The Shambles
There is an area of Springreach not mentioned in any tourism pamphlets or commemorated on any plaques. It's an area that all major cities have, the seemingly unavoidable side effect of urban sprawl. It's a neighborhood most in Springreach avoid visiting, or even speaking about in anything more than whispers. Unless, of course, it is the cause de jour for an up and coming city politician or a do-gooder socialite. And then the name "The Shambles" is spoken about in town halls and on soap boxes, often with a tsk tsk click of the tongue, as an eyesore and Springreach shame. Though, obstensibly, The Shambles got its name from the hodge-podge of ramshackle buildings that line the narrow streets, the more cynical of Springreach think the name has just as strong a connection to that shame people feel when discussing the neighborhood.
Composed of six square blocks beginning at the western edge of Springreach and past the wall into the Springville region, it is in The Shambles that the poorest of the city make their home. Composed mostly of tenament housing and cheap tavern inns, a few butcher shops and grocers that sell the leftover goods the better businesses in the cities won't buy from the farmers in Springville, the money to be made in The Shambles is less overt and more underground. The streets of this neighborhood are less patrolled by the city guard, and the citizens here are often left to their own devices. This has allowed for less-savory individuals to stake their claim over control, and crime pays more than working hard labor at the docks or cleaning the homes of the wealthy Springreachers. The shame of The Shambles goes beyond the shanty-town buildings and seedy crime underbelly, though. More aware individuals might also notice that the population of The Shambles appears quite different to the overall population of Springreach, at large. The Elven influence of the city doesn't seem to penetrate the back alleys of The Shambles in quite the same way, and while the city does have diversity amongst its citizens, it seems that those that call The Shambles home tend to be of the races less common in town. Goblinoids, Half-Orcs, even a few Lizardfolk, are far more likely to be seen in The Shambles than the rest of Springreach. So, too, are there less people of Elvish decent, and even Humans are fewer, that make their living in the rough streets of The Shambles.
That is, unless those Elvish and Human faces are covered in cloaks and hoods, seen slipping through the streets in search of things that can only be found in the shadows of The Shambles, before heading back home to the clean, bright streets of Springreach.
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