The Silent Quarter

In the midst of the city is a place of absolute quiet. Its bounds are irregular, adhering to the property laws of several centuries and a few regime changes ago. 

Absolute quiet means exactly what it sounds (or, as it were, doesn’t sound) like. An enchantment has been placed on the quarter of the city, meaning no sound can be heard there. A struck drum will vibrate to the touch, but no drum beat will be heard. Yelling, laughing or weeping will produce appropriate sensation in the yeller, laugher or weeper and the suitable physical signs of a contorting face, streaming eyes and the like. No-one powerful enough to break the enchantment has felt it worth their while to do so; conversely, there are plenty who have felt it worth their while to make their home in the Silent Quarter as the city has grown around it.

The most obvious group to come to the Silent Quarter are scholars and mystics, who appreciate the quiet that the Quarter offers – renting cheap rooms or study cells in the boarding houses and study halls built for that purpose. Far from them (and hopefully downwind) are the slaughterhouses that deafen the clamour of penned-in nervous animals (and butchery of same) by placing themselves in the Silent Quarter. 

The quarter has been used for less industrious or straightforward purposes. Secure rooms (frequently the garret) of the boarding houses of the quarter are sometimes used to home those mentally ill folk who would be disturbed by the noise of the city proper. Of course, not being to hear a single thing and not being able to leave the quarter to go back among society is not necessarily a cause for sanity: the scholars and butchers of the Silent Quarter have ample opportunities to leave. Likewise, the Silent Quarter gives the kidnapper, footpad and murderer ample opportunity to pursue their work free of noise.

All this said, some prosper in a more wholesome fashion in the quarter. Mutes and the deaf can make a home here and converse in sign language - and all others must follow their lead. The borders of the Silent Quarter are home to numerous interpreters of this language, who help facilitate such liaisons as are necessary for those doing business in the quarter (they will sign words on a slate; just using the slate is considered awkward and impolite - and would doubtless count against you). Lip-reading is known, but has a greater possibility of error.

The entrances to the quarter are known as ports; these have only rarely been turned into active gates, but the streets that lead into the quarter are marked by statues of humanoid figures covering their mouths and ears. These are maintained by the citizens in adjacent houses and give a name to the street (the port of angels, the port of demons, the port of maidens, of babes, of fauns, of goblins…). 

The first two figures are from the port of bones.
I do not know where the third has come from.

Local government in the Silent Quarter has always been a problem. The nature of the quarter hampers efforts towards licensing, tax collecting and law enforcement. The layer of criminality in the quarter complicates this further, as does the general air of separateness from the outside world. The city watch patrols here much as anywhere else, but largely succeeds in removing criminal activity from the main thoroughfares rather than stamping it out. A regular tax is collected both on behalf of the city and the state, but estimates of what any given household owes are reliably lower than other urban areas. Town criers and the like are, naturally, unknown, but the city does provide the pay for signallers who raise the flags that signal the passing of the hours.  

It is into this place that you may one day walk, for it is the kind of spot that offers opportunities for those willing to seek them.

Ten Silent Quarter Features

1. A man in country dress turns pale and begins to look very concerned as he walks past the statues of the port. He is presumably a newcomer.
2. Officers of the watch chase after somebody into the quarter, their hue and cry having little to no effect on passers by. 
3. A monastery crosses over the bounds of the quarter; the cells and library being within the silent zone; the chapel and refectory being outside. The monks may say their prayers at the approved hours then return to the realm of quiet.
4. Members of a persecuted minority maintain a few houses within the quarter. The silence does very little to foster community spirit, but the quiet does prevent some forms of attack from their foes.
5. Music is utterly pointless within the quarter, but mimes and dancers can earn money performing on the street corners. Heckling occurs via rude gestures.
6. Horses are generally led through the Silent Quarter to prevent accidents from unheard hoofbeats or panic on the horses' part. An unwatched horse is cause for alarm, and there is one over by that trough. What has happened to the owner?
7. The retinue of a visiting dignitary blow trumpets in a show of wasted pomp.
8. A wizard, looking to make money, is advertising telepathic services and ‘mindspeech’ just outside the port of nymphs. The interpreters look at this with scorn and anger.  
9. Litters and sedan chairs enter the quarter - largely with heavy curtains lowered.  This one is not only firmly shut up, but also well guarded.   
10. The Voiceless House looms over one part of the quarter. This prison takes those whose speech is held to be dangerous: renegade wizards*, political agitators and leading heretics. Of course, imprisonment within the Silent Quarter is held by ancient statute to be an extreme form of punishment: all those in the House have their cases reviewed each year by the court. The time of this appeal is always kept secret, to prevent formation of mobs or intimidation of the judiciary. If you could learn the time of such a retrial, it would be valuable indeed.  

*Any magician capable of casting spells without a voice is unlikely to be caught - or taken alive.