The Starkhaven alienage, like every alienage, is grim. Far lower down than the rest of Starkhaven, it is perpetually damp and muddy, and on the rare days when it isn’t overtly muddy, there is a hard, dusty crust under which lies… mud. The winters are harsh, and low down as the alienage is, the summers can be sticky and uncomfortable. With the Chantry in Starkhaven towering above them, the alienage is often quite literally in its shadow.
Like all alienages, it exists in a constant state of disrepair, the buildings ranging from debatably functional to derelict to not actually being buildings in the strictest sense, and more imaginative constructions of whatever materials were to hand. There is a row of houses that has never been repaired or reconstructed even some twenty or thirty years later, that was burned down by accident in the middle of the night when a young mage could not control their magic. (The ruins are not uninhabited, but they aren’t necessary inhabitable.)
The twos thing the alienage does have are their vhenadahl, mostly intact (with a large bough high high up noticeably missing, where it fell off during a storm and went through a roof) and wild flowers. Not necessarily flowers that a gardener would appreciate, granted; forget-me-nots, foxgloves, thistles, clover, birdsfoot trefoil, dandelions and pretty much every other flower that grows in abundance there would be considered a weed by most. Even so, they are a beauty to be appreciated, and have been incorporated into Starkhaven alienage traditions that are most likely not rooted in old elven culture, and are more just Starkhaven based.
Alienage (Starkhaven)
Like all alienages, it exists in a constant state of disrepair, the buildings ranging from debatably functional to derelict to not actually being buildings in the strictest sense, and more imaginative constructions of whatever materials were to hand. There is a row of houses that has never been repaired or reconstructed even some twenty or thirty years later, that was burned down by accident in the middle of the night when a young mage could not control their magic. (The ruins are not uninhabited, but they aren’t necessary inhabitable.)
The twos thing the alienage does have are their vhenadahl, mostly intact (with a large bough high high up noticeably missing, where it fell off during a storm and went through a roof) and wild flowers. Not necessarily flowers that a gardener would appreciate, granted; forget-me-nots, foxgloves, thistles, clover, birdsfoot trefoil, dandelions and pretty much every other flower that grows in abundance there would be considered a weed by most. Even so, they are a beauty to be appreciated, and have been incorporated into Starkhaven alienage traditions that are most likely not rooted in old elven culture, and are more just Starkhaven based.