Akiba

Akihabara, usually shortened to Akiba (アキバの街), is the largest of the five main cities (五大都市 go daitoshi) on the Japanese server of Elder Tale and is the hometown of many Japanese players. The others cities are Shibuya, Minami, Susukino, and Nakasu.

Overview
In Elder Tale, Akiba is located where Tokyo would be on the map according to Japan's Half GAIA Project. It is the also location where new players on the Japan server first appear after joining the game.

Akiba has the appearance of an old, overgrown city with streets lined with crumbling, derelict buildings and rough stretches of asphalt buried under carpets of moss and entwined with vines. Annexes and additions have been stacked organically onto the ruins, and the roots of trees spread out across the roads. Considered the holy land of the Ancients, it is an old ruined concrete city now smothered in verdant green.

Shiroe notes at the beginning of the series that a warm, moist wind rustled refreshingly through the treetops beneath the dazzling early summer sunlight. More than just heat, the radiant light burst from sky with an overwhelming intentness over both trees and buildings and cast deep shadows on town's main road that wrapped around itself the dark soil and dilapidated asphalt.

Despite its underlying concrete framework, Akiba is quite organic. On multiple occasions, Shiroe makes note of the smell of the damp earth, the whispering of leaves and grasses, and the humid breeze that sweeps between the abandoned buildings. Ginko and Elm trees have grown up around the old buildings, splitting the showy multi-colored signs and breaking down walls. The side streets are covered in leaf mold and emerald-green moss.

Geography
As Akiba the starting location on the Japanese server, many guilds use the city as their home base. To cater to the resident and transient adventurer population, the city is filled with inns and bars.

The center of the city is a large intersection behind the train station plaza (駅前広場). A large monolith-shaped "intelligent building" made of complex materials stands at the corner of the intersection. The atmosphere is of a lively open-air market, and players often congregate here to kill time, recruit for quests, and sell items.

Both players and non-player characters have taken up residence here and there among the abandoned buildings, and the streets are dotted with temporary stalls operated by NPCs selling food and other goods.

Post-Apocalypse Situation
After the apocalypse, the security situation in Akiba deteriorates. Although outright fighting among players is not allowed within city limits, the number of PK incidents in the area around the city increases, and members of the city's large, influential guilds begin throw their weight around and act arrogantly.

Significantly, after the apocalypse, all zones in Elder Tale became available for purchase. In Akiba, this amounted to about 50 zones within the city and 300 hunting grounds outside of the city.

With the creation of the Round Table Alliance, along with the discovery of actual food creation and inventions, the city of Akihabara has begun to stablize and grow. What was once considered by the People of the Land, as nothing more than a disorganized mob of Adventurers, is now being noticed by the major cities, primarily the League of Freedom Cities Eastal.

Due to the fact that the Adventurers are more powerful than most of the native inhabitants, are able to respawn after dying, and are in possession of things that did not previously exist in Elder Tale, the leaders of the People of the Land have become wary, with many seeking to enlist their powers and inventions.

Currently, the city has a population of 20,000, with around 15,000 players, and the rest consisting of People of the Land. A town bath house has been constructed and a daily newspaper was established. The new foods and inventions such as the steam engine, has sparked a demand for new products and the drive to earn more money to buy them. Hunting for ingredients and material now provides more work for the combat guilds in terms of bodyguards and city defense. Taxes collected though use of the Guild Building is used to reseach the now-dormant Gateways and Fairy Rings.

Though the new economy still has its flaws, (such as estimating value for labor), the citizens are now given more things to do and the feelings of despair and boredom are alleviated. With the rumors of good food, new inventions, and the establishment of the Round Table Alliance to govern the city, the number of People of the Land has increased. Many have traveled from distant regions to work as employees at the Guild Meeting Hall or to start a new life and experience the foods and innovations.

Trivia

 * Akiba is named after the a real life district of the same name in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward.  The real life Akihabara is known as a center for electronics and anime culture.