Is New Haven a town?

I'd say, yes and no. The original New Haven, consisting of "High Town" (Red Cabins) and "Low Town" (Grey Cabins) was established as a refugee camp. At the time the land belonged to the Elendari, and they deigned not to enforce any laws and let the people work out for themselves how to deal with each other. This was ostensibly due to them having to focus on the war. In exchange anyone dwelling in New Haven helped out at the Watch Tower (our NPC shifts) There were a few attempts at government within the town itself, but all of them ultimately failed. While there were numerous in-character shortcomings to the attempts, it could also be argued that given the realities of the game in that people came and went inconsistently (therefore characters came and went inconsistently) that the strain of a government run by PCs was impossible. In-game tensions began to grow between the Elendari and New Haven. Commander Ravin at one point complained of her spies reporting back how resentful New Haven citizens were to Elendari control. And there was a few flashpoints of conflict: The Bards attacking Elendari to recover Gran Gran, and Lt Dan of the Elendari being accused of assaulting citizens. After this the Elendari laid down requirements they had to maintain the alliance between the camp and the Elendari. Do not conspire with the drow, do not perform necromancy and blood magic. And so on. This became a hotbed of controversy among New Havenities as some declared these laws and tried to enforce them resulting in Namirieth's death. Ultimately, even the people who tried to enforce the laws would break them egregiously. The game's landscape as we know it now can be traced back to the plan to have the Forest Fae battle the Blood Fae. At the time New Haven was in possession of one of the Blood Fae's stones and the drow were demanding its return, using their agents to deliver the message. As well as the Blood Fae making some visits to try to both scare it out of New Haven and plead for it in desperation. Various leaders agreed directly with Commander Ravin of the Elendari to not to hand the blood stone over, as obviously this would empower the drow and the blood fae and make them impossible to stop. In the end, however, a group of New Havenites broke this vow, retrieved the stone from the person caretaking it, and handed it over to the Blood Fae. Thus ensuring Drow dominance in the next stages of the war. In exchange New Haven maintained a 'cease-fire' they had standing with the drow, had one citizen's grehlok curse removed, an impending attack was called off, and a promise that the Blood Fae would not enter New Haven.

The immediate folly of the last part of the agreement was realized quickly when even after that someone was turned into a Grehlok because all the Blood Fae has to do was do it outside of New Haven's borders with the way the agreement was worded. Afterwards the Elendari were overwhelmed by Drow forces in a critical attack and driven back, as the drow had their main source of power back. In addition the Blood Fae put a blood curse on them. Every night at midnight an Elendari would die suddenly: hemoraging blood in a most grotesque manner until expiring. Healing magic and attempts at resurrections had no effect. 364 Elendari in total died from this blood curse before it was stopped. The Elendari disavowed New Haven and all within it for this betrayal. Commander Ravin wrote that she considered declaring them enemies, but in recognition of past actions of... not being lying backstabbers, settled for merely declaring New Haven an unaffiliated entity. The Drow had a mnuch different reaction. Viewing New Haven as an ally now, who had gifted them a might boon while asking very little in return (as good citizens of the empire should) they declared New Haven part of the Drow Empire and attempted to absorb it. The attempts were rebuffed, but they did operate with impunity for a while. People involved in the betrayal of the Elendari can be traced to all three of the emerging groups that sprang up afterward. And from here the identity of "New Haven" splits "High Town" is still referred to as New Haven, and is much as it was before; a refugee camp with a consistently rotating population as it is fed by new refugees, but loses people that die or move away. It has no formal laws or leadership. Though among its citizens it is generally peaceful until outside influences come in. The Legion (Formerly the Grey Legion) created New Valsguard: a tent encampment outside of New Haven. With the need for following Elendari law now abandoned they enforce their own set of laws based on ones from their homeland.

"Low Town" became Everdusk and was reorganized by its citizens to have a set of laws and a governmental structure consisting of elected officials who rotate their terms. In addition they actively seek to form alliances with nearby areas (Both PC and NPC entities) And that is how a collective known as New Haven, betrayed its allies and empowered its enemies, and morphed into three separate, yet often co-dependent entities.