Red Light District

Like many developed nations, Neveah has recently moved to officially decriminalise sex work in all forms, although to be honest, the legislation was more of a formality than anything else, as nobody has actually given a shit for quite some time. Decriminalisation doesn’t mean exemption from standard labour law, however, and there are still restrictions as to where sex-based businesses can operate, and while independent escorts in their own homes can do as they damn well please and nobody will care, or, let’s be honest, realise, unless they frequent said escorts themselves, you still can’t open a brothel down the road from a junior school. To this end, the red light district was formed.

Neveah’s red light district is located in the district of Cape Unicorn, a coastal region to the North West of the island, and is a winding, looping, spiralling tangle of streets heavily lined with red paper lanterns - isn’t that a little on the nose? You might be wondering, and the answer is yes - and connected on its upper levels by a series of precarious-looking but remarkably long-lasting bridges connecting the tall, red brick buildings together in ways only those that work there can fully get their heads around.

Lining those streets, one can find all manner of strip clubs and brothels, dungeons and peep shows and sex shops, catering to all genders and sexualities and preferences, from erotic sci-fi burlesque dancers dressed like a 14 year old’s fantasy of a robot to live shows catering to balloon fetishists to places for those who simply want a good, old fashioned roll in the hay, or indeed any number of other available flat surfaces. It’s sensory overload distilled into an art form, a cacophony of colour and sound and music and flesh, as well as having quite a number of perfectly reputable cafes and shops, some of which even have staff that dress with all the standard items of clothing, because at the end of the day, even a goblin dominatrix needs somewhere to do laundry, and from which to buy their eggs and bread and all the rest of it.

Many halflings and changelings and exiled fae find themselves working in the red light district, in some fashion. Those running the establishments tend to be more sympathetic towards individuals who struggle to verify their own existence; much of the work is cash in hand; and there is no shortage of people, both tourist and local, who flock to Neveah’s streets looking for the chance to say that they banged a satyr, an angel, or a nymph; it is, to one extent or another, a fascinating novelty, and a matter of bragging rights, in a fashion. Plus, well, horns and tentacles and alien genitalia have some interesting applications, to a certain kind of mind.

Neveah’s sex industry is largely unionised and enjoys a certain degree of wide-spread acceptance; there are still, of course, those who would rather not see it, for one reason or another, but it keeps mostly to it’s own spaces, and protects its own people, and has proven itself to be much less controversial than similar districts in other parts of the world, perhaps partially through sheer strangeness, going about it’s business with a kind of unapologetic ridiculousness that the rest of the world can really only shrug at, and leave to it’s own devices.