Bocuse, Plouffe, and Clerico - Talboti Settlements

Talbot is big and terrible, its colonies are small and terrible... why the fuck would I want to go there?

— Dayne Reed

  Most nations, big or small, have some foothold of power established outside the walls of their capital city. Ghal Pelor has over a dozen small villages as well as small cities like Beldon and Theawood. Talbot is no different in that regard, having three footholds near it that help define the borders of Talboti territory. Outsiders would view these places as miserable backwaters with grim attitudes and little opportunity. Such assessments, while harsh, are not entirely untrue. These locations border vast swathes of empty wilderness or even the Queen's Scar Woods, they face bitter winters brought down upon them by Frostmere's winds, and they're under the joyless rule of Talbot's Parliament and the Dread Hunter Lodges.       Bocuse is the largest of Talbot's primary settlements. It boasts a population of about 5,000 citizens, most of whom toil away their days working in the Binet Le Sueur gold mine. The mine has been steadily producing around four to six thousand pounds of gold a year since it was opened twenty years ago. Each time a layer of earth fails to yield results, they dig deeper into the earth, and thus far, the earth has been fruitful. Bocuse is thankful for the new prosperity brought by the Le Sueur mine; the settlement's fortunes had been dwindling prior. They operated a nearly exhausted coal mine two miles northwest of the Le Sueur for the last century or so. Prior mining experience made Bocuse ideally suited for the task of harvesting gold, and the opportunity could not have come at a more ideal time. Talbot's Parliament and Counting Houses were foreclosing or nationalizing an increasing number of properties each year, evicting citizens by the dozens. Bucusians were finding themselves either homeless or forced into inescapable debt with the Talboti nobles. Now, Bocuse is self-sufficient again and able to live a comfortable (though back-breaking) existence thanks to the gold in their ground. However, Talbot has come to covet every ounce of wealth Bocuse is capable of. As such, they've given a large plot of land to the region's most successful and renowned Dread Hunter lodge, The Black Wolf. The Parliament originally hoped to install the Witch Hammer lodge in Bocuse, experts in rooting out dissidents, malcontents, and revolutionaries, all under the auspice of curtailing witchcraft. It was feared their bloody methods would lead to unrest and potentially revolt, so the Black Wolf were chosen instead. They use the region as a launching point for their expeditions into the Queen's Scar Woods, something that makes the citizens here feel safe and proud to have the Black Wolf. The loss of Bocuse still weighs heavily on the Witch Hammer lodge, though, and any excuse their members have to exercise heavy-handed investigations in the region they embrace with zeal. Governor Everad Crozier, aging paragon of the Crozier noble family, was given this post by Parliament. Pulled from retirement, the tired, aching, and forgetful old Crozier is the perfect puppet for Parliament to control and the Black Wolf to manipulate.   Plouffe is Talbot's farming hub, situated near the capital's east. Noble houses own massive swathes of land and run like factory operations, with work being carried out at all hours of the day and night. Wheat, corn, tobacco, onions, and carrots all form the backbone of production here, but just about everything that grows from the dirt can be found planted here. This is also the source of the region's wines, meads, coffees, and tea thanks to its orchards, apiaries, and fertile earth. For young nobilty, Plouffe is something of a rite of passage. The children of these affluent land-owning families are often dispatched here by their parents to oversee family business, taking on roles such as managers of property, overseers of factory operations, and bookkeepers. Because of these two very different populations, Plouffe has come to be known for an incredible wealth disparity among its population of 4,500 souls. Half the settlement is a polished and gated community where the young nobility indulge at night and work by day. The other half of the settlement is a simple place where struggling wage workers fight to make ends meet. Much of Plouffe's modest half of the settlement is situated around The Temple of the Great Shroud, a holy site to the god Neros . It's here these unfortunate souls come to seek relief from their daily struggles. Plouffe's peasanty is profoundly religious and favors the god of death above the rest of the pantheon. Governance is handled by the Parliament-appointed governor Ada Simon. Governor Simon is a supporter and primary patron for the Dread Hunter lodge known as the Beloved Bones. The Beloved, as they are most commonly referred to, are known for their reckless use of Manacite, Undead, and Necromancy, bending these dangerous elements to their will as they hunt their targets. Locals, both wealthy and desperate, know to give the Hunters' Lodge a wide berth.   Clerico was to be Bocuse's equal in every way. This beautiful little settlement was almost entirely constructed by the time The Autumn Queen's war began. Construction was quickly abandoned, and resources were redirected to the conflict. Clerico mainly sat empty during the battle with the fae, and when The Queen's Rebuke was unleashed, quiet little Clerico was on the front lines of the anomaly's destructive power. Warped, burnt, and broken, Clerico survived forever changed just like the rest of the Talboti region. The Talboti Parliament hired one of Rylan's most powerful corporations, Intrepid Defense, to build impenetrable walls around all of Clerico, not to protect it but to contain it. For three hundred years, this settlement was left to rot... yet it never did. Somehow, the chaotic energy unleashed by the Rebuke protects the area from decay. It stood as a haunted time capsule into old Talbot's final days and a place few dared to venture. Leftover wretches from the Queen's kingdom seem to haunt Clerico, and before the walls were built, those horrors were quick to spill out into Talbot's border territory. Today, several small communities, numbering no more than a few dozen, dot the region around Clerico, comprising farming communities, smelters, and illicit operations that are far from Talbot's watchful eyes. Clerico has neither a governor nor a Dread Hunter lodge. It's a lawless area where just about anything goes, but most are careful not to let anything transpire that would force the Parliament to take a more active hand here. A small fortress is stationed near the walls of Clerico to keep guard and make sure no one enters and nothing exits. Only a twenty or so soldiers station Castle Blanc at any given time. It's a lonely task and deeply eerie. The only visitors the castle sees are looters with aurins to bribe their way in. Rarely do they return.