Verdant Quarter

The section of Haark between the Ring of Silk and the Ring of Smoke. The Verdant Quarter is home to most of Haark's Banyari and greenery. It is also sometimes referred to as Little Banyan.

Here the brown squares of Haarkeen architecture are covered in climbing vines and flowers, and the cobblestones give way to lush undergrowth flecked with wildflower colors. Every rooftop is a garden, and trees sometimes drive their roots through three full stories of a building, while Banyari gather in the chambers beneath, performing their bizarre rituals and communing with what, to them, must be a healing and nurturing environment to a shard that has been strip-mined to bare rock.

In the Verdant Quarter, the Banyari live as they do on Banyan and are not forced to adapt beyond their willingness. This is perhaps because the gardens and parks of this ring provide a disproportionate amount of Haark’s food. The generosity of the Verdant Quarter causes many Haarkeen to be extremely fond of the Banyari, despite humanity’s comical inability to grasp the customs and attitudes required to truly interface with that most peculiar of Folk. Alas, they do try, those people of Haark. If anything, they persist.

Plenty of shops fill this ring as well. Unlike the densely packed stalls of the markets, the boutiques and artisan shops here are where some of the highest quality merchandise can be found — if you know where to look. Elixariums, jewelers, sculptors, and the like give these charming venues an atmosphere more akin to a provincial village than the largest city in the world. One of these places bears mentioning more than any of the others - Asturbahl’s Crown.

In addition to these public places, this ring has plenty of sprawling residential neighborhoods that are relatively clean and green with trees and bright with smiling Folk. It is not until these areas crest into the outer ring that the downside of urban existence is writ large.