Fiveways

The town of Fiveways is the central location of Breaking Worlds. Our interactives (indoor events) take place in the town and most linears (outdoor events) are set in the nearby countryside.

Built on the southwestern bank of the River Marle, it is a large and busy town by Arginese standards, with nearly ten thousand people living within the walls, and is a major hub for traders and travellers in the Eastern Reach. As well as the Temple of the Fivefold Way - the sprawling monastery that gives the town its name - it hosts wharves, inns, markets, independent churches, guilds, and many other colourful institutions and inhabitants.

Order and defence

The town wall

Fiveways is ringed by a defensive wall sufficiently tall and strongly built that it would take an expert to scale and heavy artillery to breach. So far it has defended the city from the worst dangers of the Breaking; it also presents a serious (though not impassable) obstacle to anyone trying to get into or out of the town unnoticed.

The wall has five gates, each consecrated to one of the totem spirits.

Bridgegate

Fiveways Bridge is the most important crossing of the Marle, carrying the Great East Road from Stow Chine and Carhais across the river, passing by the little settlement of Bar Mills on the east bank. From the southwest bank the road passes through the docks and through the walls at Bridgegate.
Dedicated to Dragon, it is the busiest way in and out of the town. As well as travellers from the north it is in constant use by river sailors and fisherfolk loading and unloading their boats and bringing their catches to market.

Embergate

Embergate is built into the southeast of the town wall and dedicated to Phoenix. It gives access to the foreshore and the lower Marle, and is used mostly by farmers and fisherfolk - but since the Breaking the fear of water monsters coming up the river has meant that increasing numbers of travellers heading southeast prefer to go through Embergate rather than on a boat.

Reachgate

The Great East Road from the southwest enters Fiveways through Reachgate. Almost as busy as Bridgegate and physically even larger, this massive structure guards the route between the town and the southern cities of Kellewick and Suddene; in recent years it has also become the main route for travellers to and from Aulin and the Interior.
As the main land entrance to the town it is heavily fortified, and is consecrated to Bear, the patron of community and defence.

Pinfold Gate

The northwestern gate of the town is called Pinfold Gate after the nearby pens where stray animals are kept. It is dedicated to Tiger, who is said to keep the creatures obedient and docile. These days it is mostly used by herders bringing their animals to market, but in the past it was also the start of the Old Midland Road to Aulin; the route has fallen out of use as travellers prefer to follow the Great East Road before cutting across country into the Interior.

Rivergate

Rivergate is the quietest of the town gates, used by a few farmers and fisherfolk heading up the Marle. It is rumoured to be a smuggler’s route - the gate is seldom heavily guarded, and it would certainly be easy to move goods in and out by river. The gatehouse is consecrated to Serpent.

Part of a series about Arginese geography.

The Iseur Valley - The Summer Coast - The Eastern Reach and Fiveways - The Lowen Valley - The Northlands - The Western Reach - The Interior