Kurdun

The vast majority of the population of Kurdun is made up of hobgoblins, bugbears and goblins. Very few travelers have visited Kurdun both due to its location within the wild untamed region of Southern Midasfjall and because it is a city of goblinoid creatures which are typically seen as savage monsters by most other established societies. The ruling class of Kurdun are almost all hobgoblins but there are extraordinary cases where a bugbear or goblin has been elevated to a position of power by King Gell for their exceptional contribution to their society.

Kurdun is ruled by King Gell and his word is the law of the city. When King Gell united the tribes of hobgoblins, bugbears and goblins under his banner, he allowed the chieftains to retain a semblance of their previous authority by giving them specific leadership roles within Kurdun. This decision provided the hierarchy which the city uses to this day. The chieftains each have an aspect of the city to oversee and the chieftains promote captains to organise and oversee the tribesmen who do the actual work. The tribe of hobgoblins that King Gell once lead, was split into two elite factions. The Rustspire Guard, a faction of warriors who serve as the king's personal guard, and The Iron Lawmen, a faction of specialists who serve as the city's law enforcement. The Rustpire Guard occupy the Rustspire Fortress where they spend their time guarding the king or training to ensure that they are the city's strongest warriors. The Iron Lawmen enact King Gell's laws within the city. They are warrior-monks who are highly trained the art of stealth and can leap from shadow to shadow and stay out of sight; watching for lawbreakers from the shadows. When they find an offender, the Iron Lawmen quickly and quietly apprehend them and bring them before the king to be judged. The members of these factions answer only to King Gell and are therefore above the other chieftains in the hierarchy of the city, however there is a hierarchy within each faction that is similar to the one upheld in the city.

Military

  Kurdun has various groups who work together to coordinate the defense of the city. The Kurdunians are encouraged to practice with weapons and most have experience fending for themselves from living as nomadic tribes on the plains of Southern Midasfjall before Kurdun was founded. Kurdun also maintains a heavy guard presence within the city, both to keep the peace and to address threats coming from outside the city such as hungry dinosaurs or raiding Gharasi tribes. These guards are made up of volunteers from the citizenry and mostly consist of bugbears, although hobgoblins and goblins are present in guard patrols as well. King Gell took the warriors from his original tribe and split them into two groups, each tasked with the defense of the city in their own way. The first group are the Rustspire Guard; a legion of highly trained hobgoblin warriors who specifically guard the Rustspire Fortress and King Gell himself. The other group are a clandestine organisation of hobgoblin warrior-monks who are able to leap from shadow to shadow and remain undetected if they so choose. They are known as the Iron Lawmen and are charged with keeping the peace in Kurdun.  

Natural Defenses

  Kurdun is built around a hill which poses the first issue for attackers; the incline. The Kurdunians have used this to their advantage while city planning and have cut the terraces that the residential districts are built on into long winding lanes which forces attackers to switchback up the hill before they can reach the Rustspire Fortress on top. Posted throughout the route to the fortress are gated checkpoints manned by the guards of the city. A thick stone wall surrounds the outer limits of the city made of quarried stone from Kurdun's local mines and the river running past the eastern region of the city poses a threat to anyone trying to cross it.

Imports

• Precious Metals
• Exotic items farmed from the Gigantiaia Jungle
• Seafood

Exports

• Iron & Copper (other metals like Lead and Aluminium are also major exports of Kurdun but not to the same level of Iron and Copper which the hillsides are rich with)
• Coal
• Tools (particularly those used in smithing and building)
• Stone

Cleavergrind District - In this district the sounds and smells of butchers at work are a constant companion as they dismantle hunted creatures and proffer cuts of meat to be bought by hungry Kurdunians. This district of the city is the farming industry of Kurdun and is home to the workers of the various farms and ranches that provide the Kurdunians with a plentiful supply of food. Walking around Cleavergrind District, you can expect to find fast food street vendors who specialise in spiced meat kebabs wrapped in tortillas made from flour that is harvested from Kurdun's fertile fields; a favourite of the people of Kurdun.   The Rustspire Fortress - Standing upon the top of the hill that Kurdun is built around is the Rustspire Fortress; the proud fort of King Gell which houses the grand temple to Astraea - the goddess of wisdom and society. The inside of the fortress is open to the people of Kurdun so that they may visit the temple within the main hall of the fortress, which is overseen by the clerics who work within the temple and the Rustspire Guard who are always present within the Rustspire Fortress.    Coppermill District - The Coppermill District is where the artisans of Kurdun are based. The district is dominated by refineries, smithies and builders which make use of the ores that are extracted from Kurdun's mines in the surrounding hillside, turning ore into tools, weapons, armour, and building materials for the city.   The Slopes - The Slopes are the residential district of Kurdun, named because the houses are built on terraces cut into the hillside upon which most of Kurdun is built. Within the Slopes district, many of the tribes which were united by King Gell have chosen to remain close together, forming neighbourhoods of the various different goblinoid races within the district. The old rivalries between tribes sometimes cause tensions to boil within some of the neighbourhoods and as a result, these areas are heavily patrolled by Kurdun's guards.   Rustflow Plateau - The Rustflow Plataeu is another residential district of Kurdun, but it is also where the city's marketplace has been established. The district is based solely on a large flat stretch of land that extends from the hillside.   Ironward District - The Ironward District is where Kurdun's military and guards are based, this district is comprised of barracks and training grounds for the warriors of Kurdun and also features a small arena where the city hosts gladiatorial games once a month. The games are incredible popular with the citizens of Kurdun and the arena is always packed full of cheering goblinoids.

Kurdun was founded after the unification of several goblinoid tribes under the banner of a hobgoblin warlord named Gell of the Ironborn tribe. According to bardic accounts, Ironborn territory was in a hilly region known as the Ruddy Rock Hills located southwest of the Splinters. They had access to rich deposits of iron and, over time, the Ironborn gained considerable skill in smithing. These two factors gave the Ironborn tribe a distinct advantage over their neighbouring goblinoid tribes; they were equipped with sharp iron weapons and thick armour.
  In the early 1370's, before Kurdun was officially founded in 1379, the Ironborn tribe were a menace to the other tribes in the region. Under the leadership of Warlord Gell they would raid and pillage, stealing food and valuable resources like coal and copper from the other tribes. It wasnt long before the goblinoid tribes in the region were so outmatched by the might of the Ironborn tribe that they stopped their efforts to defend their territory from Ironborn raids and instead offered tithes to the Ironborn raiders whenever they showed up. Warlord Gell saw this as an opputunity to expand and he began to conquer broken tribe after broken tribe. With each new conquered tribe, the territory of the Ironborn grew until almost the entirety of the Ruddy Rock Hills and the surrounding lands were under the control of the Ironborn tribe.
  By 1377, Warlord Gell had conquered the goblinoid tribes of the Ruddy Rock Hills and so he began to send packs of scouts out to see what lay beyond his newly conquered territory. He soon received word that rich merchants from distant lands were travelling through the Gigantiaia Jungle to Southern Midasfjall. The majority of the merchants headed east at the Splinters but some enterprising individuals traveled south, determined to find out what lay in the shadow of the Greatrock Range. Warlord Gell had his Ironborn and newly conquered tribesmen raid the merchant caravans for valuables; even leading some raids personally. Warlord Gell allowed the conquered tribesmen to recieve a share of the spoils but the Ironborn always got the first pickings at the loot.
  The raids on merchant caravans lasted for a couple of years before a strange thing happened. Warlord Gell called off the raids entirely and instead commanded his scouting parties to look for an area of fertile and defensible land. A spot was found in the eastern region of the Ruddy Rock Hills; a large hill with a tributary of the Potami River flowing around its base with abundant fertile lands on the other side of it. Warlord Gell decreed that this hill would be the base upon which he built his legacy and he had his tribesmen begin to settle on it.
  By 1379, Warlord Gell had built a small settlement on the hill which he named Kurdun, but his vision was not yet realised. Over the next decade he had a grand fortress built on top of the hill which was named the Rustspire Fortress for the orange tinged stone, mined from the Ruddy Rock Hills, which was sued in its construction. Warlord Gell also had lots of new residences and housing built and he encouraged his tribesmen who were still living in their own lands to come and settle upon the hill beneath the fortress which would eventually become Kurdun. It is believed that many of the goblinoid subjects, even amongst the Ironborn, were confused and suspicious of Warlord Gell's recent activity. The raids had been forgotten and a lot of the conquered tribes had been left alone for a long time. It was in 1386 that Warlord Gell sent out a mandate to each and every one of the goblinoid tribes that were subject to him. The message described his vision for a goblinoid society, where goblinoids would outgrow their natures as barbaric raiders and instead show the people of the continent that goblinoid society could and would become something greater. Kurdun was to be his example, so Warlord Gell had each of his chieftains and their tribesmen take up residence within the newly founded Kurdun.  Each chieftain that heeded King Gell's order was given a position of authority within the city and Warlord Gell even allowed the to retain authority over their own tribesmen, although they would be required to swear an oath of fealty to Warlord Gell as their King and submit to the authority of his own chosen captains. At first the chieftains obliged out of grudging acceptance. The Ironborn were still incredibly dominant and the newly built Rustspire Fortress only consolidated that power, but with the decision to allow them to retain most of their authority, the majority of the chieftains soon came to support King Gell in earnest. There were, of course, chieftains who ignored Warlord Gell's mandate and chose instead to distance themselves from the area for fear of being hunted, but they needn't have worried. The newly crowned King Gell made no move to punish the dissenting tribes but he did keep a hold of their lands once abandoned.  
  In early 1380, King Gell formed the two factions from the Ironborn tribe that would work to keep the city of Kurdun within his authority. The Rustspire Guard were established as defenders of King Gell and the Rustspire Fortress. King Gell promoted his most loyal captain from his warlord days, a hobgoblin named Captain Khogud who still serves as the captain of the Rustspire Guard to this day. The Iron Lawmen were founded slightly later in the same year after the attempted coup by the Fireblood Tribe, lead by their chieftain Zirk. King Gell promoted a member of the Ironborn tribe again to this role, this time a hobgoblin scoutmaster named Vrek.
  In present day, Kurdun seems to be living up to the incredible expectations that King Gell has for it and its people. The most curious thing about the story of Kurdun and its founding remains a mystery however. What happened to Warlord Gell that turned him into a devout supporter of Astraea? and where did his incredible vision come from?

Kurdun has access to stone as a building material thanks to the quarries which operate in the hills close to the city. Curiously, this stone has a strange orange rust-like colouration to it that is only found within the Ruddy Rock Hills. The Kurdunians build their own homes out of these rust coloured stone blocks, which are then slathered with a mixture of clay and animal dung that forms a protective coat which doesn't wash away in the rain and keeps the walls stable. Kurdunian houses consist of a single storey high ring of coated stone blocks with a slated roof of clay tiles. More space can be added to each house by building another ring of stone that overlaps with the first. Each stone ring is an extra room that the inhabitant has chosen to build, but building over a large area requires access to more material so Kurdunian houses with more rings typically reflect the wealth of the owner. An average sized Kurdunian house consists of three or four rings.

Much of Kurdun is built around the base of a large hill upon which stands King Gell's Rustspire Fortress and temple to Astraea. The Kurdunians cut terraces into the hillside and then built their homes and the rest of their infrastructure upon those flat lanes, as a result the city's pathways are all inclined. A mountain river runs past the eastern region of the city and Kurdun's farmland flanks the river on both sides.

Kurdun has access to lots of nearby natural resources. The closest are a selection of metals and stone which are mined and quarried from the surrounding hills, most commonly extracted are copper and iron ores which the inhabitants of Kurdun fashion into weapons, armour, tools and building supplies. There are woodlands nearby where strong wood can be harvested and, thanks to the vicinity of a tributary of the Potami River, the land around Kurdun is fertile and can grow plenty of crops. Precious materials like gold and gemstones are hard to come by however. These materials are typically mined from mountainous areas but the dangers posed by the denizens of the Splinters or the Greatrock Range make it difficult for the Kurdunians to set up mines to extract these materials.