Cursed Quarter

Once just a normal part of the Dusk side of the city, the sprawling cluster of shops, houses, and gardens that makes up the Cursed Quarter has long stood abandoned in the aftermath of what local legend says was the catastrophic experimentations of a small group of sorcerors. What these sorcerors were trying to accomplish is no longer entirely clear (if in fact it ever was), and there are differing opinions as to whether the results constitute failure or success, but no one doubts that the Cursed Quarter is a place better left alone.

Simply standing at the periphery of the neighborhood, one often feels a nagging sense of being watched by something dark and alien, and only the foolhardy and ignorant venture down its winding streets and alleyways at all. Within the quarter it is said that the sun and moons fade from view, and everything instead appears to be lit with a sourceless grey light. And yet despite that, there are shadows. Whatever these are, they are a source of great horror for the local Omrazi, who dislike even speaking of them -- though they impinge upon the local language in a variety of different expressions.

Outsiders find this state of affairs bizarre and tend to want to ask questions about it, particularly along the lines of why hasn't something been done?? But native Omrazi can scarcely be persuaded to speak about the quarter at all and tend to react to such questions as if something shamefully gauche and tasteless has been said, and generally ignore them. They tend to ignore the Cursed Quarter itself as well, navigating around it as if it were some hideous yet perfectly natural obstacle like a swamp.