TTS Flag Friday: The District of Alterneo
The colors of the district flag of Alterneo are drawn, as much of troll culture is, from troll biology. The bright orange of the upper and lower thirds of the flag derive from troll horns, the yellow of the central hexagons from troll eyes, and black from the lips and the darkened skin of adult trolls. The color of these features in individual trolls can vary, and these colors specifically were chosen for symbolic value; orange ties to the natural passion trolls give towards their interests, yellow the fortune accrued by the district, and black for the notorious dark corners and mysterious underground present here.
The central stripe consists of five hexagons, five to indicate Alterneo’s status as the fifth district to be established. The central hexagon contains the seven-tooth cog, symbol of Tick-Tock Town, while the others contain black circles representing incubating grubs. The message the design sends is that Alterneo represents a new generation of trollkind, separate from the rest of the culture.
The design also subtly alludes to the troll hemospectrum. When one counts each distinct corner (including corners made by a line reaching the edge of the flag and not including the cog), there are 52 distinct “points” representing the 52 natural blood colors of trollkind.
By the time Tick-Tock Town’s northern half split in two to accommodate the needs of its carapacian natives, the city had already become a bustling metropolis, with folks immigrating into the city from across the planet. Human visitors simply integrated wherever they felt comfortable, but troll visitors had particular needs and thus many of them chose to settle down in the quickly-expanding western half of the city. They would eventually spread out all over the city but by that point a sector of west Tick-Tock Town had been solidly carved out for trollkind, which in time would become the district of Alterneo.
While the rest of the city was dealing with the mechanical menace of the Clockwork Network, Alterneo was standing mostly unscathed. Troll culture utilizes biotechnology, which Clocknet is incapable of integrating into itself. As a result, the district is the least-impacted out of any in the city in spite of being nestled between the heavily-impacted Wrecked and Prosperia with only has some token outgrowths of Clocknet visible aboveground. During the Reconstruction, when its seven fellow districts were focusing on rebuilding and repairing, Alterneo was focused on building up and upgrading its already-existing infrastructure.
Not that those upgrades made the district any less imposing or easier to navigate. The troll-dominant sector of the city is famously labyrinthine with tight alleyways laid out in methods even the mad would fail to make sense of. Troll design sensibilities meant that the earliest buildings in the district were obsidian-black towers jagged along every edge and standing as garish patchworks of architectural styles, united only by the shared feature of monsters carved in as decoration. Many buildings have since been streamlined but the roads have maintained the hectic planning of the district’s early days, with many triangular three-way intersections (and in one famously chaotic case, a hexagonal six-way intersection). The new style takes from troll biology and favors organic shapes; spikes like horns and teeth line building corners, buildings flow and curve like skin, and monsters of all sorts hang like gargoyles from the walls. Everything’s easier on the eyes now, at least.
Culturally, the district can be divided into two faces, both of which can be described as “competitive”. On one face, you have an aggressive business culture that moved in once the district built up its wealth and the property became more attractive (more attractive than the grungy Qerse, at least). On the other face, you have the local monster slayers and spiritual bounty hunters, whose biggest gatherings and supply sites are all found in Alterneo, hidden away in the underground basements and cellars still around. That same underground is also home to a lavish party scene the local teens can’t help but get wrapped up in.
Alterneo is naturally the most troll-populated district in the city, with only token smatterings of other local races presents. Whether they’re in the corporate, combative, or counterculture sides of the district, the residents of Alterneo are a driven and self-motivated bunch who won’t easily let anything stand in their way. Not the archaic traditions of blood castism (long since scraped from legal jurisdiction), nor the modern-day struggles of class warfare. If they want something, they’ll either have it eventually or die trying. That drive showed in its past, with buildings built to the individual tastes of its residents, and it shows in its present, with each side of the district trying to make itself rise above the others.
Notable Residents of Alterneo: Wanshi Adyata, the De Leon family, the Vantas family, the Megido family, the Nitram family.
