Ablan is a very “Cherry” oriented hold. It started with a few cherry trees that a farmer managed to keep sheltered during the last Pass, and now has gone into overdrive. Nearly every aspect of this hold is based on some aspect of their use. Even the wines they sell are primarily distilled from cherries, but there are also grapes and other fruits used, these play a very minor role. The Healer Hall came much later than the cherry trees, but has established itself quite thoroughly due to the mild climate and the pleasant locals.
ECONOMICS:
EXPORTS/LOCAL WARES: Their main craft halls, the Bakery, Wood Craft and their Vinyard, are the strong selling points of the area. They use strong wood and it often fetches quite a price, as the Craft hall tends to ask for the best out of their students. Their Vintners have gotten clever with the cherry and combined it with the grapes around, and certainly have a unique flavor for their wines… Even if they didn’t use the cherry to distill, they use the wood in the process of it all! Of course, the fact that they have a nearly inexhaustable supply of cherries leads to cherry PIES. They export all of these things, and the place has quite the reputation for their food at gathers – everyone should at least try some of the wine, and all the kids around can smell that pie!
IMPORTS:
well, lots of meat. The cherry trees leaves decomposing led to the unpleasant discovery that when bovines eat the decomposing leaves, they acquire poisons, and often die. This led to the simple method of trading for their meat, instead of attempting to keep all animals away from the groves. Usually individuals have their own private livestock, often goats and a couple sheep, but for the most part the people of the Hold must rely on outside sources for that. They also usually rely on another source for their wheat and rye, and other flour products for baking, again they have a small amount of land set aside for such things, but during the Gather times, they grab what they can from elsewhere. Oddly, the area has a distinct lack of Glows, and nearly everyone uses either fat tallow candles, imported-oil lamps, or relies on the sun to keep working. It is rare to see someone with a real glow-basket, it’s perhaps because of the soil that has been changed by the above mentioned decomposing leaves, that the glows don’t grow. Also they MUST import all stone wear and building supplies. They are fiends for the stuff, and since they also have incredible wood working to offer, they can usually find good sources for their stones and bricks.
NATURAL RESOURCES:
the area is in a shallow depression and tends to flood in times of too much rain. There is little to no overhead cover, just rolling hills and some forests… They require a LOT of protection from the skies during Threadfall, needless to say! They are not short of any firewood, or wood for other reasons, but there is little in the way of metallic resources. The water channel and water table below is very close to the ground, but people tend to place their wells on the higher parts of the landscape to prevent the poisonous seepage every year’s autumn brings. (The water isn’t poisoned, but it’s a local superstition that in the fall season you just don’t drink the standing water down in the gulley…especially those found below a tract of cherry trees!) The hunting is reasonably good, wherries and smaller creatures abound seasonally but are often prevented from arriving due to flooding.
SETTING:
Ablan as mentioned above is situated in a slight depression amid low, rolling hills. The ground gets gradually lower and lower until it reaches a smallish river, which snakes through the Hold. There are a couple low waterfalls, but certainly nothing spectacular since the highest point of the place is about 20 feet above sea level… The cherry trees dominate the landscape, but there are many other kinds of quick growing and often low to the ground trees as well, generally speaking during the summer months the land is pure green… springtime brings cherry blossoms (and like Earth, there are festivals and gathers around it), autumn brings a kind of odd rush to pick up the leaves and keep them in one area, while winter brings a small amount of snowfall but mostly during thaw they experience flooding from the higher regions surrounding them. The nearest mountain has to be about 200 miles away from little Ablan. Each cot or homestead is set about as far apart as the eye can see, hill top homes are common.
ARCHITECTURE:
The Hold is made of stones imported from all around, the major building is designed to mirror the local hillsides and has a rounded roof top, lower than a dome but certainly noticable. The place is small compared to many Holds, and most often the place can hold every last inhabitant of this tiny Hold with room to spare.
The Craft halls are each set in their area in a kind of triangular pattern, the entrance to the Hold is to the south, while the Vintner and Bakery on the north-west side, and the Healer hall is on the north-east. From dragonback the building looks like a circle with three bulbs coming from it.
The area around the Hold is cleared and set with stone on the ground, there is little exposed dirt within about 40 yards of the building, with room for runnerbeasts and carriages and wagons, and there is a low stone wall around the entire ensemble that mirrors the same shape as the hold itself. The wall used to be higher, but time has definitely worn it away. That, and the annual (monthly?) gathers to sell and trade finds the buyers and sellers gathered sitting on that wall. The Hold is made from a tough dark stone, and looks very expensive on the outside… Wait until you get inside! The wood found in the fields and forests is all tooled inside, along with finely crafted stone work. The building is three stories high in the center, the Craft halls and entrance rooms are two, and the edges around the halls are one single story. The center of the building’s third floor is huge compared to the other floors, as it is wall- less and open to the domed ceiling. This room typically has the meetings and rallies, its acustics are incredible.
The archetecture of the surrounding homes and cotholds is much more mundane, but still often made of imported stone work and bricks. Modest homes of one story sprawl everywhere, but there are mansion-like places in the larger woodland areas.
HOLD POLITICS AND ATTITUDES:
This Hold is relatively new, but their attitude is “give them what they want and we get to keep the cherry trees alive during Threadfall!”
As for other Holders, they’re perfectly welcome to try the wine…
Dragonriders, please come and sample the bubbly cherry pies, and stay a while. They don’t have much meat to offer the dragons themselves, but of course keeping their riders happy is a must.
The Crafters are the center of activity in the Hold, though there isn’t a Harper hall or Smithcraft. Both crafts are vaguely represented by inhabitants, but usually either must be sent for. Seasonally, of course, Crafters galore fill the Halls with their wares, and are very welcome indeed.
Ablan folk stick with their own, and when they sense danger from an outside source they will uniformly stay with their familiar people. It takes a lot to actually earn the trust and friendship of an Ablan inhabitant, but they all seem to be more or less amenable to unusual ideas or people. In the long run, they are a hardy, healthy and happy folk, who like to see the visitors leaving happily – but leaving none the less… They have had trouble with people trying to bring in cattle, or trying to find new sources for metals (there aren’t any, but someone spread a rumor once and they still keep coming back for it…) but often the intruders are starved out of the place before they are even called to the Hold for discussion.
IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER:
Ablan is a new, small Hold, with perhaps ten to twelve generations of people having lived there all their lives. Sometimes they will branch out and find a husband or wife in a neighboring Hold, or even a Weyr, but usually they keep to themselves. The place has a lot of older people living there, who are slowly dying off. Their estates may or may not be given up to the Holder, since the Lord holder and his wife are ostensibly happy with their own.
HISTORY:
As mentioned before, the Hold started when one of the ancestors of the people now Lording the place managed to – without Dragon assistance – keep a field of cherry trees healthy and protected over the long Pass. How he did this remains a mystery, one that is kept by the Lady Holder (her ancestor) and kept with a grin. Word of mouth and the fact that the cherry wood coming from their forests and fields was of a high quality soon led the Wood craft hall desiring a slice of this land. They came to an agreement, and an old Hall was erected. That hall now houses a kind of warehouse of trade goods. Not long after, perhaps 40-50 years later, the Vintners began eyeballing the place, and settled themselves in with the populace easily. It was the Lord Holder three generations ago who had the current Hold built, the old Hold rests on the other side of the hill and is used as a hostel for travelers now (yes, it was THAT small!). The prior Lord Holder’s son was a Harper specializing in archetecture and design, somewhat of a cross between Harper and Engineer. His design has stood the test of at least a short time, and was designed to fend off Thread well.
The arrival of Vanya the highly untraditional Journeyman Healer (he’d have been a Master at that time if only the older members of the Craft liked him…) caused a bit of a ripple but soon subsided as his work with birth, childrearing and general health – as well as his dedication to the place – won the inhabitants over. He was named (very oddly) as an heir by one of the minor holders, as he helped them survive some awful illness and they had no children themselves. Since that time, he has established the Healer Hall there, with traveling healers now and again to show off their specialties and retrain when there is new information to be had. Master Vanya has attracted quite a lot of good people and is always looking for more, doing a kind of Search for Healers as dragons search for Candidates.
HOLD QUICK REFERENCE:
Ablan: rolling hills and low ground cover, no large hills nor mountains for a long way around. Major exports of Ablan include cherry products of all descriptions (wines, wood, pies and the like), nearly everything else must be brought in. A quiet place that desires nothing more than to remain such. The people are friendly but cohesive and don’t like any influx of permanent land seekers not of their own ilk. Crafts are highly prized here, and many locals become Apprentices in one or another (vintner, wood craft, bakery) and are often looked at for the Healer hall as well. Seasonal gathers send products out and bring in many nearby Holds for the food and the wine. Very few people from this area are Searched, but that’s not saying it isn’t going to happen. They tend not to have much in the way of draconic influence, and require a lot of protection during Threadfall as there is no proper cover in this area. Lord Holder is growing quite old and there isn’t much scrambling being done to replace him: the life in the Hold goes on with or without them, and fortunately for the inhabitants, the Lady and others don’t mind this at all. Insular best describes the attitude of inhabitants, they protect what they have and they expect to give others a taste of what they have to offer, only as long as they will go away later on.
There are all kinds to be had, including baked goods, wines and tea, even a wherry roast!
But how will you ever pay for these items? Most Holds offer tithes to Weyrs, in addition to being open for candidate searches and hospitality. But if you become a candidate at the Protectorate, when your dragon reaches maturity, you will get Marks based on your performance! Go check here for more information!