Crowcoil

Good luck, try not to get stabbed

— Dayne Reed

    Places, like people, can often shed one identity to embrace another. So it is with Ghal Pelor's 2nd largest district - Crowcoil. During the city's founding and under the rule of the original Ghal Ankharan lords, this place was known as Yhekymrahn. Supossedly, named after one of the founding lord's favored hunting boar, and built as a grain processing sector. These ignoble beginnings would persist for most of Crowcoil's dwarven chapter of its history. However, as the city became more of a multicultural epicenter than a dwarven stronghold, Yhekkymrahn was among the first places to change. The land here was cheap and undesirable, so naturally it attracted some of the first non-dwarven immigrants to the city. These early citizens struggled with the harsh dwarven name, referring to it by replacements such as Grain Town, Mill Town, Bread Basket, Wheat's End, and similar. Yet, one name above all others would take hold. The district was plagued by screeching crows swooping in to steal grain for an easy meal or trinkets from the machinery as baubles for their nests. The district was clogged with bossy flocks of crows that refused to give way to passersby. Non-dwarves would come to call this area of the city the Crows' Coil.   Dwarven identity slipped from the grasp of the original city founders like grains of sand through a clenched fist, but nowhere faster than here. City-wide efforts were conducted to stamp out outsider cultures and prevent them from taking root, but such efforts only delayed the inevitable. It wasn't a bloody revolution or conquest that ripped the city from the dwarves; it was a slow bleed. Ghal Ankhar detested the erosion of tradition, but they craved the gold and resources that flowed into the city because of outsiders. In no sector of the city was this shift more rapid and prominent than Crowcoil. By the time dwarven rule of Ghal Pelor had faded, Crowcoil was the epicenter of multicultural trade in the city. It was a bustling market where goods from all across the continent could be found, and up until that point, it was done secretly to avoid the steep dwarven tariffs on non-dwarven goods.   Once the last of Ghal Ankharan control was relinquished, so too was Crowcoil's status as a black market. The trading that once took place in the shadows moved to places like Lakewatch Vale, Union East, Echo March, Lakeside Market, and Monument Square. Crowcoil's newest persona was that of a family center and a melting pot for culture. As the rest of the city shifted identity, Crowcoil had already established itself as a place for everyone. Gone were the seedy backalley dealings and smugglers, replaced by tall apartment complexes and thriving markets for mundane goods. Schools for children soon followed, along with restaurants, healing centers, and even small temples to whatever gods people brought with them.   Crowcoil was never a fancy place, though; it was the neighborhood of the working class. Wealthy elites laid claim to Echo March, artists planted their flag in Ravensperch, and Templeside is where the Kreastos (structure for worship of the entire divine pantheon) was built. Lakewatch Vale was carved out when housing opportunities in Crowcoil were exhausted. The district evolved, it carried the image of being the most weathered and weary neighborhood. Full of charm, character, and long history, but it earned its moniker of an "old corner of the city".   It remained so, a dusty yet expansive section that led the way for what Ghal Pelor would become, while itself earning a deep patina. This was how Crowcoil was known until the night of the Black Wind. This storm is infamous across the city - a grim tornado that descended in the harbor and ripped its way across Lakewatch Vale, reaping a terrible toll in both life and property. In its aftermath, the population of this district was left homeless and adrift, and most found their way into Crowcoil. Overcrowding, a lack of funds, and the overwhelming nature of this disaster finally broke the fragile state of this neighborhood.   And so, Crowcoil would assume its final mask, that of a wretched den for inequity, crime, and suffering. Funds to restore Lakewatch Vale never solidified and charity for the displaced dried up quickly. The city's most powerful gangs were born out of the chaos of the Black Wind, and many of them laid claim to sections of Crowcoil. Those with means left quickly, and what remained were those too trapped to escape. The Crowcoil of today is a withered place, home to those too poor to leave and the villains who prey upon them.