First Ring

This ring contains most of the elite and wealthy patrons of the city. You can walk around without the worry of being accosted or smelling the public latrines. Although the streets are not paved with gold, they do have many magicks applied to them that keep them from smelling or collecting unwanted litter. There is a strong presence from the City Watch.

### Gandrahimm Proper:

On Slatebrook Lane, in a noble ward of narrow alleys and grand manors. Its neighbors include a magical fountain and a large public garden.

Often referred to as The Crescent due to its shape, Gandrahimm Proper is the governmental seat of the city. It contains the seats of many of the most influential institutions in the city, which includes The Watch, The Lilac Order, and the Fold of the Seven.

The Proper is characterized by its fine craftsmanship and awe inspiring scale. No expense is spared in its construction or expansion, but often no heed is paid to utility. Due to its strict permits and rules, street vendors are nonexistent and the few shops within its walls are of the highest quality.

The clamor and stench of the surrounding districts cannot be smelt nor heard within the Gandrahimmian Proper. Instead, the faint smell of incense and sound of hymns of the Fold of the Seven permeate the streets.

A combination of incompetency, corruption, and disagreement keep the Proper from addressing any of the lower city's problems effectively.

### The Golden Square

Part of the city in which most of the houses of lower nobility and rich merchants are. The square is filled with shops selling luxurious goods, grand villas of the rich and in the center of it is the monument to the city's emperor. The square is also known as a place to find forbidden texts, cursed items, and a place from which the assassin guilds operate. The biggest building is the main building of the Trading guilds, known as the Ruby Palace. Underneath it, however, the slavers keep their illegal trade, selling slaves to the richest people in the city, or organizing gladiatorial fights in the underground pits for the amusement of the rich.

#### Ruby Palace

The center for the wealthiest trading guilds in Gandrahimm, it attracts the best and only the best from all of the world. From the Mazeworks in Kanato you will find warforged of all races to fulfill your every whim, from the magickal transports of Razikai, to the magickal power units from Volconia, you will find only the best here.

Beneath the Ruby Palace you will find the Blood Pits where the Mad Blooded run underground gladiatorial fights, the kind you won’t find in the Droma. There is also a rich person willing to bet on these fights so there is little chance of them running out of business.

You will often see the Green Team’s champion “Ghost Blade” competing here. The Ghost Blade is a massive being, though his race is somewhat of a mystery. He's just taller than your average ogre, but more resembles a giant in stature and build. However his skin is pale as snow and his features show no obvious inclination towards any specific race. Regardless, he is a brutal fighter and wields a broadsword that's twice as tall as a man. His name comes not from his pale skin, but from the fact that he swings so hard and so fast that the whistling of his blade sounds like the screams of the damned.

### The Gilded Avenue

A street reserved for the ultra-rich and ultra-influential. The houses are made of valuable metals with stained glass windows at every opportunity. The residents live to such excess it makes The Great Gatsby look tame. Parties occur every night and by the time they end the streets are piled high with half eaten food and streams of champagne. The common folk regularly try to gain entry to eat the wasted food but are always held back by the hired muscle that the residents employ. Due to its prestigious citizens many shady political deals take place inside the cold metal houses in rooms with no windows. This avenue effectively runs the whole city and doesn't give any thought to the welfare of the normal citizens.

### Hillside Neighborhood

Hillside is a walled district within Gandrahimm proper, built upon a hill which is rumored to be an ancient barrow—mound. It is an upper-middle-class district of the city. The roads are smooth and cobbled and well-maintained, but the houses and shops here are closely set, leaving little distance between an inhabitant and their neighbors. Think row-houses and small plots. The inhabitants of the district are largely merchants and aspiring politicians. As such, it appears clean and well organized, the streets are clean and the constabulary is present. Yet, behind closed doors, the area is well-known to be a hive of corruption. Smoky back-rooms and shady deals are commonplace here, and those who are not able to pay-to-play are encouraged to seek their comfort elsewhere. The homes in Hillside are generally well-appointed and clean, as observed by the general populace, but to those-in-the-know, every family here has a secret or two, and if found out, they’ll play ball to keep those secrets from being made public.

### Heart of the Ever-Young:

An orphanage, hospital, school of healers, and refugee center. None of the buildings were constructed for the purpose they're now used, slowly bought by the Church of Nignadora over decades with donations from adoptive parents and those who are cared for at the hospital.

This is a great place to get pickpocketed by orphans!

### The Mass Morass

The colloquial term for the district that houses most of Gandrahimm's temples. Most masses are held at the same time leading to heavy foot traffic each evening. Priests, proselytizers, and preachers each stand out front of their respective houses of worship competing to see who can draw in more converts, leading the Morass to be extremely loud and busy during peak worship hours.

The Mass Morass lives up to its name during each solstice when extravagant festivals are celebrated by each priesthood or sect as they vie to make the most grandiose demonstration to their patron god/goddess.

### The Circle of Salt Stones

Dredged from the coastal waters during the building of the City Docks are the Salt Stones. These heavy white monoliths were dragged to the westernmost edge of the city and erected in a rough standing circle. Eventually, a low wall was erected between each stone, segregating the district more completely. Seventy-seven stones, ranging from the size of a dog to three times the size of a tall, broad-shouldered laborer, stand silent sentinel over one of the wealthier districts of Gandrahimm, named for the Stones which form the boundary.

The air inside the Salt Stone Circle always blows fresh, and while large parts of the city might be steeped in sewerage, or mired in the stink of humanity and all its grotesque affluence, the Salt Stone Circle is a delicate sea breeze. The wind whistles through holes carved by artisan stonemasons and the district is a fluting, aromatic celebration of Gandrahimm's upper crust.

Beggars or those deemed unworthy seeking to enter the Circle of Salt Stones are forcibly removed, often violently, by guards desperate to maintain their cushy posts in one of the nicer areas of the city. Any bad smell which makes its way into the Circle is quickly found and abruptly ended with a cruel blade and a dusting of sage or potpourri. It is said that the guards at the gates can tell your net worth from a glance and a good sniff, and only the cleanest and wealthiest of visitors are permitted into the sweet-scented sanctuary. Black Market Perfumers offer alchemical scents which they claim can fool the guards, with limited success.

### Shimmershine Barbican at the Cemetery of St. Magda:

House Shimmershine built the wall around the old city of Gandrahimm, and they never want you to forget it. As you walk through this towering gate onto the city's ancient cobblestones, the family's name is inscribed in Gnimic runes above.

The first thing you see when you pass through the gate is the small cemetery with a dozen rows of graves, mostly of smallfolk. It is reserved for those who died defending the city under siege from wild tribes and beasts.

### House Shimmershine

A clan of gnomes live in a small palace in the upper class district of downtown. Regarded as great inventors, Doctors, and Accountants, the family is known for financing many public works projects around town. These are an attempt to cover up the fact that they are gnome supremacists and secretly want to make sure gnomes are always in control. They make up a shadow government and anything that happens within the city is not only known by them, but sometimes caused.

### Imperial College of the Arcane Arts:

The Imperial College is endowed by the monarchy and is famous as a locus of merit and nobility. The campus is a collection of older stone buildings around a lawn known as Shimmershine Quadrangle. Students must reside inside campus walls, either letting a small private cell in a dormitory or, for well-connected students, a bed in one of the hereditary manor-houses. Courses are taught in the lingua arcana, Draconic, students may be assigned custodial chores as punishment if caught speaking the Common tongue on campus.

On campus, students are required to wear academic dress denoting their level of academic attainment (brown for bachelors, blue for masters, black for doctors) and hats denoting their social station (mortar-boards for commoners, hoods for licensed arcanists, and turbans for titled nobility of any nation).