The Mountain. What is this place, anyway?

 

The Mountain is a huge complex with enough space to accommodate at least 10 times the 850+ population that currently reside inside. 

The main custodian of the mountain complex is an AI called House.  Anyone can talk to House at any time inside the Mountain, and outside near any entrance.  It also has a presence in outposts and vehicles stored in the hangar bays.  House can answer any questions regarding the Mountain and its inhabitants…. Or can it?

Levels 1 and 2: Residential.  There are 4 great halls on each residential level, with benches that can be cleared like tables in a high school cafeteria/gym.  Most people live on Level 1, in the thousands of available apartment style rooms.

Level 3: Medical.  While the rest of the complex has a definite Spartan feel, the medical floor is stacked with a myriad of medical equipment and robotic beds and arms and tentacles and other things that we havent quite figured out.

Level 4: Maintenance.  It's called "maintenance" because that's what House calls it.  It's taken up by ranks and ranks of esoteric machinery that no one ever touches.

Level 5 - ?: Unknown.  House will shock and retrieve anyone that attempts to go there.  Maybe the Wizard knows?

The appearance of the facility is smooth and clean, with most surfaces colored a uniform light gray.  Glossy touch-screens of various size are so ubiquitous as to nearly be accessible wherever one is in the complex.  All of it is nigh-indestructible, having been made of solid diamond.  Any screen can be activated as a touch terminal or just by asking House to show the material the user desires.

 

The Laws of the Mountain, displayed as a default on every screen, are:

1.       Do No Harm

2.       Honor Thy Neighbor

 

The Pledge of the Mountain:

I pledge allegiance

To the will

of the People of the Mountain

And to the Republic, for which it stands

One nation, indivisible

With liberty and justice for all

 

The People of the Mountain

Since his appearance on the post-apocalyptic scene nearly 20 years ago, the Wizard has made it known that the Mountain is a refuge not only for tieflings, but also for any of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, and anyone that faces persecution simply for being who or what they are. 

Of course, this usually means tieflings.  In the early days, the Wizard himself would travel the land and rescue stray tieflings.  He became known as a friend to the phenotype, and as a great healer.  Of the 850 people that live in or about the Mountain, over 70% are tieflings.  Of that percentage, none are over age 20 – and nearly half of that are children under age 12.

 

Food in the Mountain

Scop!  Endless gobs and gobs of it!  “Scop” is dispensed from spigots in the kitchens.  It’s a flavorless gray paste that contains all a human body needs.  Most of the culinary activity in the mountain revolves around either flavoring it or avoiding the tasteless stuff entirely.  The kitchens are little more than scop spigots, cleaning sinks, and communal benches.  All the cooking facilities and equipment were added after the fact.

There are several mini-farms and gardens on and around the Mountain, most adjacent to a large warehouse-like entrance to hustle livestock in during radstorms.

 

Entertainment

While creature comforts may be sparse, there is a seemingly limitless amount of ephemeral media to consume.  The minimal-touch interface can call up any sort of holographic or 2D entertainment, plus nearly all the music ever recorded.

The current fad amongst “the kids” is 60s-70s storytelling folk-rock (Bob Dylan, Janice Joplin) and Clint Eastwood westerns.  Music can be heard in the vast dormitory halls at all hours.