Foolshope
Humanity is nothing but resilient and persistent. Volcano bury your city? Rebuild when the ash cools and washes away. Ice pushes southward more each year, crushing walls and homes and livelihood? Wait for the retreat and build again. Too rugged a place to try and maintain? Pack up and move and call your new place the same as the old.
All of these have happened to Foolshope over the centuries, but still it persists. There are decades when it remains abandoned, destroyed, flattened, then a group of rugged newcomers, hearing of the riches to be found here, determines to start over.
The first resettlement happened several hundred years ago, after a volcano in the Dragonbone Mountains to the east erupted and sent clouds of ash over the village. There were many deaths, but many had also left the area prior to the explosion, worried that the rumblings and belches that they heard presaged some calamity. Once the volcano quieted, and the ash was washed away over several seasons of rain, survivors and others came to rebuild. The town was constructed again, in a slightly different place, as it was too depressing to be uncovering remains of people and their lives all the time.
Following the eruption, but taking several decades to become noticeable was the ice moving ever southward. Prior to this the great blue-white walls were several miles away, even in winter, but they moved ever closer each season. Ultimately, the glaciers crushed the town, slowly and inexorably pulverizing it into dust. Residents fled again.
Foolshope, as it currently exists was rebuilt yet again as the ice retreated. This time it was further south, and included several watchtowers and some skilled observers to gaze both east and north, on the watch for signs of volcanic restlessness and also ice advance and retreat. Currently it is situated along the Winter River
And why would anyone build and rebuild in such a place? Why wealth of course.
History
Formerly known as Everwinter, this settlement on the icy Winter River was mostly an outpost on the northern plains of Egg Island near the permanent ice.
Geography
Upper range of the Dragonbone Mountains lie to the east, with the ice fields of the island to the north. Nearby is the Winter River . To the south one eventually comes to the plains.
Natural Resources
Gold - mined from the nearby mountains and panned from the icy river.
Ice Pearls - the creation of creatures that thrive in the ice of the glaciers, filtering meltwater and sometimes forming beautiful blue-green pearls. Even the Sea Mongers know of their value.
See Summercamp 2020 for all my articles.
Comments