Esterwatch is one of the largest cities in the Golden Empire, with a population of roughly 3,000,000. The city is divided into 20 districts, as detailed below. Eleven of these districts are located in Northside, to the north of the Turazna River.
Northside
Located North of the Turazna River, Northside is the hub of Esterwatch’s power and influence.
1. Gilded district
This district lies in the heart of Esterwatch and houses the Palace, where the Prince resides and rules over the city. Many nobles live in manors surrounding the Palace. The city’s Grand Courthouse also stands in this district. The entire district is surrounded by a massive wall, with the main gate bordering Central.
2. Central
Located just beyond the walls of the Gilded District, Central is the hub of Esterwatch’s bureaucracy. The lower courts and city hall reside in this district, which is also home to the Prince-appointed mayor of the city. Central is also headquarters to the City Watch, and the location of the Viarc Institute; the foremost college of Arcane knowledge in the Golden Empire.
3. Garrison
The origins of the city lie in Garrison, the home of Esterwatch’s military presence. The original fort is located here, and the Golden Empire keeps a number of soldiers stationed here.
4. Imperial Commons
Those who have money in the city but who aren’t nobility live in Imperial Commons, the upscale residential district. Many residents work in Central or come from families of successful merchants and traders. Still others may have less legitimate money in their pockets.
5. Grasslands Reach
The first non-Imperials to settle Esterwatch were the Grasslanders of the East. Though others have settled in Grassland’s Reach since, the Easterner’s culture and architecture still defines this district. People make out livings as merchants and street vendors, often just outside their own homes. Grassland’s Reach is widely considered the most cosmopolitan district of Esterwatch, with people from all ethnic groups thriving in its neighborhoods.
6. Industrial District
The Industrial District holds the production centers of Esterwatch. Countless factories line the blocks, and smoke and steam fill the air. Factory workers often end up living in apartments built next to their workplaces, at least until they fall to some unhappy accident. The Steam Barons who control the factories live in upscale homes in Imperial Commons, and are considered pillars of the community everywhere in the city. Everywhere, that is, except for in the minds of those workers that they have trapped economically in their factories. Even in other parts of the city, it is often whispered that the Industrial District is haunted by the spirits of vengeful factory workers, eager to strike out against the Steam Barons they once served.
7. Pauper’s Watch
Those lucky few who manage to escape the grueling existence of the Industrial District often find themselves in Pauper’s Watch. It is one of the poorer districts of the city, but the people here go about their lives with a strong sense of communal pride. They are self-policing, and will often gather as a community to punish any criminals within their neighborhoods, and so the City Watch tends to leave this district alone. Despite their reputation, rumors persist that the notorious Talon Syndicate has its hands in the affairs of Pauper’s Watch, but nothing has ever been proven.
8. Red Meadows
Red Meadows is home to a number of smaller communities that are practically villages unto themselves: Tombstone Hill, Grey Cloud Clearing, and Heaven’s Light are perhaps the largest of these communities. The District is made up of cemeteries full of the city’s dead and parks consisting of empty fields, consecrated by priests of Alabas as sights of old battles between the Imperials and the Grasslanders from back when Esterwatch was a military base. The small community of Grave in the center of the district is the only above-ground community of Revenants in Esterwatch, and houses a number of Revenants who rose from soldiers who fell in those old battles.
9. Harbor Slums
Once known as the Gilded Docks, and still officially called that in legal documents, the Harbor Slums have long since fallen into decay. The poor and destitute and desperate make their home in this district, and the whole area is rife with crime and danger. Honest workers can be found working the docks themselves, seemingly untouched by the constant crime that plagues the district. The City Watch proudly boasts that its diligence keeps the docks clean, but in reality the Talon Syndicate has made it known in the slums that the docks are under its protection, and anyone who violates the peace of the docks will soon find themselves at the bottom of the Turazna River.
10. Ashen Corner
While the factories of Esterwatch are now concentrated in the Industrial District, the first factories were built in the Ashen Corner. A series of arsons brought the factories to ruin, and soon manufacturing moved to the Northern parts of the city. A community has risen up in the Ashen corner since, building homes and residences and shops around the old ruined factories that dot the district. Some whisper that these factories are haunted, while others claim that such ghost stories are a smokescreen to protect the criminals who regularly meet in the ruins. Regardless of the truth, no one in the Ashen Corner goes into the old factories.
11. Westgate
The road to the heart of the Golden Empire stretches out from Westgate, and merchants and travellers from the inner Empire often stop in this district. Fine inns, fantastic resorts, and exotic goods are available in Westgate to those who would seek them out.
Everything Explodes 