As much as California would like to believe otherwise, Lost Angeles is still there, sitting just off-shore.  From the safety of the LA Metroplex, Lost Angeles is just another eye-sore, littering up the view.  However Lost Angeles is not empty, it is the last refuge of those who quite literally have no where else to go.  The outcast, the unwanted,

and those on the run make their homes here.  Lost Angeles is more than just a place of exile, it is more than just a haven, it is more than a Nomad Market, it is all these things and more.

In the last 3 years, most of the cannibals have been wiped out by the Northern and Southern clans.  There are still some pockets hiding deep in the ruins, but the vast numbers of them have been culled.  The Wishers are still present, as the number of people exiled from Southern Cali hasn’t diminished, and the number of criminals fleeing to LA has actually increased.  This is in large part due to the fact that the Northern Clan has been actively stabilizing buildings, and is being funded by Meta.  The Southern Clan has cemented their control over their region, and maintains a loose truce with the Northern Clan.  Both clans cherry pick recruits from the Wishers, and leave the unskilled and unchosen to fend for themselves.

The Northern Clans dealings with Meta consist primarily of Meta exchanging goods and supplies in return for having a place to set up sort of a west coast version of Metakey in the ruins of the city.  Meta has been bringing in dirt and filler so create areas of dry land along the coast of the city, and steel to shore up important structures.   Meta isn’t dong this merely for tax and inspection free shipping, rumor in Lost Angeles fly that Meta is working with the leaders of the Northern Clan to declare Lost Angeles it’s own country.  Meta lawyers are acting silently and quickly, but the fact that the United States declared Lost Angeles a no man’s land even before Southern California became a free state is definitely going to work to their advantage when they are finally ready to declare Independence and Sovereignty.  The Southern Clan has no idea what Metacorp and the Northern Clan are up to, when they find out it may very well break the truce.  Metakey West is at the moment a floating fortress made from scrap, anchored right outside Northern Lost Angeles, if the deal goes through, the Fortress will become the capital of the new country.

The Southern Clan has become the largest hub for contraband smuggling on the west coast.  It is a pirates den, and the concentration of wanted criminals and fugitives is higher here than anywhere in North America.  The Thelas nurture strong relationships here, even though it is also the staging ground for most of the attacks on Thelas boats.  Of course many of the Thelas are themselves pirates, so it’s all relative. 

It’s not just pirates and outlaws who take refuge here, Lost Angeles has become extremely important to organized criminal organizations, especially the Vietnamese Golden Tiger organization who uses Lost Angeles to sell and distribute heroin in exchange for slaves and guns.

It is still no safer navigating through Lost Angeles; the flooded city must be travelled either by boat or through precariously erected walkway between buildings.  And though the Cannibal Nation has been nearly wiped out, there are still plenty of thugs, rapists, and murderes prowling the dark corners, especially in the South and Central portions of Lost Angeles.  The waterways themselves are treacherous, and without a guide the chances of becoming stranded on rubble beneath the surface, or the odd currents dashing your boat against the sides of buildings, or finding yourself in hostile territory with no means of escape are high.

In addition, the problem of contamination and pollution from the streets is only compounded by wasted dumped from the Los Angeles Metroplex.  The marine life in the area has begun to show mutations, as have babies born to those living in the ruins. 

To make matters more interesting, Corporate raiders and independent edgerunners still make the occasional venture into the ruins, in hopes of finding treasure abandoned after the quake.  While after 25 years, most of the vaults have been accounted for, rumors and stories still abound of the lost corporate cache, or the unrecovered priceless artifact just waiting to be uncovered.

For more information see Lost Angeles at Datafortress 2020:

http://datafortress2020.110mb.com/la/lostangeles.html