Tornado Zone
Center: Atacama City (5285m)
Minor stations: Lima I (1728m), Lima II (2283 m) Scavenger (2540m)
A proverb says: "In the Tornado Zone you can obtain whatever the Clansunion won’t give you!"
This far-flung aquatory is located in the eastern Pacific along the coastline of South America, reaching from Hawaii to Tierra del Fuego. In the 22nd century, numerous refugee stations were established along the edge of the deep-sea trenches of Peru, Atacama and Chile, attracting people from all over the world. The Tornado Zone soon became a gathering place for all sorts of pirates, anarchists, freethinkers and victims of persecution. Exiled Dukes of the Indian-Arabic Clansunion established their mutually hostile aquatories here. Gradually, Warlords from all over crowded into the Zone. Turbulent centuries of civil war, terror and lawlessness followed. High-ranking but dissatisfied officers of the other power blocs in Aqua gathered followers about them and founded cities such as the legendary Atacama City, located in a cave in the cliffs on the coast of Chile.
Renegade soldiers from the dictatorial Shogunate in the Philippine/South Chinese Sea found their second home here, just like criminals who were wanted worldwide, smugglers' rings, secret organizations and all manner of refugees from civilization.
Over the centuries, the Zone acquired a famous but notorious aura of creative, lawless chaos. Industrial smuggling, illegal gunrunning, forbidden scientific experiments as well as individual freedom were writ large in the Tornado Zone. At the beginning of "AquaNox", Iwan King (an officer who deserted from the Shogunate) is the only remaining Warlord. He is intent on preserving the Zone’s independence, but tries to establish international relationships with the great powers, especially the Atlantic Federation. The Tornado Zone becomes capable of establishing a state of its own.
But whether they are extremely dangerous or simply lovably eccentric, there are still plenty of loopy characters, pirates and nutcases hiding in the canyons of the Continental Reef, the deep-sea trenches and mountain ranges of the Zone. The Zone is the main trading center for organized smuggling worldwide, a refuge for the persecuted and large enough to hide in forever.
Emerald Flint, the hero of the first great Biont war, was born here. And he keeps coming back, not so much for sentimental reasons but because he enjoys the anarchistic atmosphere of freedom, awakening, and resistance to any conventions.