The First Age
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Description - Ascendancy - 06-22-2013

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.




THE ALMAZ

The Almaz full wiki page

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.


Nebesa's Gate Casino

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A prestigious casino located on New Arbat Street, a major artery in Moscow City. Its name translates to “Heaven’s Gate” in English. After the birth of the ASU it was one of the first to open its doors after gambling was re-legalised in Russia. Previously, it had been banned from all but four government appointed districts. After more than twenty years, Nebesa remains at the forefront of the gambling scene in Moscow. It’s popular with tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of the many celebrities said to frequent its walls.

Devil's Lair (Nightclub)

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A cult-status nightclub known for its all night raves.