The loudest and gaudiest quarter of Vedycaer, named for the games and celebrations at its great arena. Its plazas run street fairs, mummers, and musicians the year round, and its gambling dens and pleasure-houses never quite close. It spreads west from the Darkwater, with the Plaza District on its far side. See Vedycaer Districts for the other seven.
The Imperial Amphitheater
The heart of the city’s social calendar and the reason the district has its name. Victory parades, masked dramas, and the great seasonal festivals all fill its tiers — but the crowds come above all for the monthly gladiatorial games, the fiercest public entertainment in the Borderlands.
The gladiator schools
Three rival schools train the fighters who bleed on the sand, and the feud between their lanistae is half the show.
House D’Neith
The school of Alestair D’Neith — House D’Neith has been reckoned masters of martial prowess for centuries, and its school is the proudest in the city. Its champion, Sydaris, “the Stallion of Vedycaer,” fights with secret fire-wreathed techniques that rumor says were worked out with the priests of the Binding Flame themselves.
House Thul
The school of Gustavus Thul, for generations the leading rival of House D’Neith. It leans on no mystic tricks; it simply fields an array of strong, skilled human and orcblooded fighters drawn from every walk of life.
Maxwell Silvermane
The newest and most talked-about school, founded just two years ago by Maxwell Silvermane, “the Strong Silver Sword” — a former champion who came to the city from Making. Silvermane specializes in capturing and training monsters and beastmen to fight on the sand, a spectacle that slips neatly around the laws against gladiator death-matches, and one that has made him enormously rich and wildly popular.
Gambler’s Row
One of the filthiest streets in the city, lined end to end with shady gambling dens. It was never tied into the sewers, so its residents haul their own waste to the nearest grate — a detail the smell will not let you forget.
The Silk Pony Inn
A notorious gambling house, and a favorite haunt of adventurers with coin to lose. Rumor holds that the Sewer Rats keep their headquarters somewhere within or beneath it, and that illegal pit-fights — the kind the Amphitheater would never sanction — are staged in its cellars for those who know to ask.
Around the district
- Traveler’s Gate — the iron-bound gate to the northern highways, open sunup to sundown.
- The Festival Wharf — piers and moorage along the Darkwater.
- The Amphitheater warehouses — publicly, they stock the food-sellers of the games; rumor says the Sewer Rats also use them to stash goods that want quiet fencing.