Outside the austere walls that surround Sharoban small buildings sprout up in clumps and shanty towns. Centred on the gates for the most part, they are shabby and dilapidated creations. The people who live there exist in squalor, it is truly the last place anyone in Sharoban wishes to end up. The little settlements are often no more than fur tents held in shape by frames of young saplings or bones.
The guards and Wind Strikers work hard to make sure the shanty towns do not get too close to the walls, fearing that they will be used as a way for enemies to attack the city. It is common for buildings that encroach too closely to the city to be destroyed and when danger arises the common strategy is to usher the people into the city and fire the shanty towns. Despite this there is a growing acceptance at the heights of Sharoban's society that this is a temporary solution and that the city is going to have to expand if only because every year the shanties get larger and it becomes more of a chore to house all the people within the walls during sieges. The overcrowding the current system causes has led to riots in the past and the Council have started to explore the possibility of constructing a third wall. So far they are struggling to find a good supply of stone, their emissary to the Red Vein Mountains has not returned and is believed to have been devoured by the giant tribes he went to entreat.
Demographically these little settlements are mostly comprised of the native peoples of the steppe, rather than incomers from the west or east. Many of them are exiles from the various tribes and petty kingdoms that dot the steppe. A minority are not human, but they exist on the edges; rare enough to be seen as freaks and oddities by the others (who already have a chip on their shoulder, resenting the way that the city caters to outsiders better than locals). As a result of this, coupled with the attitude the city takes to the shanty towns, a good deal of resentment has grown up towards the city and even the most benevolent of visitors is likely to be received with a cold shoulder. Official visitors make sure they have bodyguards, sometimes members of the guards, or very occasionally the best students from the House of Fools.
The other side of this resentment manifests itself in a series of acts of 'mischief', minor sabotage to the walls, the gates and sometimes carts of goods waiting to enter the city, though theft rather than vandalism is more common in the latter situation. The stolen goods make their way onto the black market, smuggled in through the gates by the runners for various gangs.
Obviously this has had a negative affect in the relationship with the guards and raids are common. As the people in the shanties are not considered part of the city, little thought is given to their rights. Whilst there are orders to avoid killing them, nobody is likely to lose sleep over an accidental death and its only if a guardsman seems a bit stab happy that anything will be said. Certainly there is no legal case to answer in these situations, at least part of the shanty towners frustration comes from the lack of justice.
So why do they stay? For most it links back to the problem of exile. Unless they leave the steppes, Sharoban is only the place they can go. None of the other tribes will accept them, places like the Red Vein Mountains or Black Barrow are approached with caution and desperation whilst the presence of the dragon Bright Wing in the Blasted Lands to the south is a discouragement to say the least. Effectively, the city is the only place that they could make a life for themselves and they cling in the hope of getting inside the walls and turning their lives around.
Next we'll look at some of the locations in the shanties.
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