Palace Gardens

Though the Obsidian Palace is guarded every second of the day, there are parts of it open to the public. This includes the palace guardens, once a magnificent and lush area of greenery both domestic and imported. Colorful flowers from Sol bloomed next to sturdy evergreens, and squirrles made their nests in carefully-tended to topiary.

With the winter as it is, however, all but the hardiest of flora has perished, leaving behind a barren white landscape.

The gardens still feature a good many places to go, however. An ornate fountain still burbles now and then in the very center of a hedge maze still kept pristine and elegant. Rows and rows of shrubbery and carved statues guard the main walkways. Each statue can hold a lit candle in its mouth, making for an etherial view at night.

Spider’s Hollow

The area around Spindle's End is protected by strong and ancient magic. Marked by strange blue candles along the ground and in the trees, Spider's Hollow is surrounded by charms, talismans, incense, wards, and spells to keep out animals and, most importantly, wandering Fey. It gives it a strange, unreal scent around the area, but at least it is relatively safe.

Pathways in and out of the forest are marked sporadically, with shale and other flat stone markers, or, failing that, simply upright sticks tied together with a charm of one sort or another. More often than not, said charm includes a small leather thong, a wad of moth silk, and a bird's claw.

Spider's Hollow also provides sanctuary for wood-workers and lumberers to collect wood and cut trees without angering Alva or risk their safety. There are no buildings on the forest's edge of Spider's Hollow, but a few sheds provide tempory shelter for the workers before they return home.

It is no easy walk from the city of Nore to Spider's Hollow, and even harder from the edge of the forest to Spindle's End. The first part of the trek would take about two hours from the edge of town, and once inside the forest, a difficult but nagivable half hour walk.

Residential Neighborhoods

Nore is not a densely populated city anymore, but, in its prime, there were no less than eight different districts of people living close together. Now, most of those houses have been abandoned, leaving only two fully-populated neighborhoods and four sparsely-populated ones. While there are a few small areas of larger, wealthier households, the commonfolk are largely interspersed with each other regardless of wealth.

Each house is usually equipped with a hearth, a table, and a bed. They tend to be raised a few feet from the ground to prevent snow from blowing in from the outside. Norn families tend to be between three and eight people in a single house, but it is not uncommon to see multiple generations or families to a single homestead, leading to overcrowding but far warmer sleeping conditions.

Dagurri

Dagurri, while still considered a part of the capital city of Nore, has adopted it's own name, reflecting it's location on the banks of the Dagur River. Dagurri is a shanty town made of mostly stilted homesteads and boardwalks so that on the occasion the Dagur floods, there would be minimal property damage. Some houses are on the river itself, and there are no shortage of wooden bridges and thin, twiggy evergreens lining the banks.

Most everyone in Dagurri belongs to a fishing family, though there will be the occasional leatherworker or cobbler here and there. Because of this, it won't be uncommon to see net-fulls of fish sitting unguarded in the snow or hanging outside a homestead. Nets and other fishing gear populate the fronts of the houses, while stray dogs and children steal from the barrels of pickled herring. Such fish rarely sell for more than a few pennies each, so no-one seems to mind if a few fish go missing.

The University

The University is less of a college and more of Nore’s national library. It is a place of academia, fine arts, and law. Though it may look like a mix between a palace and a religious sanctuary outside, the inside is full of hardwood floors, shelves and shelves of literature, both fiction and nonfiction, objects to assist in the study of the natural world, histories and journals of scholars and scribes, and more.

The first floor is largely for public use. Though the books are monitored closely, one is allowed to borrow almost anything for free, provided they check it out with a scribe. One may come to learn to read, though it is not a skill most Norns need or have as it simply has no place in daily life outside of shopfront signs.

The upper floors are for personal studies, laboratories, and offices. It is on these floors that the scholars live, the scribes work, and the apprentices study. People like Lyric and Montague Wu have their own chambers in the University, while others, such as Jane de Rey and Luna Lastra prefer to live with their families elsewhere in Nore.

Abandoned Farmlands

Before the Winter, Nore had a highly successful agricultural community. Farmlands spread across the countryside. Wheat, corn, cabbages, grapes, and most any other imaginable crop in a medieval farm populated the fields now turned to slush and snow. A manor house or windmill will be spotted here and there, and still-rich but dry and cracked soil pokes through the snow every now and then.

These farms tend to be closer to the capital city than most structures in the Wastes, and many can be seen from within the city limits.

Every now and then, someone will go out in attempt to revive a farm, but little if any success comes. More people simply have personal winter-crom gardens from wich they eat.

Farraday

Sol's largest and most amazing city is its very own capital city. Also known as the city of gold, Farraday has been constructed out of a special sandstone found only in certain Solish quarries that seems to reflect the golden sunlight. It is a port town, located in a relatively centralized area from north to south. Sol's most western point is, in fact, the Windsgate Palace, home to the ruling family. It is on an island a little ways out to sea, connected to the mainland by a single, incredibly sturdy bridge that has lasted every attempted attack since the dawn of time.

A cultural and commercial center, Farraday sees more trade than almost any other city in the great kingdoms, importing and exporting goods, travel, and even magic. People come from all over the great kingdoms, hoping to see the city and make their way in the world. According to the myths, Farraday's streets are lined with gold. It won't be hard to become rich here. Or at least, so they say.

Western Colonies

Across the sea to the West is another continent once thought to be only myth. Now that Solish ships are sturdy enough to cross oceans, there have been many attempts to set up colonies on the coast. Unfortunately, these attempts have been largely unsucessful, as the incredibly humid temperatures -- from rain forests to tropical beaches -- are something few people in Sol know how to farm in.

This has led to a few unstable towns set up here and there, but, overall, the land remains seemingly unpopulated.