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Harran was a city-state and the main setting in the game Dying Light. The distant skylines and high-rise buildings gives a sense of enormity and depth to this urban structure. Like most major cities and urban hubs some parts of Harran are wealthy and affluent while other parts are not so prosperous. During the central campaign, and the side missions, you will be traversing these two major areas of Harran in order to stay alive.

Transportation

Prior to the Harran Virus, by spring 2014, the city of Harran held 52 bus lines which linked all the districts of the city, with their specific timetables having been available on the websites of the City Transport Office and at the Tourist Information Point in Harran City Hall. The buses were active between 5 AM and 12 at midnight, leaving on average every 20 minutes and costing 2 Harran Dollars for a single ride, though there were also daily, weekly, and monthly tickets which could be purchased in advance.[1] Additional bus lines were planned to be used on December 13th, 2014 between 6 AM and 8 PM, as said day would have been marked as a car-free day as a result of campaigning by various ecological movements among the citizenry. The city center of Harran would have been closed to cars and motorbikes, encouraging the usage of bicycles and the public transport.[2] The city-state also featured a number of taxis, which were licensed to transport up to five people.[3] While there were also plans to implement a public bike system, the odds of its success were low as the budget dedicated to the project were lower than the costs.[4]

GameSpot Expert Reviews

Culture

Education

The Magic Fortress Public Kindergarten was the oldest educational institution for the children of Harran, taking in children aged from three- to six years of age.[5] Plans were also made to build a new pre-school, which was set to be completed by 2016.[6] The Harran Public School was founded in 1996, being focused on providing its students with the perfect balance between education, personal development, and leisure. The school made use of, and encouraged participation in, a scholarship scheme to those most active in social, sport, and artistic fields. The school started constructing a new building in 2012, which was being funded by the city's budget and profits from the Global Athletic Games.[7] The entire population of Harran spoke Arabic, with a large portion of the population also knowing Turkish. A respectable minority also spoke Georgian and Armenian, while the younger and more affluent people of the population also knew English.[8]

The Academy of Harran was a rapidly developing institution, taking in over 5,000 new students annually. The building used by the Academy finds its origins in 1720, having been reconstructed and renovated multiple times since then. The library of the Academy was founded in 1890, financed and supplied by Galip Azmi. The Academy was divided into 5 faculties, offering a total of 28 different fields of study.[9]

Activities

In order to make the Harranites embrace their culture, the Harran City Council and Academy of Harran invited all citizens for free tours around their city, in a campaign called "Know Your City". The motivation behind the campaign was to familiarize the public to the history of their city, with the event starting November 7th, 2014. Every person in Harran could take part in free tours introducing them to the most important historic events of Harran, with tours occurring every Saturday and Sunday at 11 AM. The primary focus of the campaign was to spark the interest of the citizens in history, archeology and architecture.[10] The city also took part in "Restaurant Day", an international event where amateurs could become chefs for one day. The oldest restaurant of the city, Djinn In The Jar, organized special musical acts to perform on the day and held special cooking demonstrations. The other restaurants of the city also took part, preparing special menu items.[11]

The city also organized a large film festival, aiming to entertain the population. The festival was set to take place on the 21 of December, at the outdoor section of the Harran Cinema, and would run for two days with highlighted films being the premiere of "Killing Cloud", "Love 2", and "Super Magda".[12] Various public sporting activities were also enabled through their facilities in the suburbs and surrounding areas. In Upper Harran, football was the prominent sport, whereas in Lower Harran tennis and swimming were preferred. The most advanced sporting facilities of the city are located in the Academy of Harran, which was host to four large gymnasiums, athletic grounds, many tennis courts and an undercover pool, which were available to the public every day after the end of class.[13]

Emergency Services

The Harran City Hospital is located on the outskirts of Harran, in the district of Lower Harran. Many world class experts were employed in the hospital, and state-of-the-art medical equipment was used. The Intensive Care Unit, Pediatric Department, and Coronary Care Unit were considered the prominent departments of the hospital. It furthermore also provided comprehensive psychiatric and mental health programs.[14] The emergency number in Harran was 112.

History

Harran has first been mentioned in ancient tablets from the 9th century BC, which has likewise been seen as the most probable date for the founding of the city. Merchants from Carthage were one of the earliest peoples to inhabit the region, settling down at what is now referred to as Emerald Pond. The City Museum of Harran used to serve as the stronghold at the lake and is the oldest building in the city, being constructed in the 4th century BC by the Romans. The walls of the city are around the same age, as the stronghold and the walls formed the main defenses of the city.[15]

The city walls were partially destroyed in the 11th century AD, a result of rebellions which occurred due to famines due to at least 20 years of droughts. Large parts of Harran were destroyed in their wake, though the walls were rebuilt in 1530, long after the rebellions had ended.[15]

For the next couple of hundred years, Harran developed steadily under Turkish rule, as uprisings were swiftly dealt with. The Academy of Harran serves as the symbol of this prosperous period, founded in 1720. The development of the Academy turned the city into an unofficial intellectual capital of the region. Alas, the prosperity would be ground to an abrupt end when a large fire consumed the southern districts of Harran. In these weeks of fire, the area of Harran was halved, which left the remaining districts surrounded by ashes and wastelands. As the Ottoman Empire gradually had lost interest in the city, the burnt down half of the city was only reconstructed dozens of years later. During the First World War, Harran was not a target of attack, saving its population and architecture from destruction, and after the war ended, Harran became a partially independent city-state due to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The independence was reinforced at the end of the Second World War, turning Harran into a self-governed city-state.[15]

Harran Outbreak

Main article: Harran Virus
DL-29

Topview of the city of Harran.

"The eyes of the world have been glued to the city of Harran for the past two months, following the outbreak of a previously unknown pathogen. It is not yet clear what has caused this gruesome affliction, the local government's Ministry of Defence erected a quarantine wall shortly after the outbreak. The Global Relief Effort's steady stream of supply drops has sustained what few survivors remain in the city. The Ministry of Defence believes more radical action should be taken to stem the tide of this virus. The question is, are there still uninfected survivors in the city as the GRE maintains, and if so, will the Ministry still go through with their stated plan to annihilate the city in an attempt to wipe out the Harran Virus once and for all? Whether by way of the virus or the Ministry's proposed plan, one thing is certain, Harran's days are numbered.
Introduction cutscene"


During 2014, the city of Harran saw an increase in violent attacks, to the point where the local Police Department reported it via the city's official website. The Police urged all residents to be extra cautious.[16] Originally believing that the virus was just a severe flu, precautions were made to combat such an outbreak. People were urged to minimize contact with the infected, and make use of proper hygiene and caution. As the major spot of infection was public transport, passengers were advised to minimize contact and wash their hands with soap or disinfectant. The Global Relief Effort (GRE) was already involved with the virus, making posters in attempts to limit the virus. They encouraged frequent hand washing, not attending parties, coughing or sneezing in ones upper sleeve and wear a mask in public places, and to avoid using public transport when feeling sick. They also requested that employers would not make their sick employees come to work.[17]

Despite these attempts, the infection rates among the residents kept increasing. The cures that were present at the time were ineffective, and as such, Harran introduced strict safety measurements. Schools were cancelled indefinitely and Hospital visits were also cancelled to minimize the spread of the virus. The Health department of Harran started dedicating their full resources to study the virus and find a cure for it.[18] Shortly afterwards, the governor officially declared a state of epidemic. Schools were to remain closed and all visits in hospitals became prohibited. Similarly, all mass events were cancelled. The citizens of Harran were encouraged to limit using public transport to the minimum and stay at their homes.[19]

With the Ministry of Health being unable to find a cure on their own, they became desperate to find a quick and effective solution due to many infected individuals having a rapidly deteriorating condition, which made them less and less aware of the reality around them and their status. In an attempt to find the cure, an extraordinary congress of doctors would take place in Harran. The main concern was to identify the origin of the virus and contain the epidemic. The Global Relief Effort (GRE) was among the international specialists invited to the congress, in part due to their experience in fighting outbreaks globally.[20]

A few weeks after the epidemic was announced the number of infected individuals kept increasing. In order to treat these people, a field hospital at the Harran Stadium was opened by the Ministry of Defense and the City Council of Harran. Those who showed symptoms of the disease were to report at the hospital, where they would be treated with a new medication developed by the GRE. The medication stops the development of the virus in the body of an infected individual, and was nearing completion and would be administered not long afterwards to the first infected patients. Those uninfected were encouraged to stay home for both security and sanitary reasons.[21] Despite all these measurements, however, the numbers of infected continued to increase rapidly, resulting in the city's Old Town district being placed under quarantine. The quarantine was carried out by both military personnel and employees of the GRE, with citizens being asked to cooperate with either. The goal of the quarantine was to protect the people of Harran against the disease and increase the efficiency of treating those already infected. Citizens were forced to remain at their homes while the quarantine was in place. Representatives of both the military and GRE would visit all residential houses to relocate uninfected citizens to temporary quarters outside of the city center. Those to be relocated were obligated to carry their identification documents, and were allowed to carry one piece of hand baggage.[22] In order to keep some form of order, some civilians organized a private militia.[23]

In order to solidify the quarantine zone, Old Town was being sealed off with concrete walls, with only patients and medical personnel being allowed to remain inside the quarantine. The GRE also set up a laboratory within the walls, in order to conduct final tests on the medicine, designed to stop the disease from developing. Old Town was not the only area to be quarantined, the field hospital at Harran Stadium was, similarly, being quarantined with no one allowed to either enter or leave the building. Medicine, food, and clothes would be delivered to the hospital daily.[22] After initial tests on the medicine of the GRE were a success, volunteers were required by the GRE in order to facilitate further works on the cure. The Ministry of Defense sought for volunteers to participate in clinical trials, inciting them through offering a financial reward for participation, as well as receiving the necessary medical treatment.[24] Not long afterwards, the city of Harran in agreement with Harran's Ministry of Defense, gave full power to execute directives by the GRE to the army. The commander-in-chief of the enforcement forces was Colonel Kadir Suleiman. Civilian were requested to comply with their orders and follow the curfew, with instances of disobedience resulting in prosecution and acts of unrest and violence resulting in severe punishments.[25] In order to make the transition occur smoothly, Colonel Berkant Uzer took up contact with the local news station. The news report was made to declare that the army rolling into the city was good for the citizens, that the military was establishing their presence and restoring order. The soldiers were leased by the army colonel in question, but operated under the authority of Kardir Suleiman, who served as temporary governor until the situation could be normalized. Civilians were advised to steer clear of military operations, which would include aiding and airlifting thousands of infected citizens to special medical facilities, specifically built for treating those infected with the Harran Virus. Martial law was also put in place as well as a sundown curfew. Additional rules and regulations would be posted in public places, with it being the responsibility of the civilians to stay informed and obey instructions from the military.[26] Those who kept infected in their house and fed them with meat of unknown origin, while also refusing to divulge any information and be cooperative to the authorities, were executed on the spot with the infected, likewise, being killed.[27] The military set up a perimeter around the school in Harran, where the Colonel announced to the news stations that their orders were to assist the infected and evac them to special medical facilities, where they would likely receive a full recovery. People cheered the military on and applauded for them. However, when the news crews left, the soldiers entered the quarantine area and the colonel gave them their real orders, to shoot any infected on sight.[28]

After the military took control, the walls which were built around Old Town were also being built around the rest of the city. While the military ensured the people that the GRE would save them and that the army would take care of them, the streets of Harran were plunged into chaos, with even neighborhoods in the city being sealed off with barricades. The good news at the time was that the GRE had developed a cure of sorts, known as Antizin, which suppresses the symptoms of the virus. The problem was, however, that the only way to get Antizin was by reporting in person to one of the medical points in the city which in turn caused more riots and helped spread the plague. People who were seen with symptoms were taken to the hospital at the Stadium, never to be heard from again, an event which become all the more common as time passed on, with more and more people disappearing.[29] Despite supposed disappearances, it was also said that the hospital at the Stadium had many doctors with advanced medical equipment.[30] Chaos increased not long afterwards. While streets were being blocked and people told to wait until the blockades were removed, shops were broken into and people looted whatever they could with neither police nor the military anywhere to be seen, with everybody fighting for supplies the situation kept getting worse.[31] With the deteriorating situation, many Harran citizens tried to break through the military barricade at the quarantine wall and escape, but the soldiers under the command of Suleiman treated them like zombies. Machine guns were unleashed onto the people, turning them into bloody pulps, grenades were thrown into the crowd, with desperate cries of the citizens being butchered by the military. Other citizens tried to wait out the epidemic in fortified tenements serving as hideouts. The GRE started sending airdrops with Antizin to Harran shortly afterwards.[32]

Events of Dying Light

The GRE sent operative Kyle Crane into the slums of Harran to find Suleiman and recover the file. Crane was initially attacked by Tahir and members of Rais's gang and then by the infected, but he was rescued by survivors from a group inhabiting a tower in the slums. Crane ingratiated himself to them, performing difficult and dangerous tasks to recover resources and improve the community's defenses as he continued his clandestine search for Suleiman. When Crane informed the GRE that Rais and his gang were hoarding Antizin for himself, the GRE cut off further Antizin drops in order to to provoke a confrontation between Rais and Crane. Crane was able to obtain a small amount of Antizin by performing tasks for Rais's second-in-command Tahir, shaking down other survivor communities in the slums for supplies and repairing a radio tower. Crane's success allowed him to identify Rais as Suleiman without blowing his cover, but it put the Tower residents in dire straits. Desperate for Antizin, Crane and Tower resident Jade Aldemir raided a supply depot belonging to Rais. Though they found no Antizin, they obtained explosives.

Tower survivor Dr. Zere asked Crane to obtain samples of a special kind of infected, created when Zere seeded the city with food treated with modified DNA. While Crane recovered the samples, which Zere found promising, Jade's brother Rahim attempted to destroy a nest of Volatiles with the captured explosives. He died in the attempt, although Crane completed the mission on his behalf. Although Crane had offered to transport Zere's research to the better-equipped Dr. Camden on the other side of the city, Jade took the task upon herself to get away from Crane, whom she blamed for her brother's death. Shortly after Jade departed, Zere was kidnapped by Rais's men. Crane pursued them, but was captured himself. He was forced to fight numerous infected in a pit for Rais's amusement, but he managed to injure Rais and escape the pit. He found Zere dying from an injury inflicted by Rais, and was unable to save him.

Crane attempted to follow Jade to Old Town by traveling through the sewers. He was offered passage by a survivor group calling themselves the Saviors, ostensibly in gratitude for injuring Rais; in reality, Rais had coerced the Saviors into helping him to set an ambush for Crane. Crane survived the ambush and continued to look for Jade. At this time, survivors in Old Town became aware that the GRE had instigated a cover-up, telling the outside world that there were no survivors left in Harran. This cover-up would allow the Ministry of Defense to destroy Harran to contain the outbreak. Crane attempted to signal the outside world by igniting certain apartment units in a high-rise building, creating a visible pattern that could only be the result of conscious action, but the high-rise was almost immediately destroyed by fighter jets. Crane then re-activated a radio mast and made a broadcast from the top, telling the entire world about the survivors in Harran.

Crane learned of Jade's whereabouts from other survivors and went to meet her, but found that she had been kidnapped by Rais's men. Crane attempted to rescue her from Rais's stronghold in an Old Town museum, but Jade had been bitten and Crane was forced to terminate her. Immediately afterward, he was confronted by Tahir; Crane killed Tahir and recovered from his body the tissue samples that Jade had been carrying to Dr. Camden. However, Rais still had the rest of Zere's research.

Crane delivered the tissue samples to Camden, who analyzed the samples and found the results extremely promising, but when Crane attempted to relay this information to the GRE, he was instead answered by Rais. Rais demanded a final showdown at the top of his tower in the Slums, and told Crane that he had contacted the GRE himself to negotiate for extraction, using Zere's research as a bargaining chip. Crane ascended the tower and killed Rais, but refused to hand over the data to the GRE, knowing that as long as the data was in Harran, the Ministry of Defense could not destroy the city.

The data was subsequently turned over to Dr. Camden, who continued work on a cure.

Events of Dying Light: The Following

Dr. Camden developing a permanent cure more difficult than he had anticipated. Antizin supplies within the city ran out before he made any progress. When the survivors in the Tower received word of a community in the farmlands outside the city proper who appeared resistant to infection, Kyle Crane was sent to investigate. Crane reached the farmlands and encountered the Children of the Sun, an insular group that distrusted outsiders. The Children of the Sun were adherents of an old, suppressed religion that had existed in the region for centuries. Their influence in the rural areas surrounding Harran increased dramatically following the outbreak, due to the apparent ability of their priest class, the Faceless, to go among the infected unharmed. They held faith in an individual known as the Mother, who they believed would awaken the God of the Sun to end the outbreak.

Crane ingratiated himself to the Children of the Sun as he had done with the inhabitants of the Tower, earning their trust by performing essential but highly dangerous tasks. He eventually earned the trust of the Faceless themselves, who revealed that their apparent immunity to the infection was due to a chemical that had been stockpiled by the military. The Faceless revealed this information to Crane so that he could track down the location of a missing convoy containing the last supplies of the substance.

Crane learned that the convoy had been ambushed by the remainders of Rais's gang, who sought to control the supply of this precious material and to usurp the power of the Mother over the community. Crane successfully recovered the last vials of the substance and succeeded in reaching the Mother before the bandits could find her. The Mother revealed to Crane that, while the substance prevented people from becoming zombies, exposure would eventually convert people to something worse - a form of Volatile that retained its human mind when exposed to light, but became a vicious, mindless monster in the darkness. The Mother, who had taken a massive dose of the substance, became such a creature instantly, although the trappings of religion allowed her to hide this from her followers.

The Mother advised Crane that, since the cure he sought was no cure at all, the only way to stop the plague would be to destroy Harran entirely.

The End of Harran

The Following has two possible endings. In one ending, Kyle Crane escapes the Harran quarantine but succumbs to the effects of the Mother's chemical. Harran is thus spared immediate destruction but its fate remains unclear.

In the other ending, Kyle Crane successfully triggers a nuclear detonation, which was supposed to destroy the surrounding countryside and all of Harran.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human

It is revealed the containment of the Harran virus was successful and a vaccine was successfully made. Though Harran was still left to rot and became a fading event to most people. However even though GRE promised to close their labs down, they secretly began to experiment and study the virus for military purpose. Eventually a new variant of the Harran virus escapes the lab, and spreads across the entire world, bringing the Fall, the destruction of civilization.

Known locations

These are areas that you can explore throughout the game of Dying Light and DLCs. Many of these areas listed contain story or side quest objectives.

Unknown Locations

Unknown locations are destinations in which you as the player will never explore but can see on the horizon.

  • Central Business District, to the northwest of the Slums (Seen mostly from the Slums themselves)
  • Mountain surrounds (seen from both the Slums and Old Town)
  • Large Overpass, to the north-northwest of the Slums (seen from the Slums, mostly near the Slabs)
  • Second Slums Portion, to the south of the accessible Slums Portion (seen mostly from the Slums themselves)
  • Third Slums Portion, to the northwest of the Old Town (seen mostly from the Slums)
  • 50+ Apartments buildings, between the Old Town and the Slums (seen mostly from the Slums)
  • Second Central Business District, beyond the river to the east of the Infamy Bridge(seen mostly from the Old Town)

Gallery

Pre-Release Screenshots

Screenshots

Game intro

References

Trivia

  • There is a real-world town called Harran in Turkey's Şanlıurfa Province close to the border with Syria. Given that the real Harran maintains its ancient Mesopotamian architecture and has a population of only a few thousand, it cannot be the Harran in Dying Light.
  • It is more likely that Harran is based on Istanbul, Turkey's largest city and former capital. There are signboards along the highway in the Slums and along some of the roads in Old Town pointing to other districts in Harran, and they have names that generally reflect those of Istanbul's.
    • "Kharsaura" is based on Kartal located on the Anatolian or Asian side.
    • "Chaldekoy" is a misspelling of "Chalcedon", the Byzantine-era name of Kadıköy, also on the Asian side.
    • "Ancyrra" is the Latin and Greek spelling of Ankara, the modern capital city of Turkey.
    • "Siyrran" is likely a corruption of Sarıyer located on East Thrace or the European side.
  • There are several Polish flags that can be seen throughout Old Town, a nod on Techland being a Polish game developer.
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