Blood Mine
Arguably the most important of Ymeris'’ settlement, Blood Mine is known for one thing and one thing only, diamonds. The rich veins of gemstones beneath the Dragons' Tears Mountains where the town is located have long been the life blood of the Midnight Court’s economy and many a well-to-do finger, neck or head across Kelbonnar are adorned with the ‘blood diamonds’ extracted by the town’s beleaguered serf population.
Demographics
The overwhelming majority of the town’s population is comprised of the serfs who toil away in the mine workings beneath the town. They are a mixed species demographic, though there is a significant bias towards Dwarves, Gnomes and other humanoids who are adapted to working for long spans of time in subterranean environments.
The rest of the town’s populace is comprised of the court of the town’s lord Dracul Linniarital, most of whom are Vampires, along with the lucky cohort of serfs who act as the castle’s staff rather than as miners and refiners.
Ruling Lord
The town and its important mines are run by a Vampire named Dracul Linniarital a trusted lieutenant of the Vampire who created them and the ruling Vampire of Ymeris, Linniara Istarital. Dracul has ruled over Blood Mine for several hundred years and is renowned for being a particularly harsh and exacting task master, to the point that even other members of the Midnight Court have questioned the effectiveness of his brutal methods, though only ever from a purely efficiency based stance rather than moralistic.Defences
The central structure of the town, the castle that is home to Dracul Linniarital is also Blood Mine’s main defensive structure. Its large walls, numerous towers and array of defensive ballistae mounted atop them would provide a formidable defence against anyone who attempted to assault it. The castle is also sat directly a top the subterranean mining and refining complex that is the town’s lifeblood, and access to this underground network is only available via a fortified gatehouse, attached to the castle’s walls that guards the tunnel entrance.
More widely, the town is surrounded by a large ditch, about 16ft / 5m across and 22ft / 7m deep, which is filled with an array of rusting, wickedly sharpened metal poles, designed to impale those that fall into it. The only access point to the town itself is through a small fort at the edge of the town, with a double gated ‘airlock’ style system, where only one gate is ever opened at a time. A large section of road is enclosed within the fort, able to take two wagons abreast, which is where people and goods wait until the next gate is opened and they are allowed to pass. It is common knowledge that these external defences for the city are not only to keep people out, but to keep the serf labourers in.
Industry & Trade
The industry of Blood Mine, is the mining, refining and cutting of the so called ‘blood-diamonds’ of Ymeris. This is the only export of the town, but it is such a vastly lucrative export that it almost single-handedly drives the economy of Ymeris. The unskilled serf population toil in the mines, whilst those with skill or natural aptitude are put to work polishing and cutting the gemstones until they are ready to sell on the market.
It’s focus and importance means that the town is well linked to the rest of Ymeris to the west, the capital Vonstorm and the nation’s harbour Port Aima by the Blood Way road, which also links Blood Mine directly to the Empire of Turelion's Ultaru Province to the east. Almost all of the trade traffic of Blood Mine is run through the settlement itself, with armoured wagons crewed by mortal collaborators of the Vampires and undead guards, delivering shipments of diamonds on to major trading centres around Ymeris’ immediate borders and then on to the rest of Kelbonnar.
Infrastructure
The town is rather leanly appointed with infrastructure. A single, well made road leads directly from Blood Mine’s entrance gate to the castle and the entrance to the mines, with the rest of the road infrastructure being desire tracks created by generations of serfs walking the same routes through the town.
There is no sewer system in the town, and there are only a handful of meagre wells that give out water of a dubious quality that has been tainted by the mine workings beneath the town, and the muck that the townsfolk throw in the defensive ditch, for want of a better place to dispose of it.
Architecture
The heart of the town, the castle in which Blood Mine’s Vampiric overlord dwells is a large gothic edifice designed primarily with defence in mind with a stout curtain wall, high towers and relatively utilitarian keep at the centre of its courtyard. Inside, the keep specifically, a lot of pain has been taken to ensure that the space is luxuriously and comfortably appointment as possible, to ensure the approval of Dracul Linniarital and his body of retainers.
Beyond the walls of the castle, the town is a mish mash of vernacular architecture where the buildings have been thrown together, often with little skill or care with all manner of materials at hand, purely to ensure that the families residing in them have a roof over their head. Many of the buildings are constructed from mud bricks, wattle and daub and occasionally waste stone dragged up from the mines.
Geography
The town is set within the foothills of the Dragons' Tears Mountains on a slope that eventually turns into the slopes of one of the range’s peaks. The castle, which is home to the Vampire who has been given governance of the town, Dracul Linniarital has been constructed the furthest up the slope, giving it a commanding position of the surrounding landscape, whilst the rest of the town is situated haphazardly on the slope below. The entrance to Blood Mine’s subterranean mining infrastructure, its cutting and refining infrastructure and the mines themselves are located beneath the castle.
Natural Resources
What makes Blood Mine one of the most strategic places in Ymeris is the fact that it is the largest producer of diamonds in the nation. It is these ‘blood diamonds’ that are the largest export of the Midnight Court to the rest of Kelbonnar and the gemstones grease the wheels of economy and diplomacy and are one of the main reasons that many places are still content to have dealings with the Vampires of Ymeris.
Type
Town
Population
C.3,000 living inhabitants and an unknown number of undead inhabitants.
Inhabitant Demonym
Diamonders
Location under
Owning Organization
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