Palisade Row

Palisade Row has very little in common with the White City aside from the fact that they both share a wall. It is a place permeated by both conflict and cooperation, in many eyes more an unsightly scab on the City than a part of it.

Demographics

Most of the denizens of Palisade Row are Wildlanders, staying near the City they are no longer permitted to enter out of nostalgia, family ties, pragmatism, inertia, a mix of the above, or maybe completely unrelated personal reasons. Few if any of them are anything approaching wealthy, though community spirit tends to ensure that no one outright starves as long as they're not too proud to accept a hand up.

Government

While nominally subject to the laws of the White City, in practice Palisade Row is something more like a community-governed semi-anarchy. People are expected to avoid creating conflict with the City, lest it reflect badly on and create trouble for everyone, but are generally brought into line not by City guards but by the people of Palisade Row giving their own a severe telling-off. If one expects to be away for an extended time, as many of the Wildlanders hunting, trapping, or foraging in the Wildlands often do, a trusted neighbor will be asked to keep an eye on one's home and belongings, and no truly valuable possessions are left behind. Not so much because theft is tolerated, but because it is to some degree seen as a personal conflict.
Those that do not venture out into the Wildlands for ready coin are expected to either provide for themselves by other means or contribute to the community as they are able. As long as a person's means of making a living doesn't draw negative attention on Palisade Row or its denizens, no one is going to give them a hard time about it.

Defences

The closest thing Palisade Row has to proper defenses from the horrors of the Wildlands, should they decide to venture out of the forest, are the eponymous palisade. It is made of white-washed lumber standing roughly half again the height of a grown man, and runs parallel to the Wall from the eastern(?) side of the Gates to about halfway to the point where the Wall gives way to the mountain. Along the length of the Palisade there are a few "doorways" to make it easier to access the floodplains; these are points where there is a pivot point roughly an ell off the ground, which allows the Palisade above it to be lowered outward much like a drawbridge.

Infrastructure

There are a few notable community projects that have been set up over the years. Fields of easy, hardy food crops are set up in the floodplains each year, with residents lacking other gainful employment working them and sharing the fruits of their labor with each other and any other denizens lacking sufficient sustenance. One of the streams coming down from the mountains has been redirected to a brick-lined raised channel for collecting drinking water, with a clever overflow system keeping it from flooding the nearest buildings during the springtime snowmelts. Downstream of this channel a portion of the stream is meticulously kept clear of vegetation, and a loosely-woven wickerwork lattice mounted across the stream provides those who bring wares back from the Wildlands with a place to cleanse the magic-absorbing stones they use to turn the fruits of their labor from contraband into saleable goods.

History

Palisade Row came about bit by bit, starting when the Wildlanders displaced from the White City were also denied access to the inn and campgrounds that served faraway traders on the west(?) side of the Gates. In those early days there was not yet any palisade to protect the few cobbled-together homes, nor had the brick arches hiding them from immediate view yet been constructed. Over time, as the Wildlanders' numbers increased and new residents slowly trickled in as a result, the defacto Wildlanders' district took form. The palisade itself was constructed years before it received its first coat of whitewash; a demand from the City to try to mask the new settlement. Years later still, the brick arches were constructed.
In recent years the City seems to have grown somewhat gentler in its treatment of Palisade Row, but how exactly those subtle changes came about isn't something wondered too loudly about. There's a silent agreement among the residents that it would do no one any good to look that particular gift horse in the mouth.

Architecture

At the start of the Palisade near the Gates stand two pale brickwork arches which nominally connect it to the White Wall - the brick stops a hand short of actually touching the Wall. No one is permitted to settle in this area by the White City's Guard, supposedly for safety, though it's clear to the residents that the primary concern is to keep the atrocious state of Palisade Row out of sight and out of mind.
Beyond those arches lie a series of tidy but ramshackle, austere shacks, each huddled up against the Palisade. These shacks have all been raised by the residents out of the materials available - mostly wood from the outskirts of the Wildlands, supplemented by building materials purchased or bartered for from traders. Many of the shacks have a rudimentary covering of whitewash, though far from all. Notably, none of the shacks touch the Wall, and in fact a low fence stands a foot from the base of it, separating the towering barrier from the packed dirt outside the Palisade Row's homes.

Alternative Name(s)

The Palisades, Wildlander Alley, Wildlanders' District

Type

Slum

Location under

The White City