Thornhelm

DESCRIPTION

The city of Thornhelm lies deep within the western forest above a great cliff overlooking the ocean. It's greatest landmark and once the only distinguishing feature that allowed travellers to know Thornhelm from just more forest is the Royal palace, a great oak tree several hundred feet high that has been grown over centuries into rooms and halls, so that no wood has to be carved away in order to allow living space.
Surrounding the palace and its grounds is the Greenhome, a gigantic park with no man-made structures within it save for a few roads and seating areas. Declared holy ground by the druids of Thornhelm, it has been declared illegal to wilfully damage or otherwise cause harm to the plant life in this area.
Situated around the Greenhome are smaller businesses and residences; with shops, taverns, smithies, and other assorted facilities scattered about. The largest things within the city are the great Crop-Spires at its edge that employ most of its residents, growing wood, grains, and other assorted plants for use within the city and beyond.
Established on the root systems of the forest that wind their way down Thornhelm's cliffs and the caves running throughout are the docks and shipyards, a place of trade, fishery and no small amount of illicit dealings.

GOVERNMENT

Thornhelm is governed by it's king Baldr Thornhelm III, with a close council of archdruids and other various individuals to advise the king concerning matters within the City and the surrounding Forest. His closest advisors include; The High Archdruid Kaala Graysparrow who oversees all of the druids and their research; the Royal Arcanist Marrdel Solmet who watches over arcane matters such as wizards and sorcerers within the city; the Lord-General Felbron Lonrev who is head of all matters pertaining to the defence of the city and surrounding lands; and the Merchant Lord Athan Kendren who is in charge of overseeing exports and imports, along with making sure that trade tariffs are upheld.

LAWS

Besides standard common law these three laws are to be followed within the kingdom of Thornhelm:
• Thou shalt not use fire magic.
• Thou shalt heed the Treants.
• Thou shalt not use the Artifice of Ashhome within the city unless necessary.

MILITARY

Thornhelm's military is primarily defensive in nature, formed primarily of awakened Plants and beasts commanded by druids, along with Moon druids and a small militia of soldiers.
The command structure of Thornhelm is a stark contrast to other cities, where places such as Ashhome have strict command and control over their troops Thornhelm takes the opposite approach. Rather than forcing soldiers to work under a strict command structure each druid combat unit (known as a "Circle") exercises large amounts of independence within the battlefields they find themselves in.
For example, if given a vague objective such as "take the city", a circle may resort to a frontal assault using large creatures such as Elephants, or Treants. Or the unit may decide to attack from the nights with the use of flying creatures to take out key command structures within the enemy formations. This tactic of Laissez Faire towards how units deal with objectives results in a huge amount of tactical flexibility and adaptability, as rather than wait for a command from the top to come down many Circles will adapt on the fly to their enemies.
However while this does bring many advantages, the lack of a centralized command structure means that when coordinated goals are needed, such as a frontal attack of defence in one area, it can take more energy than a normal army to get troops to where they need to be and can result in the waging of any normal war being ineffective at best and disastrous at worst.

PLACES OF INTEREST

• The Great Tree, also known as Thornhelm Palace is the seat of power in the city, it is here that decisions regarding the welfare of the city's citizens are made. The Great tree is also the last line of defense if the city should come under attack, housing it's king and a good portion of the councilors he keeps also means that the best trained soldiers and Druids are kept as a "royal guard" of sorts.
• The Crop-Spires, where most of the city's exports are grown are overseen by 1 archdruid each, and tended to by a cadre of civilian employees who ensure that all of the plants are properly taken care of
• The Drunken Hatchet is a seedy bar carved directly into the walls of a cave in the cliffs of the city near the docks, run by a particularly aggressive dwarf by the name of Old Angus.

Type

City

Related Historical Events

• 0
  Founding of ThornHelm