Ashville

Demographics

Mostly miners with a smattering of smithies, potters, and merchants. Most everyone else supports these folk, like the inn or the town medic. They are all human and most if not all are native to the Kingdom of Resden. There is a definite class divide between wealthy merchants, middle class artisans, and poor miners.

Government

Lady Halinsted is in charge of this place. On a larger scale, Ashville is a settlement in the Resden kingdom, which is mostly based in the foothills of these mountains. From what I can tell, the king does not have much influence here and the Lady is the ruling authority. Laws are displayed on the front of the city hall, and Lady Halinsted was appointed by the king.

Defences

The citizens of Ashville live in a very geographicly remote location, and do not produce many of their own goods. Therefore they are hard to attack, but easy to seige. The town relies on the king for protection from war, and possiesing the best wepons in the Eastlands, they are a valuable asset for him to protect. There is a town gate. I had to prove I was from the Shallow Coast and not a spy or warrior to be let in, they don't like any travelers from the neighboring kingdoms.

Industry & Trade

Ashville is a mining town. From their position on the edge of the mountains, they trade coal, tin, and iron for what they need. Living close to Mt. Calcing, an open volcano, they created an elaborate system which they use to extract lava from the mountain. Using this lava talented smithies and potters of the town construct unique peices that would probably sell for a ton in any other place. They sell the finest peices to only the richest, supposedly their weopens are unusualy strong.

Infrastructure

Remarkable lava furnaces and transporting system, everything else is rather boring and not worth mentioning. Do you really want me to describe their humdrum roads to you?

Guilds and Factions

The smither's guild, the merchants, and the miners faction are huge economic influincers in the town. Currently though they seem content with affairs, although there are the murmurings of disatisfaction between the merchants and the miners and smiths. Personaly, If I were a merchant I'd try to smooth the whole thing over, any of those smiths could dice me without a second thought.

History

I asked around about the place's history, or anything interesting that's happened and got a few stories about guild rivalries and squables over artifacts, but only one guy could tell me about the founding of Ashville. He was a wrinkled man who always occupied the same chair in Cliffside. He told me a rather unplausible sounding story about someone called the Lava Forger. Apperently he had some visions and a hairbrained scheme and started the industry Ashville prides itself on so much.

Points of interest

The City Hall and main square are the center of the city during the day, at night Cliffside Food and Lodging is where you want to be. Thats where everything goes down. For me, of course I wanted to investigate the smithies, and I found both the marketplace and forges quite fasicnating. Unfortunatly my hopes of a library or cartographer were dashed when I saw the size of the town, the gold of the place is in it's fires, not its words.

Tourism

Not many other outsiders here other than smiths who moved here for the volcano. Anyone visiting usualy has a relative here or is rich, so there's usualy plenty of space at Cliffside. Difficult place to get to, but sometimes nobles come up to buy a blade or a fancy vase.

Architecture

Everything is made out of stone or carved into the mountainside. Fireproofing is definitely a major concern here. Rooves are all slanted, but despite the best efforts of townsfolk and street cleaners, ash piles up on everything, especially the roofs. Plants don't grow well either, so basically, the whole town is the greyest place imaginable. Even the extravagantly painted Cliffside is dulled by the ash coating the walls. Small buildings made for small families and artisans. Not the most ascetically appealing place.

Geography

From far off, the town is a collection of lights and smoke on what seems to be a tiny ledge between two mountains. Once I got there I found thats pretty much what it was, but that there was also a volcano called Mt. Calcing nearby. Getting up there is a narrow path big enough for one cart at a time in most places. Very steep. Very remote.

Climate

I'm sure it snows in the winter here, they live in the mountains. Windy and ashy, the town's shade of grey depends on the season.

Natural Resources

They have extremely fresh water, lots of minerals and of course, the aformentioned volcano.

Founders

• The Lava Forger

Population

There's only like, 700 people there.

Included Locations

• Cliffside Food and Lodging

Owner/Ruler

Lady Halinsted

Owning Organization

Kingdom of Resden