Post by Guildpact on Feb 6, 2023 4:58:18 GMT -8
Precinct Five
As the home of prestigious universities, ancient libraries, and hidden laboratories, Precinct Five is the hub of information and learning in the Tenth District. People of all ages flock to this precinct to spend time learning, whether by poring over texts and scrolls or finding a mentor who will guide a student. It’s also the place to find information brokers, who sell specialized or secret knowledge available nowhere else. Multilevel buildings set next to each other with little regard for planning give way to an occasional square or open campus where socially-minded residents congregate during daytime hours. At night, many continue their studies while others tinker with their latest creations or intellectual endeavors. Taverns and pubs tend to be more urbane than in other parts of the district and often feature poetry readings, storytelling, and musical performances.
People who live in Precinct Five have a zeal for learning and tend to be inquisitive. Getting into a heated debate or touting a recent success to your neighbors is part of showing your worth. Good neighbors keep their projects and research hidden until a result can be displayed; it is considered uncouth to allow others to view a work in progress.
Affiliated Guilds
Zonot Seven, the home of the Simic Combine’s guildhall, is located on the western edge of the precinct. The Izzet League maintains a network of laboratories and workshops close to Nivix (in Precinct Four). House Dimir agents are seen and unseen all around the district, and they secretly run the Ismeri Library. Some members of the Azorius Senate who prefer to study disciplines aside from the law make their homes here as well.
Neighborhoods and Landmarks
Life for residents in Precinct Five is spent mostly indoors, or in the case of the Simic, underwater. The precinct’s occupants— including significant populations of students, instructors, researchers, scribes, and university staff— are crowded into dormitories and apartments squeezed in among laboratories, libraries, and magical machinery.
Zonot Seven
The Simic Combine’s watery habitat is made up of huge sinkholes filled with the overflow from a subterranean ocean. Zonot Seven is the only zonot within Ravnica City proper, and it contains Zameck, the Simic guildhall. In contrast to the rest of the precinct, the zonot is a bustling place, with activity at all hours. A huge chamber just below the street surface serves as a gathering place for all the Simic speakers, as well as a place where visitors can meet with Prime Speaker Zegana or other Simic emissaries. A Simic researcher might invite a land-dwelling colleague to visit the habitat, but such an occurrence isn’t common. Canals lead from here farther into the precinct and to Precinct Six.
The Blistercoils
A series of gigantic waterwheels, built and operated by the Izzet League, turns just outside Zonot Seven in the north end of the precinct. The system generates magical energy to power public works, Simic laboratories, and, of course, Izzet workshops. Few outside the Izzet realize that the amount of energy generated in the Blistercoils far exceeds what is actually used, with the excess stored in underground batteries that could explode if they became overloaded.
Blistercoils is also the name of the neighborhood near the waterwheels, which largely consists of workshops and private laboratories.
Hightower
The western end of the precinct is packed with educational institutions of all sorts, from grand universities that cover a broad span of disciplines to specialized schools that instruct students in subjects ranging from theoretical metaphysics to fine arts. The neighborhood takes its name from the fact that most of these schools boast at least one tall spire among their structures. Students and staff live both on and off the various campuses, and several cozy pubs and small lecture halls are busy from afternoons through late in the night.
Prism University
A crystal-paned center of learning that concentrates on magical theory and application, Prism University draws potential wizards and other would-be mages who want to learn about all forms of magic, in contrast to the specialized and practical applications of magic espoused by the guilds. Even though the school maintains a formal state of neutrality, it’s an open secret that many guilds have infiltrated the university and planted agents to woo prospective members. Partly as a result of this influence, many graduates of the university do go on to join a guild, finding a way to apply their broad experience to support the narrower focus of the guild. (A player character spellcaster might well be a graduate of the university, which could explain the character’s ability to use magic that wouldn’t normally be taught within their guild.)
Ismeri Library
One of the greatest libraries on all Ravnica, the Ismeri Library is open to all citizens at all hours. Hundreds of thousands of books covering every conceivable subject are found here. The place is also one of the centers of Dimir communication. Secret messages are hidden within its books by a variety of methods both magical and mundane. Dimir agents might have to gather message fragments hidden within several different documents, for example, to find their next assignments or targets. Intricate codes and magical wards protect other secrets.
Goods and Services
Specialty items that are commonly used by scribes, researchers, and inventors can be found in many small shops in the precinct, usually run by a tinker or academic. Precinct Five also has the best apothecaries, alchemists, and magic-mongers in the Tenth District. On the other hand, mundane adventuring gear, weapons, and armor are harder to find.
Information is an especially valuable commodity in Precinct Five. In addition to holding booksellers, the precinct is home to a variety of people who make a living (or at least a sizable side income) selling information, including private investigators, rumormongers, and spies.
Meals and lodging of modest to wealthy quality are available here. Older and more experienced people— high-ranking Simic researchers or established scholars— tend to maintain lifestyles toward the more expensive end of that scale.
Law and Crime
Much of the crime in Precinct Five is of a sort that is hard to detect: blackmail, espionage, identity theft (of the literal kind, perpetrated by shapechangers), and the like. Most of the precinct’s residents spend their time absorbed in study, unaware that such activities might be happening under their noses. Only rarely does violence break out, and Azorius arresters try hard to keep the incident quiet and maintain public calm.