of the biggest companies in Stalburg were intentionally bankrupted by S.N.W. project. Logistics and information regarding S.N.W.'s underground bunker was kept hidden on National Consulting Group servers by their insider, Paul Lauwens. On August 8 2016, the NCG servers were compromised by a cyberattack and the stored data was stolen by a local hacker group. NCG engineer Markku Siltanen would end up retrieving this data from the hacker's outpost in Pitheath, and upon it being released to the public a military investigation targeting the city's politicians and key companies was launched.

City Blackout
On August the 8th 2016, due to years of neglected maintenance, parts of the Bergmann fresh water tunnel system finally collapsed, in turn causing significant damage and flooding to various subterranean structures. Due to the blockage of the tunnels, an unusually high amount of pressure was put on the already derelict Two Gorges Dam, and around 20:00 the dam failed catastrophically. The resulting flood forced the evacuation of Stalburg, and ended up submerging various sites within the river valley including parts of the city itself, as well as causing major flooding at the nearby Blackrock Nuclear Power Plant. Around 22:00, the city's power supply failed completely as a result of the flooding causing blackout of whole city. The severe flooding in the Blackrock Nuclear Power Plant broke the remote control of the first reactor, thus the reactor had to be shut down manually by Markku Siltanen. Thanks to Mark's heroism, a nuclear meltdown was prevented, saving hundreds of thousands of people.

Fungal Disease
Main article: SMV

Rail Transport
From Stalburg Central Railway Station there are 10 regional lines that connect to other cities and towns in Stalburg Region: R10 to Forde, R11 to Forde, R12 to Illo, R130 to Ardscratch, R15 to Tilstrand, R20 to Ersfors, R21 to Koksburg, R230 to Cellecter, R30 to Sydhavn and R330 to Ploughwedge. Stalburg has 4 metro lines, that are maintained and operated by Stalburg Mass Transit. Mark will use and visit parts of the metro system during his journey. The metro system is also a way for the player to perceive the scale of the city and his movement relative to it. The metro in Stalburg is known to be poorly maintained. This causes many of it's integral parts to be unstable. In fact, Mark sees a metro train that nearly gets crushed by the tunnel behind it collapsing. This in turn causes the Public Transport Workers Union to protest almost on a weekly basis for safer working conditions.

Road Transport
Stalburg is connected by 5 motorways: M1 (west), M2 (north-west), M3 (north), M4 (north-east) and M5 (east). Presumably the M3 was used by Mark on his way to Hammer Valley, while part of the M2 was used after the blackout when Mark had to get to Blackrock Nuclear Power Plant. We get no information in game as to who is responsible for maintaining these motorways.

Air Transport
Stalburg has one airport named Stalburg International Airport (SIA). SIA has 2 runways, it's a medium sized International Airport.

Trivia
Shape of coastal line along city is based on real coastal shape of Ii municipality in Finland.