Overview of the Free City

Before we dive into the intricacies of the Free City of Greyhawk, we need to get a picture of what Greyhawk looks like from the outside. This walled city is an important trade center for the area and thus a governmental seat of power. This is primarily due to the activities of adventurers and other powerful residents within and being situated very near a major body of water: The Nyr Dyv.

The city leaders are neutral, viewing anything that benefits their city as desirable. Therefore, all sorts of creatures inhabit the city, commerce is free, and persons of varying alignments co-exist together on mostly equal footing. Any preeminence of alignment is carefully thwarted by the powers that be, for it would tend to be detrimental to the city trade. There are machinations and plots wherever one wishes to look, but these are merely a part of the web of intrigue within the Free City.

Despite being named "The Gem of the Flanaess", the City of Greyhawk has a non-magickal street lighting system. It is surrounded by a double wall. The outer curtain is 25 feet high, with a splayed base, ditches, moats, and the like. It is topped with crenellations, machicolations, and bastions. Between the inner and outer walls is a hundred-foot-wide strip of grass, level with the battlements of the outer wall. The inner wall is forty feet high and has towers. The city gates all have gatehouses and a long passageway that pieces the sward above until one reaches the tower on the inner wall.

The entire city is on a low hill. Each section of the green has a troop or two (20 to 40 men) of cavalry. The city sewers and water ducts are carved from limestone, with shafts to cisterns sunk into the harder rock below. Many of the water pipes are sealed up and the water level is low but present. Military defense plans exist for moving troops through the underground passages in case of an emergency. In many locations hidden information has been scrawled on the walls, including symbols meaning -exit up ahead; access to a lower pathway; secret door; etc. There are stairwell accesses as well as the traditional sewer hole/ladder accesses. There is a second level containing more chambers and wells and fewer drains. The great reservoir lies downhill, away from the Old City, on the third and lowest known level.

The Free City of Greyhawk is divided into a few different sectors, some of which have been further divided into sub-sectors, such as the Beggars' Quarter within the Slum Quarter. Some sectors, such as Barge End and Shacktown, do not seem to have any static definitions, as these areas are in an almost constant state of flux. Certain locations are also known by different names by the cities' populace. The area just outside the Highway Gate is known as Southtown, while the area just outside the Marsh Gate has been dubbed Marshton. The wooded areas, outlying farms, and manors, etc... comprise "The Outskirts".

City of Greyhawk Sectors

1. Slum Quarter
2. Beggars' Quarter
3. Thieves Quarter
4. River Quarter
5. Marshton
6. Foreign Quarter
7. Artisans Quarter
8. Garden Quarter
9. High Quarter
10. Wharves
11. Shacktown
12. Clerkburg
13. Barge End
14. Southtown