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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imperialus" data-source="post: 3842683" data-attributes="member: 893">some rough ideas and an English/Scotts Gaelic translator.Baile is a small, fortified hamlet with a population of approximately 200 families built along a valley beneath a dormant volcano.  Ancient eruptions carved out the valley and volcanic ash settled onto the ground making for a nutrient rich soil making the region ideal for farming and pastoral livestock.  Baile is organized along a traditional manorial system with the inhabitants living together in a village under the leadership of Briac Moc-Main also known as the Wolflord after he drove off a pack of dire wolves when he was a mere 14 years old.  Briac’s grandfather established the village out of a band of survivors fleeing the Great Wyrmstorm War and turned it into a prosperous and safe community.  The hamlet is part of a larger network of about two dozen similar villages known as the Confederacy of Mor-Creag.  It is also within about two weeks ride of the old imperial fortress of Mor-Creag which serves as the closest thing to a central authority in the region.  Baile is a naturally defensible location; the narrow pass that allows access to the valley is guarded by a wooden watchtower manned around the year by members of the local militia equipped with crossbows and spears.  Further afield the Greatwood rangers attempt to keep the roads between the villages open so that trade, and if need be, re-enforcements can move between them with relative ease.At the eastern edge of the village there is the meeting hall and residence of Briac and his family.  It is built of stout timber and also contains an armoury, a large cookhouse often used during harvest season to preserve the stores that will see the settlement through the winter, a water driven mill, and a blacksmith.  The whole compound is built on a hilltop surrounded by a rough stone wall approximately 15 feet high with an earth embankment behind to create a firing platform.  The community also supports 6 full time livery warriors and their families in addition to Briac.  These men and women help pitch in during particularly busy seasons but their primary purpose to lead and train the militia and perhaps more importantly fulfill Baile’s obligations to the Confederacy.  Each village within the confederacy is required during times of need to muster and equip at least 5 liverymen and a quarter hundred militia levies.  This allows the confederacy to field a relatively impressive force consisting of a hundred or so professional warriors along with approximately 500 spearmen and archers.Baile’s other claim to fame is Briac’s younger brother Drostan, an intelligent man he left the confederacy in his late teens to travel to the Eddinhurst, one of the last great imperial cities and study arcane mysteries with the shadowy Order of the Grey Robe.  Upon his return in his late twenties he had become a sorcerer of considerable power, and has proven to be an invaluable asset in protecting the village from the dark powers lurking outside the valley.The most common race in Baile is humans as they made up most of the population of the empire before the Wyrmstorm War.  There is a small semi autonomous clan of halflings living along the southern slopes of the valley, primarily engaged in raising sheep and a dwarven holdfast can be reached after a few days travel.  There is also an elvin coven living a nomadic life within the Greatwood traveling from village to village trading forest goods and items plundered from ruined imperial fortresses in exchange for iron goods and other items that are difficult to make on the move.  Beyond the walls of the valley however the world is a dark place, the Greatwood Rangers attempt to keep the roads open and clear, or at least passable when the weather isn’t too inclement and will serve as messengers to call other villages for help in the event that one is attacked but other than that most villages are on their own.Religion in Baile is a relatively informal, yet highly devout affair.  The sole priest follows the old Imperial pantheon though his beliefs and those of the town have been influenced by some of the beliefs of the animist elves.  The inhabitants recognize 4 major feast days but two of them, the summer and winter solstices celebrated in accordance with the elvin religion.  This is largely because over the years the elves have become the providers at those feasts, sharing the fruits of their great hunts with the members of the Confederacy.</blockquote>

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