Cobbled Roads
The once pristine fairways of the Innerkeep are showing their age with as much grace as is possible, considering the amount of traffic they have borne. The original thoroughfares leading up to the more opulent, established homes have retained their width and grandeur - two horses may ride abreast comfortably, pulling modest carriages - but they have been bisected and encroached upon rudely by crosspaths and new buildings over the many years, so that the byways leading to the newer homes will only tolerate three men walking tightly abreast. Long established businesses such as the stables or structures like the courtyard and maze have wide approaches and surrounds.
The architects who first laid these streets had no knowledge of guttering in the most technical sense but were well versed in the ways of drainage, laying the foundations of the palace at the centre of a vast hill, as was the tradition for the bet aspect and protection. The roads have been built to take advantage of the natural curvature of the earth beneath them – whilst retaining a bias such that the slope is never painful or overtly noticed - and all are convex, their width as great as the buildings either side will allow. Any water hitting these gentle curves will trickle from the middle and land in the narrow gullies on either side, flowing down the slope at a very sedate pace. Once the city expanded to include the Outerkeep, a drainage system beneath the new development was dug and drains were placed strategically in the Innerkeep’s area as well (given that the inhabitants could no longer allow their waste to run off through the sewer grates built into the castle walls), resulting in some rather ugly and prominent grilles in some parts, but it could not be helped.
Over time, nature accommodated itself to the presence of the cobbles, smoothing them with her water and pushing forth tendrils of grass on all the edges – and occasionally in the middles, too. Trees were left when the roads were planned, if they didn’t interfere with the street’s course, so that in this, the oldest area of the castle, there are no streets where shade cannot be found on a sunny day’s walk, and many where the sun has very little sway at all. Added to this are the well-kept and carefully landscaped front gardens of the domiciles, kept behind low stone walls and up narrow spaces between buildings, making the suburban parts a breathtakingly beautiful and fragrant destination for a Worship Day stroll through the warmer seasons.
Should the adventurer – or the resident – wish to move about at night time, the cobbled roads are liberally lit by the generous amount of lanterns scattered along every street. Made of tempered steel with a few flourishes at their apex and up the pole for decoration, a team of lamp lighters maintains them faithfully, cleaning the glass and refilling the oil regularly (the same team, incidentally, that sweeps the streets clean year in, year out). Whether they have one, two or even three lamps, all are lit at the setting of the sun and either extinguished as the first rays of sunlight split the sky or filled with the perfect amount of oil that will see them snuff out naturally at the same moment. This is a trick generated by long experience and part of the duty that the Street Carers call their art.
Dusty Paths
There are vast differences to be found between the paths veining the decent, culturally acceptable area of the castle and that of the area occupied by the commoners, as well a great deal of variance within the Outerkeep itself. The only orderly byways are to be found leading north from the front gate to the Innerkeep’s south gate, and one road crossing vaguely east-west over it. Both are cobbled and wide enough to support the carriages the drawbridge permits into the city, though only the main throughway gets a lot of conveyance traffic; the cobbling of the crossroad barely goes past the limits of the markets, beyond which it degenerates to compacted dirt. Still, the stretches of cobbled grounding that exist are generous and make for an excellent walkway around and on which to set up the most alluring of market displays, guaranteed to reap even the casual onlooker’s money.
Generally the walkways of the Outerkeep are paths of dirt – well trodden enough to be smooth but not always compact enough to resist throwing up puffs of dusty clouds beneath the feet of scurrying children. The main paths leading towards the business area are as wide as the cobbled roads but where housing is usually found, they are half that breadth. There are potholes and cracks to grab at careless feet here and there and when it rains, negotiating the mud becomes a game unto itself. Gullies for rain runoff are present but not expertly crafted and frequently end in ugly, oft-clogged drainage grates, leading to flooding in some regions.
Along the main fairways of the southern district there is some night lighting to be found in the form of casually-attended lamps, but their perfunctory design doesn’t shed enough light to pierce the gloom that hovers lovingly over most of the Outerkeep. Indeed, they aren’t present where it counts. At night, around the closed business buildings of the east and west it can be tricky to walk without even the secondary glow cast by house candles to help you along, and none but the stoutest of souls dare enter the gloomy, labyrinthine alleyways of what could only be referred to as the slum area of the north ward, situated between the Innerkeep’s north-eastern and north-western gates.
It is often said that if anyone who hasn’t grown up in the north district strays in there, they won’t come out – and not always because of the cutthroats lurking in the shadows like hungry spiders swinging lazily in their webs. The buildings are built out of materials with the same appearance, in the same style, squeezed in and backing upon one another to the point that every narrow dirt track wending around them looks the same. Even the dead ends that are regularly discovered bear the same trademark swill and overflowing garbage heaps, spread morosely around identical grates leading to the sewers (commonly referred to as the thieves’ highway). Quite simply it is a trap, and neither a place to take a leisurely stroll, nor one the castle guards have any great control over.
