Obenseuer (district)

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Obenseuer is a rundown residential district and former mining city in Stalburg, located in the northern part of the city along motorway M5. Obenseuer has an infamous reputation in Stalburg for the decrepit state of its buildings and high crime rates.

Obenseuer has its own change-based currency called 'Open Sewer coins', these have a very low monetary value and are only accepted in a few places outside of Obenseuer.

History

The founding date of Obenseuer is unknown, but it was was originally a prosperous small mining town, thanks to a successful ore mine in the district. The mine was closed down when it ran dry in 1958, depopulating the town when most of the workforce relocated to Stalburg. In 1973, Obenseuer's city municipality merged with Stalburgs.

In the late 1970s, The Walter Corporation began large-scale public housing projects and started constructing buildings on the old mining grounds of Obenseuer to accommodate cheap housing for Stalburg's growing workforce. The intention of this was to replace the cheap construction in the next 25 years. The construction came under scrutiny of a building field inspector, John Stalberg, who documented that the buildings were too fragile and needed to be rebuilt. These reports were ignored by the corrupt Department of Construction and Planning, who disposed of Stalberg's reports.

The majority of Obenseuer's problems began to develop following the bankruptcy of Stalburg Steel in 1981, leading to massive unemployment for the tenants. The repercussions of the poor state of the tenements were felt as well when one collapsed in 1993. The district got its appropriate nickname of "Open Sewer" when construction work of a railway line caused a leak in mining slag, contaminating waters in the nearby canals creating a foul smell.

In 1988, Osmo Saarinen, a local of Obenseuer, created a brewery near the main canal. The brewery experienced major success, and in under a decade, helped create jobs for many unemployed citizens, at the price of skyrocketing Stalburg's alcoholism problem.

Locations

Quarantine Zone

The events of Open Sewer (game) take place here.

The area is surrounded by quarantine because of an outbreak of a fungal disease. No one is able to entrance or leave without permission. Citizens of the district suffer even more from alcoholism, poor social status, hunger, poor hygiene, drug abuse, prostitution, violence, and death from the fungal disease.

Turnip Hill

Turnip Hill is minor tenement complex that was adopted into Obenseuer at southern-west of district. It was also built by the Walter Corporation, but abandoned construction in 1986. It's mainly inhabited by homeless people who created their own community.

Underneath Turnip Hill is a network of tunnels that were previously used by S.N.W. to steal nuclear material from the Black Rock Nuclear Power Plant, as well as possibly move nuclear waste to a repository. The tunnels were repurposed by the new residents of Turnip Hill to smuggle contraband, and eventually as a metro system to connect all areas of Open Sewer, even areas outside it like Turnip Hill. The metro was expanded over abandoned Turnip Hill Metro used previously by S.N.W.

Gallery

Turnip Hill

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Trivia

• Obenseuer is spelled "Obenseur" in a Stalburg Times Newspaper article. This is likely a mistake.
• Despite the construction of the tenements starting in the late 1970s, John Stalberg's building inspection report of one of the tenements is dated in May 1973.