Grand Market of Whiteport
Entering through the Trader's Gate; the Grand Market welcome's weary travelers to Whiteport, enticing them into the city and its industry. The market is open air, and is a mix of permanent shops and buildings, storefronts, and kiosks, and various impermanent pop up stalls and vendors, which form a dense network of passageways and thoroughfares. The market begins bustling well before the crack of dawn, and vendors begin prepping for the days, setting out merchandise, tying back awnings and cleaning storefronts, all to serve a simple motto. If you want it, you can get it in Whiteport.
Locals move about the market on their daily errands, visiting the various farmers who travel to the city each day to sell fresh produce, grain, along with the fresh livestock, game, fish, and forest herbs which make up most Whiteporters diet, and many small bakeries, butchers shops, fishmongers, and apothecaries are scattered throughout the market, and thus the area smells constantly of exotic spices, baking bread, and livestock. The market is filled with the vendors and grocers who cater to the city's needs, and a sizable portion of the market is devoted to food and agricultural interests, including a large auction ground for frequent livestock auctions. Local brewers, vintners, and distillers also operate here and offer their products in bulk for Whiteports any alehouses, taverns, and inns. The market also serves as the base for many of Whiteport's artisans, including weavers and cloth and fur merchants, blacksmiths, and jewelers.
Purpose / Function
The Grand Market serves as the bustling hub of Whiteport's commercial industry. As a thriving port city which connects Attika to the wider world of Kethenicaea, the market features exotic goods and wares from all over the world or is only a short import away. The market serves as the grand intersection of life in Whiteport and as one of the main common spaces in which citizens gather and process life in the city.
Most citizens visit the market for their daily groceries, and fresh produce from throughout the Duchy is available at the farmers market (along with occasional livestock auctions), and casks from local breweries, vineyards, and distilleries are also widely available. Citizens can also supplement this with fresh catch from Whiteport's fishing industry, or visit one of the butcher stalls for standard meats and poultry. The market also features a sizable spice market where even more exotic spices from beyond the Summer Sea can be found.
Alterations
The Grand Market has been fundamentally unchanged since its founding, and yet it changes on a daily basis. New market stalls and shops open up virtually daily to suit the various goods which ship in and out of the city. It is a dense network of curios, shops, market stalls, wagons, and tents, some of which are more permanent than others. Individual stalls and shops come and go, but the general layout of the market remains the same, with the same thoroughfares, alleyways, and industries apportioned to the same regions, while some of the more permanent shops around the periphery are known for specialized crafts, like Iron Alley, the Farmer's Market, or the Spice Row.
Architecture
The various shops and stalls differ in appearance and architecture, though the typical pop-up stall in Whiteport's market consists of a wooden frame or counter lined with thick canvas or tarp for weatherproofing and which can be secured loosely with rope or canvas. More permanent shops are typically double or single story affairs also generally made of wood, but with a solid wooden roof and occasionally (for bakeries, smithies, and those shops with goods requiring more security) stone walls. These larger shops tend to line the outside of the Market square, while pop-up shops and stalls are spread throughout the center of the market square creating a dense network of streets and passageways catering to the city's desires, all under the auspices of the Statue of Fortune in the center.
History
The Grand Market is as old as Whiteport itself, coalescing around the Statue of Fortune in the center of the large market. Vendors and farmers arrived in the market to sell their goods, and over time the square and market became more formalized, with various dukes of Whiteport imposing some semblance of order (and, naturally, taxes) on the unruly mess of stalls and shops for such privileged trading positions.
Tourism
The Market is frequented by both locals and visitors to the city, as virtually any good can be found within its confines for the right price. Visitors may wish to pray for luck at the Shrine of Eponaia in the center of the market, or sample some of the high quality and fresh ingredients which can be found in the market.
Type
Market square
Parent Location
Owner
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
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