The current head of the Barony of Khomaes is Aldra Ap Iaggio. The Iaggio family has ruled the Barony for 8 generations now, stretching back almost 200 years. Although the family, as with most of the significant families, is only interested in politics and the situation in the city of Khomaes (simply called "The City" within the Barony, but sometimes derisively referred to as the Drop or the Rift, because of Dancer's Rift. It is also common for poets to refer to it as the Spire or the Spike, for Dancer's Spike).
The population of the city is approximately 22,000, but it has been a while since a general census has been called for. The local economy, which is based primarily on local agriculture for the lower classes, and on a combination of industrial trade (amberstone and other materials coming down out of the Aghanz Hills), trade with the nearby Baronies, and the pilgrim and traveler trade. The pilgrims and travelers have ample reason to come to The City, and hence the City itself flourishes, and creates additional demand on the surrounding areas, affecting the whole Barony. The pilgrims coming are for the two cathedrals in the city, and also for the School of Charm. The cathedrals are Appuco Fast, and it's twin Ramee Tower. Appuco Fast is dedicated to St. Norena. Ramee Tower is dedicated to the followers of St. Ellain. Both churches draw a large amount of pilgrim traffic, and the business that pilgrims draw, to the Barony.
Westron is spoken commonly in this Barony, as with most of the Baronies. But because it is so far north, there is also a wide understanding of Destrikking. All written transactions, however, use Westschrift.
The surrounding towns are (see the map):
A. Truend - Pop 2,200 - Walled against the large mammals of the Darkearth Plains, and also against the Shagmen out of the Aghanz Hills. A small elite corps of the town guard are called the Truend Rangers, and they travel the local area, looking for traveling groups of Shagmen, and breaking them up before they can get too close to Truend, or local farm villages.
B. Khoben Vale - Population 1,800 - There is a small section of dense trees that grows on either side of a minor river called Bruuka Wash. Carved out of that is enough space for Khoben Vale, all within the trees, and partially on a rocky island in the middle of Bruuka Wash, the rest on either bank. There are sturdy stone bridges connecting the whole affair, and stone walls and towers inside the forest, to protect the town. Outside the little forest, there are single and small groups of trees, all of which attract the giant lynx common to the area. In fact, sometimes the lynx is called the Khoben Cat.
C. Sagio Mill - Population 2,800 - This is an open town, without a city wall. There are, however, several concentric rings of watch towers extending out, 20 miles in all directions around the town. Most of the farms, and other holdings, relying on the town, are within that set of rings. The town gets it's name from a very large stone mill, built next to a rather impressive mill pond. There is no river feeding this pond, but the water in it constantly rotates (due to magic means), providing motion for the very large grinding wheel.
D. Iffel - Population 2,200 - This is a town built around a small castle (D'Mosh Castle), with a curtain wall around the core town. It is, however, built right next to the King's Highway. The curtain wall of the town backs up to and connects with the mound of the King's Highway, and within the walls of the town, there is a curious large tower, that has in it's central area, four very, very large platforms (like rafts, made of large logs lashed together), big enough for a large wagon and team. Each of these platforms are actually elevators, up to a stone connecting ramp over to the King's Highway. The elevators are powered by partially trained Mammoths, captured from the wilds of the Darkearth Plains. This access to the King's Highway means that Iffel is quite wealthy as a trade location. There is a similar elevator tower - obviously built by the Old Ones - on the south side of the King's Highway at this same point, but nobody bothers to maintain or man it.
E. Cyclot - Population 2,400 - This town has a massive wooden great hall at the center of it, lots of professional buildings (mostly of a half timber variety), and massive palisade walls made of very large shaped logs driven into the earth. There are two concentric walls, one only 2 miles across, in a rough oval, only 1 mile across the narrow axis. The second concentric wall is all of five miles across, roughly circular. Inside the first wall is the "inner town" - which is for the wealthiest families, and prestigious buildings. The second wall contains the "outer town" which are most of the minor nobility, lesser professionals, and more important land owners, who own grazing and planting estates outside the town. Outside the walls exists a small community of Elves, mostly Wood Elves (about 400), but a few traveling Gray Elves are always present, also. The residents of Cyclot, and the Elves, refer to this community as Duar Village. These Wood Elves have strong ties to the Harp Woods. Much of the industry in the town is either from the surrounding forest products (charcoal burning, and carpentry rate very highly), but also a very strong wool market is present. The sheep, a curious three horned variety, called the Odelle Sheep, produces very valuable wool. The flocks that graze in open pasture outside the city are protected by shepherds. Cyclot shepherds are known to be very competent, and dangerous, mostly due to the high number of dire wolves in the area.
F. Nowak - Population 2,200 - Another woodland related town, this one with a nearby Gnome community, of about 600 Gnomes, mostly underground. The community is called Cheddom Tower, but the tower is a minor part of the underground Gnome village. Together, the carpenters and craftsmen of Nowak and the Gnomes of Cheddom build some of the most intricate, and fabulous working artifacts (such as cuckoo clocks). There is a strong tradition of hunting amongst the wealthy and young from Nowak, in the Harp Woods.
G. Acron Trade - Population 2,400 - This is another walled town, built around a core of a castle (Bekno Keep), and surrounded by stone palisade walls. It is built next to the King's Highway, and the Old Ones had constructed a curious platform settlement right next to the mound. The platform is large enough for multiple buildings, and serves as a location for the main market of Acron Trade. Approaches to the platform were built with a very long, shallowly sloping ramp up, so that animal and walking traffic have no trouble climbing it. Stairs have been constructed, that are much steeper, but provide quicker access up out of the walled town of Acron Trade. There is not a similar platform, nor an access ramp, on the south side of the King's Highway. Although there is a thriving agricultural community of farms and villages surrounding Acron Trade, it is from trade that it makes its economy.
Note, this is part two of a two part article on the Barony of Khomaes. Part 1 is located here.
Showing posts with label Gray Elves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gray Elves. Show all posts
Jun 28, 2012
Jan 3, 2011
The Faery and the Goblyn
Two broad groups of intelligent species dwell in the Valley that predate both the Older Ones, and of course, the younger races that dwell there now. These are the Faery and the Goblyn.
The Faery include all of the normal magical races one would associate with that group - leprechauns, pixies, fairies, etc - but also the arboreal magical races - such as nymphs, dryads, nyads, centaurs, fauns, and elves.
The Faery do not have gods or goddesses, as such, but rather have a number of very powerful beings who rule over the Seely court. These are King Oberon and Queen Titania, among others. The Seely Court is removed from this world, and exists in the Seely Realms. How or when this split from the World took place, none now alive know. It is possible that Oberon or Titania know, but they do not speak of it.
The most human like of the Faery are of course the Elves. They dwell almost entirely in their forest realms, which are areas around where portals from the Seely Realms intersect easily with the world of the Valley. As expected, time and distance in the Seely realms are very different from time and distance as measured between portals in the world of the Valley. Because of this situation - that the Elves congregate around the Faery portals - it is rare that Elves in any number are seen outside of their own Fey glens and hollows.
Humans who encounter Elves often mistake the leading figures of the Seely Court as elven "deities". This is not exactly true, but it is common enough for humans to believe so. There are Elves who venerate the members of the Court in such a way, that they behave as Priests while in the world of the Valley, receiving powers and spells from the realm of Faery due to their loyalty and fealty to the Court.
When the Seely Realms were separated from those of the World, at the same time the Unseely Realms were also formed. These were populated by the Goblyn races, mostly. Those consist of the goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, ogres, trolls and other affiliated races. The magics of the Unseely Realms are not nearly as well formed nor as well behaved as the magics of the Seely. Because of this, it is much less likely that travel back and forth against the Unseely portals takes place. Unlike the Faery, the Goblyn portals are almost all underground, some are very deep underground. A number of powerful dark magic beings rule over the Unseely Realms, and these are sometimes venerated by the Goblyn races as their own "deities". This is much less likely than with the Fey folk.
Two interesting outliers from this situation are notable. The first are the Dark Elves. These are a group of elves that, for unknown reasons, have chosen to ally themselves with the Unseely Realms. They dwell mostly underground, and are consummately evil. They are the most powerful, magically, of the Unseely folk, rivaling some Faery folk for power.
The second exception are the very mysterious Gray Elves. There are, roughly, three distinct groups of Faery Elves (apart from the Goblyn Dark Elves). The first two - the High Elves (who dwell mostly in the Seely Realms, but visit the world of the Valley from time to time) and the Wood Elves (who are more likely to remain in the Valley for some time, but always remain in the forests near the portals where they can remain in contact with the Seely Court) never remain forever in our world. They travel back to the Seely Realm (some more or less frequently than others, but none remain here forever), and look to the Court for their guidance and allegiance.
The Gray Elves, on the other hand, are of the Faery sort, but they have decided to come to our world and dwell her permanently. They often take up residence in parts of the world far from the forests, usually because they cannot bear the sadness that results from their decision not to return to the Seely Realms. They Gray Elves often speak in enigmatic riddles when discussing the world, and why they dwell apart from other Elves. It is possible that they may know about the reason for the split of the Seely and the Unseely from the world of the Valley.
One curious feature of the separation of the Goblyn and Faery from the world, there are occasionally babies born to both Elves and Orcs (the races closest to humans) that resemble a human being close enough to be mistaken for one at a glance. There are mischevious members of both the Seely and Unseely realms who will bring such babies to Human communities and exchange them for human babies. In both cases (the elf or orc child raised by humans, or the human child raised by elves or orcs) the results are referred to as Half Elves or Half Orcs. Once their true origin is known, neither are ever fully trusted by Humans. It is not known how the human counterparts are treated in the Faery or Goblyn realms.
The Faery include all of the normal magical races one would associate with that group - leprechauns, pixies, fairies, etc - but also the arboreal magical races - such as nymphs, dryads, nyads, centaurs, fauns, and elves.
The Faery do not have gods or goddesses, as such, but rather have a number of very powerful beings who rule over the Seely court. These are King Oberon and Queen Titania, among others. The Seely Court is removed from this world, and exists in the Seely Realms. How or when this split from the World took place, none now alive know. It is possible that Oberon or Titania know, but they do not speak of it.
The most human like of the Faery are of course the Elves. They dwell almost entirely in their forest realms, which are areas around where portals from the Seely Realms intersect easily with the world of the Valley. As expected, time and distance in the Seely realms are very different from time and distance as measured between portals in the world of the Valley. Because of this situation - that the Elves congregate around the Faery portals - it is rare that Elves in any number are seen outside of their own Fey glens and hollows.
Humans who encounter Elves often mistake the leading figures of the Seely Court as elven "deities". This is not exactly true, but it is common enough for humans to believe so. There are Elves who venerate the members of the Court in such a way, that they behave as Priests while in the world of the Valley, receiving powers and spells from the realm of Faery due to their loyalty and fealty to the Court.
When the Seely Realms were separated from those of the World, at the same time the Unseely Realms were also formed. These were populated by the Goblyn races, mostly. Those consist of the goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, ogres, trolls and other affiliated races. The magics of the Unseely Realms are not nearly as well formed nor as well behaved as the magics of the Seely. Because of this, it is much less likely that travel back and forth against the Unseely portals takes place. Unlike the Faery, the Goblyn portals are almost all underground, some are very deep underground. A number of powerful dark magic beings rule over the Unseely Realms, and these are sometimes venerated by the Goblyn races as their own "deities". This is much less likely than with the Fey folk.
Two interesting outliers from this situation are notable. The first are the Dark Elves. These are a group of elves that, for unknown reasons, have chosen to ally themselves with the Unseely Realms. They dwell mostly underground, and are consummately evil. They are the most powerful, magically, of the Unseely folk, rivaling some Faery folk for power.
The second exception are the very mysterious Gray Elves. There are, roughly, three distinct groups of Faery Elves (apart from the Goblyn Dark Elves). The first two - the High Elves (who dwell mostly in the Seely Realms, but visit the world of the Valley from time to time) and the Wood Elves (who are more likely to remain in the Valley for some time, but always remain in the forests near the portals where they can remain in contact with the Seely Court) never remain forever in our world. They travel back to the Seely Realm (some more or less frequently than others, but none remain here forever), and look to the Court for their guidance and allegiance.
The Gray Elves, on the other hand, are of the Faery sort, but they have decided to come to our world and dwell her permanently. They often take up residence in parts of the world far from the forests, usually because they cannot bear the sadness that results from their decision not to return to the Seely Realms. They Gray Elves often speak in enigmatic riddles when discussing the world, and why they dwell apart from other Elves. It is possible that they may know about the reason for the split of the Seely and the Unseely from the world of the Valley.
One curious feature of the separation of the Goblyn and Faery from the world, there are occasionally babies born to both Elves and Orcs (the races closest to humans) that resemble a human being close enough to be mistaken for one at a glance. There are mischevious members of both the Seely and Unseely realms who will bring such babies to Human communities and exchange them for human babies. In both cases (the elf or orc child raised by humans, or the human child raised by elves or orcs) the results are referred to as Half Elves or Half Orcs. Once their true origin is known, neither are ever fully trusted by Humans. It is not known how the human counterparts are treated in the Faery or Goblyn realms.
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