Places & Neighborhoods
A guide to some of the places you'll find here on the Border, and Bordertown's best-known neighborhoods, excerpted from The Yellow Brick Road (with many thanks to the Loony Archivist!) and The Tough Guide to Bordertown.
The Border:
The Border that divides the World from the Realm usually looks like a shimmering curtain of colored light, although it is one of its odd effects that it can appear differently to different people. Humans can't cross it. Truebloods and halfies can cross, theoretically, but only if they do so at Elfhaeme Gate, with an up-to-date passport and permission from the authorities in the Realm. Anyone who tries to "jump" the Border is pretty much dusted. (There have been exceptions, but they are very, very rare.)The Border messes with both elfin magic and human technology, rendering both inoperable much of the time, and forcing residents of Bordertown to be creative with hybrid technology. Most usable tech can be powered using spell-boxes, though these can fail somewhat spectacularly, so backing them up with a working motor or other fail-safes is generally advised (especially if the tech in question is a motorcycle, for example). Cameras don't work the way they're meant to; and Internet on the Border ain't the Internet you're used to. To complicate things further, Border magic ebbs and flows like weather—so what works one day in B-town doesn't necessarily work the next. It all makes for a curious existence here on the Border... but hey. We manage.
The Realm:
What humans call Elfland or Faerie, Truebloods refer to as The One True Realm. They rarely speak of it to humans—indeed, they are largely unable to, due to powerful spells designed to obscure the truth. No human knows what's really beyond the Border. It seems to be a large and ancient Realm, ruled by powerful and/or noble families. There may or may not be a missing Heir to the Throne (heck, there may or may not even be a throne), but no human alive really knows for sure. Information gleaned from the Truebloods is scant, puzzling, and contradictory.The Nevernever:
The long stretch of magic-haunted wilderness along the border is officially called the Borderlands, but more commonly known by its colloquial name: the Nevernever. Bordertown sits in this wilderness: smack up against the Border (and Elfhaeme Gate) on the city's northern edge, with the open lands of the Nevernever stretching east, west, and south of the city.Bordertown:
Bordertown was once a human city, abandoned when the Border suddenly appeared, and now re-populated by humans, elves, and mixed-race peoples. (The latter are known by the rude-but-common term "halfie"—a corruption of "halfling"—regardless of the actual degree of elfin blood.)Bordertown sits on the banks of the Mad River, which flows, blood red, from the Realm out to the World (gradually losing its red color the further it is from the Border). The city's commerce revolves around elfin-human trade—both officially sanctioned business and a thriving black market. Although it is still a frontier town (existing, as it does, at the crossroads between two worlds), most of the city is now reasonably stable—except for the lawless downtown neighborhood known as the Old City, or Soho.
Downtown
Downtown Bordertown, which is everything south of the old City Canal....
The Old City:
Commonly known as Soho (because it runs roughly from Ho Street south), this neighborhood had been long abandoned before kids began to take it over, squatting in its run-down buildings and claiming it as their own territory. After a brief and dismal attempt to eject the squatters, the Bordertown High Council threw up its collective hands and ceded the derelict neighborhood to its youthful population.Soho has long been carved into territories "owned" and patrolled by various gangs, some harmless (even helpful) and some decidedly not. (Get a map at the Poop if you want to know which gangs have claimed which streets.) Bordertown's cops (i.e. the Silver Suits) generally won't come to Soho for anything less than murder, so it's up to the inhabitants to police themselves... which, for the most part, they do.
Soho is surrounded on two sides (east and south) by the crumbling remains of the Old City Wall. Entrance into the neighborhood from either of these directions is through two gates (occasionally but not always controlled by gangs): Hell's Gate (to the south) and River Gate (to the east).
The neighborhood's major thoroughfares are Ho, Carnival, and Carmine streets. Most of its popular clubs, restaurants, and galleries are on one of these three. There are two neighborhood parks (Tumbledown Park and Factory Downs); a haunted cluster of streets around Whisthound Square (where the buildings remain abandoned); and a neighborhood information center (The Poop) run out of a wheel-less trailer on Ho Street.
Riverside:
Stretching east from Soho to the banks of the Mad River, this is an area of warehouses and working docks. You'll find a daily fish market here run by the Fisher Folk: a strange, mysterious, clannish group of people who live on the Mad River banks outside the city limits. They are as tall and pale as elves (although much odder looking), yet insist that they are human.Watch your step in Riverside by the way. It's a favorite haunt of river-water-addicted Wharf Rats, and they're crazy.
Fare-You-Well Park:
A large city park directly west of Soho, this was formerly a campground for runaway kids, a drug dealers' haven, and the site of a long-running rave. More recently, a controversial "Clean up the Park" campaign has ejected the squatters and turned it back into a functioning neighborhood park—with playgrounds, family-friendly green space, and free daily concerts in the bandstand. Some people are happy about this; some are not. (The ejected squatters can now be found in Tumbledown Park and Tintown; the drug dealers in Factory Down. We don't know where the rave is now—but if you do, come by the Tough Guide office and tell us. Please.)Parkside:
Parkside is a poor, run-down, but reasonably safe residential neighborhood on the west and southern sides of Fare-You-Well Park. It is walking distance (across the park) to Soho, racially tolerant, ethnically mixed, and the rents are cheap.Letterville:
Letterville is a slightly better business-and-residential neighborhood north of the park. Recently threatened by big-money "development" and gentrification, there's now an active Letterville Neighborhood Association intent on preserving the area as a family-friendly working class enclave. (The L.N.A. was also behind the recent clean-up of Fare-you-well Park.)The western end of the City Canal runs as far as Letterville, and there are three old, established markets along its edge (for fish, vegetables, and flowers respectively). Although not as big as the Riverside Market or Traders' Heaven, the canal-side markets do a busy trade nonetheless, supplying businesses and residents all along the Lower West Side. Tatterstock, a used clothing emporium popular with downtown kids, is also located in Letterville.
Tintown:
South of Soho, this shantytown and tent city has long been home to hobos—and, more recently, to a growing population of kids displaced from Fare-you-well-Park. The Diggers had a free flophouse in Tintown until it was burned down in one of the downtown drug wars.Dogtown:
Just south of Tintown, this old freight yard was turned into a dump years ago. Now it's a place where packs of wild dogs and a few lone hobos live.Uptown
Uptown Bordertown
, which is everything north of the old City Canal. (We should note that when people refer to "Uptown," they are usually thinking of the wealthier neighborhoods—even though the less prosperous districts just north of the canal are, technically, Uptown too.)Dragontown:
Dragontown is bordered by the City Canal to the south (with Soho just below), the Scandal District to the north, Riverside to the east, and an industrial area to the west. This pan-Asian district is a dizzying warren of narrow streets and alleyways, subdivided into smaller immigrant neighborhoods where Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and other languages are more often heard than either English or Elvish. There's a magic in these streets that even the Truebloods have learned to respect, and to avoid.West Canal:
Bordertown's primary industrial area, it lies just above the west end of the canal, between Dragontown (to the east) and Letterville (to the west). The portion of Third Avenue that passes through the area is the busy center of the Border's garment industry, known locally as Sweatshop Row.The Scandal District:
This cluster of streets is Bordertown's small (and rather tame) Red Light area. Sexual prostitution is of no interest to Truebloods, as either buyers or sellers. (They have other vices.) Gambling is the major money-earner here, and a handful of seedy dance joints like The Hot Club.Dragon's Tooth Hill:
On the other (east) side of the Mad River, reached by the Dragon's Claw Bridge, this is one of B-town's best addresses, where the rich and powerful live. The Hill is an atmospheric neighborhood with a timeless, old world feel—full of fanciful architecture on steep, winding, cobbled streets, and stunning views of the city and the Border.Little Tooth:
Just north of Dragon's Tooth Hill, this crowded, lively area (famous for its excellent street market) has a large Jamaican population on the riverside, with warehouses, builders' yards, and salvage industries behind.The Promenade:
We're back across the river again, north of the Scandal District now. This stretch of the Mad River bank is an upscale area of shops, restaurants, and art galleries, anchored by the Border Museum of Art at one end and the Borderland Hilton at the other.Gryphon Park:
This is both the name of an actual park (large, formal, and statue-studded) in the northern part of the city, and also the name for the whole area of grandiose streets surrounding the park. Bordertown's government can be found here, as well as its business and financial center, and big-money cultural institutions like The Border Ballet and The Elfhaeme Opera.Gryphon Heights:
An area northeast of Gryphen Park, edged by the Border on its northernmost side, encompassing several well-to-do neighborhoods, both elfin and human.Gateway:
Gateway is the mixed residential-business area between Gryphen Park (to the south) and Elfhaeme Gate (to the north). It is known for its bookstores, theatres, and lively cafes—catering to an older (and more financially solvent) clientele than one would find downtown.Traders' Heaven:
Built into (and sprawling out of) an old shopping mall, this lively, chaotic marketplace is the center of Border trade. It's actually an inconvenient place for a market, being located some distance from the Mad River, but it's far too large and well established to relocate, to everyone's dismay.Elftown:
North of Traders' Heaven, close to the Border, this neighborhood is populated largely by Bordertown-born Truebloods who work as servants for wealthier (and usually Realm-born) Truebloods. Among the upper reaches of Trueblood society, referring to someone as "being from Elftown" is considered a slur.The Barrio:
West of Traders' Heaven, this is an old, established, comfortable neighborhood of primarily Latino families—though recent efforts of "gentrification" by well-heeled young elfin couples is causing the area to change.Bordertown Suburbs
The suburbs to the south and west of the city (leftover from pre-Border days) are largely abandoned now: ruined, overgrown with vegetation, and crumbling back into the landscape. They are sometimes referred to as The Land of Feral Houses.
A small stretch of inhabited suburbs lies east of the city, on the other side of the Mad River. These are working class and middle class neighborhoods, usually segregated into human and Trueblood areas—with prejudice towards halfies rife in both.
Overall, the bias against halfies in Bordertown shows signs of change as the mixed-race population grows. (A recent movement to quash the derogatory term "halfie" is gaining momentum, although none of the proposed alternatives have yet caught on.) At the moment, however, Letterville and Parkside are still the most tolerant neighborhoods in which to bring up a mixed-race family.