Xodonbank Building
1 Empire Avenue, Central District (now Downwarp)
Floors: 128
Year built: 323
The golden Xodonbank Building is still one of the defining landmarks on the Down skyline, long after its abandonment. Today, it is popularly referred to as "Big Active" after the giant flea market that occupies its former atrium.
The uppermost 32 floors are split into two angled peaks, and a giant arena known as the Tude has since been constructed between them. The Ballard Memorial Freeway intersects the building at the tenth floor.
The middle floors have been converted into countless homes, clubs, shops, galleries and more. Several software beings have also made a home for themselves in the former bank's computer's systems (Mirqur is one).
- * ...or could this be the "monolithic abandoned skyscraper" mentioned in the warp writeup? If so, some rewrites are in order. For a start, it oughta be bigger. -- Amanita
- ** Yeah, the building that dominates Down was originally intended to actually comprise most of Down. By "monolithic," we're talking something on the order of thousands of stories tall. It's in part a reference to KW Jeter's Farewell Horizontal, where the whole of known civilization exists on the face of a gigantic vertical surface. Down is hospitable by comparison! I always figured that Xodonbank was positioned inside the truly huge scraper in some way that my lousy spatial sense could not accommodate. :) We can work it out however you like, but I lean slightly towards having Xodonbank actually be seated on one of the Downwarp 'scraper's enormously thick floors. -- OR
- * Within a giant building; the vertical surface is occupied by semi-rebellious biker gangs and floatbag-angels. The 'farewell horizontal' of the title is the lead character moving out of the safe life on a floor, into the wilderness of the Vertical. Now I want to read it again... -Twin
- * A similar theme (though less monumental) appears in Stephen Gould's "Peaches For Mad Molly", written around the same time. More inspiration: Kowloon Walled City ([Google] [Wikipedia]) -- Amanita
- * Cool. That takes some of the pressure off. ;) Buildings within buildings, woo! -- A
- * I hope no one minds me putting my two cents in here too. :o) The main concern I have with the 'all one big building' notion of the 'warp is that it might mess with the notion of it being a city environment, as it's hard to have both the very cyberpunk 'sprawl' feeling when you know it's ultimately bounded by walls and floors. It COULD still work, though. I'm a bit conflicted, because I love the heck out of the 'building world' sort of idea, as well! For what it's worth, it was originally my impression that the XodonBank building was the mega-'scraper referred to, though if that's the case it SHOULD be larger, evern if 120 floors is bigger than anything in the real world at this point. -- Indi
- * Okay, my concerns about the 'scraper environment have been adressed and I'm all for it now. :o) Also, the Rookery is probably going to be moved out of the Big Active buidling and into one of its own, since there's an awful lot packed into this tower already, and Downwarp really doesn't have as many zseperate building locations as it should. ;o) I'll leave the re-editing of this page to someone else, though. :o) -- I
- * That makes sense. And please feel free - the wiki is all about people putting in their two cents! -- A
Directions
From the Nexus: go to Down, then into the tower. (There is a map available by typing 'map'.)
Tenants and attractions
Downwarp | Attractions