The Place of Enlightenment is a four block stretch along Nikolskaya street, which runs directly off the northeast corner of the Red Square.  This is an ancient place.  Historically, these shops, buildings, and stores were connected to places of scholarship, study, and knowledge.  In 1564, Moscow's first printing press was established here.  At the invitation of Ivan the Terrible, Greek monks established a small monastery on this street, descendants of which may still be found in the small Greek community.  It was here that the city's first academy opened in 1684.  Today, the street is still a haven of ancient, arcane, and rare lore.  It's second-hand bookshops are filled with unusual relics, manuscripts, and first editions. 





The Baccarat Mansion and Atharim House
+Currently closed for renovations+

Since its founding by French royal decree in 1764, Baccarat Crystal has transformed the most basic elements on earth — sand, fire and water — into exquisite objects of beauty treasured by Kings, Tsars and Maharajas.  Now, Baccarat has established a series of brilliantly designed hotels, mansions, and residences in cities such as Dubai, Tokyo, and Shanghai.  The diamond in the Baccarat crown, however, is the Baccarat Mansion, located at 19 Nikolskaya street in Moscow, one block from the Red Square.

Baccarat Crystal and Moscow is first and foremost the elite story of a relationship between the crystal maker and the Tsars.  On the ground floor of the mansion lays the complete display of Baccarat crystal-including the Tsars Candelabra and the Tsar's Service made of double cobalt blue crystal.  This sparkling, pristine space has given rise to a social climate metamorphosed into magical parties blended with pomp, tradition, and an extravagant, clandestine scheme.

The second and third floors are truly private.  This is the home of a Baccarat heir, a high-ranking Atharim, whose job is to provide a safe cover hidden in the luminescence of a lavish spotlight in the heart of the CCD empire.  As such, the Baccarats have ties to the Atharim which date back centuries.

The basements, entered directly from above or by one of several distant access points, is a hub for Atharim affairs, stock, money, and safety.

The main MSU campus is located about half-way between the city center at the Kremlin and the outer edge of the city, however smaller branches are located in the central district. The prestigious MSU maintains excellent relationships with other top schools in the world, frequently recruiting top international students.

Imposing, but beautiful, there is a majesty to the campus of MSU best epitomized by the flagship building which was one of seven monumental structures commissioned by Stalin.

The CCD provides stringent rules to obtain education credit. As such, what few state loans are awarded to cover university expenses come with high interest and severe default punishments.

See full writeup on Moscow at the wiki page here.

This massive metropolis captures the CCD at its most extreme: its authoritarian austerity and its capitalist indulgence; its devout orthodoxy and its uninhibited displays of wealth and power; its enigmatic ancient history and its dazzling contemporary culture. Moscow is the seat of political power in the world, but it is also the cultural and commercial center of the Central Dominance. From the storied streets surrounding the Red Square to the modern, new Moscow-City, the CCD capital is crammed with artistic, historic, and otherwise sacred sites. Sometimes intellectual and inspiring, sometimes debauched and depraved, it is always eye-opening.

With a mind-bending 100 recently constructed new skyscrapers and focus on futuristic design, Moscow trumps the emirate’s superlative cityscape and established itself as the 21st century’s pinnacle of luxury. 

For a full description, see the Kremlin page on the wiki.

The Kremlin has been a symbol of power for nearly a millennium but less than half is open to the public.  With nearly a dozen palaces and churches, the Kremlin is a living repository of eight centuries of history and culture, not to mention an emblem of power. The Kremlin walls -- running almost a mile and a half, standing as high as 62 feet, as thick as 21 feet in places -- include 20 towers and gates.

The Kremlin is situated in the very center of the city. Its monumental walls and towers, golden-domed cathedrals and ancient palaces stand high on a hill above the Moscow River form a magnificent architectural ensemble.

This board is for all places in the greater Moscow area related to detention, secret bases, and prisons. 

Notable locations include:

The Facility - full description on Wiki page

Located 22 floors beneath the Kremlin, the Facility fills a transformed bunker decommissioned after the Cold War.  The Facility operates with a full staff and up to 100 test subjects with security provided by the highest level of clearance.


Butyrka detention center - full description on Wiki page

Butryka is a predetention holding center in the middle of Moscow City along 45 Nvovoslobodskaya Street. The building is nondescript unless one knew what to look for. There is a subway across the street. Regular neighbors and businesses flank it. It is probably the most feared "center" in Moscow, if not all of Russia, which is saying something given the notoriety of the prison system there.

It is a prison infamous for the inhumane treatment of inmates. It dates back to 1775, and since its first incarnation 250 years ago, Butyrka Prison has been home to a long history of harsh living conditions, human rights violations, and spectacular escape attempts. It was historically used for housing high-profile and political prisoners. It is currently being retrofitted to be prepared to incarcerate channelers.

See Underground City wiki for more. 

The deserted passageways, dry water courses, torture chambers, stashes of skull-embedded stones, and suggestions of mass-graves have been little explored by those above. Sometimes dismembered bodies wash out, rising up from sewers and drains to the surface. What goes on beneath the streets is largely a mystery.

As there are six to twelve layers underground depending on the area of the city.  The upper levels are frequently inhabited by the city’s homeless, illegal migrants, gypsies, alcoholics, druggies, prostitutes, political refugees, and ex-convicts.  The lower levels, however, are known only by rumor.  Sightings of strangely dressed groups in camouflage and masks supposedly roam the underground. Individuals in monk’s robes, lanterns and alters have been rumored, but unconfirmed.

MANIFESTO

Link to wiki page of Manifesto

There are more billionaires in Moscow than in any other city in the world. More than New York, London, or Dubai.  In Moscow, millionaires are as common as pigeons. Together the rich and mega-rich constitute a social class who are loosely called nouveau riche. Half of them are survivors of industrial shake-ups from the fallout of the "aluminum war" fifty years ago, when executives were killed left and right. Half have discovered that starting a bank is more profitable than robbing one. The rest are young financial trapeze artists swinging from one hedge fund to another. How do you celebrate success on such a scale? How much caviar can you eat? How much bubbly can you drink? Et cetera. That's why clubs were invented.

Clubs give the rich the chance to "flaunt it, baby, flaunt it," while assured that "face control" will stop undesirables at the door. Face control is executed by men who in a glance can determine your financial profile and celebrity status. And whether you are carrying a gun.

The New Rich are social animals; they squeeze business and pleasure together the way drivers squeeze five lanes out of four. The office is full of petty distractions: meetings, phone calls, endless details. Billion-dollar deals await the cool hours of the evening. There is a Moscow tradition that you can't trust or do business with a man until you have been drunk together. Food, vodka, and money: they go hand in hand.

The first sign that Manifesto was hot was the number of Bentleys and Lamborghinis lined up at the curb opening night.  The club incorporates relentless sound, color, and motion. Psychedelic visions splash across screens and illuminate vodka bars.  The floor grows so crowded people can only dance in place, something six-foot models in six-inch heels still manage gracefully.

Amid clouds of smoke, strobe lights, and the deafening beat of house music, the new lords of oil, nickel, and natural gas swarm on Manifesto with women as mute and beautiful as cheetahs on a leash.  Not in the mood?  Retire to Block 1 or Block 2.  Here a man can sip Johnnie Walker Blue, light a Cuban cigar, sip a brandy, unwind, and make more money.

In this cacophony a millionaire could expand and relax. For one thing, no guns are allowed inside. The club has a 40-man security force, and any customer who felt in dire need of protection is assigned a personal bodyguard. A bomb dog sniffs the chairs, and security briefings alert the staff about special needs, such as guests from Dubai who did not want to be photographed drinking champagne with scantily clad models.

Manifesto is located in a massive bunker-size club space inspired by the various powers of the 20th century.  The dance floor is a lavish spectacle, a two-story room under vibrant red-mirrored ceilings with a DJ pulpit.  Intimate circular seating areas are cramped with those suffering from electronic dance fatigue. 

The space is otherwise divided between the main club venue, known as Manifesto, and two smaller lounges known as Block 1 and Block 2. The décor of Block 1 is an ethereal setting of mystic porn set against a gothic backdrop, and parodies of ancient art and religious iconography. The main lounge is set under a large dome, bottle service can be delivered in private booths cantilevered overlooking the space or in more social settings.


A tall, narrow passageway that forces people to funnel close together leads to Block 2. This is a geometric space decorated in red and black, splashed with dramatic lighting, and grounded by cement floors and stone columns. Hand-picked dancers or contortionists perform silently in creepily preserved torture cells suspended above, out of reach of those below. The main space is long and narrow, seated with black furniture onyx tables.


KALLISTI HOUSE OF BURLESQUE

Full Wiki Page

Oriena Wrote:Kallisti had an air of vintage. Damask inlaid the walls, and the furniture was solid, luxuriant – and expensive. The bar itself was extravagant, back-dropped by antique bottles glittering wealth in the soft light, but it was the stage the seating was positioned to worship. The private arrangements walked a fine and purposeful line between comfort and straight-laced formality; Kallisti encouraged coy promises through fluttered eyelashes, incidental touches and husky whispers. But it sold seduction, not sex. If you wanted an anonymous fuck in a bathroom, or to act the voyeur peeping on the exploits of strangers, there were plenty of venues within the Red Light District to accommodate. In an age where every fetish was catered for, Kallisti was foreplay; the naughty, clandestine kind that left you breathless. And wanting more.

Along the farthest wall, cordoned off, a grand door led the way to the theatre; for those who stumped up the cash for admittance to the midnight show, which was still a few hours away. In the meantime the entertainment was the lightly teasing, wickedly cheeky kind. Most people thought of burlesque as the art of striptease, and Kallisti embraced that whole-heartedly, but it found its earliest roots in parody. Travesty. Sly and subversive mockery. When Ori surveyed this decadent kingdom, that was what she saw.

Oriena Wrote:The Almaz was a club bolted into the Underground, but claimed exclusively by the favour of the obscenely rich. Cash or favour granted admittance - often both were required to get a foot through the door - but it did not hold the prestige of somewhere like Manifesto. It was not the sort of place one openly admitted to attending, nor a name that found its way into polite conversation or the sparkle of the tabloids. No paparazzi paved the way to its doors. On the contrary. Recording devices were prohibited within, and security took the rule seriously enough to break fingers and worse for transgression.

The clientèle was mixed; the golden elite getting their dark kicks alongside the cream of local gang life, though you might only tell by the absence or proliferation of tattoos amongst the formal dress-code. Big money was won and lost on the fights, that being the Almaz's bead and butter. Allies forged and shattered in its walls, deals soaked in loyalty of blood. Upside leather and velvet decorated a lavish bar area, filtering down into the pits below, where the real entertainment happened. Down there rings and cages separated the various fights, couched by plush ringside tables. This was not sportsmanship; it was brutality.

Thousands of people were flushed onto the streets of inner Moscow after chasms of fire and smoke broke through the city’s underground. The Custody of Engineering reports a gas leak lead to a subterranean explosion. As there are six to twelve layers underground, the upper levels frequently inhabited by the city’s homeless, gypsies, alcoholics, druggies, prostitutes, political refugees, ex-convicts, MP’s swept onto the streets until the situation could be contained. Despite the Fire Marshalls’ investigation, witnesses report conflicting stories of arson, self-defense, and terror. Sightings of strangely dressed groups in camoflauge and masks roaming the underground are not uncommon. Individuals in monk’s robes, lanterns and alters have been rumored, but unconfirmed. However, solid evidence exists of a Moscow Underworld, an atmosphere ignored by the CCD other than to close off old bomb shelters, seal-up thousand-man bunkers, and empty strategic command posts. The deserted passageways, dry water courses, torture chambers, stashes of skull-embedded stones, and suggestions of mass-graves have been little explored by those above. Sometimes dismembered bodies wash out, rising up from sewers and drains to the surface. What goes on beneath the streets is a mystery. But whatever is down there, these rats are afraid to return to it.

An anti-CCD extremist group known as the Minutemen burned several of the Custody flags in demonstration against empire rule. In their live video broadcast, the Minutemen seek the downfall of the CCD, claiming that “liberty always prevails.” The American government made no arrests, claiming demonstrators are protected by freedom of speech. In a later address, the Ascendancy accused the American President of protecting a known terrorist organization. The Ascendancy also proclaimed that Minutemen demonstrations on CCD soil will be met with swift and due brutality. Known members of the Minutemen organization have been added to Custody of Intelligence watch lists as persons of High Interest.