This mostly deserted district begins at the feet of the old Imperial Palace, and touches at points on the Noble district and the central commercial areas, before slowly degenerating into the slums. Indeed, in the form of squatters and thieves, the slums have already risen up to claim parts of this district. In the days of the Empire, this area was the administrative center of the known world; today Horizon's administrative needs take up only a tiny portion of the space. Several parts of this district are adapting well; they have become modest housing for what passess for the middle classes, or have been taken over by commercial ventures. In other areas, huge blocks of offices and counting rooms stand empty, as they have done in some cases for nearly a century. In the last days of the Empire, as the Emperor finally moved towards complete incoherence, the insanity latent in the vast bureaucracy he had allowed to grow was finally unleashed. Many of the offices still contain mountains of paperwork bearing officially sealed orders, information and memoranda that altered and contradicted each other by the day or even the hour. Several office blocks were burnt to the ground as employees took out their frustrations under the pretence of anarchism or anti-draft riots (both of which were common).
Those left standing are considered excellent accomodation by the Beggars, who have turned this area into a secondary base of sorts (they primarily gather in the sewers). Various other mobs use this area as a rat run and temporary storage; in particular the Merchant's Arm have set up some of their own bureaucracy in the abandoned offices, basically because that makes them feel more important. To some groups the district has the advantage of being a wilderness that happens to be in the middle of the city. To those groups, it is an excellent location for quiet conferences and various other privates business. There's no-one around to hear screaming or see where the bodies get disposed of. The sections of the various mobs that deal with the dirtiest business favour the area, and know better than to question the business of their peers in other mobs, should they run into each other.
The mobs aren't the only citizens to keep things they'd rather not admit to out of sight and out of mind here. Set up after the fall of the Empire, the Municipal Asylum is found in one of the emptiest parts of this district. When the rich and well connected lose their reason, friends and family have them taken away to discreet 'homes of rest' in Horizon's lands beyond the city. On the other hand anyone without cash (or friends) is put away in the asylum, in which conditions could generously be described as medieval. The inmates are piled into overfilled communal cells with little sanitation; at mealtimes food is simply thrown into the cells. The warders take daytrippers on guided tours for a small fee, being careful to show off the inmates with the most interesting or unusual afflications. Such trips are considered vulgar titillation by persons of refinement, but many go on them anyway. The tours are kept well clear of the 'special' cells in the basement, where the more demanding inmates are kept permanently chained up, sealed in vaults, drugged up to their eyeballs or (in extreme cases) imprisoned in mystical circles. There is a slow but steady trickle of people from the slums to this district, bringing relatives or friends that can no longer be looked after. There is also a rather more discreet trickle from the direction of the Imperial Palace, as the Initiative brings settlers - or even its own agents - who couldn't quite handle the Treacherous Lands to be put quitely away. The Initiative feels that these broken people might rather damage its image, so they are put in the Asylum where no one will listen to them. They are typically brought in at night. There is also an exclusively ghoul ward which by agreement with the Mayorality only ghouls may visit.
Unsurpirisingly, the Asylum is a hotbed of worship for Lacrymosa and the Mutilated One. Their cults are quiet but pervasive. Many inmates bear their torment and help their peers with the aid and fellowship of Lacrymosa; certain of the communal cells have been found by the warders to suddenly establish well - ordered communities of their own, calm and stoic. The warders shrug and see less work for themselves. The influence of the Multilated One is stronger but less obvious. The protection and powers he grants to his favored, along with the hope that his dream messages imparts, have covert enabled networks of worship to build up under strong leaders. These seek to proselytize the other inmates and improve their lot. In certain wards, they have gained inluence over the warders; a dangerous situation for the warders, since the Mutilated One seeks to convert their sort to his children.
Among the Beggars of Horizon, it is thought that the Mutilated One uses a spell in the asylum as a test for some of his newer children. That orders from their king when possessed often involve rescuing some previously unknown person from the asylum and accepting him/her as a Beggar seems to bear this out. The Beggars are accustomed to such rescues for the pragmatic reason that various of their members get thrown in the Asylum whenever they tangle with anyone in authority, tests by the god aside.
The priests of the Intercessor are aware of the situation in the Asylum (though not the extent of cultism) and are trying to improve conditions, both out of common humanity and to prevent the spread of cults. The priests of the Intercessor are a common sight in the corridors of the Asylum as they try to use their magics to directly aid the inmates; such attempts only meet with limited success. The management is pleased to get free help, but tries to prevent the priests seeing anything really awful, so that they don't kick up a fuss. The Initiative also has a few agents on the staff with instructions to keep the priests away from anyone sensitive. Finally, the place is lousy with Beggars and other cultists trying to make contact with or free their bretheren within.
Another feature of this district are the huge disused barracks that once provided for a significant proportion of the Imperial army. The modern day Mayoral Legions take up just one of these monstrosities. The rest are supposedly deserted. At least one, though, has been taken over and converted into a kind of discreet cathedral by the followers of Sergeant Bluster. There is certainly some overlap between the cultists and the tired old men found scratching around many of these deserted barracks for food and shelter. They are the very particular set of Beggars made up of the remnants of the Empire's last army. It is said that large stocks of weapons lie within these buildings, abandoned by the last Imperial forces; certainly, the area has provided rich pickings for mobsters over the last few decades. But rumour goes further, and suggests the presence of underground workshops containing impressive engines of war, commissioned by the Emperor but never used, for whatever reason [I don't know if we actually want to do this]. In any case, the possibility of such findings has made the Merchant's Arm somewhat protective of its tenuous hold over the area (the Beggars are largely indifferent to arms dealing, although they are always ready to trade in hidden knowledge). Apart from this, none of the mobs have a very strong interest in the area at present. The presence of the Mayoral Legions may have something to do with this; or maybe the spectre of Imperial authority keeps them away. Either way, as people and wealth begin to flow back into the area, it cannot long remain neutral.