White Road Gate District
The White Road Gate is a large neighborhood on the eastern side of the City of Melorian in the Elven Realm of Naru. The White Road Gate itself is a large defensive structure built into the massive and ancient walls and the spaces outside the walls are virtually empty of structures or habitations, so the neighborhood is strictly confined to the district immediately inside the walls and moving up the hill.
The Gate district is a poorer neighborhood when compared to much of the rest of the City. Located between the towering bastion of the Gladia Domus, or House of Swords and the White Road Gate itself, and there are far fewer large and opulent homes here than one might find further west. The streets are narrow and lined with industrial shops, warehouses, stables and a particularly large winery. Structures of note include a huge public bathhouse complex that can accommodate 500 patrons at a time, several towering aquafers that carry a veritable river into huge underground cisterns and a massive water tower that provides pressurized water to much of the eastern half of the city, and no fewer than 14 inns (called hospitiums in Elvish) that offer food and lodging for travelers.
Purpose / Function
A very busy and crowded neighborhood on the east side of the City of Melorian that is a focal point of industrial and commercial efforts into and out of the city walls.
Architecture
This is a very old neighborhood of Melorian and the structures that make it up reflect this quite obviously. Only a very few structures of very recent construction located just inside the Gate are timber-framed structures, with the rest being thick-walled, multi-storied buildings that are nearly all more than a millennia in age.
The two most dominating structures in the neighborhood are the White Road Gate itself and the colossal House of Swords.
A view of the White Road Gate as seen from the outside, with the towering House of Swords in the background
