As crowded as the rest of Denerim is, the alienage is even more so. A squalid maze of dilapidated shacks stacked one atop the other, cut through by winding dirt paths far too narrow to be termed streets.

The one open spot is the square in the center, where the vhenadal spreads its branches over a small wooden stage. It's here that the elves conduct their community business, festivals, weddings. Today the crowd that has gathered is a restive one. Their ire is focused on the small group of humans standing in front of the door to one of the buildings facing the square. Humans are a very infrequent sight in any alienage, and these are Tevinter by the cut of their clothes, making them a doubly odd group.

Three of them are wearing robes and carry staves, telltale signs that they are mages. The rest are in armor and bear conventional weapons, arrayed in a semicircle around the mages blocking the crowd from approaching.