The Oakland Hills
Pre-Collapse Identity
The Oakland Hills were affluent suburbs perched above the flatlands — Montclair's village center, Piedmont's old-money enclave, and the eucalyptus-covered ridgeline where the devastating 1991 fire killed twenty-five people and destroyed three thousand homes. Joaquin Miller Park offered trails with views of the entire bay. It was where Oakland's wealth lived, looking down.
Current Character
Guardian's fortress territory — the high ground overlooking East Oakland and the bay floor, converted from affluent suburbia into a corporate military installation wearing the skin of a residential community. Surveillance arrays on the ridgeline provide sight lines across the entire eastern Sprawl: every street in East Oakland, every settlement on the bay floor, every approach from the Far East. The hills are defensible by terrain alone — narrow winding roads, steep slopes, dense vegetation — and Guardian has added layers of electronic and physical security that make the sector a panopticon with a view. Former luxury homes now serve as corporate housing for Guardian's officer class, their swimming pools filled with rainwater collection systems and their living rooms converted to tactical planning centers.
Terrain & Atmosphere
Steep hills rising to 500 meters, covered in eucalyptus groves and chaparral that the 1991 fire couldn't kill and neither can the Sprawl. Narrow winding roads switchback up the slopes — designed for pre-Cascade commuter traffic, now ideal for defensive chokepoints. The ridgeline is a natural fortification; from the highest points, you can see the Golden Gate Dam to the northwest, the Deep Dregs spreading below like a scar, and the Wastes beginning at the eastern horizon beyond Mt. Diablo.
Corporate Presence
Guardian's surveillance command center operates from the hills — the sector's primary function is watching everything below. Sensor arrays, drone launch pads, and communication relays stud the ridgeline like mechanical vegetation. Corporate enclaves and private estates occupy the lower slopes, their residents Guardian executives and allied corporate officers who have earned the privilege of living above the violence they administer.
Key Locations
The Analog Schools (Guardian-run education facilities — deliberately low-tech, paper books, chalk boards, a philosophy of control disguised as pedagogy), the Ridgeline Array (surveillance network command), Guardian Officer Housing (former affluent suburbs repurposed for corporate military).
Sensory Detail
The air is cleaner here than anywhere in the East Bay — elevation and vegetation filter the particulate that chokes the flats. The dominant sound is wind through eucalyptus canopy, punctuated by the whisper of surveillance drones returning to their charging pads. At night, the hills are dark — Guardian deliberately minimizes light pollution to preserve their thermal and optical sensor advantage. Below, East Oakland blazes with security lighting. The contrast is visible from space.
Daily Life
You watch the world below through screens and sensor feeds, and you sleep well knowing you're above it all — which is exactly what Guardian wants you to feel.