**Apparate**

- Established: Later Summer 1000
- Area Pre-Haunting: 233 Square km
- Area Post-Haunting: 116 Square km, 100 square km of that relatively safely inhabitable
- Population Pre-Haunting: 590,000
- Population Post Haunting: 120,000
- Government Type: Strong Mayor/City Council democracy
- Council: City Government

_The Tendril is a wicked phenomenon that shattered our homes and consumed half our city. We lost so many in those terrible first weeks of the Haunting before the Breakwater Shield generator was hastily erected in the city center. We thought we could take back the city early on; but major incursions of ambulatory specters seemingly hungry for the spark of life dashed any hopes of immediate recovery or peace. We were eventually able to drive them back and keep out any new major incursions with the help of the Breakwater walls, but the engulfed buildings *packed* with the hollow spectral visages of those we lost unblinkingly (and hungrily) staring at us from the windows of tall buildings are a daily reminder of our failures. 
Despite our dire situation, our resolve is still strong. I may not have all the answers, but we *will* take back our city one day. Somehow._ 

-Angela Damascus, Co-chair of the Apparate Defense Force

Founded in the year 1000, the city of Apparate (thusly named due to its quick construction and ethereal nature) started as a small research outpost to study the Great Shimmer. The Brannic government, at the time, declared that it was safe enough to position the Outpost between Lake Quintessence and what was known as the “Tendril”: the extrusion of Shimmer that severed the Southwest Border of Brannis and the Yalhamir Republic. 

For years, the metropolis was an academic center for Spirit Fog research, thanks to its precarious (but stable) proximity to The Tendril. Over time, it grew out from the outpost, adding more and more utilities and growing eastward until the City lay right up against Lake Quintessence. When lakefront properties of the rich and famous started to interfere with Yalhamir trade routes around 1150, the City Government decided it was time to regulate and reorganize the city into "Quarters" to better manage the influx and growth of Apparate's businesses and population. It took about 20 years and a LOT of red tape, but in 1170, Apparate was reorganized into 4 distinct, equal quarters, in order from west to east:

- The Research Quarter
- The Entertainment Quarter
- The Civics Quarter
- The Trade Quarter

Once solidified, the borders of each Quarter would remain staunchly in place until the tragic event known as The Haunting, which would occur over 500 years later in 1505 (and will be covered in more detail later on in this history section).

**The Research Quarter**

The "oldest" Quarter in Apparate. The Research Quarter was situated on the exact original research outpost originally allocated by the Brannic government and Mistwatchers Institute. The Quarter consisted only of research laboratories and austere housing for those whose work was deemed essential enough that they be housed there and not in the Civics Quarter. From here, scientists and mages studied Spirit Fog from a (relatively) safe distance (about a couple of kms from Breakwater walls of The Tendril), only heading closer when accompanied by Apparate Defense Forces. Despite close proximity to one of the thicker phenomenons of Spirit Fog in the country, Apparate-based scientists enjoyed peaceful and mostly uninterrupted Spirit Fog study and research, that is, up until The Haunting. 

**The Entertainment Quarter**

In the early decades of Apparate's history, when it was growing from merely a research outpost into a sprawling city, entrepreneurs from all over Brannis set their sights on the burgeoning metropolis on a high risk, high rewarding, relatively untapped market. Early on, small ventures, such as bars, restaurants, hotels and the like were spread out all over, but the great restructuring of 1170 consolidated all entertainment enterprises into a full Quarter and thus, The Entertainment Quarter was born. 
The naming of this Quarter (Like the Civics Quarter covered later) was a bit of a misnomer: Business, not just entertainment, lived in this part of Apparate. Hotels, nightclubs, bars, city parks and theaters butted up against multi-story concrete offices dedicated to keeping the business end of the Trade Quarter running smoothly. Despite the freely flowing vice, organized crime was almost unheard of, thanks to thoughtful decriminalization, aggressive worker unionization and highly funded public health initiatives.

**The Civics Quarter**

Much like the Entertainment Quarter, the Civics Quarter was much more than just where City Hall stood, it was where the solid majority of citizens lived. Due to sacrosanct zoning restrictions put in place during the restructuring, housing was very modular, with the majority of living spaces consisting of regulated affordably priced condos or rent controlled apartments. Homelessness was actually a hot button issue in City Government from the restructuring even up to The Haunting; Demand for housing constantly outstripped supply due to space restrictions and an ever increasing city population. Due to the inherent dangers of Brannis' proximity to the Shimmer, the concept of suburbs was just unheard of. The Apparate Defense Force claimed to only have so much manpower to cover and protect the city in case of attack.

**The Trade Quarter**

In the early days of Apparate, the land corridor from the research outpost to Lake Quintessence became a popular trading corridor between Brannis and the Yalhamir Republic, providing a safer corridor with the research camp and eventually early Apparate as a buffer from the Tendril. As Apparate grew, however, that corridor began to shrink to almost nothing, until a dispute between a major shipping syndicate and wealthy landowners living on the western shores of Lake Quintessence forced the City Government to intervene and initiated the great restructuring of Apparate. Post restructure, the Trade Quarter became an almost entirely North-South entity; goods not traveling into the city travel North-South though major depots, up to and including some small ports where the waterfront properties were dismantled to ferry some goods across Lake Quintessence. Life in the Trade Quarter was busy, but echoed the peaceful nature of the other Quarters. The heavy Apparate Defense Force and multiple shipping security presences made sure of that. 

**Lake Quintessence**

There’s really not much of note to the lake, other than it being one of two landlocked lakes in Brannic geography. Pre-Haunting, the lake was a small ferry way. Post-Haunting, it is now a teeming and (well maintained) fish farm to feed the remaining survivors.

**The Haunting**

If you’ve read up till this point, I commend you. Apparate has a rich and varied history, even if its current state is somewhat tragic. If you skipped to this point, well, I also don’t blame you. Some really only care about current events, and The Haunting is something to note. 

Before we touch on the event, we must first understand the fatal choice that led to it. The city of Apparate had one, very important, flaw: It forgot the reason it was established 500 years prior. City Government paid no heed to the voices coming from the Research Quarter warning them of a (very unlikely but still still significant) chance of failure of the initial Breakwater walls that kept the Tendril at bay. City Government was too concerned with domestic issues such as, say, Syndicate trade disputes or the homelessness problem to hear about “totally unneeded” Breakwater redundancies. 

It was then, in Early Summer, 1505, that the Breakwater failed. Nobody knows why it failed; theories range from sabotage to accidental destruction by careless thrill seekers, But the surge of Spirit Fog that descended upon the Research Quarter was rapid. Thankfully, the monitoring researchers were able to quickly assess the catastrophic failure and were able to quickly evacuate east, leaving behind valuable (but someday recoverable) research. The main tragedy was that it was 1900 hours on Sixth Day when the Tendril reached the already busy Entertainment Quarter. Suffice to say, there was no Entertainment District left by the time the combined Apparate and shipping syndicate security forces scrambled to attempt to hold back the Tendril. Survivors that made it out reported a “rushing mass of ghosts that seemingly consumed anyone in their way”. And no souls that were tethered were reported to have returned. The Tendril unexpectedly slowed to a stop near the exact center of Apparate, almost as if it “knew” where it was. That didn’t stop it from constantly extruding hostile ghosts at the rallying defense forces. The next couple of weeks were fraught, to say the least. The tide of ghosts, most with the slack, eyeless visage of a taken friend or loved one, along with the eventual pull out of shipping security once the depots were evacuated, started to stretch security forces thin. Thankfully, the Brannic military arrived with a new Breakwater and helped drive the ghosts back west behind the city center. 

**Post-Haunting**

The Tendril is still there, stuck in the middle of the city. The Breakwater helps to keep back the majority of ghost incursions, but not all, and so part of the Civic Quarter is almost uninhabitable except for the most martial of individuals and Apparate Defense Forces. The remaining civilian survivors of Apparate now live in the abandoned depots of the Trade Quarter, which they have converted to housing to shelter those with nowhere else to go or those that believe the city can one day be recovered. Lake Quintessence is now a massive fish farm, used to supplement food supplies and the Trade District is still used as a travel corridor, but not many syndicates stop there other than to supply what's left of the city. The City Government is still in charge, but there’s not much left for them to manage anymore, other than the Defense Force and supply convoys. The resolve of the people remain strong and most still believe they can take back the city one day if they just hold the line, but there’s no general consensus of how this can be achieved, other than hoping the Brannic Government will one day find the answer.