Presidia

This article is about the city. For the in-game mission, see Presidia (mission).

Presidia
Type	Capital city
Location	Central mainland Cascadia
Coordinates	38°47'32" N, 120°41'29" W
Events	Cascadian Conflict Fall of Presidia Second Battle of Presidia Duel over Presidia

"I could’ve lived my entire life within those city limits, give me the sky any day."

― Peter Kennedy

Presidia was the capital of United Cascadia and the largest city in the north western hemisphere. It was one of the founding cities of the country and is a major center of trade for geothermal resources. The city was named after a fort installation, which now serves as the seat of the Cascadian government. It often served as the link between the Periphery and the wider world, and was the ultimate realization of an After Calamity Era city, hosting worldwide commerce.

The city was the starting point of the Cascadian Conflict, the nation's fight for independence from the Pacific Federation, and fell from Cascadian hands within little over a month. It remained in Federation control until August 23, AC 432 when the Cascadian Independence Force converged on the capital. Unfortunately for all involved, the downtown section of the capital was obliterated by Crimson 1 in the Presidian Disaster, with the rest of the city soon to cave into the geothermal fracture. Although it was soon liberated, it is unclear whether it remained the capital or was abandoned like numerous other areas in the war.

Overview

The skyline rivals even the Federation's megacities in the Core States, including Constantinople, and prominently features a red bridge spanning the entire city. The port is a large, artificial bay featuring a lot of facilities and containers, and is connected to the industrial area where a lot of economic commodities are held. There are windmills ashore; some float, and some are on land. The city is also dotted by coastal buildings where inhabitants can have a view of the Golden Ocean. Far outside of the city is a huge collection of desert gorges. The city also has an extensive sewer and underground network as well, along with a police department to maintain law and order. Its city hall contains records of all Presidian residents. Three Pillars of Communications towers are present.

Locations

• Kennedy Hall
• Takenori Square
• Federation Embassy to Cascadia
• University of Presidia
• Port Authority Building

History

Little is known of Presidia's early history outside of being one of Cascadia's three founding cities. It is known, however, that it was the place where Periphery states were hosted on the world stage, and where the Cascadian government distributed support to lesser states like those in the Periphery, most notably during its time as a Federation associate state.

Peter Kennedy, a Sicario pilot and Hitman Team member, was raised in the capital.

The CIF launched the Cascadian Conflict from the capital after the Federation refused Cascadia's request to secede to cease support for its continued expansion. One month into the war, however, the Federation began sending in external reinforcements in the afternoon of February 21, taking the capital the following morning. Presidian citizens were helped by Cascadian partisans to evacuate the city or stay in shelter underground, the partisans themselves raiding the municipal hall to burn all records of their existence and avoid being tracked by the Federation or the CIF. A communications blackout and curfew was imposed as well, with the strictest penalties for any violators. During the evacuation of the capital, the CIF sabotaged roads and waterways out to isolate Federation forces inside the city and bombarded troop positions the Kornhill bomber flight. Concurrently, because of the civil war nature of the conflict, the Presidian Police Forces was split between pro- and anti-Federation elements, and were not designated enemy combatants by the Federation. Regardless, the evacuation was successful, and the Federation stationed the 1st Naval Battlegroup at the Golden Ocean on guard duty. From then on, the Federation military used the capital's ports to support its supply line into the country, in the process locking down aerial commerce from entering it.

Presidia after the disaster. Note the collapsed buildings above due to the resultant earthquake.

As the war situation turned against the Federation, more and more of their units fled into the capital through the countryside. Following the Cascadian Calamity Event, Sicario's SOF Ronin snuck into the city, designating defenses for the upcoming liberation of Presidia with the partisans; at the same time, the Federation increased their supply quota through the sea, knowing it was one of their last few lifelines left, which would be cut on August 12. When the time came on the 23rd, the Federation, secretly working on a ceasefire with the CIF, attempted to hold as much territory as they could in the capital for leverage, but were pushed all the way back to the Port Authority Building by the time the ceasefire was announced and all opposing forces were ordered to stand down. In the tense moments of the ceasefire and evacuation of Federation forces, however, the now-rogue Federation Peacekeeper Crimson 1 detonated multiple cordium warheads across downtown Presidia, sank the Cascadian fleet, and shot down every operational aircraft and airship except for his archnemesis Monarch, who he challenged into a duel over the now-ruined capital. After Crimson 1's defeat and death, surviving Federation troops fell underneath extreme prejudice by the CIF's last few remnants, who believed they were complicit in destroying the city, though whatever remained of Presidia returned to Cascadian hands, ending the war.

Behind the scenes

Matthew Nguyen stated that due to his lack of aptitude in geography, he gave Abi Rahmani at least three random and mistaken coordinates for Presidia, one of them being 37'77986°N, -122,42905°E (Sublime, Texas) and then ending with 38°47'32.1"N 120°41'29.6"W (near Sacramento, California).

Trivia

Presidia is most likely based on San Francisco, which is also the location of the aptly named Presidio of San Francisco. This is supported by the presence of a Golden Gate Bridge-like bridge within the city and the Golden Ocean's name; the coordinates point to Camino, a distance away from the major city, thus not submerged.