Boomtown
Boomtown is the city in and around which the story is set.
GEOGRAPHY
The city is nestled in the foothills of the mountain range which runs North to South from horizon to horizon. Surrounding the city in an imprecise perimeter - perhaps as little as one mile and as many as three miles wide in various places - is the frontier, a dusty and sparsely fertile area of land separating Boomtown’s immediate vicinity from the Wilderness that covers the rest of the known world.
LAYOUT
The immense Black Pyramid stands at the base of the mountains, surrounded by skyscrapers. The entire area sits off-center within a large circular wall and appears to be a relatively modern example of an industrialized society.
Surrounding the wall is a thick crescent of additional cityscape, itself enclosed in a second, more expansive wall that converges with the first and terminates in the same location between the pyramid and the mountains. This area is Midtown.
A third area - a thinner crescent of cityscape - sits within a final perimeter wall surrounding all but the most Eastern point of the city where it is incomplete. This is Lowtown.
On the Eastern side of the city outside the gap in the incomplete wall, a large and dense shantytown that acts as a buffer between the city and the Wilderness. This is the Annex.
GOVERNMENT
The Institution is named as a governing body and seems to answer the question, “What did the Founders found?” So far we have learned about two types of Institutional Officers - Makers (of the Cogency) and Keepers.
Ricky refers offhandedly to Academy, where citizens learn the history of the city (a curriculum the printer’s apprentice suggests is incorrect or incomplete).
The society appears to operate under authoritarian rule given the strong and threatening presence of Lawkeepers, the checking of papers and giving of oaths at gates between localities, a bodeful banner reading “Census is mandatory,” and the lionizing of the city’s fallen hero - not to mention the city’s recent history as Ricky tells it.
The Institution is presented as indifferent to the quality of life of those who live in the Annex.
While some services are provided to those in the Annex (we see slummers entering the city using a Work Pass, and we may see Keepers or other officers doing work there or providing humanitarian aid), that protection does not appear to extend to the smaller slums and encampments that dot the city’s outer wall: in Savages! we witness the Hangman Horde’s razing of Ricky’s slum which sits within sight of Boomtown’s outer wall, validating Ricky’s cynicism about his fellow slummers’ general belief that “the Institution would step in if necessary.”
LAW
We have a few examples of Boomtown’s Law:
The first panel of Interlocation suggests that the Institution must sanction printed material. Ricky states that even reading one of his pamphlets will be a violation.
Officer Meyer finds Ricky outside of his authorized localities. He lets Ricky leave with a warning but threatens corporal punishment for a second infraction.
Ricky tells Holman that he published his pamphlet with certain paper stock and ink to frustrate attempts to trace its origin, indicating the high level of inspection and control exercised by the Institution over its populace.
Holman tells Ricky about witnessing a sanctioned but potentially fatal beating of a man in a public square for a minor infraction. He tells this story as a warning against trying to pressure the Institution.
HISTORY
What we know of Boomtown is provided by Ricky as he collects his thoughts for an anti-Institution pamphlet:
At some point, a viral outbreak prompted Boomtown to build its walls to quarantine the segment of the population nearest to the Black Pyramid. Those left outside the final wall (in the slums now called The Annex) struggled without direct access to the city’s infrastructure and services (despite the implementation of a system for Work Passes into the city and vouchers for goods) and their vulnerability to the dangers of the Wilderness was exacerbated by the wall separating them from a city to retreat into.
Six-Gun, an outlaw from the Annex, took some action against the Institution in response to the disenfranchisement of its population. The Stranger arrived in defense against Six-Gun. We do not know of their exact fate, but “they are both dead now”.
The following generation, a woman named Narissa organized a movement called The Children of the Revolution. They petitioned for expanded rights for the inhabitants of Lowtown and the Annex, but their activity ceased without explanation as far as Ricky knows.
Ricky tells Holman he hoped his pamphlet would reach Narissa, confirming she could reasonably still be alive, and giving us a rough idea of the proximity of these events to today.
POPULACE
The disparity between the classes is as clear as the walls dividing them. Those in the Annex live in absolute poverty. The better parts of Lowtown are perfectly adequate. From the glimpse we have seen close to Midtown’s walls, quality of life visibly improves as one approaches the Black Pyramid from the city’s outer edges.
We are also introduced to intellectual differences among the citizenry as Ricky deduces people's political inclinations in Lowtown. He makes a distinction between a “Loyalist” citizen who dresses similarly to an Institutional Officer and who follows the Law to the letter, and a “Conservative” citizen who is content with the status quo (though perhaps implicitly less consumed with living a Lawful life than the Loyalist). Holman is adamant that the Law should never be violated, though he seems adherent to it more from fear than respect.