Old Chapel

Wrapped in the roots and branches of the Chapel Mire is a humble village that rests in the ancient stone bones of a long-forgotten city. This is a place where nature finds a way - it breaks stone and takes over the things that men have made. Ivy tears down great steeples and moss buckles well-cobbled roads.
Old Chapel lies along the banks of The Eler, a wide river that drains from the Elerloch at the heart of the Chapel Mire. There was once an ancient city along these banks, but all that remains of it are eroded stone walls and ruins. The people of Old Chapel have built on this memory, constructing sturdy wooden homes with the stone and rubble as foundation - using a towering ruin wall to lean their tavern against or to make grand buildings like the water wheel of the Eler Mill built in the empty husk of vine-marbled stone.
The namesake of the village is the large stone chapel that was perhaps once a grand cathedral before The Breaking. While the eroded spire still does reach above the high treetops of the thicket, the building wears its age and to whose worship it was for has long faded. It has been reclaimed by the Church of Saint Isobel, a chantry of priestesses who keep it as a place of healing and care for the village - and at times even hosting visiting Paladins who come to this quiet and secluded place.

WHY PEOPLE COME HERE

Few come to Old Chapel for something specific - in many cases, they come to get away from another place. The village is secluded and quiet compared to the rest of the Valedori Empire, and there are few enough new faces that newcomers are known by most in town. Often newcomers have come for healing or religious practice with the Church of Saint Isobel, and many find themselves staying after their care from the hospitality offered to them by the locals.
But that doesn’t mean that the Chapel Mire is without dangers. The swampland thicket is filled with monstrous creatures and a bandit gang of Imperial Army deserters called the Oathbreaker Brotherhood. This means that a Ranger, Bloodhunter, or lone Devilblood mercenary can always find work in Old Chapel, as the townsfolk do not have a regular guard or militia and pay fairly to keep their village safe.
Scholars from Port Illenora are few but not infrequent visitors as well. They come to study the ruins of the village and those half-sunken throughout the Chapel Mire, but it is unclear what they have learned after all these years and visits - as the ruins appear to be old enough to be from the Age of Queens or perhaps older, but exhibit no known language or architecture of that time. A confounding nature that does not seem to bother the locals.

PEOPLE WHO ARE FROM HERE

People of Old Chapel are faithful people. While that doesn’t inherently make them religious, they are respectful of devotion and give others the benefit of the doubt. This is a welcome hospitality that is only rarely taken advantage of. Many who have lived in Old Chapel have lived there a long time, perhaps for generations. And while many of the Millside District might have only moved to the village in the past few decades - those of the Old Wall or Chapel Hill have held their homes likely for generations.
While the people of Old Chapel are used to the ruins they have built their homes within, they are wary of them. Some stone foundations hold concealed basement rooms or chambers that have been sealed by collapsed rubble. These can lead to infrequent discoveries or dangers, but more often are avoided by the denizens of the village - in fact there are some ruined structures that they unanimously avoid and encourage all who visit to give a wide berth to.
While there is a Conte in Old Chapel, the Church of Saint Isobel takes an active role in the community and the Abbess Albina Savellie is seen by the locals as the unofficial authority of the village.

by Caspar David Friedrich

Parent Region: The Southmark
Ruling Nation: Valedori Empire
Local Ruler: Conte Jonah Bravven (contested)
Demographics: Heavy Human and Half-Elf
Points of Interest: Chapel Mire
Districts: Chapel Hill, Old Wall, Millside, Warden’s Post