Dirbine

Dirbine, Indiana is a fictional city in southern Indiana in the Gerosha Chronicles of Dozerfleet Comics. It featured in Gerosha Prime, Despair Gerosha, and Classic Gerosha versions of the Ciem trilogy.

Relative location
It's geography is an amalgamation of the real-life cities of South Bend and Evansville. It was replaced with real-life Evansville for the Comprehensive Gerosha novel Ciem: Vigilante Centipede. In the Cataclysmic Gerosha series Sodality, all of southern Indiana is portrayed as having been wiped out by the Ameristani regime of Halal Affadidah.

History
The city of Dirbine derives it's name from the term "pinewood derby." The city is initiated in 1942 as Sulliville, and the name change comes when a local derby event is held in 1961. The change comes at the suggestion that "derby" makes a better name than "sullen." Dirbine has no race tracks, but retains the name. After acquiring the identity of Ciem, Candi defends Dirbine even more than her true home town, Viron.

Depending on the version, Ciem initially saves the city from Duke Arfaas with the help of Emeraldon while also fighting either L1 the Llama or Musaran. The city later comes under attack from a Chinese terrorist group called the Mik-Non, which is also trying to claim the Ming-Yo and Ming-Cho radioactive projects from the Chinese government. Chaos ensues when the CIA steals both, but Melvin Markus of the Hebbleskin Gang teams up with Lloyd Kolumn, a corrupt NSA agent, to have the whole thing blamed on Miriam "Sniperbadger" Flippo. Miriam and her sister must team up with CIA agent Vienna Dockler to put a stop to all the madness. However, they are being stalked by the deranged Captain Aardwulf.

After some time, things quiet down in Dirbine. Alas, the calm is disrupted when Milp arrives. In later versions, Ciem finally overcomes Milp. But she requires the aid of Mukade, Meerkat, and Dolly Malestrom in an experimental "Earwig" armor prototype. Milp is defeated, but the city is still severely damaged. It is rebuilt later with help from Charlie McArthur - again, depending on the version.

Crime
Dirbine was a center where the Hebbleskin Gang worked hard to indoctrinate much of the population in order to start a coup. Duke Arfaas managed to acquire several allies within the police force, including police chief Merle Hourvitz, all to advance his tyrannical agenda. While police and the Hebbleskin Gang were in bed, however, there was still plenty of rival crime to be dealt with. The Kerpher Gang in timelines prior to Cataclysmic Gerosha makes its last stand rather foolishly in the Hebbleskins' back yard. This led to Victor Nanale, one of the few Kerphers left, kidnapping and attempting to rape a small child named Maria Sanmarcos. His actions incurred the wrath of Ciem, giving rise to a chase between Ciem and Musaran. Their first battle, and Maria's safe arrival home to her family in Latin Town, proved to be the moment that both defined Ciem as a hero and became the reason for her name. Rape, murder, and arson were quite common in Dirbine while the Hebbleskins' influence was prominent there.

Emeraldon was a prominent hero in the town for many years, though he disappeared following his efforts to be recruited to help the Phaelite cause in ending the Phaelon-Metheel War. He returned with Ciem as a more-or-less sidekick. However, this arrangement was short-lived. Donte soon lost his abilities due to cancer, resulting in Emeraldon I retiring for good. A second Emeraldon later appeared in the town after several decades, but he was defeated in battle. His sibling, Verdecent, took over patrol in Dirbine. Verdecent was determined to not make the same mistakes as his older brother. It was around that time in the 2050s that rumor spread of a new Ciem fighting to free Gerosha from the Phaletori.

Suburbs / spots of interest

 * Farrenville: Where the Despair and Classic timelines depicted the opening events to Path of the Ming-Cho.
 * Farrenville Community College: Where the Prime and Despair timelines placed Miriam's college education.
 * Marrington residence: Home of Rob and Hannah Marrington.
 * Raymond residence: Home of Charlie Raymond and his dog Taquito.


 * Latin Town: Where Maria Sanmarcos is from, and where Ciem received her namesake according to the Classic Gerosha timeline version of Ciem.
 * Latin Town motels: Where Candi stayed with Miriam to lay low after Captain Aardwulf and the Mik-Non attack downtown Dirbine.


 * Downtown pharmacy: Where Candi gets a pregnancy test in Ciem.


 * Police station: Which turns into a base to prepare the prisoners that will be executed aboard Arfaas' doomsday ship.


 * Botan's corner: Where Botan the Plant-Man turned a man into a tree for trying to steal his car.


 * Viron: The not-so quiet college town just outside Dirbine where Candi moves to after leaving Gerosha.
 * Viron University: Candi's alma mater
 * Hazy Eighties Bowling Alley: According to some of the old timelines, this was where Candi got her first non-superhero job.
 * Skating rink: Where Candi as the Spookface Centipede entered a competition with Amy the Skater, and wound up saving the nightclub from Poison Dart Eddie.


 * Auld Time Buddies Bar: Where Candi worked as a bartender in Ciem 3.


 * Office complex: An office building using Montinel CRT monitors, some of the only CRT computer monitors still being manufactured in 2021. This was where Ciem ultimately defeated Musaran, and was on the outer edge border of Dirbine and Viron.

Inspiration
Before the Dozerfleet founder was aware of real-life Evansville, which became the setting in Ciem: Vigilante Centipede, Dirbine was a fill-in for a major metropolitan area in southern Indiana. "Dirbine" could be viewed as being" like "derby" or "dirt bin." Either way, it was intended to be a very generic-sounding name for a town that could serve as a city of adventure for the Ciem webcomic trilogy back in 2005.  The city's exact layout and geography were viewed to be very flexible, with new locations of interest being forged as the plot required them.

Design
Since Dirbine was created specifically for the webcomic trilogy, which was free-for-view given EA licensing, it was replaced with real-life Evansville for Comprehensive Gerosha stories, such as the Ciem novel trilogy. The webcomics at the time were rendered entirely in The Sims 2 and its various expansion packs. Maps that came standard with that game became the de facto standard for designing characters and events. At one point, Viron was a custom map developed in Sim City 4. However, it was a university town that was tied to a Classic Gerosha map of Gerosha itself. Gerosha served as the base neighborhood, and Viron as the university that Sims would go to when sent off to college. Dirbine became the "downtown district" map, using the Downtown map that came with Nightlife.

Parts of the map were modified as-needed for shooting various scenes. Whatever scenes that happened in roads or street corners that could not be done by the game's real definitions were fudged by building large sets and set pieces. A large lot could create a set capable of up to three different street corners centered around a busy road, and this layout came to be utilized even more heavily in Ciem 2 when Ciem saves Andrew Tinsel and his daughter Sandy from Lloyd Kolumn's goons. This wiki's most prominent clip of Ciem in the rain was shot on one of these sets, and was edited heavily in Photoshop CS3 on a Mac in the FLITE library at Ferris State.