Neo-San Francisco

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General

Neo-San Francisco is a densely populated megacity lying in the middle of the California Bay, built upon the flooded ruins of old San Francisco. The city is often called the Gem of the West, as it is arguably the most beautiful sight on the West Coast. Bare minimum, it’s the least bleak. Due to the fact that the California Bay is a particularly rough patch of the ocean, Neo-San Francisco is regularly subject to harsh storms. In the lower levels of the city, one can expect some flooding in case the precautions in place fail. During the summer months, the signature San Francisco fog will often roll in, though due to the climate changes around the region, the fog will sometimes persist for days.

Language

Due to the fact that millions of people were forced into the Bay Area during the more chaotic half of the 21st century, Neo-San Francisco is a linguistic melting pot. Though English is the lingua franca, the city is greatly influenced by Eastern (especially Chinese and Japanese) culture, leading to the proliferation of Asian languages. This cultural influence is due to the demographics of old San Francisco, on top of the fact that Asahi Multinational has considerable power there. Nihongo is seen as a particularly trendy language to speak, whereas Mandarin is less popular. Due to the popularity of Dharmic religions in what was once Silicon Valley, those descending from the upper echelons of the former tech giants may speak Hindi or Tibetan. Old San Francisco was home to numerous Russian enclaves, so it isn’t uncommon to run into a speaker of the language. Some other languages worth mentioning are Spanish and Tagalog. Due to how varied the languages of Neo-San Francisco are, a number of pidgin languages have developed and are often spoken in the lower-city. They are too numerous to keep track of, and generally aren’t well known outside of their domain.

Religion

The overwhelming majority of people in Neo-San Francisco either don’t believe in a God or don’t think that they can claim to know that there is one. Often, this conclusion isn’t reached by choice- religious institutions are few and far between, and places of education don’t really bother with faith or spirituality. Those who /do/ keep a religion aren’t officially persecuted, but it isn’t uncommon for the faithful to be treated with derision by the more militant populace. Some religions of note are; Christianity, Shintoism, and the Dharmic faiths, the most popular of which is Buddhism.

Christianity

Christianity as practiced in Neo-San Francisco is not organized whatsoever- there is no central authority. The old denominational split of Catholicism and Protestantism is not an issue in the city, given that contact with the Vatican and thus the Catholic Church was cut off during the Era of Floods. What is preached today is a mishmash of many sects that survived into the current century sprinkled with individual teachings. One universal facet of Neo-San Franciscan Christianity is a distaste for the technological singularity that brought on the Era of Floods. This led to many Christians joining neo-luddite gangs and militias to protest against further technological advancement earlier on in the century.

Shintoism

Shintoism in Neo-San Francisco is practiced by those descending from the Japanese enclaves in the old city, as well as by many employees of Asahi Multinational. The new generation has a particular fixation with Japanese culture, leading many of them to take up casual Shintoism. Those who practice Shintoism often mix it with Buddhism due to the two being perceived as compatible, though the rare purist will protest this front to their faith.

Buddhism

Before the Era of Floods, Buddhism was a fairly trendy philosophy popularized by the tech giants within Silicon Valley. To this day, it retains the image of a particularly relaxed way of life which is rather anti-materialistic- a view which is quite incompatible with Neo-San Franciscan society. Despite that, Buddhism is more tolerated by the irreligious people of the city than Christianity or Shintoism.

If you aren’t a member of one of those three faiths, you’re either in the majority (atheist or agnostic,) or you’re practicing something that has been largely forgotten about by the people of Neo-San Francisco.


Government

Neo-San Francisco is within the confines of the Free Independent State of the Bay Area, often shortened to the Free Independent State or given an acronym; FISBA. Despite it’s name, the FISBA only controls Neo-San Francisco, due to the fact that the Bay Area is mostly flooded over in the present day. Every four years, the largest corporate elements of Neo-San Francisco gather to ‘elect’ the new President of the FISBA. This mock election does not involve the people of Neo-San Francisco whatsoever. Only the corporate elite may vote, and they generally do so based on corporate interests or bribery. The FISBA is laughably weak, and they only have power over the Neo-San Francisco Police Department and the Neo-San Francisco Currency Center. They don’t REALLY control the NSFPD, they control it by name at best. Because the FISBA controls the NSFCC, it isn’t uncommon for the most influential corporations at the time to receive plenty of kickbacks during a particular President’s term. The Free Independent State is arguably just a corporate mouthpiece.