Local Lore

[Bunny]

Geography/demographics:

Population: 7,700
Human: 77%
Elf: 5%
Dwarf: 5%
Dorin 4%
Cether: 2%
Gnome 2%
Katta (all breeds) 3%
Fae 1%
All others 1%

Male 72%
Female 28%

Military Presence:

City watch: 80

Hand of Aslan (semi-permanent personnel) approximately 100 in town at any given point in time, approximately five hundred total throughout the empire.

City Militia: approx. 3,000 (see below)

Note: the racial, sexual and age demographics are severely skewed due to the large number of retired paladins who return to Kriskinstat's simple life when they feel they cannot function effectively in the field. They also form the backbone of the city's uncommonly effective militia. The militia boasts about 500 bowmen, the local non-paladin contingent, who are usually carrying longbows.

Kriskinstat is a small city centered roughly on the Kriskin peninsula, on the western side of Libertas Bay. It is a commerce center for the numerous tiny villages that dot the entire peninsula, and also contains one of the largest stockyards in the Empire. The major road into town comes from the south, and leads to Kaldira, and the rest of Carmelyn province as a whole. This is well traveled during the spring and autumn months, for merchants plying the wool trade, and stocking the town for winter, respectively. At these times, the town swells nearly to bursting as the local shepherds from leagues around converge on the city, the stockyards often expanded with temporary fencing (outside the city walls, necessitating mercenaries for temporary security at times). The city watch is often at its busiest then, as disputes between ranchers over livestock ownership, amplified by visits to the local taverns, often turn bloody. Usually the watch intervenes before anyone is seriously hurt, but many a shepherd has gotten a tell-tale broken nose or cauliflower ear during the wool season.

Most of the local construction is of stone, due to the lack of a real forest nearby. Roofs are often thatch, or tile, and very few structures have glass windows, or are more than one story and a basement. The major landmarks in the city include the stockyards, Trias Square, the Razor, the Crying Oak (and Silverfall park), and the Ivory Citadel, home of the Hand of Aslan paladins' order.

Economics:

Principal industry: Wool. The rocky and uneven terrain surrounding the city are unsuited to farming beyond what the city consumes, and during eras when the harvest comes short, grain is often imported from within Carmelyn, or from as far away as Candaceburg and Arium. The sentient to sheep ratio is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 to 150, and Kriskinstatian shepherds are often sought for their expertise with the sheep and their herding dogs. These dogs are very intelligent, and visually oriented, making them wonderful companion animals. Woolen thread, yarn and fabric are also produced in quantity. Soft leather goods (made chiefly of sheepskin), gloves in particular, are also a minor export.

Kriskinstat is a net importer of refined metals, grain (when needed, see above) timber, salt and other manufactured goods.

Principal crops during the warmer months include hay (stockpiled for the winter) millet, barley, sorghum, potatoes, carrots, peas and other legumes and vegetables suited to the climate. Wild berries are also a heavily harvested crop, and jams are often produced in great quantities at the end of summer. These see limited export as well, but generally only to the surrounding areas.

During the winter months, shepherds are often busy with woodcarving, scrimshaw, weaving/spinning or other crafts, whiling away the long winter months in the comfort of their warm homes. These are often heated by burning dried sheep dung, or peat moss given the dearth of wood on the peninsula.

Culture:

Local expressions

The local lingua franca is heavily influenced by the principal industries in town. Wool-headed, wool-brained, sheep-brained and such pejoratives are heavily used to denote stupidity. Anyone not from the peninsula is referred to as a lowlander, which is not an insult, per se, but a way to differentiate the hoity toity city folk in the rest of Carmelyn. "Lone Sheep" is also a pejorative referring to stupidity above and beyond the norm. This stems from the fact that the only animal stupider than a herd of sheep is one sheep all by itself. White, the White, and Whites are terms used by the locals to refer to the Brothers of the Hand of Aslan. This term is not pejorative, but is still considered somewhat rude, and rarely is it used to their face.

Festivals/holidays

Memoriana Aslanica (winter solstice) This somber holiday is generally only observed by members of the Order, both active and retired, but anyone is welcome to attend the evening church service. Members fast from sunrise until sunrise the following brightening, shedding mortal concerns for the whole period. The sunslight hours are spent in meditation, alone, upon matters of faith and honor. A somber church service is held after all sunslight has passed, wherein all the names from the Tome of Honor are read. This tome contains the names of every paladin of the Order to fall in the service of Aslan. The Tome is ceremonially handed from the oldest paladin present (which will usually be Sabian) to the newest member of the order present, for them to read from it. The sole illumination used during the service in the temple of Aslan is a single candle, which the reader is granted to read from the tome. This is to permit those present to weep for fallen comrades and friends with a measure of their dignity intact. The newest paladin present is chosen to read, because he is the least likely to have lost friends, and therefore the least likely to break their concentration and reading to mourn openly. The end of the service coincides with the first light of dawn creeping over the horizon, and a celebratory (for the order, at least) feast, where members can recount anecdotes of the Fallen to each other, and renew acquaintances with old friends who they might not have seen in several eras. Outside the city, members will usually still observe Memoriana Aslanica, if only with themselves or the few paladins present, the formality of it somewhat diminished.

Wool season, and the attendant gathering at the beginning of spring, are a festival, social event and holiday all rolled into one. Craft competitions, sheep herding trials, and various other carnival and fair-type activities dominate the scene. Matchmaking and other clan interactions are also a large focus suring this time.

The Hand of Aslan:

The Hand located here shortly after the razing of Aslangrad, the leader at the time, Xander Trias, disgusted with the senseless slaughter of innocent civilians perpetrated with the assistance and tacit approval of his fellow Paladins of the Faith, black-robed warriors based out of the Priory just south of Kriskinstat. He and a handful of his fellows shed the black robes that had long been their trademark, instead adopting a symbolic white to aspire to carrying no innocent blood upon their vestments. This has led to a quiet, polite, but deep-seated dsitrust of the Paladins of the Faith, and the Prelatine Guard, exacerbated after the razing of Arkdün during the Archonic War (which they steadfastly refused to participate in) and recently, Trysvale.

Neverthelss, the Ivory Citadel was built with the aid of the Church of the Faith, Trias' morality being above reproach a large factor in that decision. The Citadel itself is grey basalt, carrying a façade of white marble quarried in Sheria, shipped here at great expense. The outer walls are fifteen feet high, and should the need arise, the entire city populace and that of several of the closer villages and hamlets can be crammed into the Citadel. The Citadel can store supplies for the town and Order to withstand a siege of three months' time, including medical, livestock, food, water and other miscellaneous supplies. There is an inner keep, where the majority of the paladins stay during training, or visits to the city. The population of the order in Kriskinstat is approximately 100, and their method of dress and bearing are distinctive among the equally humble, yet rough, townsfolk. The citizens of Kriskinstat, themselves being a large number of retired paladins, give the Order quiet respect, and receive same from the Order's members. Some of the roughest locals often grumble about this, but no serious action is taken.