The City of Achat-Kamen and Environs
Posted: 10:25:12 Monday, 18 June, 2018
The city of Achát-Kámen has been around since well, anyone can remember. The calendar started after a particularly memorable fire in the city as it was being attacked by tribespeople. The city was sacked, looted and generally pillaged into a smouldering ruin. The people who remained however, simply started referring to that date as 'The Fire' and started to rebuild. Though many fires have swept through the thatch of the city since, that is the one the people of the city set their stock by.
The city squats on the silty plain and lets the river Jas flow right on by. What makes it worthwhile is that it sits just up the river from the salty marshlands that constitute the Jas estuary, after which lies the Zářící moře, the glittering sea. The guild of dockers makes a good deal of money piloting craft into the city and out again, but otherwise the city does not think too hard about things of the nautical persuasion. The Jas is one of the longer rivers in this part of the world, coming not from the nearby Žula mountains, but from the Mrakodrapy, a series of high glaciated peaks that were the result of a fearful crash a long time ago, and reputed home of many Gods. From many small tributaries and down many valleys, the water winds its way in a circuitous route to the sea. Achát-Kámen is essentially it's last stop on land, which means all the barges of goods and a fair few roads cross over the place.
The busiest roads are the one named Prosperita(an Achát-Kámen joke) and the Vychodni Silnice
Prosperita heads west toward the sea and the marshes and despite the amount of traffic it gets, it is one of the most inhospitable routes, curving along the swampy coastline before heading northwards along an ancient cliff-edge road before cutting through a pass across a peninsula to the neighbouring town of Hrad Bouřky. This would be a competitor but for the climactic conditions and the nature of the port there being even less friendly to traffic than the Jas estuary.
The Vychodni Silnice goes eastward across the seemingly endless fields, until reaching the small town of Letní Konec about a week's journey by horse away. Under it's palisade walls a small if busy market runs, though the Vlci nomads aren't always interested in trading, and they certainly don't pay their taxes. Beyond Letní Konec the road splits north and south, but the land is not tilled. This is the edge of the stepní země - the steppe lands, much to the anguish of many a Patricij.
The south-west road leads through a small forest to the fishing village of Ostružná, ironically famed for the brambles and thorns that were once allowed to run wild over the road rather than anything about the village itself. The place is so small it is not even a one-horse town, since the owner left the gate open and it ran away. The people there are insular, living on a peninsula, and are more interested in trying their hand at smuggling than piracy. Historically this was not always true, but a few punitive expeditions from the city tempered their desires to be in history.
The Žula mountains stand over the city to the north, accessible along the Žulova cesta and a source of a lot of the quarried materials for the city's wealthier sections. The mountains are only a couple of days away by horseback and perhaps four days by ox cart, meaning that there is a reasonable trade.
By quirk of fate, the initial stone-masons settled in what is known as the Kamenna čtvrť due to the good stone in the Babí Lom, though the quarry has been mined out and filled back in for centuries now. This has meant the Mosazný most, the Brass Bridge, has always been something of a traffic bottleneck. Several Patricij have widened it, most recently in 1231 by the predecessor of the recently deceased Patricij Hynek z Buku. Some of the stonemasons moved to Mokrá Hora but this has just had the result of putting them into competition with their colleagues across the river. The wealthier stonemasons built some larger houses on the Severni Silnice, forming the Kamenna Kolonia district.
As a meeting place, there are many markets in Achát-Kámen. The most notable are the largest, though there is plenty that goes on elsewhere as well. The Obilní trh, the Grain Market is one of the busiest, a fountain providing some water in the centre as the crowds do their business there. The place is of course well staked out by the Thieves Guild, and unlicensed pickpockets serve as some entertainment when caught. There are also several guild headquarters fronting this square, as it is at the prestigious meeting point of Táborská and the Mlynská roads - between the temples and the Noble districts.
The Zelný trh is probably the second most important market - partly due to the fact that barges unload there, a lot more than cabbages are sold at this point these days. The district retains it's original name though, and plenty of vegetables can be found as well. In the noisy streets there are three large blocks of houses, each with internal courtyards. These are the homes of wealthy merchants of several trades, those who can afford not to sleep above their shops (though several more do and many of these buildings have a ground-floor frontage selling all kinds of things). The Seamstresses' Guild has a discreet Gentlemen's club somewhere around here, though the exact location isn't publicised. The less salubrious workers of the Seamstresses' Guild tend to congregate at the Masný Trh - the meat market. Once the scene of slave auctions, that thing has been deemed to be bad taste and these days it merely has a strange juxtaposition between negotiable affection and butcher's wares.
Just down the road in Ořechov, outside the city gate is the Ulice Mazaných Umělců - the street of cunning artificers. If you need something made in Achát-Kámen, your best chance is here. There are shops of all kinds of Metalworkers, Tinkers and Weavers. The entire stretch of road is a hive of industrious work. Indeed the entire district has something of a industrial character to it. This even spills over into neighboring Černá Pole, which is home to the Kovarna, the Forgeworks of the Chrám Sedm Rukou Sek. The one exception to this is the raised up area known as Kraví Hora. There's always been a hill here, and at some point someone decided to plant a couple of oaks. Now the oldest tree in the city is here, a great oak known as Starý dědeček (Old Grandfather). There are of course, the usual myths and superstitions. A colony of Ravens has lived in the tree for a long time, and it is said if they ever leave, the city will fall. Another place of note is Špindlerův Mlýn - a large mill dedicated to the grinding of grain to flour. The family have owned it for several generations and are rather well to do.
Žatčany stinks. That's not a joke, though it goes around occasionally. The place is where the tanners do their trade. Almost all of the raw materials in the leatherwork trade are processed here, and this is where the middens are and the night soil men go after their day collecting. The smell of urine and the byproducts of human life thus hang heavy. The district is rather new, with the buildings and tanner's works being no more than a decade old, but already has a thriving trade on both sides of what is being referred to as the Koželužnicky břeh. This is also rather a concern for the former village and now outlying district of Opatovice. A place mostly of large houses and places for weary travelers to rest before heading into town to do business, the scent has started to see trade pass by and head into the city proper rather than linger.
Pekařská smells too, but that is because this is the square of the Bakers. Here the staff of life is made, with many Noble manors crowding around and spreading out of the heart of Starý Achát. This district was where the wealthy have always lived, but there is nothing more appreciated than bread in this city. Except perhaps beer. There is also the famous brewery here, brewing the city's beer, the unimaginatively named Starý Achát. Of course, beer can still be made at home, but the pilsner style brew is well known for good reasons and delights the tastebuds of those who can afford it.
Páková ulice or Lever Street marks the edge of Nový Achát. A district of tradesmen made good, the area has a sense of middle-class respectability about it that few would argue about. They've even got a rather modest but noteworthy square, Tesarikovo Namesti (The Square of the Carpenters). The district is home to a few workshops and stores as befits a tradesmans' home as well as a few other larger sales places. This is one of the places in the city where building supplies can be purchased in bulk, and the streets are no strangers to oxen teams in vast columns hauling timber, stone or other things. To the south of Nový Achát lies Kanice. Mostly famous for the Lískovecká, a row of houses that are right up against the district border with Opatovice and represented what was formerly the edge of the town until the recent expansion after an influx of immigrants. The houses here are a striking mix of old and new, but the people are generally reasonably well off, as suits them, living on the Achát side of the river.
Clustering under the walls of the Patricij's Palac, you do not go to Líšeň, Ponava and Žabovřesky after dark, so it is said. The people here live in defiance of official orders and occasional attempts at slum clearance have only made them more resistant to being moved. Their neighbors in Bystrc despair of ever having peace and quiet, and mostly stay there for the lucrative business of offering succor to the traveler who would be interested to see something other than fields after the journey from Letní Konec. The places behind Bystrc however are really where the poorest of the poor end up, and living there is not by choice. There is a thus a thriving market of things that even the city finds distasteful enough to call illegal, all along the 'Dlouhá cesta' of Líšeň, right in the view of the Patricij's Palac.
The district of Pod Palacem is also beneath the Palac, but that's about where the similarity ends. The houses here are large and well appointed, and any number of guards, officials and workers can be found. Uzka is the official entrance to the Palac, a narrow street that some say is unfitting, but has served as an additional defense historically. Some of the buildings are owned by the state, nationalized into various functions including accommodation for the clerks, Patricij's guards and other palac functionaries. They make for perhaps awkward neighbors for the few noble manors that remain. This is where the city mint is, as well as the Městské Vězení (gaol) at Kadaňovo Namesti.
Despite the jail being in Pod Palacem, executions are carried out at Náměstí Zlomených Měsíců, which is also where the Noční Divize of the Veřejná bezpečnost has its headquarters. How the square got its name is something of a mystery, but it is rumored that an old-times mage named Luboš Chlupatý brought down a great conflagration before vanishing into the realm of legend. The Denní Divize of the Veřejná bezpečnost headquarters is also in the Konečného náměstí district, on the name-sake square.
The Divišova čtvrť is so named because it is mostly full of state and Universita buildings and the two have co-existed in uneasy tension. Originally owned by a noble family who fell heavily out of favor around the time the last Veřejná bezpečnost commander killed the last King of the city several hundred years ago, the place has been carved up between the two powerful institutions since, with the Universita putting some of it's considerable wealth into purchasing the buildings to provide for faculty facilities after being confined in their district for a long time. Kasarna still holds the remains of an old Veřejná bezpečnost barracks, which has been re-purposed as an Alchemical studies laboratorium. The extra-legal execution of the King lead to the institution of the Patricij being developed, as well as the division of the Veřejná bezpečnost into Denní and Noční.
The Universita district has perhaps the tallest building in the city on the campus grounds. Overshadowing Náměstí Míru, the Palác umění is home to one of the largest galleries in the region, and has an imposing neo-classical facade, completed in 1189. It's tower is made of pink veined granite in tribute to the Červená Věž. The Universita district is tall by necessity and by artifice - acquisition of land can only be made via Patricij's writ, since even the small degree of magic that can be done can have disastrous results and the last thing wanted is to cover large swathes of countryside with high background magic. Nobody wants their field to walk off or start talking to them. The last few Patricij have been rather convivial with the Universita, a policy that no doubt the Universita would wish the next occupant of the Palac to continue.
Veveří and Obřany are mainly notable for being homes to two main roads, serving mostly as districts where a better class of people go to shop. Historically the arms trade was conducted in Obřany and a few high-end stores still cater to this, but the majority of the business has moved to Černá Pole. Sýpka likewise is the site of the old granary, but these days you'd struggle to find any decent amount of grain there since it was relocated to be nearer to the Obilní trh.
The joke goes that whoever named Trnita couldn't count - but there are actually three entrances to the square if you count the alley running along the back of Táborská . Since it's 'below Heaven', some wag nicknamed it the cesta do Pekla and it stuck. Between Trnita and the gate there are more gods and goddesses than most people have time to believe in, never mind catalogue. Large temples jostle with small ones, small ones jostle with each other. A cult centre for any number of religions, the primary places in the district are the more practical ones for most people. Malí bohové is a large square that usually has some kind of marquee or pavilion on it. The people use it as a place to marry or to celebrate a birth and a number of temples for gods big enough to own real-estate cluster around it. The combined funds of those gods who aren't big enough to own real estate sits at the north end of the square and goes back to the city wall, a great leaden dome found to be neutral enough and also impressive enough.
The Ustřední hřbitov is, as the name suggests, the cemetery in the middle of the city. Many of the great and good are here in the tightly spaced ground. While previous generations have had mausoleums, the present state of crowding means that the poor can't afford to get near the place, and the rich are not guaranteed interment for more than a few decades. Perhaps someone could do something about this, but nobody has so far. For those who don't fancy burial or can't afford it, there is the Schodiště, where pyres are burned and ashes poured into the Jas.
Nove Nivky is the great open-air market of Kralovo Pole. An otherwise quiet district, the burghers and farmers have a large market that specializes in livestock. If you want to buy a cow, or a pet dog, this is the place. There's also a farriers and a large livery stable that owns most of the land on the actual Kralovo Pole. The other notable point is the Zlibek, where the poorer folk gather to see traveling performers put on plays and other entertainments.
Julianov was once a small village overlooking Achát-Kámen, and is now the newest outlying district. The people there are still insular and rather village minded in their ways, and it is expected by none that this clannishness will fade given time. They tend to be farmers and small businessmen and have little truck with the way the guilds like to run things (as it is felt they're more interested in what goes on in the city. This is true.). Consequently, the district has something of a bad reputation in the city, though it is not the sort of place where you can expect to be mugged unless you're flouting guild credentials.
Troubsko is a small run of houses on a rather steep hill that goes up Julianov before the land is cleared away for the fields up there. The rocky land and patchy stone wouldn't be noteworthy aside from the fact it's about fifty metres in elevation on an otherwise mostly flat city. The road from the Žulova cesta to Julianov was called Mladé Buky for the young beech trees that used to line it until they were cut down and houses placed along it.
Lesna occupies a space that used to be a forest, and still retains some of its trees as a result. Both Lesna and Troubsko came about as relatively recent developments and the former has a markedly working class tone to it's populace. A lot of people there work on the docks and there is some suggestion to build a new dock for barges. What this would do to traffic in the city is unknown but it has a lot of local traction as a potential method of getting into the centre faster. The people in the centre are not thrilled at the prospects of boatloads of peasants coming into the city however.
Kobylnice is only really notable for the Draxlovi pole - a lot of the area is populated by one large family. It was formerly a village until recently and there is a joke in the city that people from Kobylnice have webbed feet and a predisposition for their cousins. Aside from that, it's a sleepy, mostly agricultural area that shares little to nothing with it's neighbour to the north.
Husovice used to be this way but now is full of the men who employ the tanners. The village is slowly being absorbed into the city and losing it's character as it does. Aside from the faint scent of Žatčany, it's a nice enough place on the road to Ostružná. Like Ořechov there is a deal of industry there, but the pace of life hasn't quite sped up yet.
The city squats on the silty plain and lets the river Jas flow right on by. What makes it worthwhile is that it sits just up the river from the salty marshlands that constitute the Jas estuary, after which lies the Zářící moře, the glittering sea. The guild of dockers makes a good deal of money piloting craft into the city and out again, but otherwise the city does not think too hard about things of the nautical persuasion. The Jas is one of the longer rivers in this part of the world, coming not from the nearby Žula mountains, but from the Mrakodrapy, a series of high glaciated peaks that were the result of a fearful crash a long time ago, and reputed home of many Gods. From many small tributaries and down many valleys, the water winds its way in a circuitous route to the sea. Achát-Kámen is essentially it's last stop on land, which means all the barges of goods and a fair few roads cross over the place.
The busiest roads are the one named Prosperita(an Achát-Kámen joke) and the Vychodni Silnice
Prosperita heads west toward the sea and the marshes and despite the amount of traffic it gets, it is one of the most inhospitable routes, curving along the swampy coastline before heading northwards along an ancient cliff-edge road before cutting through a pass across a peninsula to the neighbouring town of Hrad Bouřky. This would be a competitor but for the climactic conditions and the nature of the port there being even less friendly to traffic than the Jas estuary.
The Vychodni Silnice goes eastward across the seemingly endless fields, until reaching the small town of Letní Konec about a week's journey by horse away. Under it's palisade walls a small if busy market runs, though the Vlci nomads aren't always interested in trading, and they certainly don't pay their taxes. Beyond Letní Konec the road splits north and south, but the land is not tilled. This is the edge of the stepní země - the steppe lands, much to the anguish of many a Patricij.
The south-west road leads through a small forest to the fishing village of Ostružná, ironically famed for the brambles and thorns that were once allowed to run wild over the road rather than anything about the village itself. The place is so small it is not even a one-horse town, since the owner left the gate open and it ran away. The people there are insular, living on a peninsula, and are more interested in trying their hand at smuggling than piracy. Historically this was not always true, but a few punitive expeditions from the city tempered their desires to be in history.
The Žula mountains stand over the city to the north, accessible along the Žulova cesta and a source of a lot of the quarried materials for the city's wealthier sections. The mountains are only a couple of days away by horseback and perhaps four days by ox cart, meaning that there is a reasonable trade.
By quirk of fate, the initial stone-masons settled in what is known as the Kamenna čtvrť due to the good stone in the Babí Lom, though the quarry has been mined out and filled back in for centuries now. This has meant the Mosazný most, the Brass Bridge, has always been something of a traffic bottleneck. Several Patricij have widened it, most recently in 1231 by the predecessor of the recently deceased Patricij Hynek z Buku. Some of the stonemasons moved to Mokrá Hora but this has just had the result of putting them into competition with their colleagues across the river. The wealthier stonemasons built some larger houses on the Severni Silnice, forming the Kamenna Kolonia district.
As a meeting place, there are many markets in Achát-Kámen. The most notable are the largest, though there is plenty that goes on elsewhere as well. The Obilní trh, the Grain Market is one of the busiest, a fountain providing some water in the centre as the crowds do their business there. The place is of course well staked out by the Thieves Guild, and unlicensed pickpockets serve as some entertainment when caught. There are also several guild headquarters fronting this square, as it is at the prestigious meeting point of Táborská and the Mlynská roads - between the temples and the Noble districts.
The Zelný trh is probably the second most important market - partly due to the fact that barges unload there, a lot more than cabbages are sold at this point these days. The district retains it's original name though, and plenty of vegetables can be found as well. In the noisy streets there are three large blocks of houses, each with internal courtyards. These are the homes of wealthy merchants of several trades, those who can afford not to sleep above their shops (though several more do and many of these buildings have a ground-floor frontage selling all kinds of things). The Seamstresses' Guild has a discreet Gentlemen's club somewhere around here, though the exact location isn't publicised. The less salubrious workers of the Seamstresses' Guild tend to congregate at the Masný Trh - the meat market. Once the scene of slave auctions, that thing has been deemed to be bad taste and these days it merely has a strange juxtaposition between negotiable affection and butcher's wares.
Just down the road in Ořechov, outside the city gate is the Ulice Mazaných Umělců - the street of cunning artificers. If you need something made in Achát-Kámen, your best chance is here. There are shops of all kinds of Metalworkers, Tinkers and Weavers. The entire stretch of road is a hive of industrious work. Indeed the entire district has something of a industrial character to it. This even spills over into neighboring Černá Pole, which is home to the Kovarna, the Forgeworks of the Chrám Sedm Rukou Sek. The one exception to this is the raised up area known as Kraví Hora. There's always been a hill here, and at some point someone decided to plant a couple of oaks. Now the oldest tree in the city is here, a great oak known as Starý dědeček (Old Grandfather). There are of course, the usual myths and superstitions. A colony of Ravens has lived in the tree for a long time, and it is said if they ever leave, the city will fall. Another place of note is Špindlerův Mlýn - a large mill dedicated to the grinding of grain to flour. The family have owned it for several generations and are rather well to do.
Žatčany stinks. That's not a joke, though it goes around occasionally. The place is where the tanners do their trade. Almost all of the raw materials in the leatherwork trade are processed here, and this is where the middens are and the night soil men go after their day collecting. The smell of urine and the byproducts of human life thus hang heavy. The district is rather new, with the buildings and tanner's works being no more than a decade old, but already has a thriving trade on both sides of what is being referred to as the Koželužnicky břeh. This is also rather a concern for the former village and now outlying district of Opatovice. A place mostly of large houses and places for weary travelers to rest before heading into town to do business, the scent has started to see trade pass by and head into the city proper rather than linger.
Pekařská smells too, but that is because this is the square of the Bakers. Here the staff of life is made, with many Noble manors crowding around and spreading out of the heart of Starý Achát. This district was where the wealthy have always lived, but there is nothing more appreciated than bread in this city. Except perhaps beer. There is also the famous brewery here, brewing the city's beer, the unimaginatively named Starý Achát. Of course, beer can still be made at home, but the pilsner style brew is well known for good reasons and delights the tastebuds of those who can afford it.
Páková ulice or Lever Street marks the edge of Nový Achát. A district of tradesmen made good, the area has a sense of middle-class respectability about it that few would argue about. They've even got a rather modest but noteworthy square, Tesarikovo Namesti (The Square of the Carpenters). The district is home to a few workshops and stores as befits a tradesmans' home as well as a few other larger sales places. This is one of the places in the city where building supplies can be purchased in bulk, and the streets are no strangers to oxen teams in vast columns hauling timber, stone or other things. To the south of Nový Achát lies Kanice. Mostly famous for the Lískovecká, a row of houses that are right up against the district border with Opatovice and represented what was formerly the edge of the town until the recent expansion after an influx of immigrants. The houses here are a striking mix of old and new, but the people are generally reasonably well off, as suits them, living on the Achát side of the river.
Clustering under the walls of the Patricij's Palac, you do not go to Líšeň, Ponava and Žabovřesky after dark, so it is said. The people here live in defiance of official orders and occasional attempts at slum clearance have only made them more resistant to being moved. Their neighbors in Bystrc despair of ever having peace and quiet, and mostly stay there for the lucrative business of offering succor to the traveler who would be interested to see something other than fields after the journey from Letní Konec. The places behind Bystrc however are really where the poorest of the poor end up, and living there is not by choice. There is a thus a thriving market of things that even the city finds distasteful enough to call illegal, all along the 'Dlouhá cesta' of Líšeň, right in the view of the Patricij's Palac.
The district of Pod Palacem is also beneath the Palac, but that's about where the similarity ends. The houses here are large and well appointed, and any number of guards, officials and workers can be found. Uzka is the official entrance to the Palac, a narrow street that some say is unfitting, but has served as an additional defense historically. Some of the buildings are owned by the state, nationalized into various functions including accommodation for the clerks, Patricij's guards and other palac functionaries. They make for perhaps awkward neighbors for the few noble manors that remain. This is where the city mint is, as well as the Městské Vězení (gaol) at Kadaňovo Namesti.
Despite the jail being in Pod Palacem, executions are carried out at Náměstí Zlomených Měsíců, which is also where the Noční Divize of the Veřejná bezpečnost has its headquarters. How the square got its name is something of a mystery, but it is rumored that an old-times mage named Luboš Chlupatý brought down a great conflagration before vanishing into the realm of legend. The Denní Divize of the Veřejná bezpečnost headquarters is also in the Konečného náměstí district, on the name-sake square.
The Divišova čtvrť is so named because it is mostly full of state and Universita buildings and the two have co-existed in uneasy tension. Originally owned by a noble family who fell heavily out of favor around the time the last Veřejná bezpečnost commander killed the last King of the city several hundred years ago, the place has been carved up between the two powerful institutions since, with the Universita putting some of it's considerable wealth into purchasing the buildings to provide for faculty facilities after being confined in their district for a long time. Kasarna still holds the remains of an old Veřejná bezpečnost barracks, which has been re-purposed as an Alchemical studies laboratorium. The extra-legal execution of the King lead to the institution of the Patricij being developed, as well as the division of the Veřejná bezpečnost into Denní and Noční.
The Universita district has perhaps the tallest building in the city on the campus grounds. Overshadowing Náměstí Míru, the Palác umění is home to one of the largest galleries in the region, and has an imposing neo-classical facade, completed in 1189. It's tower is made of pink veined granite in tribute to the Červená Věž. The Universita district is tall by necessity and by artifice - acquisition of land can only be made via Patricij's writ, since even the small degree of magic that can be done can have disastrous results and the last thing wanted is to cover large swathes of countryside with high background magic. Nobody wants their field to walk off or start talking to them. The last few Patricij have been rather convivial with the Universita, a policy that no doubt the Universita would wish the next occupant of the Palac to continue.
Veveří and Obřany are mainly notable for being homes to two main roads, serving mostly as districts where a better class of people go to shop. Historically the arms trade was conducted in Obřany and a few high-end stores still cater to this, but the majority of the business has moved to Černá Pole. Sýpka likewise is the site of the old granary, but these days you'd struggle to find any decent amount of grain there since it was relocated to be nearer to the Obilní trh.
The joke goes that whoever named Trnita couldn't count - but there are actually three entrances to the square if you count the alley running along the back of Táborská . Since it's 'below Heaven', some wag nicknamed it the cesta do Pekla and it stuck. Between Trnita and the gate there are more gods and goddesses than most people have time to believe in, never mind catalogue. Large temples jostle with small ones, small ones jostle with each other. A cult centre for any number of religions, the primary places in the district are the more practical ones for most people. Malí bohové is a large square that usually has some kind of marquee or pavilion on it. The people use it as a place to marry or to celebrate a birth and a number of temples for gods big enough to own real-estate cluster around it. The combined funds of those gods who aren't big enough to own real estate sits at the north end of the square and goes back to the city wall, a great leaden dome found to be neutral enough and also impressive enough.
The Ustřední hřbitov is, as the name suggests, the cemetery in the middle of the city. Many of the great and good are here in the tightly spaced ground. While previous generations have had mausoleums, the present state of crowding means that the poor can't afford to get near the place, and the rich are not guaranteed interment for more than a few decades. Perhaps someone could do something about this, but nobody has so far. For those who don't fancy burial or can't afford it, there is the Schodiště, where pyres are burned and ashes poured into the Jas.
Nove Nivky is the great open-air market of Kralovo Pole. An otherwise quiet district, the burghers and farmers have a large market that specializes in livestock. If you want to buy a cow, or a pet dog, this is the place. There's also a farriers and a large livery stable that owns most of the land on the actual Kralovo Pole. The other notable point is the Zlibek, where the poorer folk gather to see traveling performers put on plays and other entertainments.
Julianov was once a small village overlooking Achát-Kámen, and is now the newest outlying district. The people there are still insular and rather village minded in their ways, and it is expected by none that this clannishness will fade given time. They tend to be farmers and small businessmen and have little truck with the way the guilds like to run things (as it is felt they're more interested in what goes on in the city. This is true.). Consequently, the district has something of a bad reputation in the city, though it is not the sort of place where you can expect to be mugged unless you're flouting guild credentials.
Troubsko is a small run of houses on a rather steep hill that goes up Julianov before the land is cleared away for the fields up there. The rocky land and patchy stone wouldn't be noteworthy aside from the fact it's about fifty metres in elevation on an otherwise mostly flat city. The road from the Žulova cesta to Julianov was called Mladé Buky for the young beech trees that used to line it until they were cut down and houses placed along it.
Lesna occupies a space that used to be a forest, and still retains some of its trees as a result. Both Lesna and Troubsko came about as relatively recent developments and the former has a markedly working class tone to it's populace. A lot of people there work on the docks and there is some suggestion to build a new dock for barges. What this would do to traffic in the city is unknown but it has a lot of local traction as a potential method of getting into the centre faster. The people in the centre are not thrilled at the prospects of boatloads of peasants coming into the city however.
Kobylnice is only really notable for the Draxlovi pole - a lot of the area is populated by one large family. It was formerly a village until recently and there is a joke in the city that people from Kobylnice have webbed feet and a predisposition for their cousins. Aside from that, it's a sleepy, mostly agricultural area that shares little to nothing with it's neighbour to the north.
Husovice used to be this way but now is full of the men who employ the tanners. The village is slowly being absorbed into the city and losing it's character as it does. Aside from the faint scent of Žatčany, it's a nice enough place on the road to Ostružná. Like Ořechov there is a deal of industry there, but the pace of life hasn't quite sped up yet.