Tillingsbrook

Humans

Tillingsbrook is ruled by a Mayor who serves as the leader until they choose to step down, are ousted by the people, or are otherwise incapable of ruling. The Mayor is responsible for decisionmaking, but has historically made major decisions in collaboration with town elders in order to gain perspective.

Tillingsbrook is the largest agricultural town in Trapper's Island South and is responsible for providing much of the food for the other major settlement on that side of the island: Avendale. In addition to traditional farms and mills, Tillingsbrook also has a fledgling fishing industry made possible by its proximity to the coastline. Unfortunately, their underdeveloped boat-building industry has historically proven to be a barrier to catching anything beyond whatever quipper swarms swim too close to the shoreline. However, recent peace brokered with the nearby orcs of Eruk-Koth brought orcish shipbuilding techniques that have helped Tillingsbrook revive its fishing industry.

Tillingsbrook actually traces its roots to a town called Tirshy, which was founded northwest of Tillingsbrook's current location during The Cataclysm in 9,980 AD. The town of Tirshy survived the conflict due to its relatively low profile as an agricultural settlement. In the years after the Cataclysm, the town flourished, developing into a major agricultural hub with a robust shipwright industry that benefitted from the wood of the nearby Feningrove.   In 55 AC, orcish refugees fleeing Eruk-Soth sailed across the Ostilo Archipelago and landed on the western coastline just outside of Tirshy. The predominantly human population of Tirshy was suspicious of the intentions of the orcs and treated them with hatred and mistrust. The animosity eventually broke out into open hostility and the orcs destroyed Tirshy and forced its population to flee southeast. The orcs established the city of Eruk-Koth atop the ruins of Kirshy in 56 AC. That same year, the humans founded the town of Tillingsbrook. While they were able to retain their deep rooted knowledge of agriculture, much of their shipwright techniques and facilities were lost with Tirshy.   Survivors from Tirshy passed their hatred of the orcs to their children. Skirmishes and raids between the two populations continued to persist into the later half of the first century AC. In 80 AC, a scandal broke out when it was discovered that an orc woman and human man had fallen in love and bore a half-orc child. The humans, suspicious that the man was an orc spy, put him to death. The orcish woman had earned enough respect from the orcs due to her incredible strength to stop them from killing her and the child. However, she was ostracized within the society and ultimately passed away due to illness when the child was 10. Following her death, the child was exiled to the Dire Woods and was not seen again for 10 years.   In 100 AC, Boat, Diocletian, Neven, and @vancearrived in the town of Tillingsbrook and managed to stave off an orcish raid with the help of the Weird Guy, the half-orc child who survived his exile thanks to his wolf companion, Ko-Di. Unfortunately, the people of Tillingsbrook just saw Weird Guy as another orc and he became the source of the town's vitriol. After learning about Weird Guy's past, the party agreed to help him unite the people of Tillingsbrook and the orcs of Eruk-Koth. To stop Tillingsbrook from retaliating, Diocletian bought all the ale in town and convinced the town to enter the Feningrove for a party to take the edge off the recent raid. The townsfolk hesitantly agreed and found themselves trapped in the seemingly endless charms and parties of the dryads the occupied the southern shore of Feningrove's lake.   A few days later, the party returned after helping Weird Guy overcome the Trials of Succession to become chief of the orcs. They brought a group of orcs with them who joined in the dryad-induced music, dance, and festivities. After several hours, the party freed the humans and orcs from the dryads charms and convinced them to negotiate peace terms. As part of these terms, the orcs revived their shipbuilding prowess and shared their techniques with the people of Tillingsbrook to help them restore their deep water quipper fishing industry. Eventually, the tenuous peace developed into something more stable and long-lasting thanks to the mutual cooperation under the tempered and watchful eye of Weird Guy.