People's Square
Located in the center of Upper Nerridon, this large square serves as the hub of the Nerrid Alliance. Nearly a five hundred paces (Nerrid sized) across, nearly half the population of the city can squeeze onto the uneven cobblestones are specially formulated to shrug off snow and ice and surrounded by shaped stone buildings ranging from five to ten stories in height that block out the wind, the People's Square is a popular site for public lectures no matter the season. On Kingsday benches are hauled out from one of the governmental buildings that line the east and west sides of the square. Nerrid from all walks of life file in to listen to the public works of the Small Council of Nerridon - those elected officials charged with running the nation. Nerrid often use arcane means to create visual aids like massive charts and graphs that they display on the walls of the surrounding buildings to aid in their arguments. The council often takes input, feedback, and even straw polls directly from the audience and such events are usually well attended. Street vendors selling Nerrid delicacies such as spice roasted nuts, fresh berries, and fried crickets work the crowds with various storytellers, illusionists and other performers often waiting patiently for business to end so that they can take advantage of the captive crowd.
In the center of the square are a pair of statues. The first commemorates Franz Tarrisonsonsonson, father of the Alliance, with a massive, clockwork likeness. It is rumored that at one point the clockwork statue actually worked - it would circle around the square every day at noon. Challenges with the winding device, however, and the statues tendency to trample any bags, carts, donkeys, or Nerrid in its path have caused governmental engineers to allow its mechanisms to rust. The second statue is one of a six foot tall, life-like gopher. The detailed paint is touched up each spring by volunteer artists and an illusory sign at the creature's feet tells the sad story of Agent Gopher, hero of the Nerrid Secret Service who tragically lost his life in the line of duty.
While the eastern and western sides of the square hold the massive buildings - both above and below ground - that contain the Nerrid government they pale to the size of the building along the northern edge. In fact, the Nerrid National Library is, according to Nerrid scholars, the single largest building - if one can call a complex of tunnels and caves a building which a Nerrid certainly will - in all of Tarien. Granted, most of the building is below ground but the large, dome shaped building that serves as the lobby is massive in its own right.
Across the square, along its southern edge, are the windowless former headquarters of the Nerrid Secret Service. Since the Service recalled its agents and ceased operations, however, the building has been closed to the Nerrid of all kinds. Its single doorway has been sealed with a Wall of Stone and the building itself covered by a huge black shroud donated by the grandmothers of service, a support group for Nerrid who have inexplicably lost their curiosity.
Type
Market square
Parent Location
Owning Organization
Contested By