Entry 28 - The Big Sights (5E135)
Hello and welcome back to Cathnoquey as we return in (hopefully) better definition! So today we're going to take a tour of Westport's bigger attractions and more defining buildings.
Small reminder of where Westport is in Cathnoquey. Visited cities in yellow!
Westport features a lot of wall-to-wall buildings, as well as sprawling suburbs made of mostly terraced houses. It is the capital of the state of Perwyn, as well as the biggest city on the island of Perwyn itself, with 95.251 inhabitants. It does have its fair share of taller buildings though, so let's take a look at some of them!
Most of the high rises in town can be seen on this picture. Most were built before 5E125, when new strict laws banned any further high rise development in the downtown area.
The Cheese Wheel is one of Perwyn's more iconic attractions, despite the fact that it's really just a normal Ferris wheel. Tourist trap or genuine genius? You decide. Westport is a seaside resort town, after all.
The second-biggest tower - though by far the most well known - is Belmont Tower. It is an all-office building, and home to quite a few big companies. However, half of it is empty as its rent has only gone up after the tower's first owners, Morrow Cloud Holdings Ltd, defaulted on payment and went backrupt.
Belmont Square, at the foot of the tower, is an important transit hub in Westport. It's also the starting point of most cycle paths in the city. Westport aims to boost its cycling traffic by 200% in the ten coming years.
The Sirta Corporation, focused on medical research, also built its own labs and HQtower in the middle of Westport.
The tallest building, so far, is Primrose Tower. It was built before the other two, in 5E06, and sits right next to the Capitol. It houses offices as well as several state departments that had to move out of the ever so crowded Capitol Hall. At such it was funded by the State of Perwyn itself, and half its floors loaned out to various companies.
Wigmore Bell Tower, in the middle of Wigmore Square, rings every hour from 7am to 7pm. It is also a popular meeting place for political rallies, and is one of the bigger tourist attractions in Westport.
City Hall Square, with the City Hall in the background and the Cathedral of Stendarr to the west.
There are several churches, temples and houses of worship in Westport, though most of the population follows the Cult of the Nerevarine. The Nerevarine is the Protector of Morrowind and all Dunmer. Legend holds that the Nerevarine left Tamriel for Akavir, stopping at various places on the way - including Westport, if the archeological evidence is to believe.
This makes the Temple of the Nerevarine especially important : beyond serving as the Great Temple for all of Cathnoquey, it is one of the Seven Temples that every follower must visit as part of their mandatory Pilgrimage as they retrace the Nerevarine's steps towards Akavir.
The polytheistic Aedric faith is still strongly represented though, especially in the non-Dunmer population. Communities such as the Fellowship of Mara are strong in the city. The Cathedral of Mara is known for its extensive Valentine's Day celebrations, which starts the Westport Winter Fair. After all, what would an Aedric chapter focused on teachings of love and harmony be without its own Valentines celebrations?
Let's move on to Castle Island...without the centuries old castle. A fire broke out, which forced the castle's demolition. The terrain remains empty as the council simply cannot decide if the land should be redeveloped, or if a new mock castle should be built in its stead.
Now that is one tower complex that generated a lot of controversy. The Lucky 42 Twin Towers are the island's highest residential towers, and were built in 5E125 right on the riverfront. Many residents were very angry at the construction, and these are the towers which pushed a height ban on all future downtown buildings.
View of the towers.
It's by far not the ugliest building - many consider the Freeside Project towers to be some of the least appealing buildings in all of Cathnoquey, but their construction was needed during the 5E90s housing shortages.
However, in the 5E130s (a few years ago), massive state deregulation in the sectors of gambling and entertainment, coupled with increased domestic tourism, especially to the more natural beaches of Westport, have led people to build more hotels and casinos. The problem is that there was very little land available in the city centre, and they came too late to build tall buildings.
So what happened is that the formerly residential areas of Briarwood were redeveloped as massive hotel complexes, and in five years no less than eleven hotel towers have sprung up in the middle of the district. Nightclubs and entertainment venues were also built. Critics of the redevelopment have dubbed Westport "WestVegas" or "Glenvale without the sun", though it also strongly boosted the municipal coffers..
Westport is still more of a traditional seaside resort, but there are fears that hotel projects like the Jubilee Resort are changing it into a more costly, less natural destination.
The municipality has declared that some of the taxes from the hotels and casinos would go towards cleaning up and maintaining the beaches around town in order to ease up some of those fears.
Not that there is a lot to clean up. Westport has always been a forerunner in green energy, and strives to stop all polluting industry by the 5E140s - though there is still a strong manufacturing economy, and Westport Harbor is a major node in the oil trade.
Westport Lighthouse, right by some of the most used beaches...
The Cheese Wheel by night!
A fire rages tonight, as Westport slumbers...
Belmont Tower by night. Several of the offices are illuminated even though they're empty to give the illusion of activity, or at least to mitigate the embarrassment of city officials.
Here's one last landmark : the clock tower, in front of Primrose Tower, the main Fire Station and very close to the Capitol (poking in the background along with Belmont Tower).
All of these landmarks make Westport a better seaside resort (at least better than Wodenbury), and locals are generally happy here. That's quite a change from mainland Cathnoquey, isn't it?
And so we conclude our tour of Westport for today! Many more pictures and stories coming soon though, so stay tuned 
Map of Westport, including the major roads and all the bus lines!
Hope you enjoyed, see you soon!
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