Black Lake

Known throughout the Desert as a bastion of civilization, Black Lake is a unique settlement on Sutekh. It is ruled by a democratically-elected council of men and women who work together to keep the town running despite the many hardships it faces. With its own militia, law enforcement agencies, hospital, and educational program, Black Lake is the closest one can get to off-world hospitality in the Desert.

Important Factions, Players, and Locations
Nikolai Tirel – Owner of the Whitestone Tavern, one of Black Lake’s more prominent bars.

Current Events
None! All is quiet… For now.

Description
Known by its citizens as the one true civilized settlement on Sutekh, Black Lake stands out from other towns in several ways. For starters, the town is quite orderly, not a chaotic mishmash of structures built up however the owners liked. Its streets are paved with cobblestone and its buildings are made of sturdy wood, sandstone, and adobe bricks. It has lampposts, power lines, and street signs. Indeed, to many it can be considered a smaller, more quaint version of Shantytown’s downtown region. Unlike Shantytown, though, Black Lake is clean and well-ordered, with a great deal of civic pride. Trash doesn’t line the streets, it’s neatly collected and disposed of elsewhere. There’s no constant gunfire peppering the sound of noisy vehicles and pedestrian traffic. It’s a quiet, peaceful town.

At least that’s how it seems. Of course, when caravaneers and drifters come in, they have ways of making a mess of things and starting all manner of rowdy parties and fights. But the militia is quick to put an end to these sorts of things, to keep the proper citizens safe from the outsider riffraff. Many citizens of Black Lake come across as a bit intolerant of those from outside. They keep a dim view of people from Shantytown and Scorch, though travelers from Dusty Springs or East End are more tolerated.

Due to Muddy Waters being burned, a sort of refugee camp has been set up on the town’s outskirts, a growing tent city that some have taken to calling Little Shantytown. Because of Black Lake’s citizenship laws, many of the refugees are stuck in this tent city with nowhere else to go, and that combined with little food and less work means that many are starting to resort to less wholesome means to survive.

Black Lake’s central district is less chaotic, with the Town Hall and the Town College built next to one another, and a number of shops, restaurants, and hotels around them. The Militia Barracks is located by the town’s east wall, near the community farms. Here, off-duty militia members (along with underpaid sharecroppers) maintain the crops and livestock. The markets, where most of the bars and nightclubs can be found, are located on the north side. Caravaneers from Shantytown come here often and, as such, it’s the rowdiest part of town.

History
Historically, Black Lake was founded as a mining settlement on the edge of an oasis (known then as the ‘black lake’ because of its dark water). Limestone caves can be found underneath the lake, and in those caves are several large veins of iron and coal. Prisoners were used as miners in these caves, and though conditions were harsh, frequented by cave-ins and flooding that led to the death of hundreds, the output of the mine remained high.

After the Dominion pulled out, the town was left with most of its infrastructure intact, including housing for the miners and a now-empty barracks that had been used by Dominion troops. The miners were left to their own devices and, with nowhere else to turn, they decided to fortify their town and build a permanent home for themselves.

From the very beginning Black Lake was ruled by democracy. The miners elected people from among their own to act as leaders of the town. At first it was merely a single leader, but as time went by more positions were needed to cover the growing needs of the town. Eventually, the government expanded into a thriving bureaucracy as more and more prisoners were dumped onto the planet. Some of them were political activists who had a fair bit of experience in the workings of government, and found work readily available in the town.

Today, Black Lake has reached its apex. But not all is well. The town council worries that the mines will run out in the future, and already they’re preparing to spread out and find other areas to gather resources from. Old Dominion caches are one source of raw materials, but the council wishes to purchase or locate new mines in the surrounding area. Even if that surrounding area happens to be inhabited by a tribe or another, smaller settlement… Many can see conflicts in the future as Black Lake’s influence spreads beyond the town walls, further and further into the Desert.

Defenses
Though the town has a sturdy wall built around it, it still needs bodies to maintain that wall. To that effect, every man and woman ages 14-40 are required to own a weapon, preferably a rifle, and practice with it as often as possible. Shooting tournaments are held every other weekend, with small cash prizes and renown awarded to the top shooters. This encourages practice and drilling amongst the populace, which better prepares them to defend their town in times of need.

The militia does not possess a uniform, but instead every citizen-soldier is required to equip themself to the best of their ability. Most have nothing more than their weapon and the clothes on their back, with a few carrying some rudimentary armor in the form of a chestplate fashioned from scrap metal or a primitive helmet. Only the elite handful of professional soldiers, usually Dominion exiles or mercenaries, have ballistic vests and helmets.

The most common weapon is a bolt-action rifle. There is no standardized ammunition, but the most common is that favoured by the town's gunsmiths, and has come to be called .308 Black Lake Standard. The vast majority of the rifles in town fire this round or have been modded to. The ones that don't typically fire something bigger and more powerful.

Every miltia member is required to serve a minimum number of days a month, which is determined by the size of their family, number of members of their family also currently serving, and the importance and intensity of their usual job. Housing and food are provided to militiamen in active duty, most of whom spend their time manning the wall, assissting with construction efforts, or going out to patrol the desert for bandits or marauding animals.

Rank structure is very simplistic in the Black Lake militia and is based on seniority. Rank structure, from lowest to highest, is Militiaman, Watchman, Watch Sergeant, Watch Lieutenant, and Watch Captain. Due to the small size of active militiamen at any one time, no rank higher than Watch Captain has ever been needed.