Stonespire
Stonespire? Yeah, I know it. My wife's from Edircea, so I visit that massive shit-hole more frequently than I'd like.
Quietly situated on the banks of the Central Arsanias river, midway between the Mountains of Metsovo and the city of Metilene , the once prosperous town of Stonespire was built around the industry of lowering boats and their cargo down the falls where the town is located. As business began to wane after the building craze in Metilene died down, the town’s protective walls that made up Stonespire Keep were torn down during the Angelos Restoration . At the present moment, the town is divided into three distinct segments: an improvised slum in the ruined shadow of the old imperial fortress known as Lowtown, the old hallways and crowded quarters of the Inner Fortress, and Hightown, which was once the primary settlement.
Districts
Lowtown
The ramshackle collection of hastily built structures made from wooden walls over packed earth floors known as Lowtown wasn't always the overcrowded mess that it is now. Lowtown once possessed the stables and other transient buildings that the garrison of the fortress town of Stonespire would require to station themselves inside. A number of small, temporary, lodgings were built to accommodate the labor force sleeping in Lowtown, although primary residences were kept in Hightown, outside the keep's eastern walls. The crowded slum is currently inhabited by those refugees for whom no space is available in Hightown or in the fortress and who fear that life in their homesteads is too dangerous. Lowtown's previous stone walls have been torn down and their rubble lies, shattered, around the wooden palisade erected in their place.
Hightown
Centered outside of the walls of the Stonespire Keep, Hightown has long been the administrative and bustling center of the town of Stonespire. The district, which sprawls outside of the keep's stone walls, holds all of the town's administrative buildings and permanent housing. The original stone wall, destroyed during the Angelos Restoration, has been repaired, although the outer wall protecting Hightown from without is only partially restored and several patches exist in which palisades have been constructed. The buildings are built with timber walls on a foundation of limestone ashlar excavated from the cliff below.
The Fortress
Built to accommodate the keep's original 40-man garrison, the fortress carved into the cliff face links the keep and Hightown with the slums of Lowtown. The fortress stands on four floors and contained five barracks rooms, originally intended to house eight soldiers each, an armory, an alchemical laboratory, a larder and kitchen, dining quarters, and two smaller warehouses. Currently, however, the halls of Stonespire Keep are home to the dozen hand-picked mercenaries that Radenos has assigned to the interior excavations and the workforce assigned to them.
Government
Although the town is nominally governed by a mayor selected from the more prominent families, the truth is that very little has actually been governed by the town’s proper government since the arrival of Elias Radenos and his bandits. While Elias acts as lord over the town, he spends most of his time in his makeshift laboratory in the dilapidated watchtower and delegates most of the actual work to his subordinate, Simon Bardanes.
Infrastructure
While the Arsanias river might not provide the same opportunities for the town that it once did, it still serves as Stonespire’s primary route for the importation of grain and other necessities from its supporting farming communities further upriver. Taking advantage of the town’s placement on the water, what remains of the town’s industry utilizes the constant flow of water to grind grain, and cool slag. A bridge exists connecting the two banks of the river in Hightown, while Lowtown makes due with a pair of docks and a ferry carrying people over the river.
History
The history of the town of Stonespire is intertwined with the keep it surrounds. When the tower was simply a small tollbooth, the town was little more than a collection of buildings housing individuals offering support services to those occupying the tower. As the boats traveling downriver began to grow more numerous, Stonespire became a place where those seeking work could unload cargo from keelboats at the top of the falls, lower the boats and the cargo to the lower reaches of the river, and reload the cargo onto the waiting boats. Out of this honest labor, the beginnings of Stonespire as a town began to form.
In 103AFE, the town of Stonespire was officially chartered as a ‘fortress town’ with the protection of the newly expanded fortress at Stonespire Keep. With the building craze in cities throughout the empire, stone quarried from the mountains of Metsovo was in constant demand, and Stonespire continued to expand until the events of the Angelos Restoration. Western Achenae saw the advance of the Ardhéan mercenaries loyal to Gregorios II Angelos and, in the blink of an eye, the relative peace and prosperity Stonespire had known for its whole existence vanished.
Following the war that brought about the destruction of Stonespire Keep, there was little demand for Metsovan stone, and the soldiers deployed to garrison the fortress were recalled and the town began to shrink into poverty and ruin. Without an imperial garrison to protect them, the townspeople were once again beset on by the long-forgotten monstrous inhabitants of the nearby mountain range.
The Alchemical Lord
Stonespire is currently ruled over by Elias Radenos, an alchemist and prominent member of the Minters , the criminal organization that has seized much of the western wilderness of Achenae. It’s been whispered that Radenos, wholly dedicated to his studies, is seeking something in the Inner Fortress.
The Toolbooth
The town of Stonespire draws its name from the keep it surrounds. Originally conceived as a toolbooth, Stonespire Keep grew to one of the more important of the wilderness fortresses in the early Imperial Age before it was torn down by mercenaries during the Angelos Restoration.
The Elevated City
Stonespire once thrived by existing on an important stop on the transfer of materials to the port city of Metilene, built in the delta of the Arsanias river. Metilene, also known as the Elevated City for its artificially tall islands and high flood walls, serves as the home to Basil III Nikolaides’ imperial palace.
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