Westkeep

The Confederated States:

Monmurg
Wavestone
Toli
New Veluna
Westkeep

Westkeep should never have existed, but the Hold is extremely fortunate that it does. Next to Prince Gurzi's plot of land there could be no more worthless a chunk of sodden earth than that which Westkeep embodies. However, it was the presence of Westkeep alone in the mire that halted the forward march of the Keoish armies in Tavish III's last dramatic attempt to destroy the growing power of the Hold confederacy.

Galen Kael was one of the long time Princes who had been in the pirate business with Tarrick and Balachan and others for many years. He knew the sea and he liked the sea, but when it came time to divy up available land, he discovered that he also liked power and he was not going to get it contentedly adopting an island as Balachan did. He knew that inland he would have much more available territory that he could build upon into an unstoppable empire. Unlike Brandt, he had no idea what he was talking about. If he had done the scouting he would have known that the land beyond the coast only had value to those willing to work for it. Kael was not like that.

When the race for land was on, Galen stepped triumphantly upon land and headed inland where he found that Brandt had already set up his state in the most immediate area that he found acceptable, and further in he found Dukaque who had been given protection by Brandt as a new member of the confederacy. This left Kael the tracts of land all along the southern Hool Marsh which in his estimation was totally worthless. This is what remained to him at this point as all of the islands had been taken by Princes willing to accept the limitation on growth in favor of enormous trade opportunities. Kael was flummoxed.

But then Antonius Cato came to Galen and offered him an opportunity to take a portion of a hidden paradise in the mountains known as Berghof. Kael, desperate, threw in all the support he could muster to take the Spendlowe Valley, even at a three way split between himself, Cato, and Dukaque. The mountain pass to the little nation was too well defended and the team could not, no matter how hard they tried, crack the keep guarding the pass. Tarrick at the time saw the value of having the valley in their confederacy and placed trade restrictions that put an economic squeeze on Berghof to get Duke Morgen to crumble either to join them or fall to the combined attacks of three Princes. Cato and Kael were infuriated at this tactic because they did not want Berghof to capitulate, but Tarrick led all on the Council to agree that having the Spendlowe Valley as part of the Hold was imperative to their longevity regardless of how it was done. Cato stepped up his assault by sabotaging the Berghof public's opinion of magic-users through his bard. As the spellcasting population in Berghof dwindled so did Duke Morgen's fortitude against the Sea Princes and eventually the Grand Duke sent messengers to Monmurg to "give up". The messengers sent were harried and half of them died in their mission as Kael was determined to stop the message from being delivered to Tarrick. He sent his soldiers and agents to hunt down Berghof's messengers and make them disappear. It was Kael's last chance at being somebody. When the messenger arrived at Tarrick's palace, Tarrick smiled a warm welcoming smile, Cato waved the events off as he would a pesky fly, and Kael wept bitter tears, as now, he was nobody.

Tarrick offered the man the tract of land nearest his province along the southern Hool. By then all other territories had been taken and he was thoroughly disgusted with the events as they happened. Galen Kael took it personally. He was the biggest loser in all of the Hold and there was nobody to blame, but he tried. His son now resides in Westkeep, the fourth one (keep that is), along the Hool just as bitter as the water in his moat.

Westkeep has finally admitted something. Humans are not the best at everything. When Galen accepted the land he was given he was disgusted by the nature of the whole thing. Horrible creatures and the only native population to exploit were tribes of orcs. What he never saw was that these were orcs who were willing to join the human civilization. So for a good thirty years the soldiers of Westkeep pretended to fight the orcs of the Hool to eradicate them. When Tavish III attacked, a good portion of the disease delivered to the invaders was transferred through the darts of the orcs because by then the humans and orcs had developed a solid working relationship despite Galen's best efforts. But then again Galen wasn't entirely opposed to orcs either. His favorite bodyguard was a female half-orc champion.

The land that Westkeep claims is hot and made miserable by the fetid air that hangs in the place. Maintaining civilization in the Hool is a full time job. You can watch steel rusting, buildings of stone are constantly sinking (it is just a matter of how much they sink at once), the trade road to the keep continuously collapses and falls into the mire and must be shored up again and again, fabric and leather mildews, food goes bad quickly, and tempers are high, particularly in the palace. Every day became a test for Galen Kael when he first arrived because every day he would discover a new drawback to living in the swamp and with each test whether it was that he had to build another keep because his current one was sinking too fast, learning that corkworms had infested his wine collection and ruined the entire thing, or that his warhorse had broken its leg in the muck would send him into a spitting fury. He would hurl furniture and crockery at will and when things got really bad he would heft his mace and destroy an entire room. After ten years he gave up all pretense that he was at all happy. But the humans who adapted best to the Hool were the ones who didn't sweat it and learned to roll with the swamp's rhythm. Humans took their cues from the orcs on how to live happily in the Hool. They altered their dress. They harvested plant and animal oils to protect their weapons, salve their rashes, and repel biting insects. They learned to travel by skiff. They learned the value of woven reed clothing, mats, and curtains and started fashioning furniture of wicker. They learned that sometimes slowing down was more productive in a day's work than pushing yourself in the heat. They learned the value of having nocturnal allies.

Westkeep is a twenty-four hour town and it runs in two shifts. Humans run the town during the day and orcs run the town throughout the night (of course, humans always run the town, but the orcish population is prevalent in the evenings) and this makes living in the Hool more profitable and easier as twice as much food is produced and twice as much work is done in a single day both of which would be terribly slow, low, and demoralizing if done at a regular pace. In the mornings the humans get up and prepare for their day of fishing, croc hunting, crayfish trapping, reed harvesting etc. and stop by the tavern to talk with the orcs who just finished their "day" in the marsh and are relaxing with a couple of ales. The humans get their direction and go out to work. By early evening they return and go to relax in the tavern where the orcs return to hear how the humans' work day went. These interrim times are actually the peak hours of business for all shops and the marketplace in Westkeep. The times of dawn and dusk are referred to as Midlight Sun and Midlight Moons respectively and are consistently times of good cheer for all in Westkeep. Everyone waves, tips their hats, clasps hands, or flourishes their weapons in salute (no winking allowed as such is an orcish insult) to one another, even total strangers, and everyone comes to the town to be a part of this daily celebration of life. In a place where just getting by is harsh enough, the people have come together to make six hours every day (3 hours at a time) special and meaningful for the whole community. Quite simply they know they have nothing to lose by being inclusive and friendly and everything to lose by being anything but.

But this idyllic world exists only nearest the town itself. Outside the confines of civilization, the natural world is awesome, beautiful and savage. The reedy byways are cruised by crocodiles, some which reach enormous sizes. Frogs, snakes, monitor lizards, iguanas, crustaceans, rats, osquips, fish, toads, insects, and the majestic Hool heron all with potential toward gargantuan size dwell with impunity as the true masters of the Hool. Even some of the more supernatural denizens of the marsh have to be careful here for the marsh is hungry and it will eat anything it can. Trees are not common here, but occasionally a hickory or willow has found root in a bit of higher ground. Mostly the marsh is filled with reeds and wicker bushes, but many tropical flowers that are commonly found in the Amedio can be found here. Some areas are so festooned with a variety of large petaled flowers that a traveler quite forgets he or she is in a marsh. Where it can, moss grows rampant and lavender vines too cover most walls and fenceposts in Westkeep giving the town a heady sweet yet musky smell.

Deep in the marsh is where the nastiness of the Hool is most prevalent. Little communities of hate filled swampers and untamed orcs exist in the heart of the marsh. It is these little holdouts from the pleasantness of Westkeep that keep the townspeople realistic about the viciousness of their world. Kael sends out his rangers to parley with various marsh peoples to offer peace and friendship, but old ways and cultures are hard to change, and sometimes a stalemate of mutual dislike but noted respect is the best outcome to be had. Aside from petty crimes and individual threats and killings there are few negative repercussions from having these groups so near the town, though on occasion when a power shift occurs amongst these groups, events take some wild turns and quickly get out of hand. Kael and his brutal team of rangers are usually available to crush any such uprising.

Westkeep has very little in the way of marketable resources. On the southern edge where the swamp meets the plains, Kael has large slave farms cultivating rice and tobacco. That is about all they have to offer, though for some who value quietness above comfort, Westkeep is the perfect hidy hole. Food is plentiful, albeit strange, (except for the ever present mud cat) and the community is welcoming. Kael himself has a soft spot for criminals who attract national attention and he enjoys the moderate protection money he is paid to prevent their extradition. It's more of a formality since any government could easily pay more than enough to turn such a criminal in, but Kael clearly gains more satisfaction from their frustration than he would their money. Of course, personalities who cannot behave in the community with civility usually disappear in the night. Hey, the Hool is a dangerous place and things like that happen all of the time.

Prince Avrastine Kael is almost nothing like his father. He holds similarities (people say since their are no portraits of Galen or anyone else for that matter since they all rotted long ago, which at the time caused Galen much anxiety) to his father in the dark hair, and dark eyes and olive complexion but otherwise he has purposefully taken a different path. Galen was a powerful fighter. Avrastine, after watching his father fretting over his armor and weapons in the ongoing battle with the humidity, opted to study the arcane arts. Galen Kael, of course, hated this too and blamed the swamp, and Berghof, and the orcs for his son's decision. But when Avrastine was twenty-five, Galen suffered a brain aneurism, reportedly his last words being, "Why does everything have to suck so much?" And Avrastine took the Wicker Throne. Despite his best efforts, the new Prince Kael had been fully inducted into the office of hate-monger, and though he isn't as interested in finding blame and finger pointing, he still tends to hate everything in one way or another. The only thing he doesn't openly hate is his champion and friend Kuvass. Another way Kael is quite different from his father is that he's got patience in abundance. He sits and thinks and analyzes and if he sees value in it, he will make a precise decision or move. He is a total schemer. Everyone knows it, but his charm often makes people forget that he is not to be trusted. Unlike Cato, he does not have a large amount of money and people to throw at a problem so this requires Avrastine to be more resourceful in his plots. His relationship with his subjects is symbiotic as they need him and he needs them and because neither has made strict demands on the other they get along together well. The community is simply too small and interconnected to allow Kael to get away with mistreating them. Everyone knows one another and depends on each other including his rangers who are active members of the community living as mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters so his military is necessarily integral to the township and the people cannot be oppressed. If he needs to vent his wickedness he goes out for a quick inspection of his rice fields or takes a trip to Monmurg, Toli, or Hokar where basically anything goes. In Council he is generally quiet, making his position known on any point just once and letting the others try to convince each other for the next hour. He is one of the three who actively oppose Chalm and Morgen in their anti-slavery crusade. As the years go by, the heated arguments in Council spread disillusionment amongst the members and many question the value of the confederacy, but on this point Kael is not soft and stands stolidly with Tarrick. Even though they plot and scheme against one another, Kael knows there is a balance that is found in Council. He also knows that the world is waiting for them to stumble and if they fall they may not get up. In art Kael is depicted as the marsh heron.

Kuvass is Avrastine's personal champion and general Westkeep layabout. He is a darker skinned, heavily muscled, fully armored (with a tusked boar helmet) man with a full on swagger and attitude. People have noticed, but never comment on, Kuvass' similarity to Avrastine, except for the darker skin and slightly upturned nose, Kuvass looks like a thicker version of the other. On any given night they can be found together, sometimes with some of Kuvass' thugs, lounging around swilling Black Orc Wax thinking up Kuvass' next stunt. Kuvass used to be Avrastine's only agent and spy, but now he is too easily recognized across the Hold to escape scrutiny. He has a team of sleazy ne'er-do-wells who he works with and sends on missions and he reserves the more high profile ventures for himself. Though he is a natural leader, handsome and commanding, he is not in the least bit diplomatic and has on more than one occasion made off color remarks that required Avrastine's smoothing over. In town he is a different person. As he grew up in Westkeep, he is the town's favorite son and behaves as a model citizen and gets along well with the humans and the orcs. He speaks orcish fluently.