The Left Bank

The Left Bank is a district of Loros generally agreed to be the source of the city's low reputation. Among the Eleven Cities Loros is the smallest and poorest, subject to a long economic decline since the Wesmodian Reformation, but poverty does not necessarily bespeak disrepute. Much of the city is broadly respectable and, to a certain extremity, prosperous. The fracturing of the power of the Chogyan Hegemony by the neighboring city of Pholyos also largely quelled the Loran pirate threat of previous centuries. Loros's poor reputation, and indeed its reputation for louche and questionable morals, stems largely from the Left Bank.

History

Before the Wesmodan Reformation the eastern bank of the large estuary around which Loros is built was an unexceptional part of a substantial river port, being home to a robust population of productive citizens engaged mostly in the riverine fishing industry that supported much of the rest of the city. The soft, low-lying ground (prone to flooding) prevented the construction of many large stone buildings, so most of the construction was of low wooden structures which became closely packed and expanded into the estuary on a series of residential piers. The one major exception to this pattern was the city's main temple to Ajqyod, a substantial edifice which was erected on a plug of solid stone some distance from the waterfront in around 200 BWR. Several small shrines to Zargyod also existed, as did - according to unconfirmed rumour - a secret chapter house of the clerics of Maryas.
When the Wesmodian Reformation reached Loros it did so mostly via the learned communities on the western bank of the estuary. Those communities appear to have absorbed Wesmod's ideas in broadly the same was as most other urban societies, as a reasoned intellectual critique of the religious traditions of the Eleven Cities, in consequence of which there was a fairly abrupt but also fairly peaceful withdrawal of support for the gods and their clerics. Something appears to have gone awry in the reception of these ideas on the Left Bank, however, as there the ideas were received in a much more strident way, as an attack on the clerics of the gods for accepting the material support of the community without contributing anything worthwhile. Such ideas appear to have resulted in popular resistance to the clerics of Ajqyod, the only such people present in the immediate community. These clerics appear to have responded by raising their demands on the local community and threatening dangerous supernatural reprisals if they were not met. The resulting social tensions seem to have escalated to popular unrest and a blockading of the temple by the general populace. While magistrates on the right bank evidently joshed about this state of affairs, the situation rapidly deteriorated when the clerics of Ajqyod began fighting back against the mob, emerging from their temple throwing fire at the crowds with their bare hands. This dispersed the mob quickly, but the fire spread rapidly through the buildings of the Left Bank and raged for several days. Then as now, no bridges existed across the estuary and there was no particular threat that the fire would spread to the wealthier parts of the city, so the magistrates made no particular effort to fight the blaze. By the time the fires had burned themselves out a large number of people were dead and anything up to nine tenths of the buildings on the Left Bank had been destroyed. Ironically almost the only structures to survive unscathed was the temples of Ajqyod and the smaller shrines to Zargyod.
The detail of all of this is unknown as no written account of the fire is known to exist. It is an essentially folkloric event, and remains a cause of ill feeling between the eastern and western halves of Loros, which visitors to this day observe are essentially separate cities. Thaumatologists interested in lore related to Ajqyod are particularly interested in this business of the clerics throwing fire with their bare hands. Tyrosian researchers Rasendos and Anasyan Phylamoros included extensive discussion of the matter in their book Vessels of Fire.

Modern era

The rebuild of the Left Bank was slow and piecemeal. The Reformation had drained much of the institutional credibility of the Keepers of Light, the group in society that might have led the relief efforts, and the death toll mounted over the following weeks due to hunger and exposure as people were unable to fish, most of the boats having burned. It was only moons later that shipments of lumber and skilled hands started crossing the estuary to construct new buildings, notably two large fishing piers at which boats coudld unload cargo and catches. Most of the boats that did so were owned by speculators from the right bank, however, and the local fishing industry never quite recovered.
Indeed little of concrete worth has been produced on the Left Bank in the four and a half centuries since the Reformation. The area remains a slum, with a large population of marginals and vagrants. Most cities have such districts but it is injurious to Loros's reputation that visiting ships must sail along the noisome waterfront of this part of town. Continuing their long policy of neglect, however, the city authorities have done little to clean this area up.
One reason often mooted for this is that the Left Bank has become something of a tourist attraction. Food is expensive there, being imported from the right bank or bought from fishermen who stop there on their way back from the sea, but rums and ales of various kinds are manufactured in large quantities and cheap but colourful alehouses abound in the district. Smokeshops are also common there, offering numerous scented weeds imported through the right bank. Many of these establishments also offer gambling as an inducement to customers, and games of chance and skill, some of them objectively dangerous, have emerged in the area. These include lizard fighting, pie-eating competitions, card and dice games of various sorts and a thriving bare-knuckle boxing league. Inevitably, these drinking, smoking and gambling dens attract a certain form of clientele, and the sex industry of the Left Bank is notorious for its matter-of-factness and cheapness. These businesses are often rumoured to be the landward haunt of pirates, which of course boost their attraction for thrill-seekers.
The precise identities of the landlords of these establishments are often a matter of debate. This leads to various conspiracy theories, including the widespread suspicion that the Commercial Guilds in Loros are running the place as a money-making scheme. There are more colourful ideas, including, somewhat inevitably, the idea that the Shadow Men are somehow behind it all.

Landmarks

Mostly a stew of ramshackle wooden houses and commercial establishments, the Left Bank does contain a handful of noteworthy landmarks. The old temple of Ajqyod still exists in a state of semi-dereliction, having been used by generations of vagrants as night-time shelter. Although everything of material value was looted decades ago, archaeologists occasionally visit it to research the cult of the defunct god. The waterfront also features several badly-weathered stone shrines to Zargyod; agani, these are defunct but may be of academic interest.
The author Kestos Remorayz makes her home in a discretely well-fortified house not far from the waterfront of the Left Bank. She claims she finds the atmosphere of the district inspiring.

Type

Quarter