Central Oakland
Pre-Collapse Identity
Downtown Oakland was the East Bay's civic heart — the courthouse, the convention center, the Fox Theater, and the restaurants along Broadway that gave the city its nightlife. Lake Merritt was Oakland's jewel, a tidal lake ringed by parks and apartment buildings. Temescal and Rockridge were the walkable neighborhoods where people rode bikes and argued about coffee.
Current Character
Central Oakland is a contested buffer zone — a no-man's-land of competing corporate interests wedged between Ironclad's waterfront to the west and Guardian's enforcement territory to the east. Neither corporation controls it; both project force into it. The old BART stations serve dual purpose as transit hubs and smuggling corridors, their tunnels connecting to routes that neither Ironclad nor Guardian has fully mapped. Lake Merritt, once Oakland's defining feature, is a dry bowl now — its water pumped out during the drainage years — used as an open-air market, gathering ground, and occasional battleground when the corporate proxy wars spill over.
Terrain & Atmosphere
Flat to gentle hills, the terrain reflects Oakland's pre-Cascade urban grid: wide boulevards, mid-rise buildings, and the empty basin of Lake Merritt cutting through the center like a wound that won't heal. The streets are busier than they should be — this is the transit crossroads between the port, the hills, and the Dregs, which means everyone passes through and nobody stays longer than they have to. Tension is architectural here: Ironclad's industrial aesthetic encroaches from the west while Guardian's surveillance cameras multiply as you move east.
Corporate Presence
Neither Ironclad nor Guardian claims Central Oakland outright, which makes it more dangerous than either of their controlled zones. Ironclad industrial patrols push east from the port; Guardian tactical units push west from the hills. The contested overlap is a street-by-street negotiation enforced by the barrel of a gun. Workers and residents navigate between competing checkpoints, paying informal tolls to whichever uniform they encounter first.
Key Locations
Lake Merritt Basin (dry market and gathering ground), the BART tunnel network (transit and smuggling routes beneath the surface), Broadway corridor (commercial strip, proxy war flashpoint).
Sensory Detail
The sound of this sector is boots on pavement — corporate patrols from both directions, civilian foot traffic hurrying between them, and the distant rumble of trains in the BART tunnels below. The smell shifts block by block: Ironclad's machine oil gives way to Guardian's ozone-and-rubber tactical gear smell. Lake Merritt's dry basin smells of dust, market spices, and the ghost of salt water that hasn't been there in years.
Daily Life
You learn to read uniforms at a distance, keep your transit pass visible, and never linger at intersections where sight lines cross.