Mournwold
Overview - "The Mourn"
This desolate land was known as the Mourn even before its final fall to the barbarian hordes in 349AE. Originally the name referred to the sound of the wind in the trees and across the craggy hills. Now it seems a more fitting name for the loss which Marcher folk feels at the March's passing. The conquest of Mournwold is fresh in the hearts and memories of many Marchers.
Whereas Upwold and Mitwold in particular are known for their sprawling farms, the rugged terrain of the Mourn is perhaps better known for its mines. The hills are riddled with rich veins of green iron, and with mine workings dedicated to extracting that ore. Prior to the invasion of the Jotun, there had been a growing tide of dissatisfaction among professional miners that all political power had been vested in the hands of those who owned farms. There were regular complaints that mine owners, like farmers and stewards, owned and worked land - the only difference was that the crops they raised was ore and stone rather than fruit, grain or vegetables. Most likely this dissatisfaction had its roots in certain sharp business practices by some of the lowland stewards, who set the prices for the food sold to the miners.
Recent History
The barbarian forces that eventually defeated the Marchers amassed for months in the forest to the west. Despite the Imperial forces that tried to turn them back, the horde was so numerous and ferocious that Mournwold was lost in pitched battle. As the troops withdrew heavy hearted from a battle they could clearly not win, the hordes did not pursue, they stayed in those hills and valleys, scurrying down the mines, slaughtering and devouring the cattle, defiling and tainting the holy places for their own dark ends. With the loss of the Mourn, the Marches has lost much of its mining.
The last Senator for Mournwold was Thomas Overton, who was also the last Marcher to voluntarily enter the wicker man.
Major Features
Overton
A sheep-farming town and market set on a hill, now the front line of the war between the Empire and the barbarians in the west. It has received strong support from League forces from Tassato. There’s a note of self-interest, but the people of Overton have been grateful for the help. They may not have a senator, but they hold the line for the territory that’s lost.
Since the Senate negotiated a ceasefire with the Jotun, the threat that the armies of barbarians will sweep across Overton is held in abeyance. However, this has not prevented smaller bands of Jotun sweeping down into the valleys of the Greensward in search of easy riches. In turn, Imperial raiding forces often strike from Overton into the Mourn, drawing more attention and giving the settlement the feeling of an armed camp or glorified barracks.
In Summer 378YE, work finally began on a fortified manor house that could serve as a place of refuge against the barbarians, and should protect the people of Overton from the worst effects of raiding by the Mournwold Jotun. Work continued during Autumn 378YE, and once complete the armoured garrison will serve as a base of operations for the defenders of the town, allowing them to see-off Jotun raids and also gather information about the state of the Mournwold beyond the Greensward.
Old Pig
An aptly-named chalk figure carved into the hills of the wold.
The Singing Caves
The Singing Caves are found on the northern borders of the Greensward not far from Overton. Still in Imperial hands, albeit only just, the Singing Caves take their name from the strange voices that echo forth when the wind blows above. Many Imperial citizens are concerned about what will happen to the Singing Caves when the Jotun invaders make a significant attempt to conquer the last Imperial hold outs in this desolate territory. Local stories claim that the mines were first discovered by the folk hero Jonah Gold in pre-Imperial times while following a particularly rich seam of green iron.
The Singing Caves is an Imperial Bourse position that produces mithril. It produces 28 Imperial wains of mithril every season.
Jonah Gold
Jonah Gold is a possibly-legendary figure whose story dates from the time of the Cousins' War. Jonah is said to to have been born in the Ore Hills long before the Mournwold was part of the Marches proper; in some versions he is the son of a Tassatan immigrant and a Marcher sheep herder. Stories say that Jonah was a miner who quarried out metal of such quality that his weapons turned the tide of war for his household during the short-lived Marcher civil war. A jealous friend betrayed him to the enemy, and for a heavy purse of coin staged a mining accident that trapped him behind a rockfall where he presumably perished. Over the centuries, a number of legends and stories have been attributed to Jonah - if the man had participated in all the stories attributed to him he would have been so busy moving around the Marches, southern Wintermark. and northern Brass Coast he would never have had time to do any actual mining!
His stories do not end with his death. His ghost is said to haunt the mines of the Marches, especially the green iron mines of the Mournwold. Superstitious miners say that to see Jonah Gold presages disaster - whether his appearance causes a catastrophe reminiscent of the collapse that killed him, or if he simply warns against them varies from legend to legend and place to place. There are even a few stories of sightings of what sounds a lot like Jonah Gold in the hills of Kahraman, and the old mines north of Tassato.
Some scholars who have taken the time to study the stories of his ghostly appearance disagree with the accepted wisdom that Jonah Gold is a ghost. While there is plenty of precedence for so-called "warning ghosts", these scholars argue that the sightings are actually of an astronomantic tulpa rather than a restless spirit - but their argument is undermined by an inability to agree on which constellation the tulpa represents.
Jonah's name has also been given to a variety of apple commonly grown in the Mournwold. Heavy, green and sweet, with a sharp bite, the "Jonah Gold" variety is used extensively in cooking sweet pies and apple sauce, and traditionally is buried with miners from the Mourn, particularly those who quarry green iron.
His story is immortalized in the popular song that bears his name.Regions
Alderly
A forest of old oak and sycamore. Marcher faerie tales tell of diminutive creatures who hide beneath the trees and prey on unruly children - most likely references to a hidden Feni enclave of some type.
Keywords: Forested
Chalkdowns
Freemoor
Green March
Near the border with Bregasland is the odd monument called High Courage. Looking down across the moors towards Liathaven, it is a large statue of a stag with broken antlers, ascribed to the people of Terunael. On a stone block at the base of the statue Imperial letters simply read “High Courage” but it is clear that they are more recent than the statue itself.
Greensward
The Greensward is the last holdout of Imperial presence in the Mourn. Refugees and survivors have set up camp at Overton. Their morale is kept high by the presence of Greensward Monastery near the southern border, built in a defensive location amid the foothills of Kahraman.
Ore Hills
The ore hills (sometimes rendered, unsurprisingly, as "our hills" in the drawling dialect favoured by the natives) are riddled with mine workings and quarries. The hills are generally rich in veins of green iron, but the Ore Hills are site of some of the most prosperous mines in the Mourn. Some of the older mines here have a bad reputation, and feature regularly in Marcher ghost-stories and cautionary tales. According to these stories unnatural things are occasionally sighted in the deepest parts of the oldest mines. Details are never clear and many sensible people dismiss them as either fantasy brought on by too much time without sunlight, or else ascribe the sightings to trogoni.
Keywords: Hilly
Southmoor
The last region to fall to the Jotun so far, Southmoor is the location of Sarcombe. A ruin now, it was once a prosperous mining town, rich off the back of trade in green iron. Refugees from Sarcombe mostly went east to Overton. There is believed to be a major Jotun encampment here, keeping a careful eye eastward to the Greensward - and beyond to Temeschwar.
Keywords: Hilly
OOC Note
- Currently the Marchers, and thus the Empire, control the Greensward. The rest of the territory is in the hands of the Jotun.