The Plaza of Tarnished Entertainments

The Plaza of Tarnished Entertainments is a large, circular plaza, built in the formerly-affluent Saeppellion district of Hartacon, capitol of Mysia. Like most of Saeppellion, the Plaza was constructed during the period of the Aggharvathion Dynasty, the successors of the 2nd dynasty of Tritanion kings, during the flush of funds brought on by the victories against the raiding Dragonfighters of Mount Taris who swept down into western Mysia. Like most Aggharvathion-era streets, it is wide and constructed of packed-earth (the Aggharvathion kings maintained some of the urban-planning practices which had become traditional during the time of the Tritanion Ministers), and lacks the guardian-arch erected on more ancient streets (such as the Street of Enigmatic Philosophy). It is a large, circular Plaza, the end of the Street of Scintillant Forges and the beginning of the Way of Alcnasion, and is lined all the way about with tiered levels of low, post-Resurgence flathouses, arrayed about the Plaza like seats of an amphitheatre. Most of these houses are silent and locked during the day, but during the night become wild and bright with activity; most bear either the eel-marked banner of a house of prostitution or the symbols of a tavern. In the center of the Plaza, there is a large marble dais holding the legs of an unfinished statue. There is a half-carved motto between the feet of these forlorn legs, which now and possibly forever will read 'The blood we shed will-'.
Originally bearing the more picturesque title of the Plaza of Heroic Amusements, the Plaza of Tarnished Entertainments was first constructed after the end of the Dragonfighter raids of the post-Resurgence period, when thousands of veterans and refugees flooded Hartacon, fleeing the devastatin and banditry of the western border, which, at that time, was heavily garrisoned but quite chaotic and ungovernable. It was at this time that Isanda XI Aggharvathion, the newly-risen King, decreed that the wounded veterans and battle-hardened warriors who had served their nation in the raids deserved a worthy gift. He decreed that there would be built, in the midst of the new and ritzy district of Saeppellion, which his grandfather had begun, a great plaza, full of merriment and entertainments, where veterans would stay and live forever in bliss. It was, indeed, an ambitious project, but it was finished in those ambitious days, and soon veterans streamed to dwell in the new Plaza.

But war, especially such vicious war as the raids of the Dragonfighters, brings a strange malaise to those who have seen it. Within the death of King Isanda XI, the Plaza of Heroic Amusements, as well as the Saeppellion district, had fallen into a deep depression, not the least of which was brought on by the battle-shock of the dwellers of that place, and the neighborhood slowly and surely became a sad and desperate place.

The Plaza of Tarnished Entertainments, as it is now known, is truly a year-round festival. Every night, it is flooded with people, shouts, the giggles and screams of the women of the night who patrol it's alleys and people it's bawdy houses. But the customers of these brothels and these drinking halls have the wild and pitiless light of desperate and broken folk in their eyes, the most beautiful courtesans are scarred and meek, and beneath the layers of gold-leaf and the heavy curtains there are stained and chipped walls of bare brick. Though the Plaza is still a place of entertainment, it is the entertainment of those who can only attempt, but cannot quite manage to, forget the stain of war.