The Sump
The Sump is the sea-level district of Calder, the city at the centre of The Shear. It is where most of Calder lives: on flooded streets, on walkways and iron stairs, paid in franchise scrip, under rain that never stops.
Nobody in the Sump says “flood”. The water is not an event here. It is the floor.
The streets of the Sump sit at sea level, and the sea level in Calder is a matter of opinion. Walkways run at first-floor height. Iron stairs drop to the waterline and carry on under it. Washing hangs across the channels, because there is nowhere else dry to hang it, and the noodle bars keep their stoves lit through every storm.
People here are paid in franchise scrip, spend it at franchise stalls, and pay their rent to the franchise that owns the rain. Morrow-Kade does not run the Sump so much as lease it back to the people already living in it.
Who you meet
Lin Ha keeps a noodle bar on one of the old iron stairs. She is landlady, conscience and creditor to the one detective in the district who walked away from the badge. Everyone else is trying to get through the week with dry socks.
Why it matters
The Sump is the part of Calder that pays. The city’s dry streets are paid for somewhere, and in Gate Six the bill lands here first.
Start with the story: Gate Six, Book One of The Shear, or read Low Water, a free Rook story.
More from Calder
The Shelf
Offices, trams and CivicGuard.
The Lift
Towers, Morrow-Kade, money. Dry shoes.
Appears in Gate Six, Book One of The Shear. Back to the world of Calder.