This page will grow as your characters explore Korvosa beyond what they knew from grewing up in their district.
The entries below are organized by district and are limited to the most well-known buildings. Every character who grew up in Korvosa will receive an individual gazetteer with more details of her home district.
At the end you will find information about Korvosan slang and Crimes & Punishment and common monstrous threats of the city.
The only district beyond the channel of the Jeggare River, East Shore is home to a handful of noble houses closely tied to the military of the city, as well as the struggling Theumanexus College. East Shore has no wards to subdivide it.
Standing atop Citadel Hill, the Heights District has a commanding view of the rest of the city, which its residents look down on—both figuratively and literally. Nearly all of Korvosa’s power players reside in the Heights, including the queen herself. The Heights District holds three wards: Citadel Crest, Cliffside, and University.
When most people think of Korvosa, they think of the cosmopolitan and friendly district of Midland. Situated on the leeward side of Citadel Hill, Midland stretches from the end of Enderin’s Wall south to Gray District and the Pillar Wall. It rises from sea level to climb the eastern slope of Citadel Hill, where it ends just below the summit line. Midland encompasses the wards of High Bridge, Pillar Hill, Slope, and West Dock. As the home district of both the Korvosan Guard and Sable Company, Midland has the fewest gangs and gang battles in the city. Despite that, the thieves’ guild does a brisk trade in the district thanks to the disproportionately high number of merchants, banks, and other commercial and financial concerns.
North Point, at the northwestern tip of mainland Korvosa, was the first section of the mainland settled by the descendants of the city’s Chelish founders. The district houses many of the city’s oldest non-noble families. North Point covers the entire northern end of the city and includes the wards Five Corners, Mainshore, Northgate, and Ridgefield. Korvosa’s seat of municipal power stands in North Point, as does the city’s courthouse and the Bank of Abadar.
As its name implies, Old Korvosa is old. It covers all of Endrin Isle, which rises from sea level along the southern shore on the Narrows of Saint Alika to a 200-foot-high escarpment on the seaward north side. At the foot of Garrison Hill, as this steep incline is called, sits the beehive-like hovel of Bridgefront. Old Dock stands on the relatively f lat eastern protrusion of the island. Atop Garrison Hill stands the stone wall of Fort Korvosa, completed in 4438. The imposing black-marble Palace Arkona dominates Old Korvosa, while the remains of the original wooden palisade slowly rot near the gate into the ward.
The newest district officially added to the city
The Shingles came into being only a few decades ago, when urban renewal projects on Endrin Isle pushed Old Korvosa’s poorest people into Bridgefront. As people flooded into the area, they quickly ran out of room. Taking a cue from Kaer Maga, they built upward, with lean-tos and shacks creating impromptu third stories on many of the ward’s buildings. These temporary third stories gave way to more permanent additions, which in turn received tents and shacks atop them. Over time, this progression of haphazard permanency gave rise to a ramshackle wall of residences reaching as high as five floors in some places.
There are five state-run orphanages in Korvosa which take care of those children whose parents have died for one of the plenty reasons that can come up in everyday life in Korvosa. They are frequently inspected by the churches of Abadar and Sarenrae and provide early training for those children who show promise and will to enter the Sable Company and/or the Guard. Three are in Midland, the largest is in North Point's Mainshore ward and the smallest is in East Shore.
Some of Korvosa's unique features have provided a breeding ground for monstrous inhabitants of the city.
Chockers
Parents in the parts of the city under Shingles frequently threaten unruly children with visits “from the chokers that live on the roof.” Much truth exists in this threat, however, as chokers sometimes snatch up their prey from top-floor balconies or by reaching down into chimneys. Bridgefront’s Shingles hides the city’s highest concentration of chokers.
Imps & Pseudodragons
A great number of imps make their homes on the Acadamae’s campus. These imps frequently take to the air, flitting about above the campus and across Korvosa. They tend to travel in groups, as the city’s pseudodragon population views them as foul representations of evil and petty sadism (which, of course, they are).
A narrow turret rises from one corner of the Frisky Unicorn bed & breakfast in The Heights, which in theory grants guests an opportunity to see Conqueror’s Bay and nearly the entire city. In practice, though, most guests refuse or simply cannot ascend to the highest floor of the tower, as it houses a nest of capricious and relatively tame pseudodragons. These pseudodragons remain a fixture of the Unicorn thanks to their love of driving off imps from the nearby Acadamae. Despite their occasional usefulness to the establishment, the pseudodragons do make pests of themselves whenever guests flash shiny objects or uncovered food.
Maybe as an attempt to acclimatize prospective students or simply because the owner has one as a familiar himself, the Wise Dragon in The Heights harbors a handful of imps who formerly served as loyal familiars to students and faculty of the Acadamae. Unlike the free imps who live in the Shingles above Old Dock, these imps gained their freedom unintentionally when their former masters died.
Othyughs
Built where the land meets the water and straddling a major river that dumps into the most prosperous clam field in Varisia, the lower sections of Korvosa face a huge, stinking problem: their own waste. Many of the sewers beneath Korvosa drain into massive cesspits to the south, but the isolated wards on Endrin Isle trust to an alternative means of disposal: otyughs.
When Lady-Magistrate Dess Leroung imported otyughs from Cheliax in 4512 and had the first otyugh plug installedin Old Korvosa to manage the sewage, nobody expected that the situation would get out so out of hand. 24 years later the first otyugh rampage killed 9 humans (and 3 othyughs). Almost a hundred years later, in 4620, the so-far largest rampage by more than a dozen otyughs killed 23 before the Kovosan Guard was able to stop them.
Large steel plugs in the streets, opened by equally massive crank-driven winches, separate the city’s population from its surly waste disposers. These otyughs occasionally break out of the sewers and rampage through Korvosa, where they’re subsequently corralled and incarcerated again by guardsmen wielding longspears coated in tranquilizing poisons.
Source: Edited versions of illustrations from Barlowe's Inferno, Wayne Barlowe, Morpheus International, 1st Edition, (December 8th, 1998)
House Arabasti
The winner of The Cousins War, they took the Throne of Korvosa by Force. For a long time, The Arabasti’s sought to stay under the influence of Cheliax, trying to curry favor with the old Empire. King Eodred II however, has distanced The City from its homeland and sought to establish Korvosa as it’s own city state. House Arabasti lured the Hellknights, The Order of The Nail north, by funding the building of Citadel Vraid, half a days walk south west of the city. House Arabasti resides in Castle Korvosa. It is one of the original Dock Families.
With the passing of The Patriarch of House Arabasti, King Eodred Arabasti II, Queen Ileosa of Cheliax is his queen, and successor to The Arabasti house by marriage. The King had no known heirs, though he was a renowned womanizer.
House Arkona
After the Cousins War, House Arkona had been nigh unto Bankrupt. Siding with House Arabasti had been costly and they had lost much of their holdings. In desperation They took a loan from House Jeggare and took a huge gamble on buying a few ships, the Flagship had been aptly named The Reprieve, and sailing to Vudra on the Northern Coast of Garund, the southern Continent. They had returned with spices, exotic goods and the beginning of a trade route that launched them into one of the top 3 wealthiest families in Korvosa. House Arkona has embraced the Vudran Culture and provide endless assistance to the impoverished people of Korvosa. Glorio is called The Patriarch of The Poor. The Patriarch of House Arkona is Glorio Arkona, a middle aged man of good looks and charm. He has not taken a wife, and as such has no heirs. It is reputed he has an illicit relationship with his sister Melyia Arkona, who is second in line for House Arkona’s power. House Arkona resides in The Arkona Palace on Endrin Isle in Old Korvosa. They are one of the Original Dock Families and on the Peerage Review.
House Jeggare
The wealthiest family in Korvosa, House Jeggare controls easily 25% of all land holdings within the city. They are the chief financial backer of both The Korvosan Guard and Sable Company. A sensible and practical house, they are liked and respected but not revered by the people. The Matriarch of House Jeggare is Mercival Jeggare. They are among the original Dock Families and on The Peerage review. They are allied with the Church of Shelyn.
House Ornelos
The single most powerful family in Korvosa, whose patriarch Toff Ornelos is running The Acadamae, the most respected School of Magic in the West. They stay out of day to day politics and try to remain neutral in disputes. Toff followed the foot steps of The Undying Lord Volshyeneck Ornelos, who has been around for a century at least until he died in an unfortunate conflagration of magic on the top of the Hall of Summoning in 4607 AR. One of the original Dock Families and on the Peerage Review.
House Leroung
An old family in Cheliax, they have very old connections and ties throughout the Old Empire. They control The University of Korvosa. They are considered allied with almost every Noble House and try to steer clear of petty arguments instead looking to maintain law. The Matriarch is Eliasia Leroung. They are allied with The Church of Abadar. One of the original dock families and a member of The Peerage Review.
House Zenderholm
A House not recognized in far off Cheliax, yet none-the-less a powerful family in their own right. The family looks out for the future of Korvosa like no other and have been instrumental in severing ties with Cheliax. The Matriarch is Senior Arbiter Zenobia Zenderholm, who some say is more fond of ladies than men. A Member of The Peerage review.
House Carowyn
Generous supporters of the arts, Ausio and Olauren Carowyn have always relished the limelight. Every year they are contributing thousands of gold sails to the upcoming season at the Kendall Amphitheater, reserving box seats at the Marbledome, or hosting galas at their South Shore estate, the aging nobles find no scene too garish for to steal.
House Bromathan
Allied with the Temple of Saranrae, This house truly has the interest of the people in the forefront of their minds. A Minor house that was one of the original Dock Families, but not important enough to be on The Peerage review. The Patriarch is Lord Valdur Bromathan IV, a minor priest of Saranrae. Stable and steady in both the worst and best of times.
House Endrin
All but taken over by House Jeggare because of a marriage in the early years of Korvosa. House Endrin is a one of the original Dock Families, and a long standing history of military service. The Patriarch of House Endrin is Lord Ponchus III.
House Porphyria
The Exiled House. During the Cousins War, House Porphyria was on one side, House Arabasti the other. All the minor houses that House Porphyria had allied with were summarily destroyed. Only this old family house of Cheliax managed to survived, though all of their holdings were seized by House Arabasti. General Uril Krakon of House Porphyria, In Cheliax, has eyes on Korvosa however.