Yes. Dwarves really do most of their "not getting along" with Frost and Fire Giants. But no love is lost between them and other Giants either. Turning a Giant's palace into a Dwarven art studio is very much like erecting a giant flaming middle finger on Titan Town's front lawn. In any case, more neighborhoods:Verbyast wrote:...Don't Giants and Dwarves have some general animosity to the point of getting racial bonuses against each other in combat? In other words, isn't this the biggest "fuck you" ever from Finality's Dwarven population?
"The comforts of Nessus."
New Phlegethon is the brainchild of the Pit Fiend Beleth, who has invested considerable time and resources into making an area in Precinct 2 be more Baatorian in nature. The project has succeeded in getting many fiends to move there and has made the area a major tourist attraction. Archways 11 meters in height grace several major street entrances and they are adorned with the bronzed skulls of a thousand creatures from a hundred worlds. Geysers shoot sulfurous steam from the ground and it is channeled into fountains that show cavorting fiends in numerous poses. The architecture is mostly faced with acid resistant and fireproof black granite, and covered with spikes and points and hooks. The architecture is built to accommodate large creatures, but it is usual for doors to be made with “ape doors” and “imp doors” cut into them that open separately for smaller creatures to get in and out. Many of the residents of New Phlegethon are Fire Giants and fiends and the overall scale of the place is geared to that size of person. But nearly half the population are Imps and the like, and amenities for tiny creatures are also to be had.
The High Court: The largest open square in the Precinct is Dictum Square, and it is lined with shops, scribes, and money changers. At one end sits the High Court of Finality, which is a massive black stone building covered in metal hooks and graced by an eternal flame in a brazier held over the immense iron front doors that are never closed. Running the length of the square (which as many people have pointed out: is actually a rhombus) are seven statues celebrating Baatorian virtues: Integrity, Courage, Industry, Patience, Acuity, Loyalty, and finally Justice which stands before the steps into the Court. Technically, the fiends do not control the High Court, which interprets the laws passed by the Council and serves to appeal cases that have been heard in lower courts throughout the city.
"We have radically different ideas of what to do with the Z-axis."
Precinct 18 is crossed by a rather deep ravine. Rather than build around this ravine, the residents have extended the city right down the sides, creating a series of cliff face dwellings connected by an ad hoc network of stairs, ladders, and steep trails. Some of the dwellings are tunneled considerable distance into the rock, while others are more like sconces made of clay. There are several elevator services, which will take you up or down the Pit for a copper coin, but it isn't necessarily obvious how to get from whatever level the elevator takes you to where you actually want to go if the X-axis differs. It is dark in the Pit, and sunlight filters to the bottom for just a few minutes a day (and doesn't come at all during the winter). Many light-averse creatures live in the Pit. It is a popular residence for Drow and Myconids. Few large creatures make their way into the Pit, the paths up and down were never intended for anything larger than a Bugbear.
The Rookery: There is a section of habitats that isn't really connected to the rest of the city. No stairs or ladders connect The Rookery to other dwellings or the surface. The creatures that live there are gifted with the power of flight, and do not bother with such trivialities. The residents are Harpies, Gargoyles, and Desmodu, and they are so segregated from the rest of the Pit that despite their literal proximity they are in many ways a neighborhood to themselves.
The Farm: The bottom of the ravine has a river running through it, and the damp stone around that is given over to a Myconid agriculture project. They make mushrooms of various kinds. Some get winched up the elevators to be traded for currency (and ultimately things that can be purchased with currency), but other fungus is grown for the Myconids to consume themselves and still others are just stored in cavern warehouses for some unknown Myconid reason.
"Water is life. Life is pain."
Technically the River Acheron flows all the way across the city, so lots of places are waterfront. But when people say “The Waterfront” they are almost invariably referring to a specific part of Little Nishrek that has several docks, a number of warehouses, and the Aqueduct. Orcs and Ogres make up most of the dock workers here, and it is the first landing point for many Orcish immigrants who leave the boats from Nishrek on a regular basis. Living conditions in residences around The Waterfront are fairly poor – most people live in hastily converted warehouse space that was never designed for inhabitation. Noise from the moving of heavy objects continues night and day and it is sometimes loud enough to cover the sounds of shouts and breaking wood from all the crime. Sometimes a thick gray fog rises off the river and it makes exposed skin itch. Many people commute to work at The Waterfront from elsewhere in Little Nishrek, and those who actually live there are generally trying to find a way out.
The Aqueduct: The water of the River Acheron is agonizing to the touch, which is how it gets its name as the “River of Pain”. The Aqueduct is a plant that diverts some of the water from the river and then removes that property from the river so that it can be used for drinking and washing. Raised stone canals carry that water throughout the city, and it is also used to fill barrels and urns that are used privately.
"How we get from here to there."
Portal Pentagon is the name of a specific five sided city square in Precinct 5 that has a lot of Portals in it. It's also the name of the neighborhood extending for several blocks in every direction from it, and there are also a lot of portals in the streets and buildings there. Almost no one actually lives in Portal Pentagon, the land values are simply too high and the quality of life too low to allow residential development to exist. What beds there are consist almost exclusively of hotels that are rented by the hour for off world merchants to catch a bit of a shuteye or meal as they count down the hours before they can again travel through a portal to reach their next destination. Gateways in Portal Pentagon are not free, but they are not particularly expensive. Customs officers from the Inspector General's office apply tariffs in both directions, but they are not exorbitant. Finality's coffers are filled because of volume, and the Inspector wouldn't dare strangle the golden goose. Warehouses and markets take up most of the actual land area, and many offworld merchants are able to unload their cargo and fill up on goods they consider exotic and valuable to leave again without ever leaving the neighborhood.
The Dreamgate: The majority of the gates in Portal Pentagon go to worlds that are either in or near the Acheron Cluster or the Core Worlds. A scattered few go to other transit nexuses, but the one which goes the farthest is the Dreamgate. Built of solid but ancient and worn megaliths, the Dreamgate takes a traveler to the far end of the Bleak Eternity of Limbo. The other end is a barren floating rock in the Dreamlands, but it's not far (relatively speaking) from Tu'narath. Those caravans headed to places far from the Core Worlds in a voidwise direction often find that their shortest travel distance is to take the Dreamgate and then backtrack through shorter gatejumps.