The city of Metro Reef-- one of Roslyn's most famous cities and the most powerful member of the Metro Union of City States, Metro Reef is built on an archipelago of five islands that are nestled between the Kill Van Bay and the Jamaica Sound. The city state gets its name from the massive network of coral that once grew along the shoreline of all five islands.

Before Conscious History, the island chain was known as the Leap, both for its great distance across the Kill Van Bay, as well as the wild Laelaps that populated the region at the time. The islands were relatively underpopulated save for a Loafer tribe led by the infamous Crater King, Jeremiah Swamp Shoe, as well as a settlement of Wild Nation nomads. Records indicate that these two groups clashed often, as was typical of many factions across the nation during the period.

Rishi legends claim that the nomadic tribe was led by a Pluton incarnate, who in most tellings of the tale goes by the name of Red Dambora. Many early Rishi historians claim that Red Dambora came out of the mountains to lead an expedition to the site of what had been one of Roslyn's greatest cities before Over-Soul's departure. Other scholars dispute this theory, since such evidence for such an ancient city has never been discovered in Metro Reef--proponents of the expedition argument point out, however, that any relics of Roslyn's golden age were no doubt destroyed during the first war with the Echomar.

In 46 CE, during the Great Expansion, a project team of First Wave Durationists led by Julius the Reliant were sent to the Leap to aid in the construction of cities that could absorb the vast amounts of pilgrims then admitted into Roslyn at that time. Julius' team discovered that the coral reef accenting the coast could be fused with Durationist ore, the primary driver of the Great Expansion's infrastructure. The results were dramatic. Durationists skilled in the Icon of Matter could then grow the coral into radical structures, including vast networks of roadways and massive skyscrapers. Within decades, the desolate coastal islands were transformed into a thriving metropolis that hosted millions of First Wave Pilgrims. While many of the city's original architecture was replaced following the Bellatrist's metabuild revolution in the middle seasons, lineaments of the coral superstructure still exist throughout the city, most famously within the skyscrapers of Barrier Village within the central borough of Metro Reef City. The coral still embedded within the buildings' facade are responsible for their renowned rainbow glow.

Most of the original, undisturbed reef has died off, leaving ossified skeletal mounds on many beaches throughout the five islands, most prominently on the outermost island of Bethpage. On Bethpage, much of the reef had disintegrated entirely--but, possibly due to the affects of the Durationist ore, the coral has left swaths of obsidian sand in its wake, most notably along the beaches in the southern coastal town of Black Beach.

Many Peoples' Front activists and scholars throughout the years have claimed that Durationist experimentation was the cause of the reef's extinction, which contemporary Builder companies largely deny. Interestingly, it is thought that a deep, infinitely complex superstructure of coral still subsists beneath the water and ground of the Metro Reef, which would explain why the traces of coral that still exist within the Metro Reef's infrastructure still live on. The faint yet living presence of this ore is thought to be one reason why the dismantling of Metro Reef's storm beacons was never attempted. In 739, the senior Steward of the Durationist League of Roslyn, emir Bion, claimed that dismantling the old defense system would have been impossible, because his own inspections of the sites revealed that the beacons were seemingly 'bound' to the underlying fabric of the city itself.

The city state is bordered by two counties of continental Roslyn: Greater Bedlam to the west and south, and the Revere to the north. Despite its small size, it is the second-most populated city within Roslyn's provincial borders, second only to Londinium, and just ahead of Chicago Town. The dominant machifare in Metro Reef is the NERVE Company, whose headquarters are located on Goethal Smalls, a small island just off the borough of Goethal. Controversy ensued in 731 CE when reports emerged that the NERVE Company had been testing airborne brain-fix modifiers within communities in Goethal Heights and Goethal Flats. Multiple citizens of the borough complained of headaches, nausea, and even seizures. Since then the Blood Works Society has gradually built up a stronger presence in the city, with multiple chem shops and clinics established in all five boroughs--this is also due to the Blood Works Society's home county of the Revere being due north, as well as their current status as Roslyn's dominant machifare.