Historical Overview
Origins
Before it became the oldest tavern in the city, Roulru Mill was, as the name implies, a mill. In 477 AR, when
the Threshing War ended, a man named Roul rebuilt his watermill as a tavern. Before the war, the mill profited from the vast fields of crops outside of the city walls. Now, with the war over and those fields lying fallow, the tavern would profit from the huge throngs of refugees and retainers around the ruins.
Post-Threshing
Until the 300s of the Age of Men, the tavern had a rather mundane existence. Certainly, it was still regarded as unusually old - one of the few structures from the Threshing still in the area - but just another tavern nonetheless. That was until
House Melac began buying up properties in what was already becoming a financial hub.
The tavern served a shrinking but still prominent neighborhood of lower-middle-class workers living in Highgrove. These few blocks of homes dating back to the rebuilding programs of
Galaad II Thewisy provided most of the tavern patrons. As the
Eastmarch Bank & Trust was constructed, the last holdouts in an otherwise affluent, estate-filled, neighborhood were purchased and demolished to build the Tatirlae (Exchange Street).
Despite Highgrove's ascent to the wealthiest neighborhood in Somae, Roulru Mill survives as a tavern. An outpouring of support saved it, crucially that of some local gentry, and it remains nestled between some of the largest homes in the city.
Architectural Overview
The building precedes the "City of Crimson" program of Galaad II, which when coupled with its location, makes the tavern stick out even more clearly.
Location
Roulru Mill is on the corner of Tatirlae and Aymlae. Tatirlae, Exchange Street, has some of the wealthiest insurance, shipping, and banking firms in Anhara headquartered on it. Aymlae, Festival Street, on the other hand, calls back to the origins of the tavern. This was the main processional route for religious festivals, far outside the city walls, during the Age of Rule.
Directly north of the tavern is Nyara's Court, a series of squares around which are private homes, all hallmarks of
Galaan Architecture, and the most exclusive neighborhood in the city. Immediately to the south of the tavern is Melaac Manor, the estate of the longtime treasurers of House Thewisy and owners of the Eastmarch Bank & Trust.
Architecture
The building is a throwback to a simpler, more remote time, amongst a sea of red
Salis sandstone and brick mansions. The tavern has a rectangular floor plan, stretching far away from the street, a holdover from the communal great hall style of inns and taverns of the time. The building has a steeply-pitched roof of clay tiles - formerly prominent in the area until the stream was built over - as well as a timber frame with white daub and wattle.
The interior of the tavern is packed tightly, with the great hall no longer featuring open fire pits, but rather a recessed fireplace at the north and south sides. The west end of the hall has a large wooden staircase going up to private rooms, crammed into every possible space, including in a jettied expansion creeping out over Aymlae.
Behind the tavern is a small herb garden with a handful of bee skeps.
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