⚔ Aᴅᴠᴇɴᴛᴜʀᴇ ⚔

Hidden in plain sight within Athkatla’s bustling Center District, the Slave Market operates under layers of legality and pretense. Though slavery is outlawed in much of Faerûn, the Amnian economy permits indentured servitude through loopholes manipulated by merchant law. Here, human lives are appraised like coin—criminals, debtors, and foreigners unfortunate enough to lack papers are auctioned off beneath canopies marked with guild sigils. Overseen by officials sanctioned by the Council of Six, the market masks its trade behind bureaucratic language and gilded contracts. It is said that both nobles and crime lords frequent the space, veiled and silent, while masked clerks recite droning proclamations of lawful ownership. Efforts to abolish the practice are routinely stalled or crushed, and only the Harpers work in secret to rescue and relocate the enslaved.

The Slave Market is a semi-enclosed plaza of pale stone, flanked by bureaucratic offices and fluted columns bearing crimson banners. Raised wooden platforms display shackled figures under the judgmental gaze of masked clerks. The air smells of ink, sweat, and incense, and the crowds speak in hushed tones—nobles in shadowed cloaks, merchants counting ledgers, guards watching coldly.