Samantha’s Hold
Heart of the Bull
Carved into the sun-scorched mesas of the Redstone Expanse, overlooking deep canyons and the sweeping valleys of the Taurian heartlands, Samantha’s Hold is more than the capital of the Taurian Concordat—it is its soul. Stark, enduring, and utterly unyielding, the city embodies the same principles that define the nation it governs: resilience, vigilance, and self-reliance.
Founded by the legendary settler and engineer Samantha Calderon, the Hold began as a fortified outpost in the dying days of the League of Stars, a sanctuary for those fleeing tyranny and seeking to forge a free future in the wilderness. From its earliest days, it was built not for beauty, but for defense—a city hewn from stone and willpower, with thick walls, arcane warding glyphs, and subterranean passageways designed to outlast siege, subterfuge, or time itself. The city is laid out in concentric tiers, with its upper ring dominated by the Protector’s Bastion, the seat of House Calderon and the nerve center of the Concordat’s governance. A blend of fortress and council hall, the Bastion houses the Assembly of Lords, the Defense Directorate, and The Arsenal, where ancient League of Stars relics are said to be repurposed for modern defense under heavy guard and national secrecy.
Though austere in its architecture, Samantha’s Hold is far from lifeless. Its central plaza—Liberty Square—is a gathering place for speeches, debates, and festivals that commemorate the Concordat’s defiant past. Statues of Shamus and Samantha Calderon stand not on pedestals, but at eye level with the people, a reminder that no one stands above the Concordat’s ideals—not even its founders. Beneath the city runs an intricate network of forges, workshops, and foundries, where the Concordat’s engineers and artificers produce their signature blend of durable weaponry and defensive wards. Samantha’s Hold is the brain and backbone of Taurian society, and its defenders—the Ironhorn Guard—are sworn to protect it with their lives, trained from birth in both traditional warfare and anti-siege spellcraft.
While trade flows in and out through carefully regulated skyship ports and caravans, foreign embassies within the city are strictly limited, their activities closely watched by the Council of Vigilance. The city maintains no dedicated mage guilds, preferring state-regulated arcane academies where magical study serves the collective rather than individual ambition. In recent years, Protector Thomas Calderon has increased defensive enchantments around the city’s perimeter and expanded underground bunkers capable of sheltering tens of thousands, not from fear, but from readiness, should war ever breach the Concordat’s borders.
As long as Samantha’s Hold stands, so too does the Taurian Concordat—
stone upon stone, oath upon oath, horn lowered, and spirit unbroken.
“Samantha’s Hold does not glitter like Tharkad nor whisper like Sian. It does not bow, beg, or blink. It endures.” — Warden Althea Mordain, Ironhorn Guard Marshal
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