Clarus City - Hawlucha Man

Welcome to Clarus City, a shining jewel of enterprise and industry!

Located about two hours from Unova by plane, Clarus City is an independent city-state unaffiliated with any region or league. Despite this, many trainers and travelers of every stripe pass through the city, drawn by the allure of Clarus City's glamour and opportunities. Made up of five distinct boroughs across three peninsulas that straddle the Umber and West rivers, Clarus City has a history almost as long as Unova's, and a social landscape as varied and diverse as their northern neighbors.

Clarus City is home to economic juggernauts like the Forbes Corporation, Harcourt Enterprises, and Sasaki Industries, and these help shore up a bustling commodity and trade economy, along with being pioneers in scientific and mechanical research. The Clarus Stock exchange sits in the heart of midtown, and upon its columned floor, a bustling exchange of currency flows in and out. In Clarus Harbor, ships from all over the world come to stock the Clarus warehouses in Avenbrooke and Ridgewood and ship out the latest innovations from Sasaki Industries and Forbes Corp.

A sprawling and bustling city like Clarus can be overwhelming to a newcomer, but we in the Clarus City Board of Commerce hope that this handy guide answers all of your questions and gets you where you need to go!

The largest borough of Clarus City is located on the center peninsula, and is further divided into three "sub-boroughs", Downtown, Midtown, and Uptown, respectively.

Downtown Clarus is the oldest part of the city, first settled almost four hundred years ago as a trading outpost on the calm waters of Clarus Harbor. While none of the original structures built by the original settlers remain, their legacy of commerce and trade can be seen in the various parks, squares and streets that bear the names of the brave men and women who first staked their claim on this land. The Forbes Corporation headquarters is located in downtown, soaring high above its neighbors to mark its place in Clarus City's iconic skyline.

Growing from humble origins as a general store and supply company in the early days of Clarus Village, the enterprise begun by Isaiah Forbes is carried on today by the multinational conglomerate that is the Forbes Corporation. Led until recently by the beloved Andrew and Amelia Forbes until their tragic death five years ago, the Forbes Corporation continues to lead the pack in global stewardship and environmental protections even as it pushes the frontiers of human knowledge and delivers a better life to everyone who uses its varied products.

While most of the shipping in Clarus City comes through shipyards in the outer boroughs, the wharfs of Downtown Clarus are always bustling with activity, and it is from here that intrepid tourists can board a cruise around Clarus Harbor to the various outer islands that have been preserved as nature reserves for the city's public use. This green barrier protects Clarus City from storms and flooding, while also serving to keep our air clean and preserve the natural harmony of the surrounding landscape.

In recent years, a theater scene has sprung up in downtown, and new murals have appeared over the old graffiti tags on walls and water towers. Downtown is the wellspring from which Clarus City sprang, and it continues to be the font from which the city prospers and grows.

Midtown Clarus is the city's commercial heart. Here, skyscrapers shoot up to pierce the sky, forming sprawling canyons of steel, glass, and concrete. Sasaki Tower stands tall and proud at the heart of the business district, a beacon of light and progress. Midtown also serves as Clarus City's principal commercial district, with streets lined with vibrant and colorful storefronts offering everything one might need: fresh fruit, electronics, art galleries and designer clothes are merely the tip of the iceberg! Restaurants and bars serving cuisine from all over the world are on every street corner, with something to everyone's taste. Midtown has something for everyone, and you're sure to find something new and exciting every day.

The Clarus Stock Exchange and many of the city's most recognizable buildings are in midtown. Sasaki Industries is but one among many, including the Nimbus Tower, the First Clarus Industrial Trust Building, along with many more that are even now being built. Midtown has a mixture of art deco and art nouveau skyscrapers from over a century ago, brutalist bulwarks, and more modern crystal spires that are in a furious arms race to outdo each other with the most sustainable and green construction methods. All of these various styles harmonize in midtown, an outward manifestation of Clarus City's place as a global crossroads of ideas.

As one moves towards uptown Clarus City, the buildings become more residential, eventually giving way to the rolling estates of the city's elite at the northernmost part of the city. Here is also the greatest concentration of the city's universities, with Clarus University, the Clarus Technological Institute, and Graystone University, all prestigious institutions known all over the world. Uptown Clarus is also home to several artists enclaves and workshops, along with a strong literary heritage. Galleries are quite common here, and the night market that spans over ten blocks draws tourists and locals alike with stalls that peddle food, handmade artisan goods, and many types of clothing from spring through autumn.

Located on the southern part of the eastern peninsula, Avenbrooke grew from a community of immigrant mill workers and laborers into the varied community it is today. Made up of winding streets lined with old brick tenement buildings, Avenbrooke is has always been a place where hard-working, salt of the earth types have congregated to get things done and build a life. Connected to Central Clarus by the sweeping Concord suspension bridge, what Avenbrooke lacks in glamorous appeal, it makes up for in humble charm. Every neighborhood has a bar that locals will swear is the best in the city, and various empty lots have been reclaimed as small parks to create green urban oases in the concrete jungle.

Avenbrooke's streets can be somewhat disorienting to a newcomer, and many a stranger has gone to an Avenbrooke native for directions, only to be rattled off a list of landmarks to follow, even if those same landmarks haven't existed for decades. Being told to take a right at Lou's old automat doesn't do much to help when Lou's was replaced with a laundromat nearly thirty years ago. When in doubt, just look for the elevated train, and use that as your pole star! Once you've reached the tracks of the main Avenbrooke line, getting around the borough is a breeze!

Avenbrooke Tower shoots up from the small central commercial district, the tallest building in the borough by far. From its impressive baroque facade, one only has to hop on the elevated train for a scant four stops to get to the shaded campus of the Avenbrooke Institute of Technology, where students labor day and night in labs and seminars to unlock the secrets of the universe (or at least pass their next exam)!

At the southern extreme of the borough, abutting the harbor, is the sprawling Avenbrooke warehouse district. Roughly half of the city's international commerce comes through the Avenbrooke docks, and plenty of goods from all over the world have passed through this district at one time or another as they were moved from one transport to another. Odds are, the average tourist will have no cause to venture anywhere near the warehouse district, but the Clarus City Board of Commerce would like to take this opportunity to remind you that virtually everything passes through Clarus City, the crossroads of the world.

But not everything leaves our fair city, of course. Much like uptown Clarus, Avenbrooke has its own night market along St. Martine Avenue. Though it is smaller than the sprawling one in the central borough, it draws a comparable crowd, mostly made up of locals who are unwilling to make the long trek uptown. The Avenbrooke night market is famous for its vast and varied assortment of cuisine, combining the best of Unovan, Kantonian and Sinnohan street foods. Try a local craft beer, which are available at almost any food stand in the market, and don't pass up the chance to sample a bit of famous Avenbrooke ramen. From the early days of the Avenbrooke mills, Kantonian street vendors have set up ramen stands throughout the borough to provide a warm, savory meal for workers coming home off a late shift. Some stands have been perfecting their recipes for three, four, and even five generations. If you were to ask five Avenbrook residents where the best bowl of ramen in town was, you would likely come away with no less than eight different answers. For the denizens of Avenbrooke, ramen is serious business!

While you're in Avenbrooke, make sure to check out O'Flanagan's, a pub that has been passed down from father to son for generations. The pub grub is standard fare, and the tap list is as robust as one would hope, but the real draw of this local favorite is the large courtyard patio in the back. While other bars in Avenbrooke advertise with pub trivia, O'Flanagan's has long been a mainstay for pokemon battles. For trainers current and retired, it offers a great place to let pokemon socialize and spar while their human partners relax with a drink. Tournaments are not uncommon, and O'Flanagan himself is no slouch when it comes to jumping into the ring, and his Pangoro partner matches his master in both strength and girth. If you're looking for an exciting night out, make sure to check when the next tourney is being held, and you may even get a glimpse of the proprietor himself showing his battle prowess.

Just north of Avenbrooke is the borough of Greenpoint. Like Avenbrooke, it had its start as a factory town, and many of the tenement houses now were built as worker villages. But as time has worn on and factories moved towards more automated methods, the borough has changed as well. Greenpoint now boasts a flourishing arts community and underground music scene, and is home to the Clarus Museum of Art and Culture. The CMAC has a collection of historic art from all over the world, along with a whole wing of contemporary paintings and sculpture. Adjoining the museum in Greenpoint's Crescent Park is the city botanical garden.

Greenpoint is also home to Harcourt Enterprises, another economic powerhouse and financial firm that has steered the global economy through no less than three crises and recessions. But though Harcourt money greases the wheels of the Greenpoint economy, but local businesses are what drive it. The Greenpoint Galleria is a large shopping complex, home to luxury brands and department stores, located near the Umber River. But closer to Greenpoint's heart is the central artery. Once choked with commuters, recent years have turned the thoroughfare into a pedestrian-only walkway that stretches for several blocks. Lined with fashionable boutiques and stylish bistros, it makes Greenpoint a premier destination for haute couture and haute cuisine.

Greenpoint is also home to greatest concentration of night clubs and music halls in all of Clarus City. Many now-famous bands have gotten their start playing backroom gigs at places like the Red Room, Club Treville, the Oil Lamp, and the Blue Donphan.

Across the West River is Lenox Hills, a largely residential borough, home to many who commute into central Clarus for work. In recent years, through the hard work and cultivation efforts of a consortium of individuals, Lenox Hills has become the site of several arboretums, lush and vibrant parks and green spaces that line the borough's boulevards and avenues. Pokemon frolic freely in these pastoral gardens and groves, and well-maintained walking paths wind through them so that anyone can take a break from the hustle and bustle of city life and return to the quiet tranquility of nature.

These rejuvenation efforts have made Lenox Hills a highly desirable place to live, and the borough's iconic High Street was recently named one of the top ten most beautiful neighborhoods in the world. With its stately historic brownstone townhouses and soaring oaks lining the avenue, High Street makes for a wonderful promenade in all four seasons.

Lenox Hills is also home to the Moirai Institute, a nonprofit research fellowship dedicated to the improvement of life for both humans and pokemon. The institute funds scientific research to cure diseases and repair the environment, along with developing cybernetics and nanotechnology, and researching new sources of renewable energy. The goal of the research is to create a human society more in harmony with nature, but with access to the kind of technology that can help make the world a better place.

The nightlife in Lenox Hills is considerably tamer than in the other boroughs. Most of the bars and cafes are small affairs, but there are several restaurants run by world class chefs who have put down roots in Clarus City and have brought their culinary expertise to the city, much to the delight of Clarus City's population of gourmands.

South of Lenox Hills is Ridgewood, the hardscrabble borough that runs on shipping and commerce. The Clarus City rail depot is located here, connecting Clarus overland to Unova and beyond. Ridgewood is also where Clarus City's largest docks are, providing berths for supertankers to deliver their wares. Like Avenbrooke, Ridgewood also has a sprawling warehouse district, and convoys of trucks carrying shipping containers to the railway is a common sight on the borough's main byways. Long billed as Clarus City's gateway to the world, the denizens of this district are always on the move to make sure that the wheels of the global economy keep moving.

But Ridgewood is upwardly mobile, and of late many high rises have started to spring up around the borough. A new crop of young executives and venture capitalists have decided that the best place to live is a stone's throw from their wares, so they've set up shop not far from the warehouse district, and the real estate market has responded by building plenty of new apartments and several new office towers. Tech startups have also found the space they need to get their feet on the ground in Ridgewood's old empty warehouses.

As the borough rebrands and revitalizes itself, Ridgewood has become a symbol for the modern Clarus City: always changing to evolve with the times, and growing stronger and more vibrant through it.

We at the Clarus City Board of Commerce hope you found this brief overview helpful! Keep an eye out for conveniently placed map kiosks stationed at high-traffic spots around the city for more information. Please enjoy your stay in our beloved city!