Once a relatively fashionable sector of merchant activity and residences, it is now a collection of slowly decaying tenements and falling buildings inhabited by those either too poor to live elsewhere or too notorious to leave the area. Politically, the Labyrinth includes the sector south of the Horseshoe (notably, The Street Of Silk Veils), since it was considered impractical to have an area like the Labyrinth (the true thieves' quarter of Petrana) have full representation on the Council of Boroughs. Any native will tell you, however, that regardless of technical boundaries the real Labyrinth begins at Southbridge Street, and only gets worse as you approach the city wall.

The area east of Silk Veils is primarily base materials manufacturing, and provides such commodities as bricks, lumber, bulk glass, cement and mortar, etc. There are numerous cottage industries in the area, producing such things as furniture, barrels, looms, etc. There is one large furniture "factory", the compound of which occupies an entire city block, and employs almost 100 people.

The Labyrinth itself produces nothing but crime, trouble, pestilence and disease. Few people care to venture into the area (unless they are given no choice in the matter), but there are some interesting inhabitants. Some of these inhabitants are not derelicts, dregs, destitute, or criminals of any description, but have a special interest in the Labyrinth and its denizens.

The Labyrinth is a maze of dirty narrow streets, alleyways, and cul-de-sacs lined with shabby, decaying tenements and abandoned warehouses. Buildings are primarily brick and wood, and are generally in a state of disrepair and neglect. The streets are little better, muddy and mostly unpaved, and sport deep holes to catch wagon wheels and unwary pedestrians. Trash and refuse litter the streets and accumulate in the alleys, to be picked over by rats, mangy cats and dogs.

The inhabitants of the Labyrinth are no better than their environment, a collection of cutthroats, alleybashers, and ragged children. Despite its unsavory reputation, most of its residents are not muggers or thieves, but are simply too poor to live anywhere else. Beggars in threadbare rags are a familiar sight, particularly in "Thieves' Market" and around Southbridge Street, crying to passersby for pity on their disfigured and diseased selves (an effect carefully cultivated, and frequently faked). There is little room for pity in the Labyrinth, however, for poverty, disease, and violence are all too familiar a sight.

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