Grand Central Market

Within the shell of what was once a vital pre-fall rail travel hub, the Grand Central Market thrives as the commercial heart of the Heights. Ancient marble staircases with brass handrails lead merchants and buyers into a massive concourse where the business of survival is conducted at the highest level. This is not a place for bartering over rations; the Grand Central Market is where contracts for entire trade lanes and production lines are negotiated, signed, and enforced.
 

Credentials and Shingles

Access to the selling floor is controlled with precision. Each morning, credentials are checked at the southern bridge approach, and only the largest merchants and caravans are admitted. Every accredited trader carries an etched bronze seal granting entry and a stone shingle marked with chalk to advertise their goods. At the center of the concourse, a circular station allows merchants to pay for the privilege of displaying their shingle on high, visible to the crowd of runners, go-betweens, and middle-men who mediate deals on behalf of the powerful families.
 

The Twenty

In the private halls beyond the concourse, dark wood placards list the twenty most influential buyers and their current trading stock. These Walled Street elite families compete fiercely for ranking, because first place earns first bids on all incoming products. The race for the top spot is relentless, with fortunes rising and falling on every caravan that crosses the bridge.
  The Grand Central Market endures because the Heights endures, and the Heights endures because the Ziggurat Co-Op's food production keeps the population fed. As long as the soil yields and the caravans roll, the marble stairs will echo with commerce.