The Shingles

The Shingles came into being only a few decades ago, when urban renewal projects on Endrin Isle pushed Old Korvosa’s poorest people into Bridgefront. As people flooded into the area, they quickly ran out of room. Taking a cue from Holfsgard, they built upward, with lean-tos and shacks creating impromptu third stories on many of the ward’s buildings. These temporary third stories gave way to more permanent additions, which in turn received tents and shacks atop them. Over time, this progression of haphazard permanency gave rise to a ramshackle wall of residences reaching as high as five floors in some places.
These cramped and irregular roof lines gave homes to some of the city’s poorest and most desperate people. The children of these impoverished people grew up on the roofs of Bridgefront and thought little of traversing the ward by moving above it. Over time, they learned that other sections of the city with equally dense roof lines could also provide hidden and convenient paths. At first, these young daredevils only used the roofs as highways and called running along the rooftops “shingle dashing.” As the practice became more common and different underworld elements saw potential in its use, permanent and semi permanent waypoints, structures, and safehouses appeared on roofs throughout the most crowded parts of the city. Eventually, these rooftop communities became known collectively as the Shingles.
No accurate map of the Shingles exists, as almost by definition the neighborhood is in a constant state of flux. Generalizations, of course, can provide a basic overview of the Shingles’ features within a ward, but exact directions to a particular residence or shop defy description. The Shingles do not exist as a continuous layer that blankets the roofs of the city. Rather, large swaths of Korvosa remain free of the phenomenon, with areas under the Shingles being large islands surrounded by clear roofs.
Humans don’t live alone on the roofs of their fair city. Instead, an assortment of nasty surprises await unwary fools traversing the Shingles. Everything from imps and stirges to shingle spiders (Medium monstrous spiders) and chokers hunt above the city, ready at any moment to snatch inattentive prey. Parents in the parts of the city under Shingles frequently threaten unruly children with visits “from the chokers that live on the roof.” Much truth exists in this threat, however, as chokers sometimes snatch up their prey from top-floor balconies or by reaching down into chimneys.

Districts

Bridgefront: As the origination point of the Shingles, the rooftop communities in this ward are the oldest, least transient, and most dangerous. Bridgefront’s Shingles hides the city’s highest concentration of chokers and stirges, but it also holds a small clutch-family of pseudodragons. The rickety structures that comprise the Shingles are built upon one or more layers of other unstable assemblages. As a result, the layout of the place constantly changes, as one area collapses or shifts, stealing away some routes while creating new ones.
Cliffside and Pillar Hill: Despite the relative affluence of these wards, sections of them contain continuous rows of buildings pushed up against one another. With no space between the walls of these buildings, adventurous youths of these wards used their rooftops to move about unseen. This innocent emulation of Old Korvosa’s Shingles eventually gave rise to the adoption of the roofs by the same kinds of people who use them elsewhere in the city. Thus, over time, the Shingles spread into more affluent neighborhoods, where private security guards and even Korvosan Guard sentries remain semi-vigilant against unwanted rooftop excursions.
Garrison Hill: The Shingles of Garrison Hill connect with those of Bridgefront, but, because of the decreased building density and relatively steep slope, the Shingles of this ward are far less extensive. As a result of the hill’s grade, though, the Shingles here have a unique vertical quality missing from other wards. Many of the highways across Garrison Hill’s rooftops involve ramps, ladders, and stairs.
High Bridge and West Dock: This section of Shingles has a nautical look to it. Gangplanks, massive nets, canvas covers, and toppled ships’ masts act as connectors, highways, roofs, and floors of the jury-rigged amalgamation. These jumbled and swaying constructions provide hundreds of hiding spaces for various creeping things. In addition to the normal chokers and stirges a high number of shingle spiders live above the roofs of West Dock.
Old Dock: Almost an extension of the Shingles from Bridgefront, the rooftop byways and shanties of Old Dock drop off quickly near the warehouses along the waterfront. Nearer the center of the island, though, the Shingles of Old Dock are almost as congested as those of Bridgefront. The first deaths attributed to chokers occurred in the Shingles of Old Dock, although in the decades since most of the choker population has migrated down to Bridgefront.
Sequestered among the detritus that makes up Old Dock’s Shingles, a collection of imps who escaped the control of the Acadamae occasionally causes mayhem in and around the ward. These independent imps constantly seek out a powerful devil to serve, but they refuse to ever again work with mortals.
Twitcher’s: High above the streets of Korvosa, most patrons and would-be patrons alike consider Twitcher’s a part of the Shingles. In fact, it is likely the only permanent location in the transient rooftop world. The bartender, a red-haired man named Ramthos, mixes the karale much stronger than most of his competitors. Some dark whispers suggest that Ramthos works in league with the predators of the Shingles, intoxicating his guests to make them easier prey.

Type

Slum

Location under

Korvosa

Owner/Ruler

King Eodred II

Additional Rulers/Owners

• Queen Ileosa Arabasti