Bunning
One of the many settlements that make up the loose confederation that is Sarya's Republic, the town of Bunning sits on the southern shores of the Nanderith River some five days north of the Sarnyan. Located at one of the few stable bits of bed along the river, the town originally settled by an entrepreneurial Soulmeliti merchant in the early third century, the town remained a sleepy settlement, remarkable only for the flat bottomed ferry that poled travelers across the river on journeys from New Solarin to Molcatta.
Founded by a silk merchant from the Roen'shai Family for that very purpose, the town had a distinctly Soulmeliti flavor for centuries, with low, wide-roofed buildings built unobtrusively in the grasslands. It even served as one of the last bastions of the Soulmeliti homeland during the Second Elynthi War. The charred foundations of these homes and the small shrine to Tyloma in the towns Soulmeliti graveyard - rumored to be protected by a vengeful spirit - are all that remain of this heritage, the town and its residents burning before mob of starving peasants in the early seventh century.
Under the watchful eyes of a series of a warlords, the town was slowly rebuilt into the dried mud and thatched roofed homes that it is today. Tolls on the ferry steadily increased as they squeezed every last copper from merchants until traders gave up on the route entirely, shifting all traffic to the Dalencroft and the Trans-Rheuthengage Highway further north. This put the final nail in the coffin of the town's only inn and Bunning sees few visitors these days as a result.
The Main Road in Bunning
Its residents, long reduced to substance farming augmented by fishing from the river or tending a few meager flocks of goats, have seen a half-dozen warlords cycle through the town in the intervening decades. Changes in leadership tend to mean little other than to whom their exorbitant taxes must be paid and which idiosyncratic laws must be observed. The last of these warlords, the so-called Blind Baroness took power less than a decade ago. She has proven to have bit more of both, though townsfolk admit that while her laws may include such oddities as the sacrifice of a rooster each Midnight Serenade so that its entrails can portend "ebbs and flows of the great River Time," the Baroness also tolerates none of the peasant abusing practices her predecessors revered. Criminals are punished harshly and her own guards are not above the law which may mark her reign as a highwater mark in the past century.
Founding Date
209 AC
Founders
Type
Town
Population
1,000
Inhabitant Demonym
Bunningers
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
Characters in Location