A sprawling metropolis which dominates what is now known as the Cascade Valley region, Cascade City is an independent corporate city-state located on the island of Japan which is ruled over by the powerful and influential Ascension Group who utilise it as their primary base of operations and the heart of their bleeding edge technological research.
For reasons unknown to the the public at large, an abnormally high number of people within Cascade awaken to an awareness of TRACE magick and its associated phenomena. While this does grant many people great power and has lead to the creation of a flourishing underground business of wetworkers known as 'Ghostworkers', it has also caused a massive increase in the incident of TRACE-related dangers too - TRACE-empowered criminals and bandits, localized magical calamities, and of course the proliferation of malicious TRACE-borne beings known as ALTERs.
The Ascension Group is of course well aware of this fact and has taken advantage of it, utilizing TRACE in many of its technologies such as high-grade Magitek cyberware or in the cores which power their android servitors. Whether the Ascension Group purposely built the city atop some manner of supernatural hotspot to encourage this development is a matter of much debate and conspiracy, however they go to great lengths to conceal the knowledge of this from the general public, non-sensitives, and other world governments. Magical calamities are carefully spun and reported as more mundane happenings such as sudden inclement weather, gas leaks, or outbreaks of gang violence, while scenes of TRACE-related violence are carefully cleaned up by ghostworkers employed on freelance contracts.