An-Helat

An-Helat is a large town which straddles the Great Hydra River at Silgni Falls, 16km (10 miles) north of the river's mouth at Lake Starfall. It is governed by an aristocracy known locally as the Council of Seven, who are regarded as fair and just, and respected by the citizenry. While it possess some small local agricultural and industrial concerns, It is most notable as the site of and for its picturesque, park-like environs.

Arriving in An-Helat

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An-Helat's defenses are subtle, concealed and enhanced with illusion magics to confuse those who mean the town ill. Once inside, visitors to An-Helat are treated to a city designed and by artists and built by master craftspeople to maximize both function and aesthetic appeal, with wildly successful results. Ready access to one of the continent's most reputable schools of illusion magic has had the effect of making the city resonate with Brokhmal's current class's ongoing project, and subtly different with each passing year.
Because a university education remains beyond the reach of all but the most fortunate, most of the town's population enjoys affluence well above that of other cities its size. This affluence, together with a large student presence and transient seasonal population, makes the typical Helati a cosmopolitan sort, and locals have become accustomed to safeguarding their homes and possessions against the depredations of marauding students or reveling festival-goers, as applicable. The prevailing attitude toward outsiders can be best described as 'politely distrustful', and locals stick together.

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Demographics

Hill Dwarfs are indigenous to the area, and constitute a good majority of the population. Goblins, gnomes and halflings also find the city sized to their liking, with minority populations of the other sentient races found predominantly as individuals or small family units.
A Mekani collective has taken residence in the town's hydroelectric dam and sees to the maintenance and upkeep of the structure in return for a peaceful existence. They rarely leave the dam.

Government

The Council of Seven is an Aristocracy controlled by appointed members of the six most influential clans and families of the region. Its Chairperson is appointed by the extant members from its membership, and serves for life or until impeached by a Council vote of 5/6, which is the only nod to democracy in this city.
Each Councilor is responsible for a ward of the city, with the fifth and sixth Councilors taking responsibility for the administration of the city itself. The seventh Councilor is the Chairperson, who breaks deadlocks and directs the efforts of the Council according to the city's needs.
The current Chairperson of the Council of Seven is Derrom Hillcoat, a hill dwarf of middle years who has served in his current capacity for the past three decades.

Infrastructure

Road Construction: Cobblestone Roads
• Main Irrigation: Furrow Irrigation
• Number of Districts: 4

An-Helat features broad, cobblestoned streets with stone sidewalks and paved gutters. Storm and sanitary sewers are also present underneath main thoroughfares; aboveground buildings in more affluent neighbourhoods feature Ondol heating and indoor plumbing while regularly-serviced pumps in town squares and plazas provide potable water from the immense local aquifer.
Easily the most identifiable feature of An-Helat is Silgni's Span, a massive stone bridge which constitutes the only crossing of the Great Hydra River between the falls a kilometre upstream and Lake Starfall. It is located in the Rillside district.
The town is divided into four administrative districts, and fuses traditional Dwarf with contemporary gnomish design principles that integrate defense without offending the eye.

Districts

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Silver Hills

The most populous district in town is the Silver Hills residential neighbourhood, which occupies its eponymous land feature on the west bank of the Great Hydra River. So named for the fields of silver grass which once covered the ground, the district now sports tidy homes with well-kept gardens. Above-ground residential buildings are mudbrick and wood, with tile roofs. Outbuildings are wooden, with thatched roofs

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Rillside

Silgni's Span is the mighty stone bridge which spans the Great Hydra at the south end of town, and its surrounding neighbourhood. As the town's port district, it is necessarily also its main centre of trade; most of An-Helat's shops, restaurants, and service-related businesses are located here, easily accessible to passers-through and locals alike.
Because it represents the only bridge crossing the Great Hydra south of the terraced waterfalls upstream, road traffic across the eponymous bridge is brisk year-round. Civic maintenance crews keep it in top repair; after Brokhmal, the bridge represents An-Helat's second best source of revenue.

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Brokhmal Hollow

Type: Bardic College • Population: 3360 • Primary Building Style: Stone • Secondary Building Styles: None • Aesthetics: Normal • Cleanliness:Tidy • Upkeep: Lived-in The student quarter is the most expansive of An-Helat's precincts. Its dormitories, laboratories, sporting pitches, forums, arboretums, and university colleges are scattered across a hundred acres on the east side of the Great Hydra River, and include the festival grounds which host the yearly Quicktide Folkmoot.

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The Rushes

Type: Industrial • Population: 124 • Primary Building Style: Stone • Secondary Building Styles: None • Aesthetics: Tasteful • Cleanliness: Neat • Upkeep: Well-appointed The least-populated and most-developed district of An-Helat is its civic works district, which lies across the river from the Silver Hills, between the steep rapids in the river and Brokhmal Hollow. It is populated mainly by the maintenance staff of the town's hydroelectric plant, a collective undaunted by working with electricity and the constant noise of the rapids.

Assets

The An-Helat Hydroelectric Power Plant is home to all 110 members of the Rushes' Mekani Collective.
Tylsmit Travertine Quarry - employs 150, makes flooring and decorative stone tiles.

History

Foundation

Although the site on which An-Helat stands has been a since the Lost Age, it remained largely undeveloped until the 8th century IR, when the cartographer and surveyor Silgni Hillcoat found himself struck with the surrounding natural beauty and decided to settle in the area.
The seasonal bardmoot held in the area was a boon to Hillcoat, who employed travelling moot-goers to send word to family, place orders with faraway outfitters, and keep apprised on general news. As he waited for his clansfolk joined him at this new steading, Hillcoat made use of moot-goers who lingered, paying fair rates for fair work. In seemingly no time at all the work camp which had sprung up around Hillcoat's construction project - a grand, stone bridge spanning the Great Hydra River - transformed from tents and shanties to wooden shacks.
When the bridge and bypasses were finished, the buildings moved away from the river's edge and into less flood-prone areas locally. The buildings which remained on the flood plain nestled safely behind the dikes which now lined the riverbank and channeled the flow of the river to productive purpose with a revolutionary, gnomish-designed hydroelectric power plant.
Notably, because Silgni had initially fallen in love with the place as he'd seen it, his improvements were required to harmonize with and accentuate the local aesthetic, with minimal impact on the environment, as a garden or arboretum might. It took a century, but when he'd finished the general consensus was that he'd succeeded brilliantly.

When at last old Silgni died, the assembled bards who attended the following Quicktide Folkmoot declared that Hillcoat's life be remembered for all present to witness. Those who knew him best told his stories and sang his song, and it became part of the area's . In recognition of Silgni's fondness of referring to the settlement he'd built as the 'front steps of the Riverlands', it was officially named An-Helat, the Romnic word referring to the entrance of one's home.

The Council of Seven

With the naming of the town, its unofficial stewards became its offical government, and the Council of Seven was born. Its first Chair was Hadrig Stoutcraft, a gnomish carpenter and philanthropist. Its current Chair is Derrom Hillcoat, a retired adventurer whose famously lurid memoir has earned him both enormous wealth and a grinning notoriety across Hyperborea.

Points of interest

Special Features

The Tomb of Lindosh Helkiot: (Haunted Tomb, 4.62 km northwest) Lindosh Helkiot was Hill Dwarf chieftain of grand repute in the last centuries of the Lost Age. She was buried in state with all of her Sworn Shields when they fell in battle against the rising Cathrican Empire over mineral claims in the western Dinianic mountains, to the southeast.
Local groundskeepers and gardeners maintain the tomb to a high standard, to keep the spirits of those entombed within quiet and in their graves.
Band Shell:
(Performance Venue 3.68 km southeast)
A peerless example of natural amplification of sound, this is a literal giant seashell half-buried in the earth in front of amphitheatre seating. Nobody knows who put it like that, but everyone agrees that the acoustics here are amazing.
Fossil Bank:
(Titanic Remains, 6.57 km south)
The bones of Jorgmungandr lie close enough to the surface here to be easily studied. While sporadic excavations of the hills which cover the bones have occurred for years (Acererak was a notable consumer and excavator of Titanbone, used in the construction of his many infamous tomb-dungeons. Insect Mounds:
(Monster Den, 4.43 km southeast)

Tourism

Quicktide Folkmoot

The tradition of seasonal folkmoots has existed in the area long before An-Helat was raised here. In the years since its foundation, the Quicktide Folkmoot has become the largest and well-attended of these events, as the students and faculty of Brokhmal throw their full efforts into the year's stories. It is considered the beginning of the , and has traditionally been a good spot for up-and-coming adventurers to network and find bandmates.

Architecture

Overall Architecture

Primary Building Style: Wooden • Secondary Building Styles: Stone and Thatched • Aesthetics: Normal • Cleanliness: Neat • Upkeep: Well-Kept

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Geography

Coastal Marine Bay
Elevation: 72 m above sea level
Distance from the Marine Coast: 16 km
Ground Cover: 58%

Water Features

Lake Starfall

• Salinity: Fresh • Depth: 382 m • Navigable: Yes • Aquatic Animals: Perch, Clams, Pollock, Yellow Pickerel, Whitefish and Eels

Great Hydra River

• Salinity: fresh • Depth: 5 m • Width: 212 m • Navigable: Yes • Upstream: Tiered Waterfall • Aquatic Animals: Clams, Catfish, and Trout •

Natural Resources

Mining

Sedimentary: Serpentine, Laterite, Sandstone, and Travertine Ores: Copper, Potash.

Agriculture

Locals make use of the excellent. silty local soil to grow staple grains such as wheat, millet, and sorghum, while the flood plain of the Great Hydra River is excellent at supporing fiber crops like flax, hemp, jute, or kenaf. Most well-appointed houses and grocery shops in An-Helat keep chickens, ducks or geese for meat and eggs, as well as a small garden in their window or yard to grow vegetables such as zucchini, cabbage, and onion.

Flora and Fauna

Livestock: Chicken, Duck & Geese • Prey: Lizards, Mice, & Wood Bison • Predators: Lions, • Aquatic: Whitefish, Perch, Salmon, Eels, Trout, Clams, and Catfish • Trees: Rimu, Hornbeam, & Eucalyptus • Grass: Cloud Grass, Pampas Grass, & Tufted Hair Grass • Shrubs: Raspberry Bush, Tomato Plant, & Bean Bush • Moss: Maravillan Moss & Nana Hair Moss

Climate

Warm Temperate Grassland
Avg. Annual Temperature: 15C
Avg. Annual Precipitation: 787.50 mm
Avg. Annual Snowfall: 2.18 m
Seasons: Summer, Winter, Fall, and Spring
Prevailing Winds: southwest to northeast
Lake Currents: warm

Founding Date

750

Type

Large town

Population

6960

Inhabitant Demonym

Helati

Location under

Hydra River Valley

Owning Organization

Iron Baronies