Yggdra is a Dornish village, halfway between Bastion and the Fortress Wall. The tree stump in the center of the village was once so large that twenty full grown men could link hands and not make a circle around it. The tree was a holy site, worshipped with the a scarecrow representing the Hanged God in the winter festival, and blood smeared on its roots. Autumn meant the great dance with half of the town making hammers out of corn shucks and old pillowcases in order to playfully beat the other half of the town, dressed as the trickster, around the tree for a beating. This beating would make the gods laugh and ensure good harvest.
Springtime decorated the tree with flowers and colorful muds from nearby streams. Marriage ceremonies performed before the colorful druidic murals.
Summer meant water was brought to the tree to quench its thirst. Sometimes a witch or a criminal or even an Orc captured from the North would be killed in the tree's shade to quench its restless summer heart.
Now it is only a stump. Despite its size and grandeur, ever the Legate doesn't stand upon it as a stage to make announcements. Doing so would only make him seem all the smaller.
Someone performs secret rites under the moon on the stump, using the body of a once hly thing, paying respect to a corpse of a divine entity in hopes of summoning hope from its dried wood.
Before the last battle Orcs took the Fortress wall and took the tree down. They made boats from its wood, crossed the Pellurian and conquered Eredane on Yggdra's pride and joy.
The people of Yggdra are caught between the many Orc of the Bastion District and the levies of the Fortress Wall. Their Legate is a brutal taskmaster when he has to be, but the constant threat of Orcish troops keeps the locals in line, seeing to the bountiful harvest, sending grain to the Erethor and Karadun fronts.
For more, check out this link to the Midnight forums, wherein we detailed the town quite a bit more:
http://www.againsttheshadow.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=689&start=0
