Foreign Quarter
Famous as “the only place on Golarion where you can teleport across the world by walking a city block,” Absalom’s Foreign Quarter is a rich, diverse, and occasionally chaotic patchwork of immigrant communities pushed together by the city’s longstanding practice of taxing foreigners exorbitantly to live in any district except this one. Merchants in Absalom are also permitted to demand higher prices from non-citizens for all manner of goods and services. These restrictions are lifted in the Foreign Quarter. As a result, while wealthy individuals may be able to afford houses in Westgate or the Ivy District, communities of people driven from their homelands by instability or persecution have been able to congregate primarily in the Foreign Quarter. Here, they thrive, and have collectively created one of the most vibrant and colorful parts of the city.
The mosaic of the Foreign Quarter encompasses both large and small communities. Entire blocks of the district appear to have been lifted from other lands, with buildings of distinctly Chelaxian or Osirian character filled with expatriates and their descendants. Qadiran bells sing the Dawnflower’s praises from high minarets, just as they would in golden, glorious Katheer. Every night, the children of drowned Lirgen gather in their star-marked squares and raise verdigris-ridden long-glasses to the constellations in hopes of finding the secret to unraveling the Eye of Abendego, as they have for over a century without success.
Smaller immigrant groups are less prominent in the city, but no less present. Some, too proud to be ignored even if their numbers are insufficient to claim whole blocks, maintain individual manors or communal halls in the architecture of their birthlands. Others—such as the scattered Razmiran refugees who have fled the Living God’s rule over the past few decades— prefer to live unobtrusively in the shadows of other settlements, where they are more likely to escape persecutors from their homelands.
Sometimes these communities become more closely knit as a result of their tight proximity, as with the reclusive Nidalese, who gather in silent recognition of their shared survivors’ scars. In other instances, however, the closeness of a small community can have the opposite effect, as with the varied folk of the snowy northlands, who congregate in boisterous mead halls to toast the Linnorm Kings and Mammoth Lords, but find it difficult to break free from age-old blood feuds when one’s sworn enemy is always seated just one table away.
Not every power in the Foreign Quarter is tied to a specific land. Gnomes are drawn toward the clattering, colorful chaos, irrespective of where they were born. Goblins tend to flock around the Five-Fire Pavilions, although not all are delighted by what they find there. And, perhaps most famously of all, the Pathfinder Society has maintained its Grand Lodge in Absalom for over four centuries, welcoming all seekers under its roof.
The Grand Lodge’s seven stone fortresses, crowned by the great towers of Skyreach, dominate the district’s skyline. Pathfinder agents, envoys, and explorers hail from every corner of the map, and Absalom has always been happy to celebrate their deeds as reflective of the city’s own glory.
Yet burnished legends are built on bloody realities, and not everyone in Absalom is equally enamored of the Pathfinders. The Peacebuilders’ Alliance is a community organization that has risen up in response to the carnage and devastation that the Pathfinders’ enemies have visited upon the innocent civilians of Absalom in the past few years. Although rumors of nefarious masterminds manipulating the Peacebuilders persist—some seeded by the Pathfinders themselves—the truth is simpler and crueler: the Pathfinder Society does inflict collateral damage, and enough ordinary people have gotten hurt that they’ve decided to put a stop to it. What will become of this conflict remains to be seen, but the Peacebuilders have garnered considerable support in a short period, and their clashes with the Pathfinder Society have intensified rapidly in recent days.
Still, though the details of its population shift and roll like so many grains of sand pushed by the tides of time, the nature of the Foreign Quarter seems eternal. Its markets are perfumed with the aromas of beloved childhood foods, the streets are bright with colorful fashions, and even those who hail from small villages can often find distant relatives and old neighbors to get the latest local gossip. Here, more than anywhere in Absalom, the varied peoples of Golarion come together to build a home that holds the world.
The mosaic of the Foreign Quarter encompasses both large and small communities. Entire blocks of the district appear to have been lifted from other lands, with buildings of distinctly Chelaxian or Osirian character filled with expatriates and their descendants. Qadiran bells sing the Dawnflower’s praises from high minarets, just as they would in golden, glorious Katheer. Every night, the children of drowned Lirgen gather in their star-marked squares and raise verdigris-ridden long-glasses to the constellations in hopes of finding the secret to unraveling the Eye of Abendego, as they have for over a century without success.
Smaller immigrant groups are less prominent in the city, but no less present. Some, too proud to be ignored even if their numbers are insufficient to claim whole blocks, maintain individual manors or communal halls in the architecture of their birthlands. Others—such as the scattered Razmiran refugees who have fled the Living God’s rule over the past few decades— prefer to live unobtrusively in the shadows of other settlements, where they are more likely to escape persecutors from their homelands.
Sometimes these communities become more closely knit as a result of their tight proximity, as with the reclusive Nidalese, who gather in silent recognition of their shared survivors’ scars. In other instances, however, the closeness of a small community can have the opposite effect, as with the varied folk of the snowy northlands, who congregate in boisterous mead halls to toast the Linnorm Kings and Mammoth Lords, but find it difficult to break free from age-old blood feuds when one’s sworn enemy is always seated just one table away.
Not every power in the Foreign Quarter is tied to a specific land. Gnomes are drawn toward the clattering, colorful chaos, irrespective of where they were born. Goblins tend to flock around the Five-Fire Pavilions, although not all are delighted by what they find there. And, perhaps most famously of all, the Pathfinder Society has maintained its Grand Lodge in Absalom for over four centuries, welcoming all seekers under its roof.
The Grand Lodge’s seven stone fortresses, crowned by the great towers of Skyreach, dominate the district’s skyline. Pathfinder agents, envoys, and explorers hail from every corner of the map, and Absalom has always been happy to celebrate their deeds as reflective of the city’s own glory.
Yet burnished legends are built on bloody realities, and not everyone in Absalom is equally enamored of the Pathfinders. The Peacebuilders’ Alliance is a community organization that has risen up in response to the carnage and devastation that the Pathfinders’ enemies have visited upon the innocent civilians of Absalom in the past few years. Although rumors of nefarious masterminds manipulating the Peacebuilders persist—some seeded by the Pathfinders themselves—the truth is simpler and crueler: the Pathfinder Society does inflict collateral damage, and enough ordinary people have gotten hurt that they’ve decided to put a stop to it. What will become of this conflict remains to be seen, but the Peacebuilders have garnered considerable support in a short period, and their clashes with the Pathfinder Society have intensified rapidly in recent days.
Still, though the details of its population shift and roll like so many grains of sand pushed by the tides of time, the nature of the Foreign Quarter seems eternal. Its markets are perfumed with the aromas of beloved childhood foods, the streets are bright with colorful fashions, and even those who hail from small villages can often find distant relatives and old neighbors to get the latest local gossip. Here, more than anywhere in Absalom, the varied peoples of Golarion come together to build a home that holds the world.
Type
District
Location under
Included Locations
- Blackblade’s
- Crimson Coin
- Devil’s Garden
- District Courthouse - Foreign Quarter
- Embassy of New Thassilon
- Fenworth Gameporium
- Five-Fire Pavilions
- Flying Alderman
- Foreign Quarter Council Hall
- Grand Lodge
- Greenstar Market
- House of Shade and Grace
- Irorium
- Lions’ Square
- Little Lirgen
- Opparan Trade Commission
- School of the North Song-Wind
- Seal of Kazutal
- Tiantown
- Utterhome
- Wounded Wisp
- Yemhasin
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
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