Hærbyerne

Hærbyerne, the Army Towns, are a group of 10 closely-knit walled towns in East Sceya largely populated by veterans of the Sceyan Royal Army and their families. The Army Towns are filled with honest, hard-working and faithful imperial citizens who are very much at odds with the strange local population. The Army Towns are also the heart of the People's Church, a gathering of the faithful proletariat steadily gaining power.

Government

The Army Towns are under the protection and governance of Prince Andreas "the Handsome" Ari, but locally they are ruled by a democratically elected body called Veteranrådet (the Veteran Council). All adults who have served or are actively serving in the Sceyan Royal Army, or another equivalent, who have not commited crimes nor been discharged dishonorably, are eligible to vote for a Veteran. Each of the ten Army Towns elect one Veteran, who serves as sheriff, mayor and captain of the militia. In practice, this means that the Veterans have several important duties:

• They are charged with maintaining law and order and serving as judge in minor crimes, as well as leading the town militia in fighting against potential monsters and rebels.
• They are in charge of how royal money is spent to improve the lives of their people.
• They are the prince's voice of authority in their town.

This is of course a large amount of power to invest in one individual, and this is kept in check by two factors: that a Veteran is one in a group of peers and that the Prince, Silver Church and Crown Legionnaires keep an eye on the Veterans of the different towns. Should a citizen, especially a former soldier, speak up againt corruption or malfeasance perpetrated by a Veteran, other Veterans can serve as judges of their peers, and should the crimes be severe enough the Crown Legion, prince or Silver clergy may intervene.
The Veterans meet together once a month for the Veteran Council, where they discuss matters that affect all the Army Towns.
Recently, the People's Church has been gaining more and more influence in the Army Towns, and most of the Veterans now openly and publicly take the advice from the Fathers of the Church, as goign against the wishes of the Church is an easy way to lose votes.

Defences

All the Army Towns have walls of varying complexity and strength, protecting most of the population, as well as towers to keep a lookout for dangers and a system of warning fires to quickly alert the other towns. It would be difficult for any monster or enemy to attack the Army Towns, so most who are confident or desperate enough try to attack travellers between the Towns or the farmsteads at the outskirts of town.

Infrastructure

The Army Towns are blessed with a well-developed infrastructure, as they are populated by ex-siege engineers and warriors used to establishing supply lines in difficult situations, helped by Fire Giants forced to develop the land. Most of the Army Villages either have wide cobblestone roads connecting them, as well as canals where that is natural. The Army Towns also have windmills, watermills, lumbermills and many other feats of modern machinery to aid in the economy.
Few of the Army Towns are more than a long day's march from others, and most can be readily walked between in a couple of hours.
There is even a modern technological marvel, a traintrack with two coal-powered locomotives, running between the largest armytown, Gullby, and the capital of East Sceya, Jerndyb. This turns the journey of nearly two days into a quarter of the time.

Founding Date

477 Imperial Age

Founders

• Prins Andreas Ari

Type

Large town

Inhabitant Demonym

Hærfolk (Army people)

Location under

Sceya

Owner/Ruler

Prins Andreas Ari

Owning Organization

Gold Empire