Ormur
Nestled right up against the Felsspitze Mountains that form the northern border of the Tafelland Valley, the village of Ormur is the location of the Barony of Hohensten’s main mining operation, with the mine and all of its equipment and produce being the personal property of the Baron himself. If the mining operation were ever to be shut down in the village, Ormur’s population would be reduced to a fraction of its current size, such is the industry’s influence on the community.
Demographics
The majority of the population that live in Ormur are miners, the vast majority of whom live in the bunkhouses in the pit head, and are not actually from Ormur originally, but have travelled to the village from across the Barony of Hohensten to find work. These individuals are on the face of it well paid, but there pay is heavily docked to take account of food, lodging and equipment expenses that the mine authorities charge them for living and working in Ormur’s mine.
The rest of the population are also predominantly low income individuals, who live and work in the village providing associated services to the miners, though the guards stationed to Ormur earn decidedly more than the majority of the village’s inhabitants, and the very small number of mine officials get paid quite handsomely for the work that they supposedly carry out.
Because of the nature of Ormur’s main industry, the village has a much higher concentration of Dwarves than other areas of the Barony, alongside a larger than average community of Gnomes that have been employed in the mine as engineers.
Government
The village of Ormur is governed by the Overseer, an official appointed by Baron Theobald Hohensten to manage Ormur’s mine and to have overall control over what happens in the village of Ormur, which has sprung up around the mine to cater to the needs and desires of the mining community. In this capacity, the Overseer acts in effect as the village magistrate, overall commander of the village’s garrison, chief official for the village’s bureaucracy and head of the mining operation.
Defences
The village of Ormur itself does not have any defences to speak of. However, the pit head of the mine, with its associated warehouses, ore washing and processing areas, and bunkhouses for the miners is sealed off from the village by a palisade wall that has been built right up to the sheer rock wall that the pit head is set against. This means that the pit head can act as a castle of sorts in the event of an attack on the village, troops deployed to defend Ormur are based in pit head’s defences, and will patrol down into the village itself, but their primary task is to defend the mine, rather than the associated community. The entrance into the mine shaft itself has its own short section of palisade wall and fortified entrance gate, predominantly designed to screen the main pit head off from the shaft entrance, to defend against anything that might come up from below ground.
Infrastructure
The vast majority of Ormur’s infrastructure is associated with the mine and includes processing and storage areas for the extracted ores, administration offices and bunkhouses and mess halls for the mine’s workers. All of the village’s defensive structures are all located at the pit head, including the physical defences of the palisade and the barracks building for the garrison.
The village itself is itself geared up to serve the mining operation and includes a smithy, inn, a bakers and a butchers, whose main source of income comes from providing goods and services to the miners living in the pit head. A herbalist has also set up shop in the village, with most of her income coming from treating the various injuries that the miners pick up in their work. A reasonably large trading post has been set up in the village, partly to provide a market place for the miners, but also to provide a space for the villagers to buy and sell goods. There is some farming activity that goes on in Ormur, almost all of which is pastoral in nature, with the thin soil at the foot of the mountains being little suited for arable agriculture.
Ormur has a single road leading up to the village, that branches off the main road running through the Barony to Kleinhaupt and the nation’s north eastern border beyond. This road is well maintained, and large enough to accommodate the heavy traffic that the mine generates.
Geography
Ormur is built right against the Felsspitze Mountains that make up the northern border of the Tafelland Valley. The village itself is built on a steep slope that leads up to the artificially flattened area of the pit head. The pit-head has been established in an area of the mountains where there are sheer drops on the northern, western and eastern sides, with the fourth, southern side being naturally open to the village below, though separated by the pit head’s defensive palisade. The northern most rock wall of the pit head originally had a cave open to the outside world leading off it, though this cave has now been expanded down into the mineshaft. It is theoretically possible to climb up to a position where you would be looking down on the pit head from the mountains around, but the terrain would make this very tricky.
Type
Village
Population
C.600 (most of whom are semi-permanent mine workers).
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
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