Mont Inaer
Mont Inaer is one of the smaller settlements in the Mill Lands but in the eyes of the Rever and Dehauer families, one of the most important. Every ten years, the two clans debate fiercely between themselves (sometimes to the point of violence), about who should be the marshal of the town. The marshal is an appointee not of the Lords Elect of the Council in Pelonastra, but of the twin dynasties themselves. This arrangement was concocted by the families following the collapse of the Kingdom of Pelonastrius and the fall of Samuel II, as both recognised that the town was the greatest economic prize in the region, and the wealth and security of the ruling classes of the Mill Lands could be guaranteed by holding on to it. For centuries, there has been an underlying fear that the mighty Firg armies to the west might simply claim Mont Inaer for themselves. Most Swithicks with an ounce of realism recognise that there would be very little any human army west of Dancare could do to defeat them, and especially not a Swithick one. For reasons of their own, the Firg, hungry for the rich coal of the Lower Orne Mountains, have never marched eastwards. The Rever and Dehauer families have afforded themselves a degree of luxury irrespective of the collapse of the kingdom, based on the flow of coal down the Shay River to Drake and Pelonastra. Mont Inaerian coal is also shipped by barge to the Molvar Peninsula and into the Arclands themselves.
The Miners
In total, there are sixty six mines throughout the lower Orne mountains, most of which are dedicated to the mining of coal, but some prospectors have found copper, tin and even small seams of silver in the mountains, though these metallic finds are far less valuable than the coal itself. Most Mont Inaeri are Aldinvalk, the northern Swithick who occupied everywhere up to Ferian and who still see themselves as different from their southern cousins. There is a constant sense of grievance and resentment towards the warmer, wealthier south and a belief that if there were no coal in the north, they would be completely abandoned by Pelonastra. There is some truth to this and the Mont Inaeri have taken to organising their own defence and making connections with Wardenhal and with the Haatchi and the Firg. These northern neighbours often have more in common with one another than the two branches of the Swithick nation have with each other. Many Aldinvalk travel down the Shay River on Ferry Folk barges to attend market days in the cities of the Shay Valley, but it is Drake, not Pelonastra where they feel most at home. Mining in the mountains is hard, dangerous work and each year miners are injured or killed in rock slides, avalanches or mine collapses. Even worse, some simply vanish. In the centuries after the Sundering, the mountains have become a much stranger, darker place, with rumours of unnatural creatures crawling in the darkened caverns and forests. Protecting miners and relieving mining camps is dangerous work for adventurers in this region.
The Thirteen Bridges
Mont Inaer was originally a collection of mountainside communities built by early prospectors and by Swithick coal barons. It was in -188 KB that a successful revolt against the barons led to the town establishing itself as its own fiefdom under a relatively egalitarian ruling council. Vengeful Pelonastrian aristocrats were discouraged from marching north to restore order not simply because of the complexities of mountain warfare, but also because of the interest that the Firg showed in the newly liberated town. Firg engineers came and built a series of huge stone bridges, connecting the two mountainsides and let it be known that they would take a personal interest in the wellbeing of the Mont Inaeri from that point on. The Firg also built the deadly defences at the small lowland market town of Caddick Cross, which sat at the foot of the mountains and was intimately connected to Mont Inaer. The ever pragmatic lords of the twin dynasties took the sensible decision to compromise with the Mont Inaeri and guarantee their autonomy. Their only stipulation was that one of their own be appointed the marshal of the town, once every ten years, or the coal barges sailing southwards would be stopped. The Mont Inaeri were reassured that this would be a largely symbolic position (and it is) and they would be able to ignore whoever the Pelonastrans sent. The marshal has one job, and that is to ensure that half of all the wealth generated by Mont Inaer flows south to their master’s pockets.
The Serpent Road
The Serpent is a road that follows the contours of the hills and mountains of the northern Mill Lands and runs from Ferian to Caddick Cross and Mont Inaer. It was once well maintained by the government in Pelonastra, but has fallen into disrepair in places. It was once used by the Mont Inaeri coal barons to transport fuel to the south, before river boats were employed.
The Hipostic Knights use it as part of the northern route to Dancare and along the route there are two Hipostic Dathires (a small building with room for a handful of guests, normally uninhabited for most of the year, where Hipostics and their wards can stop and rest). It is tradition in Mont Inaer for innkeepers to serve a glass of brandy to anyone who has traversed the Serpent for the first time.
During the winter, the road becomes dangerously impassable. It has periodically been a perfect ambush spot for bandits and hideous creatures that have emerged in the mountains have been known to hunt along the road in recent years.
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