Saint Denis

"A key gateway into North America with a trade route that runs the length of the country, the bustling city of Saint Denis is a melting pot of cultures and people where businessmen, socialites, sailors, laborers, beggars, and thieves all live side by side."

- Website description

Saint Denis is a location featured in Red Dead Redemption 2. It is the largest city in Bayou Nwa; the largest settlement of the five American territories featured in game.

Description
Saint Denis is a heavily industrialized city, containing large factories with towering chimneys. As a modern city, it incorporates paved streets, uniformed police officers and a network of tram lines. The city is dark and dull, covered in a blanket of fog and the skies overpowered by large clouds of thick, black smoke.

To the north, there are small ranches, along with some derelict houses. African-Americans are prevalent around the north-eastern part of the city. To the west of the city there are large, posh mansions, manors, and estates, belonging to the wealthiest citizens of Saint Denis. To the south of the city, near the Lannahechee River, is a large industrialized zone full of factories, warehouses, cargo ports, and storage facilities.

Saint Denis is very lively and populated, with bustling streets and markets, making the city feel crowded and claustrophobic. At any given time, there are trams gliding down the middle of roads, wagons slowly making their way down the streets, dogs playing and barking at passers-by, and people chatting and shopping in local stores.

The city is very diverse with residents of many backgrounds, religions and ethnicities. Many African-Americans reside in the slums in the north-eastern district of the city. Because of the city's French history, French citizens can be encountered throughout the town, often greeting the player with "Bonjour!". A sizeable Chinese diaspora can be found within the city too, particularly around the markets of Saint Denis. Many Italians can be seen also, mostly thanks to Angelo Bronte and his powerful Italian mafia.

Trivia

 * Saint Denis is based on the real world city of New Orleans, Louisiana, sharing a number of similarities as with Lemoyne is to the real world state of Louisiana.
 * The city name of "Saint Denis" refers to the patron saint of Paris, with the city's seal seemingly depicting the martyr in his conventional beheaded state (see below).
 * Much like real life New Orleans, the street names of Saint Denis are written on the sidewalks, with blue lettering on white tiles.
 * Nearly every character in the game refers to Saint Denis by it's French pronunciation (sant-deh-nee).
 * The city was supposedly named as New Bordeaux but changed during the development of the game because the name was already used in another open-world game, Mafia III. The name can be seen on the leaked 2016 map. The name change seems to have occurred rather late in development. As a campfire song that can be sung by the Van der Linde gang and heard in game will mention a town with the name "Bordeaux".
 * Saint Denis is home to the Supreme Court of Lemoyne, mirroring how the Supreme Court of Louisiana is actually located in New Orleans as opposed to the state capitol of Baton Rouge. The Supreme Court of Lemoyne building is located directly to the right of the Vaudeville Theatre on Frontier St.
 * The 1899 setting for the game means that it takes place roughly three years after the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirmed the state supreme court and upheld the constitutionality of states' racial segregation ("separate but equal") laws. The case originally came about over disagreements on laws requiring separate racial accommodations on railroads, including railway cars, in New Orleans. The game is broadly accurate in reflecting both the interactivity and segregation that existed socially and economically among different ethnic and racial groups in the city at the time.
 * Both Arthur Morgan and John Marston display a high degree of disdain for Saint Denis, lamenting it as a "crowded, stuffed up city". Marston even openly states that he despises the city on several occasions. However, this does not affect the gameplay, and the player is free to travel and spend as much time in the city as they wish without any repercussions.
 * Players can't drive the trams in Saint Denis.

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