The City Narrows: Difference between revisions

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[[File:city narrows 5098.jpg|frame|For a good time, enter the dark alley.]]

{{quote|''Every town in the [[Multiverse]] has a part that is something like [[Discworld|Ankh-Morpork]]'s Shades. It's usually the oldest part, its lanes faithfully following the original tracks of medieval cows going down to the river, and they have names like the Shambles, the Rookery, Sniggs Alley... [[Wretched Hive|Most of Ankh-Morpork is like that in any case]]. But the Shades is even more so, a sort of black hole of bred-in-the-brickwork lawlessness. Put it like this - even the ''criminals'' were afraid to walk the streets. The Watch didn't set foot in it.''|''[[~~Discworld/Guards!~~ ~~Guards!|Guards Guards~~]]'', '''~~Terry~~ ~~Pratchett'~~''}}

{{quote|''Every town in the [[Multiverse]] has a part that is something like [[Discworld|Ankh-Morpork]]'s Shades. It's usually the oldest part, its lanes faithfully following the original tracks of medieval cows going down to the river, and they have names like the Shambles, the Rookery, Sniggs Alley... [[Wretched Hive|Most of Ankh-Morpork is like that in any case]]. But the Shades is even more so, a sort of black hole of bred-in-the-brickwork lawlessness. Put it like this - even the ''criminals'' were afraid to walk the streets. The Watch didn't set foot in it.''|'''[[Terry Pratchett]]'''|''[[Guards! Guards!]]''}}

In the setting of a large sprawling Metropolis, there is one certain spot that contains the dark side of city life. It will be the place where the police rarely tread and where those who attend to certain unsavory professions rely on their own methods of protection. It will have its own nickname from the locals, it may even be marked out on the official map. Its level of actual malice may vary; it could be a place where the protagonist is in constant danger for each moment that they spend in this dark corner or it could be a rather lively area with an active [[Black Market]] that forms an actual market and gamblers, whorers and dealers collect for decadent revelry. The latter is more common when '''The City Narrows''' are the [[Not-So-Safe Harbor]] district and are thus filled with pirates' and sailors' entertainment in levels that would make [[Frank Miller]] blush.

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== Literature ==

* The Shades of Ankh-Morpork on the ''[[Discworld]]''. A classic example: the cops don't go there at all (except for the werewolf), the [[Band of Brothels|Seamstresses' Guild]] keep their girls safe with a couple of ... people and each time a major character enters it's basically just a countdown for their first [[Random Encounter]].

** Arguably, Ankh-Morpork is an inversion; ''most of the city'' constitutes one of these, at least up until the events of ''[[~~Discworld/~~Men ~~At Arms|Men At~~ Arms]]''; the Shades just take it [[Up to Eleven]].

** Arguably, Ankh-Morpork is an inversion; ''most of the city'' constitutes one of these, at least up until the events of ''[[Men at Arms]]''; the Shades just take it [[Up to Eleven]].

** Even the ~~MILITARY~~ doesn't go there. During ''[[~~Discworld/~~Night Watch|Night Watch]]'', while the cavalry try and navigate in the city, Vimes jokes about the Shades, saying that the narrow streets would make it so that the cavalry wouldn't be able to dismount... if it weren't for the fact that their horses would be killed and eaten out from under them.

** Even the ''military'' doesn't go there. During ''[[Night Watch (Discworld)|Night Watch]]'', while the cavalry try and navigate in the city, Vimes jokes about the Shades, saying that the narrow streets would make it so that the cavalry wouldn't be able to dismount... if it weren't for the fact that their horses would be killed and eaten out from under them.

*** Indeed, one of the generals is amazed to learn that the massive loss of men wasn't due to enemy action, but because they went into the Shades carrying weapons and armour - i.e. valuable loot.

* The underlevels of Coruscant in [[Star Wars]]' prequel trilogy and extended universe. The planet is one huge city, so overdeveloped that the lower levels barely ever, often never, see natural sunlight. This drives the property values down and attracts the wrong sort of character (though Palpatine probably tried to [[British Newspapers|shift the blame on non-human immigrants]]). The ''[[X Wing Series]]'' has Gavin Darklighter from Tatooine going to the underlevels of Coruscant and thinking that "if Mos Eisely was considered the armpit of the galaxy, this part of Coruscant could be considered anatomically lower and decidedly less hygienic."

* The underlevels of Coruscant in ''[[Star Wars]]''{{'}} prequel trilogy and extended universe. The planet is one huge city, so overdeveloped that the lower levels barely ever, often never, see natural sunlight. This drives the property values down and attracts the wrong sort of character (though Palpatine probably tried to [[British Newspapers|shift the blame on non-human immigrants]]).{{verify}} The ''[[X Wing Series]]'' has Gavin Darklighter from Tatooine going to the underlevels of Coruscant and thinking that "if Mos Eisely was considered the armpit of the galaxy, this part of Coruscant could be considered anatomically lower and decidedly less hygienic."

** By contrast the lower levels of Nar Shadda (The "Smuggler's Moon") are a sort of inversion. They're considered ''safer'' than the higher levels because everyone walks around armed and no one has anything worth stealing.

* Several of [[Andre Norton]]'s science fiction novels (such as ''Judgement on Janus'', ''Catseye'' and ''Forerunner Foray'') have The Dipple, a refugee camp in the planet Korwar's capital city of Tikil. The character who were born there ''always'' escape because there is no [[Happy Ending]] while you are in it.