Briga
Briga is a Salternian border town located on the river Rhyn. It's official governing body is an appointed alderman. In actuality, it is the baron Jaspar Arlstaph, who pulls the strings in Briga. Arlstaph is not a born nobleman but considers himself a self-made man. The Arlstaphs were a reputable family who held the rights to husbandry and later government of a large and luscious stretch of land. Only thanks to the revenues from these lands was Jaspar able to study at the Academy in Lorsen and later at the Imperial Academy. After the age of nineteen, Jaspar moved to Briga, at that point a smalltown of no particular importance that was located close to his family's lands, and he set upon making it his own. As a learned man and well versed in languages he served as a scribe to the local alderman at the time. After revealing his plans for the town, the alderman gave Arlstaph several long stretches of leaves to travel the big merchant cities and get to know prominent merchant houses to learn from them. It was his connections and cunning, but also a little spot of luck, that allowed Arlstaph to mould Briga into a thriving town. The settlement profited of his enterprises and businesses which consisted mainly of trade and establishing routes through the mountains. While Jaspar Arlstaph has gone on to become a baron, Briga still remains the base of operations for many of his dealings. As such, the actual alderman of Briga is considered to have an easy job and little influence, as all decisions are effectively made by the baron. It is considered to be only a matter of time before Jaspar Arlstaph will place one of his sons in the alderman's chair, only waiting for the first one to come of age. In fact, the only person known to ever so often go against the baron's word is the Captain of the local city guard, Corrin Vankrellen, who displays little respect for rulers who hold their wealth over others.
Arlstaphs latest enterprise of marketing off young men from Vensia's villages and towns to serve as mercenaries in foreign wars particularily served to place Briga in a precarious situation for the first time since Arlstaph has taken the reins. Due to the baron's frequent absences, the towns alderman has to pick up the slack and is utterly overwhelmed with the situation of managing a town without the necessary resources in men. The town looks to Guard-Captain Corrin Vankrellen more and more as a calm and collected presence in this situation. Yet, this has also piqued the ever-watching eye of the bishop who disagrees both with Vankrellen's and the alderman's methods of solving problems.
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