Rathmorne
The Bristlehold. The Hordebreaker. The Killing field.
Rathmorne squats like a curled fist on a hill before a break in the steep crags at the heart of the steppes. It is a place engineered to withstand armies like a beach withstands waves. Greatest among the fiefs of the Sulta Van highlands, and the seat of power for the Vanish high lord. Though the assaults against it are regular and fierce, both by the monstrous offspring of the Stormlands and orcish raiding parties, Rathmorne has been engineered to withstand armies like the shore withstands waves. Three layers of walls surround the city, raised with the help of Aertan mages, engineered by the Vanish war-shamans to be impervious to attack both mundane and magical. At its center, cresting the hill upon which Rathmorne rests, is a massive pillar of stone that juts out at an angle and hangs over the city like a hammer over an anvil. They call it the Fist of Tevos, and consider it a monument to their gods. It is here that High-Lord Balfour maintains his seat of power, and here that his armies hold the Onyx Claw valley against the wrath of the north.History
Before Rathmore, before Van, there were a series of nomadic warrior clans who traveled the highlands. They were horsemen and hunters, clashing with each other and with the orcs to the north. Then the Warrior King of legend, the one called Van, united the tribes and created a kingdom our of a simple warband.
Rathmorne was never intended to be a permanent residence for the Vanish. They didn't really have permanent residences. It was built initially as a place to winter their swelling armies. The site itself was selected largely because King Van and his brother Rathlan were utterly fascinated with the massive stone pillar that jutted from the earth at the top of the hill. Their shamanic advisors claimed it was a creation of the gods, and it was clear to all that it coursed with magic.
When spring came and the host moved on, those who remained behind built the foundations of what would become Rathmorne. When Van returned from his conquests, he finally had a kingdom to rule. The increasing urbanization of Rathmorne would spell the end for the nomadic ways of the steppe nomads, but it would solidify them as a culture. Thus, Rahtmorne and, in a way, Sulta Van itself, was born.
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