Ferenghi Quarter

The Ferenghi Quarter is a densely packed neighborhood sandwiched between the Via Maris and the Via Extranea on the Dusk side of Omrazir. Not just a quarter for much of the foreign-born population of Omrazir, it is home as well to other people felt to exist at the fringes of respectable Sirdabi society. For this reason, it is typically thought of not so much as the "Foreigners' Quarter" as the "Strangers' Quarter".

Population

Though a number of especially rich, prominent, or well-established foreigners live in the lavishly cosmopolitan Dockside District, it is the Ferenghi Quarter that contains the largest concentration of Omrazir's expatriate residents. Similarly, while the most prominent ambassadors and their families are fortunate enough to be housed either in Dockside or within the outskirts of the Palace Precinct, those of the less influential or esteemed lands reside in the Ferenghi Quarter instead. Besides these still relatively prominent personages, the quarter is home to a wide variety of other individuals and families of foreign extraction who, for whatever reason, have decided to settle more or less permanently in Omrazir.

The Ferenghi Quarter also provides refuge for people deemed strange and outlandish in other ways. It was this neighborhood that became the refuge of those displaced by the burning of the old Theater District, since then rebuilt as the exclusive Dockside. From that time a large number of entertainers of various kinds have made their home in the quarter, from actors and musicians to bellydancers and kucheks. This is likely the reason that the Ferenghi Quarter additionally houses a very close-knit community of mukhannath, who are often ostracized for their nonconformity with traditional gender and social roles. Adding to the eclectic diversity of the neighborhood are freed slaves, small-time criminals and charlatans, artists and writers, and a variety of entrepreneurs either on their way up or down in the world.