Genesis of Podcity

The Genesis of Podcity

In addition to continuing to improve my writing and establish a disciplined schedule, I wanted to create a series of characters and places that could live outside of Star Citizen lore. I wanted the option of lifting the series outside of the Cloud Imperium’s IP if I felt it had legs. In my mind, this necessitated a single location that was unique to my canon. Podcity and it’s related stories, blend sci-fi, and elements of cyberpunk.

I’m very enamored of stories that create places that take on a life of their own. Hogwarts and Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. The Millenium Falcon in Star Wars. Claire’s dungeon apothecary in Outlander. Podcity is my first attempt to conceive a location with that intent in mind. An environment creative enough to stand as a character within the series. As much as I enjoy fantasy and science-fiction, I’m also a huge fan of cyberpunk. The fact that Star Citizen will include cybernetics lets me expand my story concepts to explore these aspects as part of my fanfiction, adding a bit of cyberpunk.

I’d been holding on to an image of a spherical habitat for a couple of years, that fascinated me. It initiated musings of modular living spaces whose purpose could be easily exchanged and connected to a structure that provided life support services. Like circular lego rooms, you can attach and detach different configuration to a port on the tower. Freely mix and match their purposes and locations. I’ve thought about the concept for over a year until the idea of Podcity floating in space solidified.

Within the Star Citizen universe, Podcity is located in Terra. Here’s the first description of the location, as seen in The Fallen, the first short story in the upcoming anthology…

Podcity, in geostationary orbit around Gen, was constructed an equal distance between the planet, and the outskirts of the Marisol asteroid belt. Ten floors of circular habitat capsules, attached to a central cylindrical core, Podcity floated as a bronze monolithic bubbled tower. Double rows of environmentally secured hangars attached to the top and bottom of the structure, allowed occupants easy access to their ships.