Cenmarche

Cenmarche is a grim and ordered hill-town nestled in the western marches of Othvarand, built atop layered foundations of earlier settlements, some dating to the final decades of the Imorean Empire. Now the seat of Duke Mernac, it serves as a regional hub for law, taxation, and oversight in the borderlands near the Charnelwood.

The town rises in tiers along a wooded ridge, with high stone walls, narrow stair-walks, and a central stronghold known as Holdfast Mernac, a square keep of dark slate with steep-pitched roofs and iron-barred windows. Within, the Duke holds court not on a throne, but at a judicial bench, surrounded by scribes, executors, and ledgers.

Cenmarche is quiet, controlled, and at times dour. Its markets are subdued, its taverns watched, and its people cautious. Tax collectors and adjudicators travel from here to surrounding villages, and disputes between landholders are often dragged to Cenmarche’s Hall of Judgment, where sentences are read aloud in formal litany.

Several roads converge here, including an old Imorean stoneway that skirts the edge of the Charnelwood—a route still patrolled but increasingly shunned. Merchants who linger too long near the southern gates speak of strange mists and fleeting figures in the trees.

Type

Large town