Kokech Reliquary

In the Eastern reaches of the wealthy farming province of Tolinchoff, the bountiful Pepperfruit orchards and star-touched wheatfields begin to give way to dense forest and hills. Here, at the border between the county's rich interior and periphery, stands an ancient castle, far grander than any of the other nearby minor fortifications. The village for this castle is small and sleepy; the garrison is not grand, and parts of the fortress are not too well maintained. But still, it stands, and warriors still walk the halls inside. The gates and windows are well-barred against intruders and thieves, as the knights and monks of the castle attend to their collected relics. 
The Kokech Reliquary is a private institution, not clearly linked to any particular grand organization, dedicated to preserving historical artifacts, sacred relics, and ancient knowledge. Old tomes, art pieces, and items related to ancient heroes are all kept in deep storage somewhere in the castle, away from prying eyes. Pilgrims sometimes come here seeking the blessing of  a relic, and the Reliquary does have a calendar of different relics that they bring out for public use at different holidays and festivals. Other relics are locked away unless someone has a compelling reason to see them; others yet are locked away forever, without condition.
Kokech contains the largest collection of tomes and items from the ancient days of Andrig - the sacred stones and crystals of the old spirits of the land, the crowns and finery of ancient long-forgotten kingdoms, and the scholarship of worlds burnt away are all stored here. 
Some believe that the Reliquary contains old Ederstone weaponry, safely contained. This is not true. It is true, however, that the Reliquary contains unique Monstercrafted items - notably, extensive items for petrifying and un-petrifying. This technology is the key to the Reliquary's success: when most items are not in use, they are petrified into more durable forms. The most important items are petrified into hardened gemstone. The most well-hidden, but important, part of the collection isn't Ederstone, but people: the deepest vaults hidden in caverns underneath the castle are filled with voluntarily-petrified people. The idea is that, using these people, the Reliquary can preserve ancient knowledge and perspectives, and even provide an "emergency backup" if Stildane is subjected to apocalyptic conditions again. 
Very few people have been returned this way, though one notably included the monarch of Yohenstern, who used the Reliquary to effectively enter stasis and survive the Fifth Scouring.
The Reliquary is an informal cult site of Emesh, Lunar spirit of knowledge, though it is also on good terms with Wimbo, spirit of heroes. The knights and monks here primarily serve their mission over these Lunar Gods, though. There is no army of paladins here, though a few retired paladins are on staff. 
The Reliquary has been able to fully rescure and remodel the place using money from a brewery some of the local staff and villagers have jointly made a few decades ago that has slowly taken off. Unfortunately, this brewery has been struggling recently, as infighting between local knights has disrupted the brewers' access to grains and spices.

Demographics

Around 700 people live in the combined Reliquary and village of Kokech. This does not count any visiting pilgrims, who can sometimes stay for prolonged periods of time. This also does not count surrounding farmsteads or seasonal migrants from the surrounding countryside who live in the village in the wintertime. 
Of the full-time villagers: Around 100 formal Reliquents (knights, monks, squires, sworn warriors, initiates, etc) live in the Reliquary, along with 100 servants (some of whom are family members of Reliquents; many of whom live in the village). The remaining 500 are all villagers who have no formal association with the Reliquary but who often work crafts/trades that involve periodic work with the castle.

Government

The Kokech Reliquary is ruled by the Kokech Reliquents: a group of warriors and archivists granted this small fief by the royals of Dovenar centuries ago. The Reliquents report to both the Queen of Dovenar and the Count of Tolinchoff - the local county. 
The Reliquary governs the village and the surrounding farmsteads, and also received some formal subsidies from the county and kingdom. Most of these subsidies are in the form of a sliver of the crop surplus from the wealthy Pepperfruit and farming estates further West, delivered to Kokech by the knights who govern those lands. Recently, Kokech has been in financial trouble due to a freeze on that subsidy supply, as the knights who normally provide those taxes have been bitterly fighting over land rights and inheritances and have redirected that money towards raids and petty skirmishes. The Count of Tolinchoff has been trying to use the situation to end Kokech's subsidies altogether and to reroute the full tax money back to the county. The Reliquents have refused to let the issue be settled, and so everyone lets the knights bicker.

The Reliquents

By law, the feudal lord of Kokech is a talking sword named The Savior Blade - their friends call them Savior. Savior is an old cursed sentient blade from the distant land of Asalay, that curses any who hold them to become slowly deluded into seeing themselves as the protagonist of the world and the savior of the world. Savior themselves shares similar delusions; they came to Dovenar seeking a "land of Elves and Wizards, where adventure may be found", to be "wielded by legendary heroes against liches and villeins". Savior has basically retried from their days of questing and adventure, which is good for the health of everyone around them as few 'Heroes' who use Savior live long - not by any malice, but by curse-induced foolishness. 
While the Savior may be the formal ruler of Kokech, most of the real administration is handled by Savior's steward Kennefa DeKokech. Kennefa is a firm and somber woman, a devout lunar cultist of Emesh who takes her work extremely seriously. Kennefa is good with infrastructure and budgeting, and is generally quite competent, but struggles with maintaining the loyalty and obedience of her subordinates - Savior's work as a unifying figurehead really holds the place together. Kennefa is extremely detail-oriented, gets uncomfortable when things are out of place, and keeps everything relentless catalogued.

History

Pre-Scouring

Kokech was built as a castle in 1421 by the ancient adventuring merchant-lord Kokedren Hillsclimber, as a private sanctuary amidst the chaos of the Fourth Scouring. The eccentric lord constructed the castle on top of what he knew was a secure cavern complex, the ideal location for an emergency getaway. The land itself, being right in the middle of the conflict, was not considered legally owned by anyone, and Kokedren relied largely on labor from the refugees that he and his band protected. The new fortress was highly damaged in several battles, but Kokedren obsessively rebuilt and improved it with help from the nearby neutral city of Yohenstern. After Kokedren's death in 1436, his sons pledged their fealty to Yohenstern, and Kokech became an island of Yohenstern-vassalage in a sea of divided Kivish and Hainish territory when the war finally ended.
The line of Kokedren built the castle ever-further, even as they reduced their fief to poverty and revolt. In 1576, a massive internal revolt sparked a general conflict within the family, and the town of Kokech was destroyed - never to fully return. The castle lacked the resources to fully support itself, and fell into partial disrepair and ruin. In 1598, the line of Kokedren sought to relocate entirely to Yohenstern, and sold the fief for a pittance to the monarch there. The royals of Yohenstern lacked the means to consistently directly govern Kokech, but did not want to give their land away. They also wanted to avoid anything that might enrage either of their big neighbors - and so, they went with a safe neutral option: a small group of Emesh cultists who wanted to make a museum/archive, who called themselves the Reliquary Order. 
The Reliquary Order spent the next century gathering artifacts and securing relics from both sides of the local Kivish-Hainish boundary. Some of their greatest finds also came from their greatest annoyance: an early 'donation' they acquired in the form of a cursed sentient sword known as The Savior Blade. The Savior Blade was a sword, likely from distant Asalay, that not only sought out magical adventure, but cursed whoever held it to slowly devolve into believing themselves to be the protagonist of the world and Ultimate Do-Good-er; a mentality that almost inevitably eroded all rational decision making and led to the weilder's death. The Reliquary monks struggled to control the blade, which continuously tempted monks, passing adventurers, and local peasants into picking it up and adventuring with it. The Savior Blade (known to its friends as Savior), over that century, slowly began to come to peace with the Reliquary Order, and while it still regularly broke containment, it began to quest for artifacts and lore to bring back to Kokech. The curse went from a lethal danger to a harmonious part of the standard weirdness of the region - and through Savior's questing, the petrification system was born. 

Scouring

When the Fifth Scouring began in the late 1600s, the region was subjected to apocalyptic levels of violence; Ederstone weapons tore apart the countryside while invading armies enslaved and deported any locals they could find. Most who could fled South, to the Kingdom of Hain.  Andrig was razed, with only small groups able to survive by hiding in the darkest corners of the realm. 
The greatest city of pre-Scouring Andrig, Yohenstern, fought and fell. The ruling monarch of Yohenstern and liege-lord of Kochek, Queen Halga Yohenzel, knew of the petrification system and hidden vaults under Kokech - when the city fell, she sent her family to Hain while she escaped to Kokech, to be petrified until her city could be liberated. Yohenstern was absolutely annihilated, but the good queen survived as a statue for the length of the war and emerged in 1730 to join the Hainish liberators. She became the Queen of the new Kingdom of Dovenar after the war, and is remembered as the mother of the nation - all thanks to the innovative techniques of the Reliquary Order.
Much of the old Reliquary Order itself died during the Scouring, unfortunately. The Kivish did not spare Kokech; they destroyed the town and occupied the castle, slaughtered or enslaving the vast majority of the monks. A few Reliquents managed to survive in the depths in secret, though. One might wonder: how did a handful of monks managed to survive four almost forty years in the basement of an active Kivish military base? Certainly, their own ingenuity should get most of the credit, but they had help. More than anyone, it was Savior who saved Kokech's relic vaults and archives, by carefully manipulating and enchanting the garrison leadership. For while the Kivish garrison were ready for countering Ederstone or Monstercrafted enchantment traps, they were not ready for a sentient cursed item from Asalay - which followed its own rules and patterns, and to which the Kivish had no innate resistance. By the time liberation came in 1730, Savior had a segment of garrison leadership ready to outright join them. The Relics were saved from destruction and the monks were finally able to enjoy the sunlight without fear again. Savior's new 'friends' joined the new Reliquary Order, and the time of rebuilding began.

Modern History

It took many decades for Kokech to rebuild - less because of physical damage and more because of a lack of personnel. While the Queen of Dovenar ensured that the Reliquary would remain autonomous and funded (given her debts owed to the place), few people saw the importance of the Reliquary's resources - the people did not need wisdom or expertise from the past, they had plenty from Hain and from experts from outside the region who had come to help. The Reliquary was also undermined by its new leadership: Savior had been chosen as the new leader, and the sword was still too deranged and unstable to serve as a good archival leader. So Kokech remained a mess over the 1700s. 
Over the 1800s, the Reliquary finally began to get enough stable archivists and retired paladins on staff to build a leadership structure outside of Savior's clique of cursed heroes. A village began to flourish under the protection of the Reliquary, and things began to stabilize. Some unexpected floods and persistent wasteland pest problems undercut the village and countryside at times, but Kokech pulled through.
Finally the region began to truly prosper in the 1900s - the population grew, the wasteland frontier was far enough away to insulate Kokech from threats, and there was enough of a crop and spice surplus to begin experimenting with brewing. The retired Emesh cultists and local artisans came together to experiment with possible brews using Ederstone-touched crops and fruit - from Elfcorn Rum to Sharpwine to new herbal ales. What began as a cross-community experiment flourished into a favorite of the local nobility and merchant-elite of Keilbar. With that money came much-needed repairs and staffing; and with prosperity, pilgrims began to seek Kokech's relics (not for knowledge, but as an alternate avenue to divine experiences). Kokech has truly thrived in a way it never has before. It remains a village and minor castle, but who knows where it may go?

Founding Date

1421

Type

Outpost / Base

Population

700

Location under

Tolinchoff

Owning Organization

Kingdom of Dovenar