Skalagmag's Quay (Jal) - South bank of the Culn at top of Bristel Avenue, overlooking the Summer's Bridge. CH3p.74 for description. Built in first construction wave as part of Suln Tres docks, totally under-utilised due to lack of shipping on Culn. Former eyesore and home of numerous brothels, spanked up in the 1200's as a sort of flagstoned park. Main building of note workshops for Lepacno & Castt metalsmiths, who make most of the intricate coils and springs for the workshops.
Praetor Square (For) - Southernmost and probably grandest of Forgar's squares. Three fountains and statues of a blacksmith and Tars Tukas
Priac Steps (Yal) A set of incredibly steep, winding steps which fall from the plateau which Cheppings stands on into the River Brail. Derive their fame from an event in 1263 when Casp Mexan, then the Baron of Dorlaf, fell down them one dark night, cracked his head open and drowned. Mexan probably slipped after drinking too much at a ball that night but his death some how became mixed up with the women's freedom struggles of the time and a prominent campaigner, Geshrick Olbac, was tried with his murder. Olbac was eventually acquitted, her trial probably influenced by a hastily-written play defending her, composed by Ellisa Molack.
Site of the Serpent Laboratory (For) Laboratory closed in 1322. Ten years later the authorities finally persuaded the Academy to do whatever they had to do to make the site safe - in the intervening time the building had stood in eastern Forgar, sealed off and rotting, its windows still smashed in from the final riot against it. With the place finally cleansed of any lingering magic, sightseeing ghouls were dismayed in 1334 to see gangs of Council labourers starting to level the building. The site has still yet to be built on; various plans have floated around, but it will probably end up as more housing, if anyone can be persuaded to live there.
Garrath Church (Yal) - Main church on St Ostian Street, perched on the northern crest of Royal Hill. Belter of a church, a vastly tall and highly elaborate cathedral which overshadows the Thoj and dominates the skyline. Construction of it began under the Erish Empire, completed in 1031. Sonorous bells which rattle the bones for miles around.
St Olig's Shrine (Jolton Square, Yaleth) - St. Olig was a local Garran religious woman, said to have lived in the 200's and was persecuted by the so-called "Reign of Bathal" monarchy. The stories says that she was been carted off to her execution when Garrath transformed her into an eagle so that she could fly to freedom. A shrine was built in Jolton Square on the very spot which St Olig changed. Originally a fairly crude statue of an eagle, the Garran church redid the shrine on far more impressive lines in 1028, a black marble statue of a woman stretching out her arms which are turning into wings (and a collection box in her base). Olig is one of a number of Garrans saints said to have changed shape.
The Maidens - An irregular circle of 10 standing stones which lies just west of Yaleth. Local legend claims that the stones are ten young women who were petrified by Garrath; their name isn't especially appropriate as each had merrily lost their virginity as well as offending the god with numerous blasphemies. The women/stones are also said to be somehow still alive; in support of this is the fact that each grows a little larger and more misshapen every year. Counter-claims concerning the effects of, for example, moss and wind erosion are dismissed as trendy modern thinking.
The Smathers Warehouse (Jal) A sizeable warehouse on Cuelon Road notorious for being permanently full of stolen and counterfeit goods. Also never raided, despite standing almost directly opposite a Guards lock-up. File under either 'mysteries of modern life' or 'prime example of gross corruption.'
Neighbourhoods
General character
The Cities are divided into a series of neighbourhoods for political and administrative purposes. Each is formally represented by a praetor and Council assessments of wealth and infrastructure needs are based on the divisions. The deposition of the Guards roughly mirrors the patterns, though they have their own slightly different units. The neighbourhoods also function on a social level. They approximate the urban equivalent of a village, each having its own character, codes of conduct, hierarchies and sense of belonging to a community. There is also a sense that each should possess its own set of functionaries (most particularly blacksmith, Garran church, herbalist, bathhouse and market square) though this doesn't always work out. To a degree each neighbourhood is also homogeneous in terms of income and background, though rarely in religion (with a few exceptions like the Tonelays). The overall sense of community partly comes from the blocked expansion of the Cities in the past hundred years. The relatively static character has placed neighbourhoods more securely, and reduced migration has reduced the fluctuation of their residents. The authorities have also been keen to encourage neighbourhoods as quasi-villages. Divisional boundaries have in some cases been tweaked to make them more homogenous; both the Tonelays and the Kakranfan quarter, for example, should really be far too small to be classified as separate neighbourhoods and Lewis Avenue is probably too large.
Yaleth
The Saints - Classified as the northern end of Royal Hill, together with its northern slopes and some streets around it. Very wealthy, less extravagant houses than in Jalkin but most of them sizeable; home primarily to lawyers, also some merchants and politicians. Named after the ecclesiastical bent of many of the street names.
Brekklinside - Rough and poor, trad. home for migrants, more recently to local poorly paid workers or the unemployed. Once a place of unbelievable squalor, with buildings dating back before the Confederacy (through neglect rather than durability) though improved considerably in the last few decades. Much of the buildings are of the white-tower design constructed after 1255, though several streets in the north are being rebuilt completely on more modern designs. Still enjoys sporadic riots & has a reputation for ingrained lawlessness; its most famous site is the Black Dog tavern which says it all.
Cheppings - Tucked into south of Yaleth, on the western bank of the Brail, in between Pretbells Hill and the Fallows neighbourhood. Cheppings takes its name from the square in its centre, an ancient site of a market. Locals claim that Yaleth was first started by farmers meeting to trade at the Cheppings site thirteen hundred years ago, though there are half a dozen places in Yaleth claiming to be the cradle of the city. Cheppings (both the market and the neighbourhood) were once a prime site but the city has gradually migrated and by-passed it, leaving it a quiet, slightly forlorn place. The marketplace has dwindled from being a meeting place of caravans to the host of vegetable and meat stalls where locals buy their staples. The area has an ancient feel to it, having never been destroyed and so never comprehensively rebuilt, but is too shabby to warrant many sightseers. Overall it is lower middle-class, a home of salaried clerks and petty tradesmen. Chief thoroughfare is Horliss Road, a broad straight street running south-north, gradually climbing as it does with a series of winding alleys leading eastwards off it down to the river, a legacy from the times the area had some docks worthy of their name. The Cheppings Square is built on a slightly elevated plateau - from it the Priac Steps lead down to the Brail.
Forgar
Praetor Square Forgar's most exclusive district, stretching eastwards from the eponymous square by the south gate. Chiefly home to merchants and workshop owners whose grand but anonymous and blank-facaded houses line the sides of Chorley Avenue. The houses rapidly become meaner and smaller as the workshops themselves grow closer.
Astor Square One of the worst neighbourhoods in the Cities; home of migrants and the workshops' worst-paid employees. Home of the notorious Branthian Court, a regular battleground for street gangs, and one semi-sanctioned by the Guards. Also houses one of the Ellan hostels for the insane, though few residents are aware of this fact. Balbo Road on its southern end forms a small and inexplicable pocket of wealth.
Crofter's Way Also quite poor but far more settled and orderly than its neighbour Astor Square. Primarily a home for small craftsmen and artificers.
Central Forgar The area between Ainder Square and Maple Square. Primarily a middle-income district, though many expensive houses lie on Brulos View and property prices make a sudden, baffling plunge across Maple Square itself.
Alsanti Lies in eastern Forgar and completed in 1196; named after the burgher who funded much of the construction.
Jalkin
The Tonelays A small, cramped enclave in central Jalkin, the Tonelays was originally designed to be the centre of the exclusive district. As the city grew more crowded and smelly, however, the rich fled for the south-west quarter, the Tonelays houses became partitioned up and multiplied to become low-rent homes. A little while later the first Torgun worshippers moved in, and have since entirely colonised the district. The insular, self-supporting Torguns have made the Tonelays almost a no-go area for outsiders, and ensured that all buildings retain a grim, unwelcoming look, built of dark stone and containing few frills. Income is generally low; however the Tonelays is peaceful and orderly, united and self-policed by its strong religion. Two Torgun chapels stand at either end of the enclave
Jakks Lane Typical poor district; mildly disorderly and rambunctious but generally safe and fairly cohesive. Almost entirely demolished in the Great Collapse, most of its buildings are still the three-story white towers which were built in the years immediately after. Home of both the greatest forger and the greatest code-breaker in the Cities.
Lewis Avenue The most fashionable address in the most fashionable of the Cities. The expansive neighbourhood which sprawls across the north-west quarter which is a mini-city in its own right; possessing its own amenities, city gate, postal service and (some would say) laws. Lewis Avenue is the grandest address of all, holding the townhouses of the nation's richest aristocrats, plus a few residences of the wealthier merchants and the Erish Embassy. All houses are the heights of gaudy ostentatious tastes, with Lord Fortraine's perhaps capping the lot.
Westgate A mixed bag; varied between the excessively busy and rather tawdry Leighman Way and aspirational middle class addresses like Caedon Road and Duke Street.
Wodelan Square Solidly middle-class and a favoured address for Jalkin Councillors. Chiefly noted for the Pastoral Theatre; and for its residents continually building the most impressive and imaginative bonfires every Garreday.
The Swans Lying in southern Jalkin, on land which was part flood meadow and part reclaimed from the Brulos itself. Still damp, though its tendency to flood has been lessened since the river was dammed in 1243. Recently almost entirely rebuilt on the currently fashionable lines for civic architecture; apartment blocks in a stepped pyramid style clustered around small courtyards.
Dockside The generic name given for the east-Brulos region between Artists Quarter and Southmarket; though administratively divided into two smaller blocks. Sparsely populated, it is partly a dumping ground for odds and ends no-one wanted elsewhere; the livestock market in Drayers Square, the Brighthaven Prison. Mainly though it holds numerous fortified warehouses, storerooms for both itinerant merchants and Cities' businesses, which stretch from Hawkers Way down to the river.
Southmarket Another crashingly
obvious name; Southmarket is the area occupying what Jalkin used to be a market
settlement to the south of Yaleth.
Lying on the eastern bank of the Greater Brulos in the south end of
Jalkin, Southmarket is a tight, cramped area of narrow streets and alleys, with
Peiran Square, site of a Ellan Temple, at its heart. A crumbling and rather filthy neighbourhood, it is amongst the
poorest in Jalkin and the most crime-infested.
Southmarket was left fairly untouched as Jalkin shot up around it and
has kept its traditional, semi-rustic feel.
The houses often have wooden beams in their front and are one or two
stories rather than the semi-tower structures elsewhere; though their general
neglect means they are just as prone to collapse. Jalkin's second and third oldest buildings in Southmarket - the
Drivers Inn on Greenvale Road and the semi-derelict Mansion House.