Freestead

Anuire » Talinie » Freestead

Freestead is an upland county where the foothills of Thurazor and the Five Peaks begin. Towns include Clashness, Talladale, and Kincardine. Torele Anviras is the Earl of Freestead. He resides at Misskill Tower.
Storm Holtson's puppet, Anphelan Halloravant and his Fellowship of the Miners and Sawyers control the trade in Freestead, although Torele pushes hard to keep their resource extraction here as limited as he can. Charms and illusions are not beyond the mage of Talinie if required. One lumbering company found themselves planting trees for days before they became aware of what they were doing. Locally, Pàdraig Killmartin handles guild affairs in Freestead.
Lord Lamorac Kincardine would like to see development and would be happy with guild activity, if it were not so rapacious. He imagines that development must be possible without wholesale destruction. He supports Earl Torele's animosity to the guilds, but would also welcome a change of heart from the guilders. Kincardine is a castle village, that has grown up around the great keep of the lords there.
Just up river from Kincardine is the temple complex of Talladale, which is a separate estate run by the Northern Imperial Temple. Talladale used to be a remote site for contemplation and withdrawl from the busy world for prolonged meditation. The library there is one of the best in all Talinie. The gardens used to be the focus of work for the devout at Talladale, but recently the priests there have undertaken commercial forestry as a way to honor Haelyn. The logs are sent down river to the mill at Ardvreck. The Fellowship of Miners and Sawyers is said to purchase the logs for a very low price. The Presbyter of Talladale, Kester Ramsey has openly spoken of selling the library to finance a mill on temple grounds, rather than shipping logs across Freestead for milling.
Clashness is the name for the main fortification facing Thurazor in the up-country. There are actually three fortifications as part of this complex, including the main fort at Clashness, the royal keep at Inverness, and the keep of Lord Aodhán Ramsey at Hunter's Skilling. Clashness sits on top of a long ridge line and protects the interior. Its is run by the Northern Imperial Temple and it is a temple military garrison. Hills and other obstacles make possession of Clashness necesary for any invader. Two passes through the hills could be used to to cut Clashness off, but these are guarded by the royal keep at Inverness and the keep at Hunter's Skilling. Captain Murchadh Sullivan coordinates the defense of this place and runs the military garrison as well. He is a warpriest of Haelyn and is less concerned with theology than he is with chivalry and warfare. While he does not dispute the doctrines of Fitzalan or the code of the virtue of work that is so central to the Northern Imperial Temple, for him Haelyn is the god of noble war, and it is in this vein that Murchadh is dedicated.
Between Clashness and Talladale is Misskill Tower, the residence of Lord Torele Anviras. When Torele returned from his mysterious sojurn among the elves, he erected a tower in the deepest woods of Freestead, the province to which his line had once been earls of. Once he had done this, the authority of the province slipped back into his hands, and Aodhán Ramsey, the titular earl stepped back into the lessor lordship to which his family was heir, acknowledging Torele as the rightful earl. This mysterious tower was raised swiftly by some form of magic connected to the ancient traditions of the Trautha, as the elves were known who once inhabited Talinie. This imposing tower does not appear defensible, but no one trusts these appearances.