Lethetuh (lĕth ĕ tə)

The bustling town of Lethetuh is the capital of Sternenhellwolf, and the largest settlement to date. It straddles the Shwester river as it makes its way from the Tågbaff mountains to its joining of the Rozux river in the Barrir swamp. As the nation is largely agrarian as yet Lehetuh is home to most of the craftspeople present in Sternenhellwolf, in particular a number of accomplished smiths and jewelers.

Demographics

Lethetuh has a mixed population though, primarily humans. Of the 4715 people inhabiting the town, 3725 are humans, 424 are halflings, 236 are dwarves, 141 are gnomes, and 188 are elves and other races. While most of the community is integrated the majority of the dwarves live in their own enclave, where they are primarily smiths and jewelers.

Government

As the capital of Sternenhellwolf, Lethetuh is governed by a mayor (Chlodovech) who is appointed by the king (Leofwine Bach). The mayor makes what laws are necessary with the oversight of the king. Laws are enforced by the local reeve (Bergljót Brynhildrdatter) and her watch.

Defences

One of the first things Leofwine had built when founding Lethertuh was the town walls. Made of stone the walls are five feet thick and ten feet high. With an eye towards future expansion Leofwine had the walls built considerably larger than the town at its inception. This has allowed the town to expand without the need to build new walls. However, one of the many projects Leofwine is funding is the building of another wall some distance around the first one, as the community is starting to overflow the current walls. The walls are complete with stone towers every 500 feet each tower is two stories and, along with the walls, are complete with merlons, crenels, parapets, and machicolations. In addition, Leofwine is currently stocking an arsenal within the town, though it is not entirely necessary as every inhabitant follows the Sternenhellwolf custom of always carrying a weapon with them. A few of the towers are equipped with ballistae and Leofwine is looking to acquire one or two for each tower. In addition, several trebuchets are behind the walls, each with a supply of missiles. As with the ballistae Leofwine plans to acquire more trebuchets.

Industry & Trade

While most of the inhabitants of Lethetuh are shepherds or other agricultural workers Lethetuh is also home to most of the craftsmen currently in Sternenhellwolf. The city is also surrounded by fields sown with rye, or winter wheat. These field have been painstakingly cleared of stones over the years, most of which went into the building of houses and the walls of Lethetuh. There are quite a few smithies in Lethetuh, both human and dwarven, taking advantage of the nearby mines and refineries. Lethetuh is also the hub for trade with the rest of Arda, as keelboats are always coming upriver and heading downriver from the time the river is navigable until it freezes in the winter. Leofwine is currently looking into adapting the Fjernord longships as possible patrol ships and cargo ships.

Infrastructure

A young community Lethetuh lacks a lot of the amenities of the older communities of the Frontier Lands. The main roads are paved using a macadam of clay and tailings from the mines. However, most of the backroads are still unpaved and turn into muddy morasses when it rains or during the spring thaw. Leofwine Bach and Chlodovech are working to get all the roads paved. There are a few bridges across the Shwerter river, these are stone, and of dwarven craftsmanship, as wood was too scarce to use anything else. Bach has also started working on a sewer system for the town as well as an aqueduct to bring in running water. The sewer system is already under construction in places while the aqueduct is still in the planning stages. There are several watermills built along the river for the purpose of grinding grain.

Districts

The town is yet too young and small to be broken up into numerous districts, however a few areas are specific to certain trades and industries. Attracted by the nearby sources of iron many dwarves have moved to Lethetuh where they all tend to dwell in one are, known informally as the “dwarven district”. This area is marked by its unique architecture and the presence of numerous smithies and jewelry shops. The area immediately above the floodplain of the river on the southwest bank, is home to numerous warehouses both privately owned and owned by the king. These have paved roads leading to individual docks. Opposite the “warehouse district”, as it is known, is a small town of cheap houses also with paths leading to docks, this is where the fishermen dwell, and the area is redolent with the reek of rotting fish. The rest of the town is a hodgepodge of businesses and dwellings with no rhyme or reason. However, as the town grows, more districts are sure to develop naturally.

Assets

Leofwine Bach takes a tax of 10% of production whether of wool, mutton, rye, or other farm goods. These proceeds are stored in special warehouses in Lethetuh’s warehouse district for lean times when they are either distributed to the citizens of the kingdom or sold for money to buy other necessities. As the kingdom has fortunately had only one lean year since it’s founding these warehouses are quite full. Leofwine has also started putting arsenals in each community above 500 people, including Lethetuh, the arsenal contains supplies of shortswords, spears, crossbows, bolts, and leather armor to be used if the militia need to be armed. Curently the supply of arms is small, but Leofwine is hoping to have enough in each arsenal to completely arm each community’s militia. Lethetuh is also the home of Bach’s vault, the repository of the treasures he acquired while adventuring, as well as any taxes paid in the form of coin. The vault is rumored to be trapped with both magical and mundane traps and is constantly guarded. The exact contents of the vault are unknown, though it is believed to hold in exce4ss of 70,000 gp worth of treasure.

History

Lethetuh was initially settled 20 years ago when Leofwine Bach led some friends and a group of hardy souls to a point along the Shwerter River he had noticed in his adventures as being ideal for a settlement. The budding settlement was nearly destroyed when a band of orc raiders appeared and attacked the nascent settlement, only the presence of several powerful adventurers prevented the inhabitants from being wiped out. Leofwine took his adventuring buddies and made forays into the surrounding area, particularly the hills, taking out orc bases, and giant enclaves. All the while supervising the building of the community and its walls. A large band of dwarves, paid by Leofwine supervised and performed much of the work on the buildings and walls, using rocks from the surrounding fields, leaving them largely suitable for farming.

It was soon discovered that farming like in the southern lands would not be possible. The growing season was too short and cool for most grains and a lot of vegetables and fruits. Looking to the nearby Fjernhjem people Leofwine discovered vegetables t6hat could easily be grown in the short summer and encouraged the people to sow rye and winter grains. It was a happy accident that led to the discovery of shepherding as a ideal industry. Soon many of the people were keeping flocks of sheep. The sheep could continue to be pastured in the winter and kept inside at night. Due to the long cold winter their wool grew especially thick, making it invaluable to survival in the land, as well as providing plenty for export.

As the town grew, Leofwine continued to make improvements, one of the first things after the walls were complete was to build docks for the keelboats that would be the nation’s lifeline to the outside world. Leofwine soon entered into a treaty with Wynnstan Scheuer, ruler of his nearest neighbor Hirchtal, wherein both agreed to jointly patrol the river route through the Barrir swamp to keep it relatively free of dangers. At first Leofwine and his adventuring companions had to handle this task personally, but after the first five years he began to hire mercenary bands to do that. With the river route to the south somewhat secured, Leofwine turned to other projects.

In a happy accident it was discovered that allowing apple cider (a popular beverage as apples were one of the few fruits to grow well in the land) to freeze and then removing the ice would concentrate the alcohol, much like distilling but without the need for distilleries and more importantly fuel. This applejack as it came to be known soon became a popular beverage and another major industry of Lethetuh. Soon barrels of applejack were accompanying bales of wool down the river, providing more money for amenities for the citizens.

With the discovery of large deposits of iron in the hills to the west a minor rush of settlers started, with prospectors, refiners and smiths making their way to the region. Along with the iron, small deposits of gold, silver, copper, and even platinum were discovered, along with various precious stones, attracting jewelers to the region where they could ply their trade close to the sources.

Two years ago, Leofwine began importing saplings and of fir, cedar, and pine and encouraging his people to plant them throughout the land. While of little value immediately in future years the preponderance of trees would render Sternenhellwolf independent of imported timber, and possibly even make it a net exporter.

Architecture

Unique in the Frontier Lands the building material of choice for Lethetuh and indeed, most of Sternenhellwolf is stone. The naturally occurring trees tend to be short, scrubby, and twisted not ideal for building. Taller, straighter trees were to be found in the Barrir Swamp but harvesting them was both arduous and dangerous. Whereas the rocky land yielded stones in abundance. Clearing a field suitable for planting a small crop could yield enough stone for a small cottage with plenty left over. While most buildings are one story the occasional building (especially in Lethetuh) is two stories, with a stone first floor and a wattle and daub second floor. The wattle usually being river reeds, while the daub a mixture of river clay and sheep dung. Houses are usually whitewashed, to protect them against the harsh winter weather and excessively wet springs. Roofs are generally thatch reinforced with river clay the resulting combination being nearly waterproof and fire resistant. First floors are usually built several feet into the ground, both to lessen the building material needed and to add insulation. Most floors in Lethetuh are paved with a combination of river stones and clay. Windows on lower floors are rare, small, and heavily shuttered, from a time when the community faced constant raids from orcs and Manneskor.

Geography

The town of Lethetuh is in a relatively flat area immediately adjacent to the Shwerter River. The area is surrounded by rolling hills, many of which have been removed to get at the stone inside them. While the river does flood in the spring, the inhabitants all build outside the floodplain, so there is an area immediately on the shores of the river which has few buildings apart from numerous docks for the many keelboats. The land is not very fertile, and rocky though the fields for some miles beyond the city walls have largely been cleared of rocks and made fertile by the grazing of countless sheep.

Natural Resources

In addition to the resources of the river, mostly stone, clay, reeds, and fish, the area has a preponderance of stones of all sizes, from pebbles to great boulders. Even though the majority of these have been cleared from the fields, farmers discover new rocks every year. Apart from these most of the important resources in the region are found in the hills to the west, and the Barrir swamp to the east. However Lethetuh is located almost equidistant between the two and serves as the hub of shipping and trade.

Founding Date

707

Type

Town

Population

4715

Inhabitant Demonym

Wolves

Location under

Frontier Lands

Owning Organization

Sternenhellwolf

Characters in Location

• Leofwine Bach