Soque (Soak)
Soque is a large village in the south western Triquetra Hills which is currently a member of the Alchemical Alliance. It has an excellent claim to be the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in all of Magicians' End since its foundation can be dated all the way back to the end of the age of the Old Kingdoms when the Painted People were the dominant culture and humans had not travelled beyond Myruthea.
History
Despite its age the truly ancient settlement of Soque has never been particularly important and has never grown beyond the size of a large village.
Soque was founded during the later years of the age of the Painted Peoples and their Old Kingdoms as they crossed the Eroveth Mountains and began to spread into southern Myruthea from the north west. Ancient settlements further south and to the east, are generally thought to have arisen a little later in the age of the New Kingdoms, whilst those older and once more important towns and cities to the north which must surely have predated it, were lost under the ice of the Sundering in the seventh millenium BPC, if they had not already been abandoned. Very little survives of these sites, save for some ruins at Halsatt and Pavol-Rag-Rag.
In all the ages since, Soque has never been on the main route to anywhere nor close to any particularly valuable resources that might have fostered its development, and it has remained a small community, earning a living from farming, a little logging in the hills and more recently some tourist trade from visitors who come to marvel at a place which in some respects seems to have changed very little for over seventeen thousand years.
Points of interest
The main points of interest for visitors to Soque are the cave cliff dwellings said to have been used for housing since the village was formed, and the Temple of the Old Gods, a building believed to date back almost all the way to the foundation of the village and its only notable piece of architecture.
Soque is unusual in retaining a connection to the traditions and faith of the Old Gods which has largely disappeared elsewhere, with the exception of some small isolated pockets (perhaps most notably in parts of Klaractazum).
Founding Date
10828 BPC
Type
Village
Population
524
Location under
Owning Organization
Comments