1. The Shimmerings
This is the political district, home of the Shimmering Parliament and the grand houses of state. As a result, the area is grand, with wide boulevards, beautiful buildings, museums, plentiful parks and gorgeous vistas.
Here you will find Guardian City in its Sunday best, putting on a show. As a result, it tends to be where the wealthy and powerful live, usually to the north of the district and into the countryside beyond where they can buy up the acres of farmland.
2. Scandling's Corridor
This is the thin strip of land that acts as a link between the farm and food producers beyond the city and the central markets of Guardian City. As a result of this influx of fresh produce, it is also the home of the best restaurants and eateries.
3. Trample Street District
The Trample Street District, as it is formally known (sometimes just Trample District), sits adjacent to Scandling’s Corridor and is the hub of Guardian City’s leisure and entertainment offerings. Trample Street has all the finest and most exciting shops, theatres and music halls and is where the tourists tend to flock. It is a gaudy place – full of life and buzz, song and dance, pickpockets, and street entertainers.
4. Sawpit
Neighbouring and supporting the Southern Cuff (10) is Sawpit, built on timber imports and the marine trade. Here is a squalid and disreputable congregation of shipbuilders, second tier merchants, hostelries, and cheap lodging houses.
The Shimmering Parliament set up the Southern Cuff as a rival to the Obscurity – which is run by the mega-wealthy Obscure Trading Company. The Sawpit services the Southern Cuff but, like the Cuff, it is a pale imitation, attracting low-lifes and second raters. If you’re down on your luck, you chance your arm in The Obscurity. If you’re really, really down on your luck, you take up residence in Sawpit.
5. Copper Mile
The Copper Mile is where the business and finance of Guardian City is conducted. Here you will find the Guardian City Counting House and Vault, a number of other international banks and the headquarters of most of the major trading and manufacturing companies in the Commonwealth.
It is rich beyond compare in appearance and has a grand feel to showcase the wealth and prosperity of the city. This is also home to the Guardian City Gulp and Grizzle, the two daily newspapers and countless other smaller publications that thrive in a world where gossip means money.
6. Scriven's Yelp
Scriven’s Yelp grew out of the Copper Mile and became its own district. Not so brash as the Copper Mile it is a place of industry, where clerks write in ledgers and where lawyers draw up contracts.
Here is where you will find all the professional services that support the conduct of Guardian City and the wider commonwealth. It is a warrent, packed with tiny, dimly lit offices to be found down alleyways and round a maze of streets. The only exception is the legal district within the Yelp where the Inns are located, neighbouring the major courts.
7. Petticoat Chafe
As we head further east, away from The Shimmerings, the Copper Mile and neighbouring Scriven’s Yelp, there is Petticoat Chafe. This is the home of the established and recognised guilds where skilled craftspeople work on their trades.
Unlike Scriven’s Yelp, which is a quiet place, Petticoat Chafe is full of bustling workshops, small factories and warehouses. Here are the goldsmiths, the cabinet makers, the haberdashers, the vintners, the tallow chandlers and the rest, all members of the recognised Guilds. Guardian City is all about making money. Petticoat Chafe makes everything else.
8. The Cut
So named because a canal slices through linking the Thames to its major tributary, the Cut has a bosquey feel. It is full of parks and some grand residential houses. This is where the main universities, libraries and niche museums are located. Because of that, there are plenty of students who bring with them a relaxed vibe.
Here are coffee houses and small art galleries and low key bars presenting live music. On a Sunday there might be a market or a concert in the bandstand. People come to the Cut to breathe.
9. The Gulch
If Petticoat Chafe is where the established artisans work, the Gulch is the home of the up-and-comers, the solo entrepreneurs trying to make it in the Guardian City.
This is where the impoverished artists can find a lonely, rat-ridden garret to practise their art or perfect their craft. This is where the daring fashion designers and the outre masons and carpenters create cutting-edge trends in the hope of being discovered by the Trample District boutiques, or better still, the Obscure Trading Company. The area is poor and dark and dirty but attracts those who want to find the Next Big Thing and enjoy the edgy vibe of the Obscurity without its very real dangers.
10. The Rivet
The Rivet is home to heavy industry. Here are the true manufactories where the thump-thump of steam hammers fills the air and the smell of curious chemical concoctions wrinkles the nostril hair. There’s no reason to be here if you’re not doing business because the place is sparse, ugly, filthy and soulless.
11. The Obscurity
Some call the Obscurity the true heart of Guardian City. Some call it a city within a city, linked to the capital but separate. And there are reasons for thinking this.
It is wholly owned and run by the Obscure Trading Company which has power that rivals that of the Shimmering Parliament itself. It is nominally governed by the city authorities but most turn a blind eye to lawlessness because it is rampant. It exists purely for profit and anyone who can make a guinea is welcome to try to prosper there.
The place is a tumble-down, raucous, riotous congregation of outcasts, chancers, dreamers – and the Wistful. It is a magical and a dangerous place all at once.
12. The Southern Cuff
The Obscure Trading Company owns all the prize wharves, quays and docks on the northern bank of the river. They are the original royal chartered company and hold a monopoly on trade through the Quarrel into London.
The Shimmering Parliament eyes this rich trade enviously and set up its own smaller operation on the south bank. The Southern Cuff is home to docks, shipmakers, warehouses and the Guardian City navy. It is completely overshadowed by its north bank rival but the Shimmering Parliament has aspirations to grow its significance.