The oldest district in Chrysalis, Northward takes its name from the old Elvish ward—a fortified enclosure that predates the city’s walls by several centuries. Traces of that original fortification can still be found in the district’s bones: unusually thick walls between buildings, old gatehouses repurposed as market halls, and the irregular street layout that grew organically around the original stronghold rather than being planned from scratch.
Today Northward is Chrysalis’s most densely populated inner district, a lively and slightly chaotic place where merchants and artisans rub shoulders with labourers and street vendors. It has a reputation for being where things get done—not always through official channels.
Character: Bustling, entrepreneurial, historically rooted
Notable features:
- Merchant quarter with stalls and permanent shops of all kinds
- Artisan workshops (leatherworkers, weavers, carpenters, potters)
- The old ward gatehouse, now a covered market hall
- Dense residential tenements above street-level commerce
- Labour guild meeting halls
Worship: A modest shrine to Tymora sits inside the old gatehouse market, tended by a volunteer priest. Merchants leave coins before opening their stalls each morning.
Population character: Working class and merchant class. Many of the city’s non-human residents—goblins, tieflings, and others who find less acceptance in the more prestigious districts—make their homes here. Class divisions are real but less rigidly enforced than elsewhere.