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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lackhand" data-source="post: 4368881" data-attributes="member: 36160">Gladly <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I'm glad you guys like! (the Plots & Places forum <s>doesn't have as many flames as general</s> isn't as well traveled as general, so it sort of slips under my radar)Let's talk about edifices for a minute.The city of Starfall is a large city, population in the low tens of thousands, independent for over a hundred years. It lies in the rolling hills of what was once the kingdom of Farnholt, along the banks of the Farenwash, a wide and placid river. Its people are of mixed Ternovan and, increasingly, Dverning stock; its main claims to fame are its government, several monuments, its Daeva, and, of course, the fallen star.The Government: Unique among the cities of the West, Farnholt is a city-state ruled by the Steward and his Council of Speakers (modeled after the archbishopric and prince-of-the-church of the Templum Ops). It maintains the increasingly-misnamed King's Roads to all points west and north, mints the coins that spread throughout the rolling hills of Farnholt, and maintains a small militia in these relatively peaceful times.The Monuments: Unlike the great city of Nag'm Amun in Khend, Starfall has no sewers. Its sloped stone streets channel the waste towards downstream, and several sunken wells, hundreds of years old, pull clear water back up. The Publius Ops is the seat of government, a stone-roofed building that holds the Council (when in session) and countless bureaucrats (when it's not). Aster Place is the site of the eponymous Starfall, and is still in ruins, even two hundred years later, and is often visited by wise men and pilgrims during the daylight hours, but shunned at night, due to strange visions and madmen that wander the blasted and empty castle. The great Wall around Starfall is also a work of art, with close-fit stone blocks, and a large community of vendors clustered around each of the Gatehouses, and some poorer families living within the wall (or its bridgelike structures inside the town -- they're swept for vagrants, occasionally, but there are more ways into the hidden places than there are guards to sweep them). Paving stones that are engraved with the name of the city call it Varenhold, but that name is ancient and used aloud only in official proclamations.The Daeva: Pale and mad and lonely. There aren't that many of them -- perhaps a few hundred -- and they're even rarer outside of Starfall, being drawn by strange compulsions to the Free City. They travel in small kinship groups usually consisting of one or two Daeva and the rest Men -- engaged in strange acts of altruism or occasionally perfidy. They eat very little and never sleep, seeming instead to drink in starlight. When they die, they leave behind a very small trace of Astral Matter, or Residuum, which is also that which was left behind when the star fell. They mostly speak Ternovan, although there are more than a few who came from Khend, where it is said that there is a rite which some temple priestesses may perform to turn unborn children (still in the womb) into Starchildren. It is not a pleasant ritual.The Fallen Star: Two thousand years ago, give or take a hundred, the Dverning arrived on the Western Shore in their dragonboats, bringing with them the secrets of crafting iron into steel. They established a raiding kingdom to the north, making war with the peoples who had populated the land until then. This was a dark time, and as the Dverning language rarely recorded anything other than ridiculously exaggerated battle exploits, relatively little is known about the period. It is known that they established a few human kingdoms as they traveled north in search of a suitable clime, and after a few hundred years of lazy rule, fell to internal strife and lost contact with their vassals. Upon reemerging on the stage of history they discovered that the Ternovan People, had formed their own patchwork empires of feudal responsibilities and were engaged in trade relationships with Khend, a strange and desert-dwelling people far to the east. In short, the Dverning had been replaced in history.These trade relationships ran hot and cold, with a few years of war separated by a score of years of peace, and this state of affairs continued more or less statically until two hundred years ago (212 years ago, in fact), during Starfall.One of the mightier states in the patchwork that was the West was Varenheim, which was ruled by King Varian during the Year of Starfall. Varend was a trade empire, exposed to the East and serving as a link to the other kingdoms of the West; however, during the Year of Starfall, Khend and Varenheim were once again at war. It ended when the city of Varenhold was struck by a small mountain that fell, dripping liquid flame, from the sky. It had been seen in the sky drawing nearer for months (indeed, it had precipitated the war) -- and, among other things, it destroyed a quarter-mile of the city, and flattened the ancient Varenholt and its king. The war was immediately halted, given this sign, and priests and oracles were consulted -- all to no avail. Neighboring monarchs withdrew, fearful of their crowns, and for a brief period, all things that walked beheld a true mystery. Sages came to study what had fallen, but could find no source of it, save traces of a silvery fluid which burned with magical energy, long known to them as "Residuum", and a great hill where there had been none before, somehow under the ruins of the castle.Twenty years later, a full government was created to replace the vacuum; life went on.Until fey horns were heard, far to the West.</blockquote>

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