Takmiut
Takmiut is the recognized Imperial seat of the Barony of Nunavut, a small goliath settlement in a sheltered mountain valley in the northern reaches of Ocrana, at an elevation where the treeline ends and the true alpine begins. It is the Empire's highest-altitude provincial seat and, by most practical measures, the most tenuously governed settlement in all of Largusia. The goliath clans of the northern barony do not think of Takmiut as their capital. They think of it as the valley where certain families winter, where certain trades are conducted, and where the elder Thalok Stonebrow receives visitors from the south who bring paperwork.
The distinction between Takmiut and Qamavik - the largest and most significant traditional goliath gathering place in the barony - is worth understanding. Qamavik is where the goliaths have gathered for generations, organized by their own traditions and rhythms. Takmiut is where the Empire needed a named seat to exist for administrative purposes, and where Thalok's extended family's winter ground happened to provide the only location that meets even the loosest definition of a permanent settlement. Thalok accepted the arrangement because it required nothing he was not already doing and gave him a formal basis for his occasional dealings with Dunstan.
The distinction between Takmiut and Qamavik - the largest and most significant traditional goliath gathering place in the barony - is worth understanding. Qamavik is where the goliaths have gathered for generations, organized by their own traditions and rhythms. Takmiut is where the Empire needed a named seat to exist for administrative purposes, and where Thalok's extended family's winter ground happened to provide the only location that meets even the loosest definition of a permanent settlement. Thalok accepted the arrangement because it required nothing he was not already doing and gave him a formal basis for his occasional dealings with Dunstan.
Industry & Trade
There is no economy in Takmiut in the sense that term is used elsewhere in the Empire. The settlement does not produce goods for trade, does not maintain a market, does not collect taxes. The goliath clans that winter here bring what they need from the summer hunting grounds and share it according to the Cold Compact. When supplies run short, the community hunts together. When they are adequate, they are distributed equally.
The goods that constitute the barony's tribute contribution - mountain game furs, the rare crystalline minerals found in the glacier streams, and occasional dried meat - are gathered through the clan networks and delivered to Sitka without passing through any central collection point in Takmiut. The settlement is not a logistical hub. It is simply where certain people are during certain months.
The goods that constitute the barony's tribute contribution - mountain game furs, the rare crystalline minerals found in the glacier streams, and occasional dried meat - are gathered through the clan networks and delivered to Sitka without passing through any central collection point in Takmiut. The settlement is not a logistical hub. It is simply where certain people are during certain months.
Points of interest
The Longhouse is the largest structure in the valley, a massive stone-and-timber construction that can shelter a hundred goliaths in deep winter. Its walls are hung with the hides of significant hunts going back generations, each one accompanied by a story in the oral tradition of the clan that made it. The aajuraq sessions held here through the winter months are among the most elaborate in the barony, drawing storytellers from multiple clans and lasting through entire nights.
The Imperial Records Building stands apart from the rest of the settlement in both material and intention. It is tidy, solid, and largely unused except when Dunstan's clerks visit to update the tribute records. The goliath families have repurposed the covered porch as a drying rack for hides, which no one has pointed out to Dunstan and which Thalok considers too minor to mention.
The Glacial Outlook above the valley on the eastern ridge gives a view north across the high peaks that is, by any account, one of the most dramatically beautiful vantage points in the Empire. The goliaths use it as a hunting outlook and weather observation post. The one Imperial official who made it this far in living memory wrote an extensive description of the view that circulated briefly in Vellakar's scholarly circles before being forgotten.
The Imperial Records Building stands apart from the rest of the settlement in both material and intention. It is tidy, solid, and largely unused except when Dunstan's clerks visit to update the tribute records. The goliath families have repurposed the covered porch as a drying rack for hides, which no one has pointed out to Dunstan and which Thalok considers too minor to mention.
The Glacial Outlook above the valley on the eastern ridge gives a view north across the high peaks that is, by any account, one of the most dramatically beautiful vantage points in the Empire. The goliaths use it as a hunting outlook and weather observation post. The one Imperial official who made it this far in living memory wrote an extensive description of the view that circulated briefly in Vellakar's scholarly circles before being forgotten.
Geography
Takmiut occupies a protected valley floor where a glacier-fed stream runs between two ridgelines, sheltered from the worst of the mountain wind by the terrain on three sides. The valley holds snow for most of the year, with a brief, brilliant summer when the stream runs fast with snowmelt and the high meadows produce the tough grasses and herbs on which the caribou graze before moving on.
The settlement itself is a collection of perhaps thirty permanent stone-and-hide constructions of the goliath tradition, built low and massively thick-walled, designed to be occupied during the winter months and left standing through the summer when the clans who use them have moved to higher pastures. These are not homes in a fixed sense; they are seasonal shelters, used by whichever clan needs them, maintained as collective resources under the Cold Compact that governs all property in the north.
A few structures are more permanent in character: the largest longhouse, used for communal gatherings and the winter aajuraq sessions; a storage structure where communal supplies are kept; and a small, solidly built addition constructed at Imperial expense when Takmiut was designated a baronial seat; a single-room administrative building that contains the official documents of the barony, a record of the tribute agreements, and a writing desk that Thalok regards with polite indifference.
The settlement itself is a collection of perhaps thirty permanent stone-and-hide constructions of the goliath tradition, built low and massively thick-walled, designed to be occupied during the winter months and left standing through the summer when the clans who use them have moved to higher pastures. These are not homes in a fixed sense; they are seasonal shelters, used by whichever clan needs them, maintained as collective resources under the Cold Compact that governs all property in the north.
A few structures are more permanent in character: the largest longhouse, used for communal gatherings and the winter aajuraq sessions; a storage structure where communal supplies are kept; and a small, solidly built addition constructed at Imperial expense when Takmiut was designated a baronial seat; a single-room administrative building that contains the official documents of the barony, a record of the tribute agreements, and a writing desk that Thalok regards with polite indifference.
Type
Village
Population
250
Owner/Ruler
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
Comments