Has anyone put any thought into the geography of the Spike? Specifically, where the various districts of Downside (Botscrap, Conduit, Downlow, and Sparks) are in relation to each other and the Ring?
(It seems to me that Sparks may be at the "top" of the Spike, nearest the Ring & Eye, but beyond that it seems to be anybody's guess.)
I have. I thought at first they would follow a top to bottom order in the order mentioned, but that doesn't make sense.
At first you might think Downlow would be the lowest, but they said Downlow is the largest and safest of the Spike districts. If you look at the picture of the station, the cone-like spike is thickest at the top. Plus it makes sense that the safest area would be the closest to the Ring and other more civilized area.
So, I put Downlow just below the Ring, at the top of the Spike.
I put Sparks next because it seemed likely from the description to be up high, as you seemed to indicate.
And then I put Botscrap at the very bottom because it seems so refuse-like, and I put Conduit between (above Botscrap but below Sparks). After all, if there are conduits, there have to be reasons for them to exist - they need to go FROM something TO something else.
DOWNLOW
SPARKS
CONDUIT
BOTSCRAP
But I would also keep these areas GENERAL and not necessarily go all the way across. That will leave undefined areas for you to make up random little neighborhoods as yet to be mentioned.