Overview
Tak’amoria is well known for their skilled men at arms and militant sensibilities. Well do her people know the dangers of Vaunephasauk, and deal with them on a nearly daily basis. The town stands as the closest bulwark of Baronial power to the cursed nightmarish beings which wander out of the chaos mountains.
The entire city is ringed in black granite, its solid walls form intelocking leaves of acute angled triangles so that at any point an invader can be rained upon from two sides. The towering fortifications dwarf the surrounding scenery and even the Tower of Order, home to an elite military organization founded before the kingdom of Silverthorne appears insignificant next to the cold iron banded magesty of the Tak’Amoria’s baronial fortress at its center.
The great pyramidial structure rears nearly two hundred feet into the air and is cut into several stepped layers. The only entrance is from doors situated at the top of the giant flights of stairs, which alternate sides on their way up the fortress forcing the visitor to change directions as he ascends.
The Baron
The Baron of Tak’amoria is a gruff wizened old man by the name of Parnasas Kilbain. He served here as a fosterling, under the baron two generations ago. As such he is quite familiar with the many dangers of inhabiting the fell lands nearest to the Chaos Mountains. He maintains several divisions of troops which are doubly armed over any other line soldiers I have seen in wandering the kingdom. They look more like mercenaries and adventurers than your run of the mill soldier, but they fight well together, and are hardened veterans of a dangerous occupation.
You see Toevass, living on the edge of death gives a man perspective. He learns to trust his neighbor, and he learns to trust his blade. All else is nothing. The creatures that come here at night, the chaos storms, the wail of vibrating crystal in the hills. These things are real. In the capital they live in luxury, they spout philosophy and walk around in togas talking about the nature of man. Here we know the nature of man. Man is a killer, and he kills to survive. They live under the shield of our killing, and forget that it is that shield that insures their way of life.
Ah, sometimes I get a bit carried away, young scholar. The other baronies face many of the same dangers we do. We catch but a third maybe of the creatures coming out of the storms. The rest pass us by and must be stopped before they invade the kingdom, or turn themselves loose into the world. Luckily only a few varieties breed after the storms get done with em. If they all did, Phantera would be overrun in a year. By the way, piece of advice. If you leave town, and see a storm coming, if you hear a ringing in your ears, dig yourself underground and right quick. It may be the only thing that saves you from the change. I wouldn’t want to have to kill you later on. The ground dampens the vibrational harmonics created by the chaos amplification of the gate strata. Just a piece of advice from a dub soldier.
-Quallin Lionbane
Sergeant of the Tak’amoria GuardThe Thanes
Thane Lars Bene-Cadan has lands to the west of Tak’amoria. In the time since assuming the rule of his lands he has already lost one son. The other he has sent to enlist in the service of his king, feeling that it is safer to serve in the army than to live in his estate. The walls of his keep are more than a dozen feet thick, and lined with a layer of iron ore. The whole of the fortress can be sealed during the chaos storms, so not a single shred of outside light gets in. It is in this bleak fortress that Bene-Cadan rules his five hundred soldiers and two thousand peasants. They survive by living in the carved out bedrock beneath the fortress, and by posting sentries alert to every slight change in weather, and every possible movement in the surrounding wilds. When the beasts come in droves from the forests, reinforced battalions from the tower of order and Tak’amoria are called up to strengthen their line. Even so few reach old age here. So it has ever been. The brightest candle burns shortest.
To the north of Tak’amoria lies the estate of Thane Erdane and his daughters. They lost their mother a few years back, and were quite happy to remove themselves from the larger towns and cities, to live in grace and quiet in the countryside. Only the countryside is anything but quiet. Both girls have taken up the art of the sword since arriving, and now serve alongside the guardsmen and women of their subjects to hold the wild at bay. Because of their bravery, or perhaps the legend of their beauty, more new families have moved into the region in the recent spring than in many generations, and the bolstered defense has been much appreciated by the locals.
South of Tak’amoria, closer to the lands of Mill’ania lies the estate of thane Callia Raen. She has no surviving children of her own, but looks after her four grandchildren, and provides them with the best tutors and instructors that her mineral rich lands can provide. She is famed for her generosity to guests, and for the dedication that her servants and people hold to her. Even though she has been in attendence upon these lands for such a short time, she is well liked, and spends much of her time speaking with the free men and women of her lands.