Red Gate
The City of Red Gate is the easternmost city of the confederation making up The Seven Cities. Its gigantic red northern gate, for which the city is named, is always open and facing the orcish capitol city of Brekon. At all hours of the day and night, there is traffic coming in and out of the gate, mainly in the form of caravans carrying goods to and from the nation of Brekon.
Because of its location, Red Gate serves as the lifeline for Brekon to the rest of the world. Goods made in that country are brought here so they can be distributed throughout the world, and outside goods are bought here so they can be carted back to the villages within Brekon.
The Divalok River runs through the middle of Red Gate. It enters from the east gate and leaves through the west gate where it goes on to flow through the cities of Crosstreams and Andarr, where it terminates in the ocean. This river acts as a natural water highway responsible for driving much of the economy of the Seven Cities and northern Avlis. Goods from Brekon and the other cities are taken down by barge and by ship to Andarr where they are put onto ocean faring vessels and transported to other parts of the world. Red Gate is located at one of the first staging points where the river becomes deep enough for ship travel, and is therefore one of the first places from which goods are shipped.
The eastern side of the city is a gigantic riverfront marketplace, where goods from all around the continent can be found at various points of their journey to wherever they are going. This marketplace is directly connected to the northern section of Red Gate which is set up as a caravan jump-point. This area is constantly packed with beasts of burden and caravans in various stages of assembly or disassembly. There is no clear demarcation between this section of town and the marketplace. One sort of flows into the other. Beasts of burden slowly give way to storefronts and barge-docks in a seemingly never-ending sprawl of economic activity.
The center of the city is walled off and reserved for the noble families that run Red Gate. It is usually referred to as the Palatial District, and currently, the noble families there consist mainly of humans, orcs, and elves, though there are a couple of influential halfling business families there.
The southern district of the city is generally reserved for families with money, usually consisting of successful merchant folk and minor nobles. This part of town is set up so those people can keep themselves occupied with drinking and partying as well as their day-to-day business dealings and living.
The general "rabble" of the city lives on the western side and northwestern edge. At the extreme western edge of the city is a small shipyard where ships can be repaired and barges can be fabricated.
Because of the nature of Red Gate, it has an extremely diverse population. There are a very large number of orcs living there peacefully, and where there are orcs, there are always goblins and giant-kin as well. Another large portion of the population is made up of gnomes, many of them businesspeople from Deglos who have settled there over the years. Additionally, there are many humans, halflings, elves, dwarves, and a small number of dracon. Fairy races are not common in Red Gate, except for the small pockets of urban sprites which exist in every city on Avlis.
This racial diversity gives way to religious diversity as well. Red Gate has a shrine to just about any deity you can think of. It has large temples to Valok, Gorethar, Hurine, Aarilax, Fegall, and Berryn. There are also some very small temples to Toran, and Dra'Nar. The temples are located throughout the city in various places.
Red Gate's atmosphere is that of a bustling trade center and caravan jump-point. It is an area where east meets west and north meets south, and they all come together to exchange their goods. The attitude of folks in Red Gate is that trade is everything, and anything that disrupts trade is generally not appreciated. They are aware of all the various racial and religious difficulties that abound, and the nobles of Red Gate often go to great lengths to stifle such things and cover them up as they happen.