High Hedgemont

High Hedgemont is an isolated mountain town located at the southwestern spur of the Crystal Eye near the headwaters of the Weeping River in the Great Lookout Mountains. Largely spared the slow death that befell the surrounding region decades prior, High Hedgemont is a beacon of safety and civilization in an uncertain time.

Demographics

The population of High Hedgemont is primarily human and half-human in composition. A wide variety of small non-human subcultures exist in the area, but tend to come from the outlying areas rather than in the walled town proper. Most of the non-human population comes from immigration more than a generation ago and is thus well-integrated into High Hedgemont society under a largely human-derived social contract; a rare minority are fae creatures or other demi-humans native to the Crystal Wood, having come into the city at some point in the last few decades from more homogenous enclaves secreted away in the surrounding mountain ranges.

Government

The High Hedgemont government is comprised of an elected mayor and a bicameral town council. This parliamentary legistlature is comprised of a council of the commoners and a council of the local aristocracy; both councils must agree on a piece of legislation before it is submitted to the mayor for approval. Laws can be enforced by any member of the town guard. Crimes are prosecuted by a public tribunal officiated of three judges and a jury of five random locals who are paid a small stipend for their time. Punishments for crimes include fines, a stint in the town stockade, exile beyond the wall, or, in the rare case of truly heinous crime, execution by hanging.

Defences

High Hedgemont's seclusion, high altitude, thick walls, cold weather, armed populace, and native mage subculture all make it an unattractive target for invasion.
The walls of High Hedgemont are constructed of massive hewn stone blocks and feature protective roofs that slope towards the outside so that winter snow is not dropped onto the town streets. The bastions have flat inward surfaces and rounded outward extents to maximize the town's space while also providing watchmen with a wide field of view. Gatehouses along the three roads out of town feature heavy iron portcullises that can be dropped to prevent land travel in or out. Though High Hedgemont has never faced a military threat beyond the occasional bandit activity, these walls were erected during a time of paranoia when knowledge of the world beyond the mountains was beginning to fade from memory.
If an outside force were to get the gumption to attack High Hedgemont, they might attempt to enter the city from the water - whether by crossing the Crystal Eye in boats from the north or attempting to ford the river from the southwest. The Hedgemont Town Guard have some naval experience because of the town's close connection to the water, and many locals have taken to mounting small cannon for use in warding off particularly bold highwaymen who have tried this strategy. The river also cannot be easily exploited from the south because the town's lower wier is of significant height, being part of the exterior wall, and, like with the roads leading into the city, can be completely closed off to travel via portcullis.

Industry & Trade

Travellers in general, including traders and tourists, have not come from beyond the mountains in decades. High Hedgemont and its outlying communities form an isolated economy and are, collectively, wholly self-sufficient from the world beyond the mountains. Crops, game, and raw materials must be locally-sourced or gone without, and finished goods must be produced on-site. Woodcutters, miners, fishermen, hunters, shepherds, and farmers gather up their stock from the surrounding countryside. These products are either used in cottage industries or brought into town for wholesale, where blacksmiths, woodworkers, coopers, cobblers, tanners, weavers, bakers, cooks, tinkerers, apothecaries, and many, many others may convert them to finished goods.
The town square is often lined with merchant booths where commerce hasn't already been relocated into purpose-built structures. Several smaller marketplaces form around town in the courtyards between buildings, and these marketplaces tend to be more specialized in the goods they provide.

Guilds and Factions

The Explorer's Guild is a guild formed by official decree to go explore the world beyond the mountains, chart it, and bring back any news or useful samples that might be found there. Part of the reason that the town council chartered the Explorer's Guild is that the current state of affairs may not be sustainable forever. Eventually, as the population grows with the ending of the last century's miniature ice age, demand for lumber and grains in particular will outstrip the ability for the land to provide them even with well-developed agricultural techniques. The town archives also make referrence to items, substances, knowledge, and techniques which are not available anywhere in the local area but which may prove essential to surviving whatever dangers might lie in the mountain community's future. For example, the great plagues of decades past had treatments, but were stopped by the collapse of vulnerable populations rather than the wide-scale deployment of these treatments; thawing glaciers in far-off lands might prove to be reservoirs for these diseases, eventually reinfecting the world and, by extension, High Hedgemont. Though the Explorer's Guild has an important mission and enjoys the blessings of public favor, it is too new to wield much in the way of political or socioeconomic power.
High Hedgemont has an outsized academic institution in the form of High Hedgemont University. HHU is an educational establishment that incorporates the town archives and wields social and political power through the access they provide to important historical documents. The dearth of contact with scholars, research materials, and other resources from abroad have forced the faculty to stake their future with the Explorer's Guild; the knowledge of how to read the oldest books and charts is slowly dying away with the aging of the professors, weakening the institution with each passing year. Even so, the literacy, knowledge of the arts and sciences, and thirst for self-improvement fostered by the University has had a profound influence on High Hedgemont culture and has saved the town from destruction on multiple occasions.

by Hero Forge

The presence of noble families and a sufficient number of scholars to establish HHU in such an isolated community suggests the activities of some long-forgotten, but wealthy, kingdom that once laid claim to the Great Lookout Mountains. No noble has offered tax or military levy to any such kingdom for over a hundred years, but the nobility still wields influence in the High Hedgemont community through a combination of tradition, generational wealth, and accumulated social connections. The High Hedgemont aristocracy must share their power more equitably with the townsfolk than they might have in centuries past, however, as they lack any external force to lord over the Town Guard, local arcanists, or even a sufficient number of aggrieved locals. Noble estates tend to be near to, but separate from, the town proper; the Highmount Estate, home of the Highmount Family - of which Jean-Gaius Archambault is a notable scion - is one such estate.

Tourism

High Hedgemont is seldom visited by outsiders. Importantly, Hedgers do not consider other residents of the Crystal Eye's environs to be 'outsiders' in this sense, as the many hamlets and isolated encampments in the surrounding woods often trade foodstuffs and raw materials with High Hedgemount in exchange for protection, finished goods, and social connections. Visits from true outsiders are exceptionally rare; the few who know of the town, had ancestors who survived the troubles of yesteryear, and can brave the mountain elements must still contend with highwaymen and dangerous wildlife on their ascent. It is only in recent memory that connection has been re-established with the outside world, and news of these interactions are mostly filtered through the actions of members of the newly-formed Explorer's Guild.

Architecture

Most structures in High Hedgemont are constructed of logs and hewn stone. Buildings have thick walls to provide as much insulation and support as possible. Roofs have high peaks to encourage snow to slide off of them and prevent collapse due to the accumulation of weight; many houses in the countryside are A-frames to carry this design philosophy to its natural conclusion.

High Hedgemont

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High Hedgemont sits at the southwestern edge of the Crystal Eye and consists of a walled town center (pictured here) and several small suburbs in the surrounding alpine forest.
This town map was generated with the aid ofWatabou's Medieval Fantasy City Generator.

Geography

High Hedgemont sits in the basin formed by the intersection of three mountain ranges to the west, east, and north of town. The Crystal Wood, a coniferous alpine forest, once completely bracketed the community before loggers cleared the immediate environs. The town sits on the southwest coast of the Crystal Eye Eye, a roughly circular alpine lake, and is bounded immediately to the southeast by the Hedgemont Meadows. The Weeping River, which is fed by snowmelt accumulating in the Crystal Eye from the peaks of the Great Lookout Mountains, passes through the center of town and to the southwest through a ravine. The portion of the river that passes through High Hedgemont is controlled by a pair of weirs and is known locally as Mill Alley due to the large number of water wheels powered by its flow.
The east and west roads out of town extend north across the faces of the slopes along either side of the lake, touching on a number of woodland communities there, before heading down through passes to the valleys between the mountain ranges. The lands even further beyond the valleys are not well explored in part because of the ruggedness of the terrain and in part because of bandit crews and fey creatures purported to be lurking in those regions; the protection of the Hedgemont Town Guard can extend only so far beyond the coast. The road to the south largely follows the Weeping River's course and also touches several outlying communities, but is dangerous more because of wildlife than banditry.

Climate

An alpine community, High Hedgemont enjoys temperate summer months but experiences cold, snowy winters. Skis, snowshoes, and sledges are often required to access the outlying communities in the winter months; locals are encouraged to stockpile provisions during the autumn in case even these modes of transportation become impossible.

Natural Resources

High Hedgemont has ample access to fresh water, lumber, and granite. Mines to the northwest and northeast produce small amounts of iron and silver for metallurgy. Large crystalline deposits glitter in the 'iris ring' of the Crystal Eye, and a rare few arcanists have been able to dive down and recover samples of magic-infused quartz from them. Some tributaries on the outward faces of the surrounding mountains contain arsenic, and travelers are advised to seek out local guides to determine which streams are safe to drink from.
Pine nuts, spruce beer, fish, and venison are important staples of the Hedger diet, with carrots, potatoes, and snowberries also available on a seasonal basis. Potatoes are sometimes freeze-dried using natural climate cycles and ground up for later use as flour. The southern hamlets produce apples, wheat, and corn for import to High Hedgemont, but these resources are more limited due to the region's high altitudes and winter frosts. Game hunting activities in the region also produces furs and hides in addition to foodstuffs. Meat and berries are sometimes dried together to create pemmican blocks for use as preserved rations.

Blessed Hedgemont on High

Our Mountain Home Fair

Jewel Bright Afore the Crystal Eye

— High Hedgemont motto as inscribed on the granite steps leading up to the town well.

Maps

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  High Hedgemont

  High Hedgemont sits at the southwestern edge of the Crystal Eye and consists of a walled town center (pictured here) and several small suburbs in the surrounding alpine forest.
  This town map was generated with the aid ofWatabou's Medieval Fantasy City Generator.

Type

Town

Population

5,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Hedger(s)

Location under

Great Lookout Mountains

Included Locations

• Highmount Estate