Kirkwall Alienage

Kirkwall's alienage is a place where the elves have secluded themselves into one of the largest hexes-with a great iron gate that the City Guard will close up at night. For their safety, of course. In the alienage one finds the massive, gnarled tree that the elves call the "vhendadahl", and possibly the only greenery in the entire district. Some consider it odd that the poorest part of Lowtown should also be its most colorful and most lively. The elves, at least, comfort themselves with the thought that as poor off as they are they are still not the worst in Kirkwall. That honor belongs to those who have descended into Darktown, the nickname given to the truly desperate who have taken refuge in the city’s sewer tunnels.

Lowtown is home to a squalid elven alienage. Here, like in most Thedas alienages, elves are packed into tiny rundown apartments and effectively segregated from the human population.

Kirkwall's alienage is even more dilapidated than the rest of Lowtown, but the elves go to great lenghts keeping the place looking bright and festive. The vhenadahl("The Tree of the People") standing in the middle of the alienage is a symbol for elven pride and shared cultural identity, and it is lovingly cared for.

It's difficult to say if the elves would continue confining themselves to the alienage if they were given the chance to mingle.They may not admit it, but some feel that living among their kind is far better than living with humans, no matter how terrible alienage life may be.