Halvesty

At the southernmost point of Kerel Bay sits the small port-town of Halvesty. Founded in 1,126 HC, Halvesty is not much more than an overgrown trade station where barges from Barvenham came inland and met the road. Enterprising steader Bryan Halvesty decided to found a town in his own name around his meandering manor house and named himself Doge. Since then the Arker line has come to own the lands around Halvesty, but they also calim to have inherited the title of Doge of Halvesty. The current Doge is Daerik Arker is an intensely lazy man, and even he will admit it. As a result the town essentially governs itself, with no standing garrison and little in law enforcement. While there is a degree of lawlessness in Halvesty it keeps itself quiet. Even Daerik surely has his limits, and nobody wants to test the situation to the point that the laxity of the town’s powers dissolves and their business is impeded.

Region: Ahlonia, The Earldoms, Barven
Total Population: 3,890 approx
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Tech. Level: 6
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Halvesty is built around a shallow shingle beach where ox-drawn barges are pulled up on long timber ramps built out into the water. The town sweeps back from the large cobbled plaza where goods from these barges are stored and sold to merchant caravans. The thatched houses usually have a stone seaward wall and three timber, and remain quaint. In fact Halvesty is almost picturesque with its broad cobbled avenues and ivy clad houses. A large Diounal shrine carved from a piece of rock so pale it’s almost white and engraved with ornate and beautiful images of overlaid faces. No image is quite the same from every angle, and people believe that the shrine of Halvesty is endowed with special powers to bring health and prosperity to any who burn a candle at it. Many great men have come to light a candle and receive the shirne’s own special blessing, and even Earl Tolbren himself lights a candle whenever he passes through. The people are undersdtandably proud of their famous shrine, believeing it signals them as favoured by the Dioune.

Halvesty also acts as a gateway to Barvenham to the north. Because goods coming into Barvenham by sea are tithed less harshly than those entering by land, presumably Pieter Tolbren’s ploy to attract sailors to the city, many caravans come only as far as Halvesty with lower yield goods like corn or potatoes and sell it on to barge drivers who in turn sell the goods in Barvenham up the coast. As a result two long warehouses are in the process of being built up the length of the centre of the town. Here merchants will be able to sell goods on to the bargemen and goods can be stored for long periods and leaked out to meet demand in Barvenham. A retired merchant named Grier is responsible for the plan, and hopes that it will put him in firm control of a good portion of the food in Barvenham and thus give him a reasonable level of control over local prices. A shrewed businessman, Grier is only really in business for a quick profit however.

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