Talk:Rumors and Sightings: Daud/@comment-1500935-20140108232101/@comment-1500935-20140109000131

I think you misunderstood Drapers Ward's story. Initially (back before the Kaldwins' reign) the district was only manufacturing fabric and textiles, raw materials, for the demand of the whole Empire. When the main manufacturers started relocating to Serkonos and Morlay, the abandoned textile mills and other factories were taken over by Mortimer Hat (thanks to his wealth as gang leader) and others to manufacture and sell clothes to Dunwall's nobility, and also offering a better place for clothes designers. That started the golden age of this place. However unknown to the customers, the workers there were treated very poorly by their employers through "hardened men" (not much different from a gang as Rothwild's butchers are) and not paid as much while those successful businesses generated huge profits. When this violence started spreading in front of the shops, and by addition the plague started propagating, then the customers started to desert the place.

Technically, the Dead Eels implanted themselves in a district which was already dead, except for the Geezer and his remaining men, the Hatters gang, so the description in this book about Daud really fits. Even in-game the place looks really run-down.