City Center

At the geographic center of Haark is the City Center, an irregular and vaguely circular shape that serves as an ever-growing commerce district in the city’s deep, man-made crater. The lowest points are actually beneath the center of Haark’s mass,and thinking about that while walking the streets can summon a sensation of crushing weight for anyone with a hint of claustrophobia. There are broken strips of land — land bridges, really — that cross the crater’s width at several points, although many of them have long since crumbled away and are now made whole with stretches of wide-planked suspension bridges. The buildings here are of great variety, with some of those at lowest elevation actually having entryways in their roofs.

While absolutely bursting with markets, shops, restaurants, brothels, and theatres, Haark’s center is not a place made exclusively of commerce. There are countless small parks, public courtyards, and terraces leveled one on top of the other, with strolling trails and uneven paths winding among statues and well-maintained gardens. There are even some sculpted shrubs and trees reminiscent of parts of Veile. Fountains abound, and ancient memorials and ruins have been decorated with flowering plants and stately plaques that give meaning to the quiet serenity that visitors enjoy. Minstrel’s Terrace is the largest of these parks, consisting of several tiers of ivy-coated patios arranged with oversized living wood furniture, provided by Banyari artisans of the Verdant Quarter.