30 Villages

1- Morning Glory is located in the mountains. It got it's name for the fantastic view of the sun rising over the mountains. Morning Glory is a centre of of fur, gem and metal trade. There is an old dwarf road nearby, leading up into the mountains. Tavern gossip says that the Dwarfs are not gone, but that they keep an keen eye on local activities, looking for those who plunder Dwarf property and try to smuggle out of the mountains. These same wags also claim that this explains the recent disappearance of several miners who bragged of a "big new strike" in the hills.

2- Moonmoth has earned it's name because of an unique event that happens at every full moon. Thousand of Moths swarm the village streets. Nobody knows where they come from, or why they appear only when the moon is full.
Some say, that Moonmoth is blessed, other's say that it's an entirely natural event. That the moths lay their eggs in a nearby swamp and that they only hatch and reproduce every new month. The speculations are many, but the fact is that Moonmoth has become a popular place to be at full moon. A shrine has been made in honor of this "miracle", and pilgrims come from around the lands to see it.

3- Avilstone was once a small mining and logging village, most noted for its nearby copper mines. Raw ore was smelted into ingots and then shipped down river for further distribution. But something took residence in the mines of Avilstone. Mining was quickly becoming too hazardous to be worth the profit. The village elders tried to get the attention of the authorities, but Avilstone was clearly not worth the effort of the military. As time went by more and more people left the village. The town is now assumed dead. But there are still a few hardy people left. A small community of some hunter-families that welcome any travellers into their homes.

4- Sunhill is a small, sleepy village located by the banks of a small river on a small hill. The houses are composed of whitewashed bricks. The people living there are mainly fishermen or farmers. The interesting thing though, is that Sunhill is built upon ruins, ancient beyond reckoning. Scholars come to the village to examine the remaining ruins and treasure seekers often visit to find the way into the lost catacombs, reportedly sealed long ago and filled with riches. Whether or not these catacombs really exist, the Sun-Hillers make a fair bit of coin selling "authentic" maps to credulous visitors.

5- Hergig is a "young" village settled only fifty years ago in the middle of the Herg forest. The Herg forest is an ancient stand of hoary Oaks, Maples, Birch and Chestnut. Hergig started as a logger community and slowly grew to the size of a small village. To this day the forest has a bad reputation. It is haunted, many say, and strange sounds are heard from it at foggy nights. The villagers knows that nothing ill will become them as long as they are safe within the walls when daylight fades. There is however, traffic along the road that passes trough the forest. Popular belief holds that if you stick to the road and make it trough to Hergig before nightfall, then you will be safe. Thus travellers are a common sight in the local taverna. Whishing to spend the night there before going on the next day. There are, however talk that the forest is not really haunted. People in Hergig spread the rumor to increase the profit in the taverna, and thus- the community. Nobody is willing to risk it yet though.

6- Naden was originally a small picturesque fishing village, the rights to the town was bought by an investment group headed by a charlatan that had several nobles as backers. Their plan was to was to create a port that would siphon off traffic from other ports to create more profits for themselves. To this end, the small village of Naden was bought. The local residents where forced out and re-settled in another area, and colonists where brought in to reinvigorate the place. The cartel built houses and shops to give the city a fresh look, they invested in warehouses to handle traffic surely coming their way, and they built trading caravels that would be the vanguard of their fleet. It was a total disaster. Now the town is a depressed fishing village that lives off the catch off the sea. The buildings have a run-down, ill-kept look to them, and strangers are not readily welcome here. Surly townsmen and their hard bitten wives and sullen children stare out at strangers from decaying houses.

7- Oakstone sits on the west bank of a frontier river. The river has always been a natural border to the wilderness. But thirty years ago, the local Baron founded Oakhegde in an attempt to to slowly begin colonization of the western bank. One attraction was the presence of an old stone circle, of the kind built by followers of the Old Faith long ago. The Baron, himself a follower of the Old Faith felt that this was a holy site and wanted to preserve it and make it active again. Forty families were sent there to start new lives. At first garrisoned, after a few years it seemed like people living in the wild would tolerate this settlement; some even came to trade. Then, one summer night, three years ago, the people of Oakstone vanished: traders reported the village empty. The authorities sent soldiers to investigate. They confirmed the reports: All the people were gone. There were no sign of violence or struggle, no corpses, no indication of where they had gone. Even the animals were missing. the only clues were two words carved on the tree in the village commons: "Holy" and "Site".

8- Redberry is nestled between rolling hills nearby a larger city. It has the personal touch of a small village with red brick roofs and the safety of a city. The city is famous for it's Redberries that are used to make Pie, Cake, Wine and Jam. They sell it in the city and make a good profit in doing so. The berries only grow in that area and are very delicious and unique in their taste.
Berries are also bottled and exported to other towns farther away. Redberry is often visited by Dalme The Tinker.

9- Black Tree is is a perfectly normal village, they farm, hunt and have cattle. The only out of the ordinary element of this sleepy village is a charred, black tree in the center of it. Nobody remembers what burnt the tree and why. But everybody agrees that it must never be touched or spoken about. This strange custom is still thriving and will probably continue to do so.

10- Valbein is the native slang for whalebones and is also the name of this strange little community. The village is built in the middle of the skeletal remains of a giant whale. Why this is, no one knows. The villagers are glassmakers by trade and have a nice profit in trading in what they make. Windows, bottles and pretty much everything there is to make in glass. Part of the community are also fishermen. Most of what they need they get by trading. Travellers are always amazed by the long white beach and the small village nestled among the remains of the whale.

11- Windpeak is a village located amongst white cliffs by a large lake. The lake is windy and the currents are very strong. There are no beaches or lowlands surrounding the lake. But the people of Windpeak has found a way of harvesting the riches of the lake, small and narrow stairs have been constructed- connection the village with the lake. Here they have made a small harbor and thrive as fishermen.

12- Amlet is a quiet agricultural market and a centre for wool trade in the area. Ruled by a council of elders the village can boast having a very large amount of sheep. The sheep herds itself and are too massive in numbers for the villagers to watch over. This, however don't seem to pose any problems as the area lacks any large predators that could pose a threat to the sheep. In addition it seems that they never wander to far away from the hills surrounding Amlet. For the children, the favorite time of the year is when Nickol Nacker visits. Amlet would be on few maps were it not for the presence of extensive ruins to the northeast. These consist of a vast circle of standing stones, with a smaller ring of megaliths inside it. The sharpness of the inner ring of stones and their resemblance to broken teeth have inspired the locals to name the structure "God's Fangs". Despite the nickname the church does not claim the ruins, and neither they nor else seems to have any record of who built the structure and to what purpose. Scholar's however, claim that the site might be an astrological calendar. The people of Amlet care not, all they know is that this area is remarkable for breeding and maintaining sheep.

13- Marsh Havens located in a great marsh, the "Havens" started out as a refugee camp. The marsh provided an excellent hiding place in the turmoil of war. When the war was over permanent homes had already begun to emerge. The swamp provided all the refugees needed, timber, food and shelter. As the years have gone by the "Havens" have evolved into an isolated community, sceptical of strangers, outsiders and travellers. All the huts that are not on dry land are on stilts.

14- Bek is a small village that has been growing in the presence of a large Academy. Those that live in Bek are the teachers and professors of the school. The students are quartered in the building itself. Loud, free and often superior with their opinions, Bek'ers are shunned by nearby peasant villages. Evil tounges say that there are other things going on inside the Academy than studying. Bek also boasts a large library, students are set to the task of copying books in the evenings.

15- Noall is mainly black against grey and brown hills. The huts are built with sturdy black timber with grass-roofs close to the ground. The weather in these hills can be very harsh and the soil is not very fertile.
They are mainly hunters and train falcons to help them locate game. A "Noall Falcon" is considered the best trained bird to be had and it takes years to train them. The people of Noall hate to sell their falcons that they love very much, but are forced to do so by the need for profit to continue their meagre existence. They sell each one for a great deal of money, but since it takes so much time this small community is balancing on a knife's edge.

16- Berenwall is built in the gaping hole of a once proud defensive wall built long ago by a warrior named Beren. Someone thought that it might be a good idea to build a city where the wall was torn away because of a long forgotten war. The people who did this believed that trade would be forced to pass trough here. It never really caught on. The wall was slowly taken apart and shipped away to larger cities for materials. After a few years you could pass the thing just about anywhere. It now looks like broken teeth in the horizon. Berenwall village itself is built in the solid stone from the wall. Dark holes litter the strange homes. Berenwallers breed and train horses, and are expert riders. Young villagers often recruit themselves as scouts for a few years before they marry and settle for good. Town elders still nurture a hope that Berenwall might be put on a map one day.

17- Ford is a poor looking village with a large manor situated on the top of a hill. The people living here are all farmers and are very poor. The luxury of the manor tells the story. The major living there is ruling the small city with an iron hand. Denying the farmers to move on and taking all but what they need to survive. If asked the villagers will say that this year's crops were bad or any other thing to excuse the looks of them and the village. If someone truly gains their trust, they might openly admit the reason of their misery, the thing is though- that the major has every right to demand whatever he taxes he desires. No matter how high.

18- Buttercup is despite it's name an unfriendly village- windows are shuttered, people tell you to "get lost", old hags peak out of half-closed doors. Why is this- travellers might ask themselves. Well, no one knows for sure. Buttercup is a quite wealthy village, surviving on farming, making and exporting butter and breeding cattle.
The village itself, while not exactly overly pleasant to the eye is in good conditions and when nobody is looking- the people seem to be smiling and behaving naturally.

19- Thrond is situated in a sheltered valley. Here they make a meagre existence by fishing trout and hunting game. They also keep goats that wander freely in the mountains. On the hill is a gloomy ruin, nobody goes there and there are strange cries and lights there at night. People living in Thrond is a superstitious lot, and sprinkle salt across their doorway at night. Their homes are made of boulders, where the openings are filled with goat droppings and the roofs of straw.

20- Leipville has a marble walkway cutting the small gathering of wooden huts in two. The marble walkway was once part of a great road snaking the entire country. One day it simply vanished. Or so the story goes. Leipville boasts a smithy, stable and a taverna. The people there are friendly and helpful.

21- Mardi huddles on the edge of a cliff. The houses are made of stone and amazingly well crafted. It's a mountain community and boasts the regions best mountain guides. People seeking to enter or cross the mountain range are always advised to seek out the little village of Mardi.

22- Meissen consists of nine huts clustered around a fortified coaching inn. The area around Meissen is a dangerous one. With wolves sneaking close to the house walls at night, bandits and worse. Most of the people living here have a military background and are all working at the coaching inn. The reason for Meissen to exist is the need for an inn along the road only. Most people stay here only one night and rush along the following morning. If the tavern is packed with people bar brawls are not uncommon. The location is named after the owner of this patch of land, Meissen. He is a hard man, ugly some even say. But he provides honest priced beds for travellers and good pay for those that wish to work at the Coaching in.

23- Norden is a big village that exists in the outermost northern part of the country. It is the last bastion of civilization in the northlands. Trade is very good here and Norden has the potential of becoming a town or city one day. The construction of a castle is underways and more people are moving to Norden every month. The elder locals are not to happy about this. Nordens are fiercely independent and do not wish to become to integrated with the rest of the country. Some people from neighboring villages even travel here to see it as it has always been before it's to late. Nearby there are some hotsprings that have worked miracles on the elders in the village always. Now it seems that a noble that have recently moved to Norden claims he bought it. He is preparing to build an establishment around the springs. When people go to soothe their aching northern limbs he runs over and wants money, waving a piece of paper, clearly upset.

24- Beggars Nest is the mad idea of the leader of a larger city. His city had problems with a huge beggar population. His nifty method of dealing with this was to bury a deep pit in the country and transport all beggars there. If someone was "caught" without a home the penalty was Beggars Nest. Thieves and criminals soon followed. The beggars and other unluckies soon made makeshift homes and tunnels. Everybody condemned to live in the Beggars Nest is tattooed on their forehead to make them out and no-one is allowed outside. Those who wish are allowed to visit as any normal village though, but few dare. There is only one way up, and that goes trough a fortified "village gate" that is watched day and night.

25- Borken is a normal village with one disturbing feature, it appears to have no children. When asked, villagers simply shrug and walk away. The deal is that all children are sent to a nearby monastery at the age of two, here they stay with the monks and study until the age of fifteen. It is forbidden to speak of your children during this time. it is also not allowed to see your children. This is called "The Trial", both the children and the parents are suppose to learn from this trying time. This strange custom has led to many misunderstandings by good-intentioned visitors.

26- The New Camp is a mining society consisting of men only, located in a plain it looks like a great, gaping wound in the ground. Makeshift homes surround the mine and there are enough of them to call The New Camp a village. The people working here sign up for a year at a time to work the mines for gold. They have to surrender half of their findings to the owners of mine, guards patrol among the diggers keeping an eye on people trying to re-dig a lump of gold. Everyone is thoroughly ransacked before allowed back into the village. Some say that this resembles slave labour, but there are those who have made it big here, even when they have to surrender half their findings. The New Camp got it's name since the first mine collapsed.

27- Adel is ruled by the famously devout Andhor family, the village of Adel sits along a branch road off the main road. Interspersed among the homes and cottages of the population are mazing shrines to all the major gods. The Andhors have spared no expense, and many of the altars in the shrines are lined with a thin layer of gold and decorated with semiprecious stones, while beautiful stained glass windows adorn the walls. The people themselves seemingly do not resent the wealth lavished on these temples, for they are paid to maintain them and they are sure they protect the village- after all, did not the last war pass the village of Adel entirely?

28- Enders is a small village a little of the mainroad along a beaten forest track. It has gardens with apple trees and produces superb Cider. The people here are welcoming and polite once they have warmed up to outsiders, which usually doesn't take very long. The major is a fat man with apple red cheeks and a cheerful gleam in his eyes. The surrounding woodlands provide timber, herbs and berries. In the outskirts of Ender live an old hermit called Noam Splinter. Enders is otherwise the perfect Hamlet, travellers and adventurers coming this way always stays a little longer than they intended.

29- Watermist is a village on stilts built this way for defensive purposes.. There is only one bridge connecting the city with the mainland. The Village lives of the sea and has as little with the mainland as possible, they don't even like people living on land. But they have to trade, and thus the bridge. The bridge is constructed so that it is easy to destroy it if hostile people try to enter the city. The boats they have are small sailboats that the Watermisters handle extremely well. If anyone without a warship tries to enter the city, they will surely be outmatched by the Watermisters with their small boats with bows ready. To fall into the water or take a swim also means almost certain death since the lake is the home of flesh eating fish.

30- Demlynne is a relatively young village, founded only a century ago by people fleeing unjust taxes. Demlynne is utterly unprepossesing at first glance. After a long examination, one's opinion is confirmed. Demlynne is a collection of winding lanes along the bank of a lazy river. Cottages and homes with extensive gardens dot the area. The are has not seen war or ill-times in a man's age. The people living here are trusty to the extreme. The houses are painted in strong colors that really don't match at all. But the result is a cozy, dreamy village that might look as if taken from a children fairytale. The residence of the Elder is situated in the centre of the village, next to the tavern. Although officially designated a "palace," the building is a simple two-story building with a sod roof- and sometimes a goat grazing up there, if the grass has grown too long.