Travelers_Guide_to_New_Dunhaven

Game and Setting Design
Rodney Thompson

Scenario Design
Saladin Ahmed, Daniel Helmick, Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik,

Susan Morris, John Rogers, Rodney Thompson

Art
Joy Ang (characters), Jared Blando (backgrounds & blueprints),
Dan Gelon (icons & logos), Jordan Grimmer (environments),

David Lojaya (cover), Phillip Lienau (cartography),
Evgeny Maloshenkov (environments), Julianna Michek (characters),

Sean Murray (buildings), Justin Oaksford (equipment),
Grzegorz Pedrycz (environments), Tom Rhodes (characters),

Sarah Robinson (logo), Waclaw Wysocki (environments)

Development Editing
Daniel Helmick, Caitlin Hodgins Michele Carter

Graphic Design Project Babies

Daniel Solis Emmett Thompson, Landon Stiksma

Playtesting

Jose Adams, Eric Benson, Jacob Benton, Erik Scott de Bie, Logan Bonner, Michele Carter,
Luke Crane, Spencer Crittendon, Lane Daughtry, Raylene Deck, Mike Fehlauer,

Elyssa Grant, Derek Guder, Joseph Hauck, Daniel Helmick, Caitlin Hodgins, Jerry
Holkins, Mike Krahulik, Tom Lommel, Ryan Macklin, Chris Opdahl, Jessica Pester,
Melissa Pester, Michael Robles, Tifa Robles, Patrick Rothfuss, Mike Selinker, Bill Slavicsek,
Liz Smith, Elisa Teague, Max Temkin, Alexander Theoharis, Tara Theoharis, Brett
Thompson, Carrie Thompson, Tim Treibley, Jared Trulock, Kate Welch, Sam Witwer

Special Thanks

Van Alan, Luke Crane, Derek Guder, Mark Hulmes, Nacime Khemis, Trevor Kidd,
Marie Poole, Matt Sernett, Graham Stark, Jacob Sunday, Alexander Theoharis, Tara Theoharis,

Tammie Thompson, Chris Tulach, Michael Witwer, Rob Wieland, Dom Zook

Dusk City Outlaws, its characters and distinctive likenesses are the property of Scratchpad
Publishing. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of
America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained
herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Scratchpad Publishing.
©2017 Scratchpad Publishing, LLC, PO Box 5925, Kent, WA, 98064, USA.

Table of
Contents

Welcome to New Dunhaven 4 Life in the Dusk City 64

New Dunhaven at a Glance 6 Culture 66

Commoners 8 Food and Drink 68

Commoner Districts 10 Water 70

Commoners’ Homes 14 Dealing with Fire 72

Merchants 16 Lighting the Dark 74

Merchant Districts 18 Sickness and Injury 76

Merchants’ Homes 22 Weddings 78

Nobles 24 Funerals 79

Noble Districts 26 Entertainment 80

Noble Estates 30 Gambling 82

The Docks 32 Tobacco and Narcotics 84

Little Taona 36 Horse Racing 88

The Slums 40 Other Illicit 90

The Canals 44 Entertainment 90

The Royal Palace 48 The Crown and The Law 92

The Tines 50 The Senate 94

Longharbor Island 52 Laws and Punishments 96

The Reserves 56 Trials and Justice 102

The Old City 58 The City Watch 104

The Sunken Mountains 60 Private Security 108

Outside the City 62 Dredgers 110

The Spiders 112

Bounty Hunters 116

Local Jails 118

The Castle 122

2

The Right Kind of People 166

The Black Council 168

The Circle 170

The Family 174

The Forgotten 178

The Gravediggers 182

The Mummers 186

Red Lotus Society 190

The Vespers 194

Wardens of the Night 198

Thief Signs 202

The Cant 204

Getting In and Out 206

Turf 208

Tattoos 210

The Blooded 212

The Wraiths 216

The Hanged 218

Making a Living 124 The Endless Dawn 220

The Markets 126 Arturus Lynch 222

The Trade Consortiums 128 Places of Interest 224
The Diamond Room 226
Banking 130 The Emperor’s Dial 227
Fulton’s Saloon 228
Religion 134 The Judge’s Torch 230
The Regent’s Theater 231
The Clergy 138 Statue of Unity 232
The Tower of War 233
Cathedrals 140

Holidays 142

Superstitions 146

Alchemy and Sorcery 148 The Rest of the World 234
What Can Alchemy Do? 150
Alchemists 154 Elderland 236
How Does Sorcery Work? 156
The Cult of a Thousand Eyes 162 Taona 237
Charlatans 164
The Vladov Empire 238

Afterword 240 3

Welcome to
New Dunhaven

When is a city actually two cities? When it is New Dunhaven, the Dusk
City. The sprawling metropolis might seem like a single ever-growing
urban area, but two cities occupy the space: the city inhabited by the
law-abiding citizens of New Dunhaven, and the shadowy world of the
criminal cartels that exists just under the surface of lawful society.

New Dunhaven’s size and the density of its population sustain
thousands of stories taking place at once. Careers on the rise, tragic falls
from grace, political and religious strife, and fortunes won and lost all
touch the lives of individuals and groups at every moment.

That’s more than enough to occupy the everyday lives of law-abiding
citizens. But beyond the mundane stories, just out of sight and hidden by
a veil of deception and cunning, lies a vast criminal underworld. This city
within the city consists of the Right Kind of People—those who blithely
break the law for power and profit. Seemingly legitimate businesses serve
as facades for cartel operations, and numerous supposedly upstanding
citizens operate as agents of the cartels, living innocent public lives but
secretly engaging in criminal deeds.

The eight cartels that abide by the Arrangement form the backbone
of this secret world’s population. Where the law divides the city into
districts, the cartels divide the city into claimed turf. Where law-abiding
people depend on the Crown to watch over them, the Right Kind of
People turn to the Black Council and its agents. As the lawful look over
their shoulders for criminals, the criminals constantly keep their eyes open
for signs of the Blooded or the City Watch. Almost everything in the
law-abiding world has a reflection in the criminal underworld, with the
cartels at its center.

The City in Four Points

✦✦ The city is massive, both in physical breadth and population. No
other city in the world comes close.

✦✦ The city is a democratic oligarchy, with a protected noble class but
abiding by the rule of law for all.

✦✦ Criminals are everywhere, but most law-abiding citizens remain
unaware of their activities. The cartels hide their shady deeds.

✦✦ Alchemy makes wonders possible and gunpowder makes the streets
more dangerous.

4

What the Lawful See

The first dawn light touches the city’s streets and already people bustle
about, starting to conduct their daily business. On a wide cobblestone
street flanked by squat two-story buildings, shopkeepers open their doors,
raise their awnings to uncover windows, haggle with their neighbors over
freshly baked pastries, exchange raw materials for their trades, and engage
in smiling conversations with regular customers.

A noble’s decorated coach sits idly at the mouth of an alley, its
attendant and driver waiting patiently for their employer to emerge from
the dressmaker’s shop. Already the faint sounds of a fiddle drift out of one
of the public houses, nearly drowned out by the murmurs on the street. A
woman with a pushcart filled with steaming buns and curried fish moves
slowly down the sidewalk, hawking her wares as she occasionally stops to
trade food for coin.

Two dignified members of the City Watch sit on horseback near
another street corner, watching the growing throngs of people. A
wagonload of goods rolls down the cobblestones, carrying stock
unloaded from the canal a block over. Its driver nods to the Watch as the
wagon passes by.

What Criminals See

More compelling than any church bell, daybreak signals that the night’s
skullduggery must come to an end. In the shadowed passageways between
buildings, members of a Forgotten street gang exchange a few last words
before melting away into the city’s back alleys. On the street, a Family
enforcer quietly collects this week’s protection money from a shopkeeper
who wears a nervous, frozen smile.

Disguised in the livery of a noble house, two of the Circle’s bruisers
lounge silently next to a coach, warning other criminals away from the
dressmaker’s shop. Thief Signs carved on the shop’s doorframe indicate
that a Vesper-run poppy den lies within. At the Mummers’ tavern
down the street, the fiddle’s tune directs the Right Kind of People to an
available safe house. A Red Lotus Society lookout disguised as a street
peddler pushes a cart down the street, calling out the all-clear signal.

A wagon carrying contraband smuggled into the city by the Wardens
of the Night passes two mounted City Watch. The driver catches their
attention just as she was bribed to do, allowing a pair of Gravedigger
cleaners to drag the body of an unconscious noble into the waiting coach
while the Watch focus their attention elsewhere.

5

New Dunhaven
at a Glance

Land Area: 300 square miles Population: 3.2 million
Government: Democratic Oligarchy Monarch: Regent Olivia I
Demonyms: Dunhavener/Havener Trade: Seaborne (63%), overland (22%),
river trade (15%)

New Dunhaven is divided into districts that broadly fall into one of six
categories: commoners’ districts, merchant districts, noble districts, the
slums, the docks, and Little Taona. Though the latter two are defined by
contiguous areas of the city, they possess infrastructure and environments
that warrant the distinction.

History

New Dunhaven’s history begins with the founding of an outpost called
Kalat Wadun. The original settlement was established by explorers from
Elderland (the nations across the ocean to the east) who chose a spot near
a river delta that empties into the ocean. The first expedition consisted of
colonists from a dozen different nations, and from the day of its founding
the settlement depended on the cooperation of varying cultures.

Kalat Wadun expanded quickly as more colonists arrived from
Elderland, emboldened by promises of abundant food and resources and a
chance to start a new life. Over time, the original fortress outpost became
merely a large castle at the center of a sprawling town. When the citizens
built walls, the settlement expanded to fill them. After several such
growth spurts, the inhabitants stopped building walls altogether and let
the city flow where it wanted.

As it developed into a city, the settlement took the name of Dunhaven,
though the fortress at its center (which would eventually become the
Royal Palace) retained the name “Kalat Wadun.” For nearly a century
Dunhaven grew and prospered, until a fire ravaged the city over the
course of several days and reduced nearly the entire settlement to ash.

When the inhabitants recovered, they rebuilt the city as New
Dunhaven atop of the ruins of the old. Entire buildings were buried
and bricked over, leaving a warren of subterranean tunnels underneath
the streets. Wide thoroughfares were sealed up and filled with water
redirected from the river, forming an extensive canal network. With
foresight and urban planning, New Dunhaven was reborn and, over time,
grew well beyond its original bounds.
6

7

Commoners

The vast majority of citizens in New Dunhaven are members of the
commoner class. Both a social class as well as a legal classification of
citizen, commoners have the least wealth and individual power and
influence in the city, despite their overwhelming population majority.
Fortunately for the commoners of the city, New Dunhaven’s legal code
offers them protection that provides some measure of egalitarian rights in
the eyes of the Crown. While commoners frequently endure exploitation
and struggle just to get by, they still possess rights and basic freedoms that
ensure they go about their lives with the relative certainty that the Crown
will protect them.

Commoners generate much of the wealth that flows through the
city, though it is channeled through the trade companies owned by the
city’s merchants. Commoners are makers and doers, people that create
and fix and earn their living by the sweat of their brows and the skill of
their hands. Traits frequently attributed to the commoner class include
ambition and aspiration, always tempered by the belief that with a little
luck and lot of hard work and ingenuity, they can rise from their meager
station to become as wealthy as the city’s merchants.

Apprenticeships

Commoners receive a basic education at one of the schoolhouses found
in commoners’ districts. This education covers basic skills such as reading
and arithmetic. Once they reach a certain age (usually the early teenage
years), young commoners become apprentices to someone accomplished
in the trade or craft they wish to learn. This apprenticeship lasts through
the teenage years and ends once the apprentice reaches adulthood, at
which point they might transition to being an employee of their master or
set out to open their own business.

For those not fortunate or skilled enough to receive apprenticeships,
teenagers find employment in numerous small jobs: errand runners,
messengers, link boys and girls, and other similar simple work. Upon
reaching adulthood, unapprenticed commoners either become laborers
or take the Crown’s coin and join the city’s military force. For many
commoners, military service represents the only way to support a family,
since the Royal Navy and the Regent’s Army both pay a salary in addition
to covering a soldier’s food and living expenses.

8

Commoner Names

Commoners surnames are closely tied to a profession frequently practiced by members of the class. That
does not necessarily mean that the person’s family practices that profession, but it’s a good indicator that,
sometime in the past, someone in their family did. Commoners’given names vary widely, though most of
them echo traditional Anglican names.
Commoners’ First Names: Alice, Charles, Christopher, Daniel, David, Dorothy, Emma, Emily, Ethan,
Gerald, Helen, Jacob, Jack, John, Joseph, Lucas, Mary, Michael, Noah, Rachel, Robert, Richard, Samuel,
Sarah, Susan, Thomas, William
Commoners’ Family Names: Butcher, Carpenter, Carver, Chandler, Cobbler, Cook, Cooper, Driver,
Farmer, Fisher, Fletcher, Hawker, Mason, Miller, Ostler, Painter, Potter, Smith, Tailor, Tanner, Thatcher,
Wainwright, Weaver

Guilds

Commoners can challenge wealthier and more powerful merchants
through the guild system. Those who possess skill and experience
with a particular craft and trade band together with others of the same
profession, not only to ensure that they don’t poach each others’ business,
but also because it gives the commoners leverage against powerful
merchants. If a trade company wants to have raw metals smelted and
shaped into bars for easier transport, it’s much more difficult for that
large, wealthy, and powerful trade company to bully an entire guild
of united metalworkers than it is to negotiate unfair deals with lone,
independent blacksmiths. Guilds have the power to deny services, set
agreed-upon prices, and pool resources to pursue legal action as a group,
where individual artisans would find it difficult to do so.

Nearly every trade and craft practiced by the commoners of New
Dunhaven has a associated guild, but not every practitioner of that trade
is a member of the related guild. For a given trade or craft, no more than
half of its practitioners in the city belong to a guild. Trade companies
and wealthy merchants try to discourage (either through propaganda
or threats) guild membership, and they bribe Senators and agents of
the Crown to convince commoners that they have no need for the
bureaucracy and hassle that guild membership entails.

Politically powerful guild leaders straddle the line between commoner
and merchant. To the disappointment of those they represent, some guild
leaders turn out to be as corrupt and selfish as the trade companies they
supposedly protect against.

9

DCoismtmriocntesr

The most numerous of the various types of districts, Districts Include :
the commoners’ districts serve as home to the largest Andalazria County
percentage of the city’s population. Commoners drive Khazraj County
New Dunhaven’s trade, forming the bedrock of the La Draza County
city’s economy. Individual commoners might not have Maldorado County
much more than the essentials to live a comfortable, Sevrilla County
if austere, lifestyle, but collectively they embody the
beating heart of the city. Most commoners’ districts are
named for a famous individual in Dunhaven’s history.

Infrastructure

Buildings in the commoners’ districts appear as squat, one- or two-story
wooden structures crammed in side by side, with narrow alleys (little
more than gutters through which rainwater and detritus flow) running
behind them that provide scant separation from the row of buildings
lining the adjacent street. Often painted or (in younger districts) covered
by a plaster facade, many buildings feature a shop front or a workshop
on the ground floor for artisans. The upper floors serve as homes for the
proprietors of these businesses. Most people here don’t need to commute
to reach their jobs.

Scattered sporadically throughout the district, larger buildings such as
stables, ward houses, and the occasional open lot (where pop-up stalls
form impromptu markets) take up half a city block or more.

Canals do run through the commoners’ districts, though usually only
a single, wide waterway. The inhabitants of these districts can rarely
afford to fund the public works projects required to create offshoots and
tributaries of the main waterways, so reaching the nearest canal might
involve a walk through a dozen or more blocks in the district. The bridges
that cross the canals in the commoners’ districts consist of simple stone or
brick without adornment, wide enough for a single horse-drawn cart to
pass over at a time.

Cobblestones pave the main streets, which are lined at sparse intervals
with wrought-iron lamp posts hung with heavy black iron oil lamps. At
some intersections, a statue, fountain, or other decorative work breaks up
the long stretches of roadway.

10

Denizens

Almost everyone who lives in a commoners’ district spends the vast
majority of their days here. They work in shops that line the streets, live
in apartments above those shops, make purchases as needed from their
neighbors, and take their leisure at the taverns that serve their district.
Most of the denizens of the commoners’ districts have far less interaction
with the city as a whole than residents of other areas.

Servants who work in the homes of wealthy merchants and private
security guards live in the commoners’ districts. They rise before the crack
of dawn to make the long walk or gondola ride to work. These districts
also house the families of sailors, merchant guards, and others whose
occupation takes them out of New Dunhaven on a regular basis.

Businesses

Commoners are the “makers” of the city, and the vast majority of
businesses in these districts consist of individually owned shops out of
which crafters, artisans, and tradesfolk perform their work. On a single
city block in a commoners’ district, blacksmiths, cobblers, carpenters,
potters, glassblowers, coopers, bakers, chandlers, and representatives of
dozens of other trades serve the needs of citizens of all classes. Most
of the clientele in the commoners’ districts consists of its inhabitants
or merchants who buy high-quality items and resell them in their
shops to wealthier clients in the merchant districts. Commoners’
districts are remarkably self-sufficient, save for the need to import raw
materials and food.

Thief Signs: The Neighborhood

Everyone takes pride in where they come from. I once heard someone say,“The common parts of this city
are like country villages, dropped into the middle of the greatest city in existence.”She was a snooty blue
blood, but she wasn’t wrong. These districts feel like small towns, little placid islands in this madhouse of a
city packed with three million people. Everyone knows their neighbors. They’ve got communities. You see
the same people every day. You know their good fortunes and their bad, and the gossip never dies down.
These districts are more than just places to the people who live in them; they’re a part of our identity. I’m
a La Draza girl, and I’ll fight any skulker from Sevrilla who says it even holds a candle to my neighborhood.
That’s just the way it is. Where you’re from becomes who you are when you live your whole life in one place.

—Zara de Luzia, Family enforcer

11

Law Enforcement

The City Watch maintains a relatively light presence in the commoners’
districts. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, the value of any damages or
loss due to crime in a commoners’ district is relatively low. Furthermore,
the inhabitants of the commoners’ districts rarely have the money to
influence Crown employees or encourage them to police the streets of
their district more thoroughly. A Senator elected by a particular district
might use his or her influence to increase the presence of the City Watch
there, but this is unusual and temporary at best. By the same token,
corrupt Senators might lobby to further reduce the City Watch’s presence
in certain districts, after a visit (and a bribe) from the cartel that claims
that district as its home turf.

During the day, the City Watch patrols these districts on horseback
in pairs. Should they need backup, each City Watch member can blow
a whistle to call for reinforcements, summoning another Watch patrol
within a matter of minutes.

The Cartels

The Family and the Circle maintain the biggest presence in the
commoners’ districts, such that the majority of cartel-claimed commoners’
districts fall under the jurisdiction of these two cartels. Most taverns,
public houses, inns, and ale houses in the commoners’ districts are owned
and operated by the Mummers. The Forgotten maintain a presence in
these districts in the form of beggars and independent crooks, though in
the commoners’ districts not claimed as turf by the Family or the Circle,
Forgotten street gangs control those district’s criminal operations.

Blooded Turf

The Blooded consider the southern reaches of the city to be their
turf, much of which is in the commoners’ districts. The iron grip
of the Blooded holds tight to homes and businesses alike in these
neighborhoods. While the Family and the Circle use intimidation and
a light bout of violence to cow the people of a district into submission,
commoners in Blooded turf live in constant fear of their criminal
overlords. The Blooded make no efforts to hide their presence in these
districts, and the reduced presence of the City Watch in these areas means
they run roughshod over the inhabitants. Life for commoners in Blooded
turf consists of anxiety and outright dread, never knowing when they
might become victims of a random crime or a spur of the moment cruelty.

12



Commoners’ Homes

While many commoners live in tenement buildings and apartments,
especially those who lack a skilled trade or craft, a portion of the
commoner populace lives in free-standing homes in commoners’ districts.
These homes closely resemble those in the client villages beyond the city’s
sprawl: wood frames, brightly colored clay tile or (more rarely) thatched
roofs, and shutters instead of glass windows, with stone or brick used only
for the foundation and hearth. Each home is unique, though typically
commoners’ homes are seen as quaint and modest buildings set among
the towering edifices of the metropolis.

Most commoners’ homes are one or two stories tall; for those who
ply their trade from their home (as do most craftspeople), a two-story
building is a must, with living quarters on the upper floor and a shop
on the lower floor. Typically, such homes have a front entrance where
customers walk in directly off the street and a back entrance for family
members that leads directly to a stairwell heading up to the second floor.
Usually, a sturdy door separates the shop area from back rooms which also
give access to the stairs leading upward.

Commoners’ homes are simply furnished, with a living area that
consists of a single open space (containing a kitchen, dining area, and
sitting area) with bedrooms flanking. Nearly every such home includes a
cellar for storage, since the living space is too small to make closets and
pantries practical.

Even in crowded districts, narrow alleys separate each house, and a
long back alley runs the length of the block behind the buildings. For
commoners who need the steady flame of an oil lamp (for example,
scribes who take in documents at the end of a business day and spend the
night copying them), a small metal lamp oil reservoir abuts the rear of the
building. Commoners’ homes feature rain barrels to catch water, and clay-
roofed buildings have gutters that funnel water from the rooftops directly
into the barrels.

In commoners’ districts with tightly knit communities, drying lines
are frequently strung between the upper floors of buildings, stretching
across the street, so that the families can hang their laundry out to dry.
It is considered polite to hang laundry only for the time it takes to dry,
removing the eyesore as quickly as possible.

14

15

Merchants

With the vast amount of coin that flows through New Dunhaven, it
comes as no surprise that some individuals and families have managed
to become quite wealthy through business savvy and occasionally
unscrupulous dealings. These merchants use their coin and influence
to not only cultivate a luxurious lifestyle, but also to shape the lives of
hundreds and thousands of people each day—for good or ill.

For most merchants, their business is their life. Merchants have a
deserved reputation for being miserly and callously toying with other
peoples’ livelihoods through their business decisions. Their business
dealings take up so much of their thoughts and dreams that even
social outings become opportunities to lay the groundwork for future
financial endeavors.

Merchants own and run trade companies and individual businesses,
operate counting houses, and deal in international trade. As owners,
financiers, and consultants, they produce little on their own but provide
the financial backing and incentives for those who do.

The Merchant Aristocracy

Though legally members of the commoner class, the large amounts of
wealth at their disposal means that merchants can afford lavish lifestyles
emulating those led by the nobility. With wealth comes power, and as
such both commoners and nobles alike must accept the fact that the
merchants occupy a different social stratum than the other members of
the commoner class. Commoners resent this distinction while aspiring to
achieve it. Nobles look down their noses at merchants, considering them
nothing more than commoners with delusions of grandeur. Yet they dare
not give too much offense, since the deep pockets of those merchants
could make life difficult for even a member of the nobility.

Occasionally, a particularly wealthy or powerful merchant assumes a
noble-sounding title such as a “merchant prince” or “merchant duchess.”
Such titles are never used in front of the actual nobility or the Royal
Family, since any intimation that a merchant truly ranked among the
nobility would cause hackles to rise and affronts to be taken.

Merchants enjoy a certain degree of inherited status. Few merchants
die without leaving their vast holdings to an heir or multiple heirs, and as
such lineages among merchant families echo those of the noble houses.
Once amassed in great sums, merchant wealth rarely leaves the family
16 unless squandered or subjected to a cruel twist of financial market fate. As

a result, the children of merchants tend to be raised in the lap of luxury,
enjoying advantages unavailable to other commoners and knowing no
other life than one of leisure and wealth.

The Academies

Expensive academies scattered throughout the merchant districts
provide the children of merchants with a thorough education. These
sprawling complexes consist of elegant facilities where children receive
top-tier instruction from the moment they can be pulled away from their
parents and nannies’ apron strings, all the way through young adulthood.
Though not as personalized as private tutors, these academies provide a
caliber of education that far exceeds that found in the Crown-sponsored
schoolhouses where most commoners receive their educations. As they
grow older, the students choose coursework to prepare them for a desired
profession, such as finance or politics.

These academies provide an excellent education and also form the core
of an important aspect of merchant social maneuvering: school snobbery.
The merchant community continually debates over which academies
rise to the top as the most sophisticated, most exclusive, or most likely
to produce cunning and skilled graduates. Even in their adulthood,
merchants proudly announce that they are “a Welsington Academy man”
or “a lady of Saint Gildred’s Conservatory” or some such, either as a bit of
snobbish bragging or to bond with a fellow graduate.

Merchant Names

Though merchants technically belong to the commoner class, their family names tend to be distinctly
different. Merchant surnames are much closer to those found among the Elderland nations, though their
given names resemble those of other commoners. Merchant family names are typically inspired by English,
Irish, Scottish, and German surnames.
Honorifics: It is considered polite to address merchants as "Master" or "Mistress," followed
by the individual's surname. Other merchants and nobles who have a degree of familiarity with the
individual might use the first name instead of the family name (i.e. "Mistress Lily" as opposed to
("Mistress Wellington").
Merchants’ First Names: Amelia, Andrew, Charlotte, Chloe, Duncan, Edward, Edmund, Elizabeth,
Eva, George, Grace, Henry, Isabella, James, Lily, Mary, Margaret, Phoebe, Richard, Robert, Siegfried, Sienna,
Sophia, Victoria, William
Merchants’ Family Names: Bancroft, Callahan, Donnoly, Faygan, Fitzgerald, Krenhauser, Krüger,
Ludwig, MacPherson, McMulligan, O’Hagan, Rasmussen, Richter, Wagner, Wellington

17

DMiesrtcrhicatnst

The streets of merchants’ districts might not, as the old Districts Include :
Dunhaven adage goes, be literally paved with coins, but Cahlain Barony
the truth isn’t too far off. Commerce is the lifeblood of Highroad Barony
the city, and that blood pumps through the merchant Olverhollow Barony
districts. Here the leaders of powerful trade consortiums Pinchpenny Barony
negotiate deals that affect the lives of thousands, while

government offices oversee the day-to-day business

of running a city. Merchant districts bear the names

of famous entrepreneurs, and a few districts have even been renamed in

relatively recent history.

Infrastructure

The tallest buildings in New Dunhaven rise above the merchant
districts, and the skyline of the city stands significantly higher in these
neighborhoods. Buildings of four, five, or even six stories line an average
street here, and most consist of brick and worked stone. The abundance of
wealth flowing through these districts allows the use of sturdier materials
than those employed in poorer parts of the city.

The majority of these buildings house the large companies and
consortiums that control the city’s wealth and commerce. Some buildings
hold offices used by multiple organizations, while others serve a single
group. Almost all of the Tines, the thirteen towering buildings that
serve as symbols of New Dunhaven’s wealth and power, rise above
merchant districts, and both government offices and private businesses
occupy their floors.

The city’s canals frequently crisscross the merchant districts. To
capitalize on the large waterways that form the core of the canals’
infrastructure, businesses pay to construct extensions and offshoots of the
canals that run directly into their buildings, giving them quick access to
the main thoroughfares. Some smaller offshoots flow behind buildings,
and where other districts would have alleyways, small canal tributaries
occupy the space that separates the backs of the structures.

Most of the city’s cathedrals dedicated to the Silver Judge are found
in merchant and noble districts. Optimists say this is because merchant
districts serve as gathering places for all classes; cynics say it’s because this
allows the church to stand right in the center of the city’s financial power.

18

Denizens 19

Of all the types of districts in the city, merchant districts manifest the
most diverse populations, at least in terms of class. Merchants make up
the bulk of the district’s inhabitants, commoners who have attained or
inherited enough wealth that they can afford to live within the relative
luxury of the district. On a daily basis, however, a fair number of nobles
and poorer commoners walk the district’s streets. In the case of the
nobility, many of whom have vast fortunes spread across a number of
investments and financial interests, merchant districts provide a place to
conduct their affairs and oversee their fortunes. For poorer commoners,
these districts provide employment for shop clerks, counting house clerks,
cooks, and servants, who commute from neighboring districts.

Businesses

The overwhelming majority of businesses in merchant districts consist
of the offices of trade consortiums, shipping federations, and other
large companies that deal in sums of money well beyond what the
average citizen can attain. Most of the city’s banks, including counting
houses (smaller banks that deal with the finances of individuals and
small businesses) and the currency reserves (with their vaults full of
wealth belonging to the large consortiums), can be found in these parts
of the city. Merchant districts also house the majority of the Crown’s
bureaucratic offices.

Not every business in a merchant district belongs to a massive trade
consortium. Smaller private businesses that offer highly specialized
services to their customers also thrive here. Shops similar to those found
in a commoners’ district feature items of higher quality and price, aimed
specifically at a wealthier clientele; clothiers and dressmakers, silversmiths
and goldsmiths, jewelers, watchmakers, and alchemists all prosper in
merchant districts. Some proprietors cater exclusively to the needs of the
very wealthy: a dance instructor might have a studio in such a district,
or a swordmaster who specializes in dueling with rapiers, or a tutor who
provides lessons on classic Vladov literature.

While taverns and inns suffice for eateries in the slums and the
commoners’ districts, merchant districts feature cafés and bodegas.
Merchant districts also offer establishments that cater to commoners,
merchants, and nobles alike—a rarity throughout the rest of the Dusk
City. Almost every merchant district has one or more large outdoor
theaters, where members of all classes gather to watch plays or hear
musical performances.

Law Enforcement

Among all the different districts in the city, the merchant districts boast
the largest and most visible City Watch presence. The amount of money
changing hands in these districts necessitates this frequency. Two to four
City Watch officers patrol on horseback within a radius of a few blocks
at any given time. Beyond that, undercover investigators for the Crown
wander the streets, blending in with the crowd to keep an eye out for
anyone who might be up to no good.

Most City Watch precinct houses reside in merchant districts. These
buildings (no more than one per district) house dozens of City Watch
officers, investigators, and Crown bureaucrats whose sole job is to keep
the peace and uphold the law in that district. Some precinct houses
contain secret rooms (or entire floors, accessible only by a restricted
stairwell) for the dedicated use of the city’s secret police, the Spiders.

The Cartels

Most merchant districts persist as unclaimed turf, since few cartels
have the strength or numbers to constantly clash with the heightened
City Watch presence in these districts. Only the Family manages to
keep a true hold on a few merchant districts, mostly through legitimate
businesses that serve as fronts for cartel activity. The Mummers take
advantage of the number of cafés, theaters, race tracks, and other places
of entertainment to provide safe houses in what might otherwise be a
hostile environment. Though not as entrenched here as in noble districts,
the Vespers run secret gambling halls, smoking clubs, and upscale brothels
designed to cater specifically to the merchants and their clientele.

Thief Signs: Risky Business

I’m not going to lie to you. Scores in merchant districts might look like sweet grabs, but you better be
prepared to put in a lot of hours to get hold of them. It’s not that the Watch has any real need to crack down
here. But the counting houses, the big companies? The only thing they fear is losing money. They’ve lined
the pockets of every Senator and City Watch captain to make sure the streets swarm with Crown lackeys,
keeping the likes of us away. Of course, that doesn’t stop the Right Kind of People. We just have to be a little
more . . . creative. You do more legwork, you ask more questions, and you expect more trouble, but you
don’t give up. The prize is too sweet for that.

—Faustus, Mummer broker

20



Merchants’ Homes

Most merchants live in townhouses of varying levels of opulence. In
merchant districts, where the buildings reach higher than elsewhere
in the city, homes are built taller, rather than sprawling sideways. This
gives wealthy merchants more living space (after all, what self-respecting
merchant would be without a drawing room, conservatory, and billiard
room?) without the need for large plots of land, a luxury generally
reserved for the nobility. Merchant townhomes stand at least three stories
tall, and some have five or six floors depending on the amount of wealth
in that neighborhood.

Merchants prefer to live close to their places of business, affording
them the ability to walk to work, arriving early and staying late. Merchant
townhouses are located on blocks that contain dozens of townhouses built
side by side, with a stretch of several townhouses in a row sharing walls
with one another before reaching an alley break. Some merchants own
multiple homes and split their time between residences based on what
part of the city they need to be in for business.

Merchant townhouses have living chambers on their topmost floor,
rooms meant for socializing (tea parlors, game rooms, sitting rooms) on
the ground floor, and everything else on the floors between. Sufficiently
tall townhomes might have an entire floor dedicated to business,
including studies, libraries, and small rooms where multiple merchants
gather to discuss business agreements. Spiral stairs connect these
floors, beginning as wide, elaborate staircases on the ground floor and
shrinking to a more space-conscious size on the second story and above.
Townhomes of recent construction also feature dumbwaiters to carry trays
of food and drink to the upper floors when requested.

Many townhouses have cellars that abut (or might even have poorly
covered openings into) the Old City. Deliveries of food and lamp oil are
made to a locked set of cellar doors on the side or rear of the townhouse,
where an access stairwell inside leads directly up to the kitchen.

Few merchants have staff that live on the premises, instead expecting
servants to commute from their own districts before the master awakens.
A steward who oversees the townhouse’s servant corps is entrusted with a
set of keys to the home.

22

23

Nobles

The nobility. Blue bloods. Founding families. Chosen by birthright to be
the city’s leaders. Rewarded by the Silver Judge for benevolence in past
lives. A step above the common man on the cosmic hierarchy. Or so they
would tell you.

The nobles of New Dunhaven stand as a separate class in the eyes of
the law. They receive more lenience from the courts and crimes against
them provoke harsher punishments. Their words carry weight with the
powerful people in the city, and they have amassed familial wealth to
ensure none of their heirs need to lead any sort of professional life unless
they choose to do so. Most noble houses possess deep ties to the city’s
bustling economy, with partial or complete ownership over hundreds of
businesses. Their hereditary wealth, invested into every profitable aspect
of the city, provides returns with almost no effort on the part of the
family’s patriarchs and matriarchs.

As such, most members of a noble house spend their days in leisure or
socializing with other members of the nobility. They pursue expensive
hobbies, such as training horses or collecting art, and while away the days
in their magnificent estates, catered to by an army of servants drawn from
the commoner class. They employ bodyguards and house security, travel
in armored coaches and private gondolas, and dine in exclusive clubs that
do not admit commoners.

Not every member of the nobility embraces the life of the idle rich.
Some ambitious noble families involve themselves heavily in the politics
of the city. They help buy the election of Senators in important districts,
ensure that the laws continue to favor the nobility and their pursuits, and
curry favor with the Royal Family to grow their house in strength and
influence. Sometimes they meddle in the city’s affairs for fun and sport or
to promote their house’s interests—often at others’ expense.

Education

Every noble child gains a unique and extensive education. Noble sons and
daughters receive intensive teaching from personal instructors, hired to
act as private tutors for years at a time. A young noble might have a dozen
or more expert instructors at a time, hired to teach a variety of subjects.
Nobles learn history, finance, literature, art, fencing, horsemanship,
military strategy, calligraphy, and other elite subjects to prepare them to
safeguard the family fortune.

24

Noble Names

For the nobility, a name takes on supreme importance. Not only does one’s house name imply a certain
degree of status, but given names are chosen with great care, since they hold an expectation that any noble
scion will go on to honor that name through great successes. Nobles prefer rare first names. House names
often consist of a combination of words or altered spellings and pronunciations of everyday words.

Titles and Honorifics: The titles of“Lord”and“Lady”are used when addressing a noble directly. A
head of the house is referred to by the house name instead of their given name (Lord Nicolas Raventree
would be addressed as“Lord Nicolas,”unless he became the head of the house, when he would be
addressed as“Lord Raventree”). Heads of houses also append titles to their names based on past honors
bestowed upon the family.

Nobles’ First Names: Alastair, Allegra, Barrington, Camilla, Cyril, Damien, Giovanna, Ignatius,
Katerina, Maximilian, Montgomery, Nicolas, Octavia, Sophia, Sterling, Ventruvia

Nobles’ Family Names: Beaumont, Blackgate, Bornworth, Brandis, Cynder, Eyre, Felcourt, Forte,
Foyle, Gilt, Hollowweather, Hyde, Moonshadow, Ramsteel, Raventree, Redwater, Silvermeadow

The Elder Families

The founding families of the city of Dunhaven included nobles who
traveled across the ocean from Elderland to claim a portion of the new
outpost. These families constitute the Elder Families. Many members of
the Elder Families buy commissions in the Royal Navy or the Regent’s
Army, choosing a military career as a sign of prestige. They are more
arrogant, more aloof, more conservative, and more set in their ways than
their counterparts from the “new“ nobility. They embody the idea of
maintaining the status quo and spend their energy seeking to preserve the
balance of power between commoners and the nobility.

The New Nobility

Any noble house established since Dunhaven’s founding is considered
to be “new” nobility, even if that house dates back centuries. These new
noble houses were created when the head of the Royal Family (a king
or queen in the past, or the Regent in modern times) granted a person a
noble title and the right to declare their family to be members of a noble
house. Members of the new nobility seek professions in finance and
trade or purchase appointments to important positions in the Crown’s
administrative offices. They tend to be more aggressive, more reckless,
more debauched, and more destructive than those from the Elder
Families. They embrace the power and prestige their noble title gives
them, flaunting their wealth and status in front of the entire city.

25

Noble Districts
When people from outside New Dunhaven think of
the beautiful, glittering city, chances are they imagine Districts Include :
the noble districts. While the wealth of the city flows Blüdhauser Duchy
through merchant districts, power and influence flood Duchy of Coronetta
the noble districts. These parts of the city shine as Goldweaver Duchy
the cleanest, safest, and most elegant areas, featuring Volkaiser Duchy
sprawling estates with hundreds of options for luxurious
food, entertainment, and culture. Noble districts take
the name of the most powerful noble house that makes
its home in each district.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure in noble districts exhibits a distinct duality: its isolated,
palatial estates, and its bustling commercial areas. The estates owned by
the noble houses take up large portions of these districts. Here, sprawling
plots of land (a true sign of power in a city as densely packed as New
Dunhaven) surround opulent mansions, the construction of which often
predates the oldest living member of the house. Noble manors undergo
renovation every few generations, updating their appearances to satisfy
the fashion of the times. Noble manors expand outward instead of upward
(most mansions do not reach more than three stories), taking advantage
of the room afforded by their grand estates. Marble exteriors, ornately
carved support columns, and landscaping and statuary throughout the
estate grounds stand as hallmarks of the typical noble holding.

Usually located near the center of a few dozen estates, reserved areas
serve as the focal points for social gatherings, including parks with
carefully cultivated grounds, plazas with plentiful seating beneath shade
trees, and amphitheaters where nobles can enjoy entertainment outdoors.

The shops, cafés, and galleries in noble districts occupy storefronts
in buildings constructed to hold dozens of businesses, designed to
be aesthetically pleasing and project a sense of refinement and good
taste. The proprietors of these establishments want the nobility to feel
pampered and relaxed while shopping or dining, and bubbling fountains
and faint strands of violin music accompany pedestrians as they stroll past
ornately patterned buildings.

The canals in noble districts have much lighter traffic than in other
parts of the city, since checkpoints at the entrances turn away anyone
who doesn’t have legitimate business here. Private security forces staff

26

these checkpoints, not the City Watch, and their mandate is to keep
out the riffraff as much as it is to maintain safety. Many buildings, both
commercial and estates, have private docks, allowing the denizens of
the noble districts to simply walk down a short flight of stairs and onto
a gondola waiting to ferry them gently to their next destination. Like
everything else in these districts, the canals offer a sense of exclusivity and
beauty, and they are regularly dredged to remove unsightly impurities.

Denizens

Two types of people occupy the noble districts: the wealthy and the
people who serve them. The nobility exerts significant pressure on
the City Watch to discourage gawkers from the commoner class from
clogging up the streets in noble districts. Almost all the city’s nobles live
in estates within these districts, and they see it as a privilege of their rank
that the areas around their homes remain clear for their exclusive use.

Nobles retain a serving staff that considerably outnumbers the members
of the family being served. Unlike commoners who work in merchant
districts, the commoners who serve in noble households live in these
districts, housed in servants’ quarters on their employers’ estates. While
these servant commoners remain beholden to their masters’ whims,
they also benefit from living in cleaner, safer, and more elegant environs.
Though they cannot take full advantage of the amenities like the nobles
they serve (more a matter of expense than any hard restriction based on
class), commoners who live in noble districts live very different lives from
those who live elsewhere.

Most of the commercial businesses in a noble district are owned by
wealthy merchants who can afford to operate in an area characterized by
appalling real estate prices. These merchants travel from their homes in
neighboring districts each day; wealthy as they are, the estates in these
districts exist exclusively for those with noble titles.

Businesses

Very little “business” or “work” takes place in a noble district, at least for
the nobility. The elite businesses in such districts provide entertainment
and conveniences for the aristocracy. Art galleries, high fashion clothiers,
jewelers, and expensive boutiques with unique, luxury goods cater
to the idle rich.

Posh and decadent food and drink establishments fill the noble districts.
An abundant supply of sidewalk cafés sit alongside supper clubs that serve
food only after the sun begins its descent. These lavishly decorated clubs
draw the eye and inspire envy in those who can’t afford the membership.

27

Noble districts love the arts, maintaining high-class indoor theaters,
opera houses, and former manor homes now converted into galleries.

Law Enforcement

The City Watch presence in noble districts follows a mandate to
be unseen but ever-present. Legally, the noble class enjoys greater
protections under the law, and this translates into greater protection by
law enforcement. Members of the City Watch receive special uniforms for
use exclusively in the noble districts that allow them to blend in with the
servants and scenery in these districts.

Similarly, the City Watch observation posts remain unobtrusive and
mostly unseen by the average passersby, constructed to blend in with
existing structures. For example, the decorative tower spire atop a concert
hall might be a secret Watch post, where officers keep an eye on the street
from behind alchemically tinted glass.

The City Watch concentrates its presence around the perimeter of these
districts. The Crown operates under the philosophy that the best way to
keep these districts safe is to keep unsavory types from entering the area.
City Watch posts at the entrances to these districts dissuade, sometimes
forcefully, anyone from entering who isn’t a noble, a servant, or a
merchant on legitimate business. While no law restricts a commoner from
entering a noble district, the nobility puts pressure on the City Watch to
keep their districts free of those beneath their class.

The Cartels

The Vespers claim control of most noble districts. The cartel openly
operates gambling halls and pleasure houses (the existence of such places
is well known, though the fact that a criminal cartel runs them remains
largely a secret), and its members frequently pass as nobles. Anywhere
there is expensive entertainment to be had, the Vespers have a presence,
and in noble districts there are many places where the nobles take their
pleasure. Outside of these establishments, Vespers tend to operate more
as individuals than in groups, posing as socialites and blending into the
crowds of nobles going about their decadent lives, unaware of the vipers
in their midsts.

The Mummers, who own inns and taverns almost everywhere else,
maintain only a small presence in noble districts. Usually no more than
one or two dining or entertainment establishments fall under Mummer
control in a noble district, though one can always find a Mummer among
the entertainers in noble manors and at high society functions.

28

[INSERT NOBLE DISTRICT ART HERE]

29

Noble Estates

One of the primary privileges awarded those of noble status in New
Dunhaven concerns perpetual rights to a significant patch of land,
on which rests the house’s estate. In a city as densely packed as New
Dunhaven, any parcel of land, no matter how small, has value. A large
manor house sitting far back on a lot, with gardens and yards between
the main street and the front door, indicates a position of favor and
wealth in the city.

The estates of the elder families are hundreds of years old, and many
managed to escape damage from the fire that destroyed Dunhaven thanks
to their distance from neighboring buildings. Some of the mansions
of the new nobility have been around for as little as a decade, while
others date back more than a century. Every few decades these mansions
undergo extensive renovation to reflect the fashion of the moment. At
any time, single rooms or wings are rebuilt as needed (or, more often,
as the matriarch or patriarch of the house changes). Some noble estates
constantly undergo renovation, especially those homes built hundreds of
years ago. Of course, given the number of times these buildings have been
renovated, more than a few contain strange quirks in their construction:
hallways that end abruptly, stairs that lead to solid ceilings, entire rooms
completely walled off from the rest of the house, and dormant fireplaces
and chimneys hidden away in closets.

Noble mansions consist of sprawling, multi-winged buildings capable
of housing dozens of members of the extended family at once, in addition
to a bevy of guests and the legion of servants necessary to keep the estate
running. Manors feature separate quarters for their servants, as well
as narrow passages and secret staircases built into the walls that allow
servants to move throughout the property unseen.

Teams of private security patrol the grounds and stand at attention
throughout the mansions to answer their lords’ and ladies’ calls. The
estates include a guard post at the entrance, which serves as a base of
operations for the entire security team. A stone wall surrounds nearly
every noble estate, and the elder families’ estates contain ramparts with
wallwalks, allowing private security to patrol the perimeter of the grounds
with a heightened view of both the inside and outside.

30

31

The Docks

Defined by a stretch of the city that runs along the eastern shoreline
rather than by a group of districts, the areas known as “the docks”
encompass everything from major shipping ports to small fishing piers.

Infrastructure

Only part of the docks consists of actual piers and boardwalks, since
the infrastructure along New Dunhaven’s shoreline revolves around
supporting the ships that dock here, not just providing them a place to
tie off. Harbors that accommodate tall sailing vessels consist of multiple
stone piers jutting out into the water, each of which supports three or four
ships at a time.

Some shipping companies and trade consortiums operate wholly owned
private shipping facilities walled off from the rest of the docks by wooden
palisades. These facilities feature a gated water entrance that opens only
for authorized vessels and consist of multiple warehouses, cargo cranes,
and private access points to the city’s canal system.

Outside the walled-off private harbors, the Crown owns many of
the ship docks and rents them to shipping companies and the captains
of independent vessels. These wooden docks (some of which rival the
stone piers in size) connect to the wooden boardwalk that runs along the
shoreline and covers the gradual drop off along the eastern beaches.

The boardwalk runs parallel to cobblestone streets, where wooden
buildings line up in a row. These buildings range in size from massive
warehouses designed to store incoming and outgoing goods, to one-room
shops that cater to smaller vessels looking for a quick resupply.

Along any stretch of the docks where larger cargo vessels make port,
tall wooden cranes rise above the relatively low skyline. These cranes help
unload ships quickly and efficiently, and any given stretch of the docks
might feature a dozen or more in close proximity.

Floating Buildings

Not every ship moored in the harbors of New Dunhaven is mobile. Quite
a few are permanently anchored, and barnacles have grown to fuse the
ships to the docks where they rest. Many of these ships function as secret
gambling halls, poppy dens, or pleasure houses, their portholes blacked
out and their boarding ramps guarded by cartel toughs. Some serve as
cartel safe houses, while others house legitimate businesses, such as the
floating taverns and chowder shops.
32

Denizens 33

Few people live along the docks. Sailors who spend weeks or months at
a time in New Dunhaven waiting for their next ship to sail take rooms
at one of the boarding houses along the shoreline, but most of the people
found on the docks travel from other districts to work at one of the
businesses located here or are visiting the city for a short time.

On any given day, a stroll along the docks could bring a person into
contact with citizens from all walks of life. Day laborers hired to load
and unload ships, drive wagons, or perform repairs on vessels in the
port commute from the city’s slums or the commoners’ districts, for
craftspeople who earn a higher wage. Fishing vessel crews live in Little
Taona or the commoners’ districts nearest the docks. Merchants with
vested interests in imports and exports meet at the docks to negotiate
shipping deals with independent traders, or conduct business in the
shipping offices lining the shore. Bureaucrats employed by the Crown to
oversee shipping regulations and collect taxes and tariffs operate out of
port authority offices on the docks.

Businesses

The business of the docks is trade. Shipping vessels regularly arrive from
Elderland, Taona, and settlements elsewhere on the continent. Imports
into New Dunhaven provide far more profit than exports (it takes a lot
of food and raw materials to keep a city this size running smoothly), and
most shipping vessels arrive heavily laden and leave riding much higher in
the water. Foodstuffs and raw materials—lumber from forests around the
world, metal and stone from quarries and mines farther to the south—
comprise the most common imported trade goods. Luxury goods, the
province of the larger trading companies that take greater risks on wares
bought from distant ports, also make up a portion of the incoming cargo.

In addition to seaborne trade, the other big business on the docks
involves keeping the sailing vessels in good repair. This endeavor
employs carpenters and shipwrights, canvas-makers and coopers, as well
as customs agents, dockhand organizers, water ferry pilots and rowers,
inspectors, food and water suppliers, and brokers who provide crews for
shorthanded ships.

A fair amount of business on the docks caters directly to sailors. No
other district has as high a ratio of taverns, inns, alehouses, and gambling
dens to customers as the docks. Some even cater to sailors who make
their homes in overseas ports; more than a few establishments cater
to Elderlanders.

Law Enforcement

The City Watch maintains a formidable presence on the docks. Unlike
in other districts, however, the agents of the Crown are more concerned
with law-abiding citizens than with members of the cartels. Sailors can
be a rowdy lot, and an increased City Watch presence prevents disputes
over cards, dice, or lovers from escalating into tavern-clearing brawls.
They allow some fighting, understanding that life at sea demands release,
and intervene only when loss of life or significant property damage
appears imminent.

Additionally, the agents of mercantile law enforcement guard the docks
in force. Customs agents, inspectors, dockmasters, and other bureaucratic
enforcers patrol the docks regularly, watching for signs of smuggling
or corruption. Nothing inspires vigilance more than the thought
that the Crown might not receive its fair share of the money flowing
through the docks.

The Cartels

The Red Lotus Society controls the docks, largely due to the fact that
it remains the only cartel that has invested a portion of its wealth in
maintaining a working navy. The Society uses its ships much as other
cartels use safe houses, and if word reaches them that a raid is about
to take place, the crew of the ship simply casts off and sets sail for the
Forbidden Island until things cool off on the mainland. The Society
conducts all kinds of smuggling operations, both using its own ships and
hiring out ships to act as “protection” for independent smugglers looking
to harbor at New Dunhaven and offload contraband. In these latter
cases, the Society acts as a fence for the cartels, funneling goods from the
smugglers to the rest of the Right Kind of People.

Despite its seaborne advantage, the Society has competition here.
The abundance of taverns and drinking halls gives the Mummers ample
opportunity to operate within their Arrangement-endorsed domain.
Additionally, the Circle has carved out turf in the northern portions of
the docks and the harbor where the Castle is located. This intrusion has
led to rising tensions between the Circle and the Red Lotus Society,
though the Black Council has yet to intercede.

34



Little Taona

No part of the city better exemplifies the cosmopolitan

nature of New Dunhaven than the districts referred to Districts Include :
as Little Taona. The foreign nations collectively known Brass Cat District
as Taona consist of dozens of unique cultures, and in Falling Leaf District
New Dunhaven the people of Taonan heritage have Four Rivers District
brought those cultures to the city in dozens of different Night Market District
ways. The influx of Taonan people began a little over a Open Hand District
century ago when the Crown solidified a positive trade

relationship with the nations of Taona, triggering the

first significant influx of new cultures since the fire that

leveled Dunhaven. Districts in Little Taona bear names that translate

Taonan philosophies into the common tongue.

Infrastructure

Little Taona is not as homogeneous as its name sounds. It consists of
dozens of districts, each one as different from the others as the Taonan
culture that inspired it. Little Taona gives citizens from all parts of
the city a place to experience the culture, foods, and philosophies of
one of New Dunhaven’s largest international populations. Though
the differences extend to the infrastructure in these districts, some
generalizations broadly apply. More so than in the commoners’ districts,
the buildings of Little Taona are tightly stacked on top of one another;
the roads are narrow, few alleys run between buildings, and those
buildings seem to have been built right on top of one another, leaving
room only for vertical growth. Likewise, most districts’ buildings grew
organically, not through careful planning, and the construction of upper
floors might not match that of lower floors.

Most buildings are constructed of wood, with some stone- and
brickwork accents. Many buildings have large windows that open
outward, exposing walk-up benches from which the shop owners sell
directly to people on the street. Taonan cultures share a fondness for
bright colors and decorations, so many buildings have tinted glass lamps
that bathe the streets in a rainbow of colored light.

The canals pass through Little Taona, though they run between
crowded buildings in lieu of streets. In these places, wooden bridges
connect the buildings on either side, usually from one or two stories up.

36

Denizens

While most of the families of the inhabitants of Little Taona migrated to
New Dunhaven from one of the Taonan nations in the last century, the
majority of the current population was born in the city. Some are second-
or third-generation natives of New Dunhaven, but living in Little Taona,
surrounded by others of similar heritage, maintains strong ties to their
ancestral cultures. Like Taona itself, the cultures of Little Taona vary
widely, and its people hold on to traditions from their heritage, adapt
traditions native to New Dunhaven, and create their own traditions
all at the same time. For a list of Taonan names, see the Red Lotus
Society cartel sheet.

Not everyone who lives in Little Taona is of Taonan descent. Non-
Taonan commoners rent apartments above shops and businesses in Little
Taona. The hospitality ingrained in the cultures of Taona extends to
the shores of New Dunhaven, and likewise, the Crown’s embrace of the
Taonan people led to frequent intermingling of cultures. It’s not unusual
for a commoner or merchant who passes near Little Taona on the way
home from work to stop in the district for dinner, or to pick up fresh fish
to cook at home that night.

Businesses

Businesses in Little Taona share similarities with those in the commoners’
districts. Most districts in Little Taona are relatively self-sufficient,
though the cultural differences alter the specific details. Where
commoners’ districts feature taverns, ale houses, smokehouses, and
butchers, Little Taona overflows with tea houses, noodle shops, curry
cookeries, and fishmongers.

Anyone in the city can confirm that the best seafood in New Dunhaven
comes from Little Taona. Fresh catches less than a day old make their way
quickly from the docks to Little Taona, where the fish are delivered to
restaurants or the market for sale within hours.

Little Taona has a reputation for being the place where you can
buy anything if you know where to look. The cramped environs make
navigating the districts difficult at times, lending the areas an air of
mystery that translates into the belief that “secret shops” hide in the
narrow alleys, where everything from imported spices to occult tomes can
be found. Such rumors are not completely unfounded.

37

Law Enforcement

The City Watch maintains a scant presence in Little Taona, but not
due to negligence or indifference. The people of Little Taona police
themselves quite adequately, at least in the eyes of the Crown. Cynical
observers might say that the people in these districts turn a blind eye to
criminal activity, but the truth is more complex. Given the Red Lotus
Society’s iron grip on crime in Little Taona, the average citizen of these
districts has little to fear. In fact, the inhabitants of these districts walk
down the street at night more safely than they would elsewhere, since the
Society frowns upon preying on the residents.

That attitude does not extend to people who visit Little Taona from
other districts. The Society considers outsiders fair game when it comes to
petty crimes, especially ones that go unnoticed such as minor confidence
schemes, picking pockets, and the like. A significant City Watch presence
intercedes in Little Taona only during an outbreak of violent crimes,
which happens from time to time. City Watch officers stationed in
Little Taona grew up in those districts, which helps the people feel more
comfortable than if they were being policed by outsiders.

The Cartels

The Red Lotus Society controls all the districts in Little Taona. No turf
goes unclaimed turf in Little Taona, and the Society maintains a firm
grip on these districts that no other cartel dares to challenge. The Society
operates as an open secret in Little Taona, much as the Family does in the
commoners’ districts. The law-abiding citizens know of the Red Lotus
Society and even the identities of individual members, and while they
might look upon the criminal lifestyle with disdain, that sentiment is akin
to the disapproval of a parent toward a child’s questionable life choices.

Only two other cartels operate openly in Little Taona: the Mummers,
who control a small number of tea houses that serve as their embassies
in Red Lotus Society turf, and the Forgotten, who receive permission to
operate in Little Taona due to the Society’s penchant for charity toward
the very poor. The one exception to the latter case concerns the street
gangs that characterize the Forgotten presence in other districts: the Red
Lotus Society makes it clear in no uncertain terms that the gangs are not
welcome in Little Taona.

38

39

The Slums
As with all cities, not every corner appears bright,

clean, and well kept. People always fall through the Districts Include :
cracks of society in large cities, and inevitably they Greywater
drift toward the poorest, dirtiest, and most dangerous Rotwood
areas: the slums. Filthy, run down, and populated by The Sweeps
the city’s most downtrodden people, the slums are so Tallowroad Corners
crime-ridden that even the agents of the Crown seldom The Warren
venture into them except in force.

Depending on the age and location of the district,

some slums once stood as nice parts of the city

undeserving of such a grim reputation. Yet over time all things fade,

and slums come about from different origins: a merchant district slowly

becomes abandoned as newer, fancier neighborhoods court its occupants;

a commoners’ district slides into decrepitude in the wake of a severe

economic downturn; or an area of Little Taona becomes crime-ridden

and poverty-stricken when the Senator who represents it sells out his

constituents for personal gain. The slums are the ghosts of once-thriving

districts, haunting the city with crime and poverty.

Infrastructure

The buildings of the city’s slums persist in a state of permanent disrepair.
They slump and lean into their neighbors, with holes gaping in their
roofs and walls. The buildings huddle tightly against one another, debris
clutters the streets, and the narrow, murky canals brim with litter and
refuse. The slums evoke strong sentiments of claustrophobia and decay.

Many of the city’s slums once functioned as merchant districts, and
thus contain buildings that rose four or more stories tall. Now, the owners
of these buildings frequently convert them into homes where dozens of
individuals and families huddle together in a semblance of community.
Of course, this derives more from merchant pragmatism than civic spirit;
the more people crammed into a single building, the more the landlord
collects in rent money. Such tenements exist in as wretched a state of
decay as the rest of the district, since slum lord merchants (most of whom
live far away, in the merchant districts) spend only the bare minimum to
maintain the properties.

Where the canals pass through slums, their water is still and stagnant.
When a district becomes too crime-ridden and poverty-stricken, the
inhabitants of neighboring districts petition their Senators to isolate the
slums as much as possible, blocking the canal entry points with huge
40

metal grates or even wood or stone dams. This prevents the people who
live in the slums from leaving easily via the canals, and without much
fresh water flowing in (and, likewise, no outlet for dirty water to flow out),
the water stagnates and develops a slimy film on the surface that slicks the
stones of the walkways flanking the canals.

Denizens

Two types of people live in the slums: the cripplingly poor, and the
slightly less poor who prey upon them. The inhabitants rank among the
most downtrodden commoners. They consist of unemployed or unskilled
day laborers, and many are ill or impaired, either physically or mentally.
Some struggle under debt so deep that their income is insufficient to
afford a home in a commoners’ district, while others were born or dragged
into a life of poverty and cannot escape. Hardship, cruelty, or a twist of
fate landed each inhabitant a place in the slums.

These districts receive few services and little protection, and criminals
thrive here. The slums provide a great place for the Right Kind of
People to lie low and wait for things to blow over; lodging to hide for
a few days comes cheap, if with few amenities. While dangerous for
their inhabitants, the slums are even worse for visitors from other parts
of the city. The people of the slums view outsiders with suspicion, and
the criminals who dwell here see interlopers as unwary targets ripe
for the plucking.

Businesses
Few businesses thrive in the slums, and those that do exploit the poor

inhabitants of the district for their own gain. Manufactories and mills

employ the largely uneducated populace for coppers a day, then ship

their manufactured goods out for sale in wealthier areas. Workers in the

slum factories cannot afford the goods they make with their own hands,

whether they be textiles, tools, or refined raw materials.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, taverns occupy a lot of real estate in the slums.

They serve cheap ale and liquors that can clean a decade of rust off an

iron chain, and the occasional meal of bread and stew for those who can

afford it. Drowning one’s sorrows is a popular pastime in the slums.

Debtors prisons and workhouses also thrive in the slums. Merchants

from other districts employ individuals who have insurmountable debts

to repay, tasking them with grueling labor that ostensibly helps them

work off their debt. In reality, the workers accrue debt faster than they

reduce it with their meager compensation, and workers become trapped as

indentured servants with no hope of escaping their debts or poverty. 41

Law Enforcement

The Crown maintains almost no presence in the slums. In fact, the City
Watch dares not enter the slums, at least not without significant numbers.
Worse, when they do enter in force, they are as likely to start a violent
riot as to solve the problem they went in to address. The people of the
slums don’t take kindly to the presence of law enforcement since they feel
abandoned and ignored by the Crown, and officers of the City Watch
who enter the slums do not emerge unscathed. If the Crown needs to
detain an individual in the slums, they hire bounty hunters or Dredgers to
go in and perform the extraction.

The Cartels

Most districts classified as slums are considered unclaimed turf. There’s
not enough profit to be made in these districts, so few cartels waste time
establishing any kind of control—except the Forgotten, who occasionally
build such a strong presence in a district that it becomes their turf. This
usually means that several Forgotten street gangs simply choose a slum
district as their turf and spend their time fighting over which one is strong
enough to maintain control.

In slums that border or fall within Little Taona, the Red Lotus Society
occasionally maintains a presence to preserve a community or landmarks
that have fallen on hard times. This creates a natural conflict with the
Forgotten. When Forgotten street gangs form in slums that were once
a part of Little Taona, they clash with the remaining Red Lotus Society
schools in that district. The Black Council frequently has to intervene in
turf wars over slums in Little Taona. Since the Forgotten have nothing
resembling leadership and the Red Lotus Society is fragmented into its
schools, these cartels are incapable of tamping down on turf war flare ups.

Thief Signs: Crooks, Thieves, and Thugs

Here's the thing folk on the honest side of the law don't understand: not every criminal is someone you'd
call one of the Right Kind of People. Lots of people commit crimes, twice as often in the slums. They're
crimes of passion, spur of the moment breaks with the law without planning or forethought. But there's
a difference between committing crimes, and being a professional. Thievery is a craft, something to be
practiced and honed, with secrets of the trade to be passed on. Con artistry is, well, an art. Even the
knuckledusters and legbreakers have techniques and fighting styles they employ. If you don't treat it as your
profession, you're not the Right Kind of Person. Savvy?

—Basil Frampton IV, independent dabbler

42

43

The Canals

New Dunhaven’s canal system stretches across the length and breadth
of the city in a haphazard grid, a result of the organic expansion of
the city from its original core. The canals, which range from about ten
feet wide at their narrowest to one hundred feet wide at their broadest,
allow both people and cargo to travel long distances across the city in a
fraction of the time it would take by foot or carriage. The canals make the
distribution of goods faster and more efficient, allowing the massive city
to support itself.

Redirected tributaries of the river that runs in from the northwestern
reaches of the city fill the canals. Likewise, they empty into the ocean
through sluices near the docks. Though some stretches of canal possess a
strong current that moves in one direction (in which case traffic through
that section of the canal travels only one way), the complexity of the
canal system means that most stretches have no appreciable current at
all. Criminals looking to dispose of evidence—or bodies—know that
anything that sinks to the bottom of a canal stays there.

Infrastructure

To board one of the vessels that ply the waterways of the city’s canal
system, a citizen must descend to the water level, located six to ten feet
below the street level in most parts of the city—a level maintained to
prevent flooding. Stone stairs lead from the edge of the street to wooden
docks that jut into the canal, built parallel to the street to provide standing
space without taking up too much of the canal’s width. At night, this
makes gondola docks extremely appealing places for illicit dealings and
inconspicuous meetings, since anyone on the docks can’t be seen from the
same side of the street. The Family maintains a small number of docks
(called “thief ports” by the Right Kind of People) where no gondolas tie
up at night, set aside for this express purpose.

The canals flow into and end at the docks that run along the city’s
coastline. Major waterways empty into the bay, where metal grates
keep gondolas from accidentally being swept out to sea. These outlets
are positioned such that cargo being unloaded from shipping vessels
can quickly be loaded onto freight gondolas and distributed to the
rest of the city.

44

Warehouses

Though the canals connect directly to caravanserai on the landward edges
of the city (where goods are offloaded for caravans to carry them out of
the city) and at various points to the docks on the seaboard, the majority
of trade goods in the city go to one of the hundreds of warehouses built
directly on top of the canal system. Offshoots of the main canals run
directly into these warehouses, allowing cargo to be offloaded from, and
loaded onto, freight gondolas within the buildings. The trade companies
own private warehouses, storing goods there and distributing them on an
as-needed basis quickly via freight gondolas.

The Family owns and operates dozens of black market warehouses
along the canal system, used to store and distribute contraband and stolen
merchandise. As a service to the other cartels, the Family loans out space
within these warehouses for the storage of illegal goods for a cut of the
money made from black market sales.

Locks and Tunnels

When terrain height differences make it difficult for canal sections to
connect, the city’s engineers tunnel through the ground or build locks
to allow gondolas to rise to canals at a higher elevation. Tunnels provide
the most common option, though pilots and passengers find the journeys
through the dark passageways unsettling. In addition, some of these canal
tunnels join up with entryways into the shadow canals of the Old City,
making them dangerous.

Large, marvelously engineered structures capable of allowing dozens of
gondolas to change elevations at once, the city’s locks are a nightmare to
maintain. Once the gondolas are sealed off inside the locks, huge metal
gears slowly turn to open floodgates, allowing water to either stream in
from the higher elevation canals or stream out to lower-elevation canals.
Gears corrode, floodgates jam, and the alchemically sealed wooden walls
spring leaks, making them costly to keep in good repair. A constant
struggle takes place between the Crown, which frequently attempts to
levy taxes on the freight gondolas to pay for the repairs, and the Senators
who take bribes from the trade consortiums to block such levies.

The canal system also flows into the Old City, the subterranean ruins
of old Dunhaven that remained after the city burned down. The canals
end in large grates through which the water plunges into the shadowy
underground realm. There, what were once city streets now form channels
through which the canal water flows, tainted by refuse and sewage as it
flows by the empty shells of long-buried shops.

45

Freight Gondolas

Crewed by a pair of pilots, broad, flat-decked vessels called freight
gondolas carry large quantities of trade goods without settling too
deeply into the water. Some of the larger trade companies utilize two-
level freight gondolas with a deep cargo hold that extends below the
waterline, allowing for a significantly higher cargo capacity. These larger
freight gondolas require an expert hand to pilot, since in several places
throughout the city the gondola’s draft would scrape or stick on the
bottom of a shallow canal.

Freight gondola traffic on the canals allows a city of New Dunhaven’s
size to feed and provide for its people. Any disruption in this freight
traffic prevents food and goods from reaching the people who need them
in interior districts, and results in hardships and riots as supplies dwindle.

Armored Gondolas

Infrequently found among the freight gondolas plying the city’s canals,
alchemically reinforced armored gondolas carry items of exceptional value.
Frequently used by depositories and counting houses to transfer large
amounts of physical tender (coins, gems, and precious metal bars being
the most common), these armored gondolas have smaller cargo holds
than other freight vessels, using that space instead for thick ironwood
enclosures and permanent guard stations.

Passenger Gondolas

Passenger gondolas ply the waterways on a daily basis, carrying travelers
with coin to spare. Smaller and more agile than freight gondolas,
passenger gondolas weave in and out of the larger freight traffic with
gliding grace, though gondoliers have a reputation for being a bit too
daring. Passenger gondolas range in quality from simple craft with
wooden benches to luxurious transports that resemble floating palanquins.
Hiring even the most modest gondola costs too much for most
commoners. When a commoner absolutely needs to travel by gondola,
one option is to seek out a rookpole. Rookpoles are tall, black-painted
poles capped with brass spheres at which commoners can meet and pool
their coin to hire a gondola if they are traveling in the same direction.
Some passenger gondolas cater specifically to rookpole clients, with
several wide benches that accommodate a large number of passengers.

46

Private Gondolas

Nobles whose estates abut canals not only have their own gondola
docks, but also their own gondolas. In the newer noble districts, private
canal offshoots (with entrances heavily guarded by hired security forces)
run along the back of the estates. Owning a private passenger gondola
has become a status symbol among wealthy merchants, but among the
nobility it remains an absolute necessity, ranking alongside food, lamp
oil, and good hired help. Owning a gondola and dock allows nobles to
travel across the city’s canals without ever coming into close contact
with commoners.

Gondoliers

While in some respects the gondoliers who pilot the canal craft are as
varied as any other citizenry, in truth they manifest in two varieties:
the greasily charming hawkers of the passenger gondolas who use their
silver tongues to lure in wealthy passengers, and the stern freight pilots
whose coarse language and gruff impatience makes wagon drivers seem
like pushovers. Most gondoliers fall into the latter category. Time equals
coin in their purses, so when the canals slow down or a logjam blocks the
way, they use the rough sides of their tongues—and maybe a whack from
their staves—to try to get traffic moving again. New gondoliers wind up
nursing bruised bodies and egos after inadvertently jamming up a canal.

Thief Signs: The Family Business

Ask any of the Right Kind of People in this town and they’ll tell you straight—the Family owns the canals.
Take a payday stroll down to the waterways and spot a dozen gondoliers poling their craft, and half of
them are members of the Family, or at least on the take. You need somewhere to stash nicked goods until
the Crown loses interest? Drop them into one of the shadow warehouses along the canals, and then load
them on a gondola when you’re ready to fence. Need a quick getaway? Look for the Signs scratched into
the hull of a gondola for someone friendly to the Right People. Need a quiet place to make contact with a
crooked member of the City Watch? Drop down to the water level on an abandoned gondola dock. My old
nanna used to swear that the streets along the canals were the safest place for common folk, on account of
the Family keeping out the dregs. That’s just how the Family operates. They run the crooked jobs along the
canals and the common folk think they’re looking out for them, doing what the Crown won’t.

—Ollie Six-Fingers, Forgotten thief

47

The Royal Palace

Originally the frontier fort of Kalat Wadun, the Royal Palace is the seat
of the city’s aristocratic government and the home to the Regent and
her Royal Family. As Kalat Wadun became more important as a trading
outpost, its grounds expanded, covering the entire hill upon which it
was built. Once the settlement grew too large for its original walls and
buildings began to spill outside, another wall was built to expand the
protective settlement. This process repeated several years later, and as
a result, the Royal Palace’s main buildings sit directly in the center of
three concentric rings of high stone walls, making it one of the most
impregnable palaces in the world.

The sprawling, decadently appointed palace rises above even the estates
of the wealthiest nobles in both beauty and prestige. Though the exterior
of the structure still features the stark, blocky features of the old fortress,
the interiors have been completely refurbished dozens of times, adding
breathtaking opulence and comfort. Many of the accouterments inside
the palace are gifts from foreign powers and dignitaries, and a number
of rooms are furnished with Taonan carpets, Vladov furniture, and
Elderland statuary.

A District Unto Itself

The Royal Palace covers an area larger than many districts, and in many
ways stands as a district in its own right. Though not completely self-
sufficient, the Royal Palace employs workers and craftspeople from almost
every profession found in a commoners’ district, all housed and supplied
within outbuildings and remote wings on palace grounds. Several taverns
and alehouses, provided explicitly for off-duty members of the palace’s
Royal Guard, allow them to socialize and relax in relative privacy.

A private canal connects the Royal Palace to the city’s larger canal
system, and the palace receives its supplies and raw materials via this
entrance. The interior of the hill upon which the palace is built has
been hollowed out and fortified, creating an underground network of
tunnels and chambers through which the thousands of palace servants
move on a daily basis. These access tunnels ensure that the Royal Family,
bureaucrats, and visiting nobility rarely see the servants going about their
duties. In many ways, the Royal Palace is much like a noble district built
atop a commoners’ district, with little visible interaction between the two.

48