The city’s religious heart, filling the southeastern corner of Vedycaer behind the Imperial Walls. Nearly every temple, order, and charitable house in the city stands here, and most of its clergy and lay staff live in the streets between them. The Old Walls close it off to the west, where the Lake Gate opens to the Lake District. See Vedycaer Districts for the other seven.
Headings are numbered to the map.
58. The Temple of the Binding Flame
Home to the city’s sacred fire, kept always lit. Its clergy tend the flame that binds household to household — presiding over marriages and the naming of children, keeping the pure waters, and standing as witness to solemn oaths. Rumor in the Festival District holds that the fire-wreathed techniques of the D’Neith champion Sydaris were worked out in concert with the priests here, though the temple says nothing of it.
63. The Temple of Justice
The seat of the Templars, who hold jurisdiction over religious and political crimes — heresy, treason, corruption, and the like — where the civil Imperial Courthouse handles disputes between citizens. As with the civil courts, it is generally left to private citizens to bring an accusation; but for a matter of real weight, an Attendant of Talavosh may step in and take up the cause himself.
65. The Temple of the Shieldmaidens
The chapter-house of the Shieldmaidens, the warrior-women sworn to Numilvara and to the defense of the realm. Renowned across Sair as bodyguards and loyal defenders, those trained here are in demand from any great house or Imperial officer with reason to fear a knife in the dark.
67. The Temple Barracks
Quarters of the Knights of the Tiger Prince, the martial order of Talavosh. Most of the order serves across the Borderlands, but two platoons are always kept in the city to guard the Citadel and the temples of this district. Their disciplined knights are a common sight patrolling the Boulevard of Icons and the walls.
64. The Hall of Travelers
Maintained by House Aurean — the local name of House Orien, keepers of the Mark of Passage. The Order of the Travelers aids explorers, scouts, sailors, and merchants who range throughout the empire and beyond it, and is a good first stop for anyone bound for the frontier who wants word of the roads ahead.
68. The Shrine of the Ancestors
A quiet place of remembrance above the Catacombs of the Ancestors, where the city’s families inter and honor their dead. The passages below run deep, and older stone lies deeper still.
62. The House of Mourning
Where the grey-robed order that tends the city’s dead prepares funerals and prays over the departed. It is also the place to establish or execute a will, and to settle the affairs of an estate — business that draws the living here nearly as often as the dead.
The charities of the Goddess
The city’s great charitable institutions, run by the clergy of Numilvara and open to any soul in need:
- 59. The Hospital of the Goddess — where the sick and the wounded are healed.
- 60. The Almshouse of the Goddess — refuge and alms for the destitute.
- 61. The Orphanage of the Goddess — care and keeping for the city’s parentless children.
66. The Boulevard of Icons
A street of shops, stalls, and stands selling talismans, trinkets, and devotional icons of every make. It is the gathering-ground for the followers of the old Sovereigns, whose lesser shrines and image-sellers cluster along it.
Gates
- 53. East Gate — the gate through the Imperial Walls on the district’s eastern side, open sunup to sundown.
- 57. The Watchful Gate — the southern gate through the Imperial Walls, open sunup to sundown.