Vedegal

Vedegal is a small township-state in the hilly region west of Valeria and the Valley of Six Barons. It is built on the ruins of a First Age jade mine which has long been tapped out, but whose stable tunnels have been expanded to unearth ores of iron and other metals useful to common smiths. The town has few amenities, made up of a walled area around the main mine elevators, within which are found a number of plain grey barracks blocks where residents sleep in bunks. A central building houses the mayor and his mercenaries, another is home to various shops, and a third houses a massive tavern and mess hall, upper floors given over to drug dens and brothels.

The population of Vedegal is not large, perhaps five thousand… when a vein is uncovered, it swells as people come to seek their fortunes, when the mines suffer a dry spell the population drops as residents depart. The economy likewise leaps up and down over time, with ores fetching good prices but food needing to be imported and no facilities to work or into metal goods in the town. Most of the metals are sold to the nearby kingdoms, including iron-thirsty Linowa.

Local government is rather simple: outcaste Dragonblood mayor Savrash Unkol rules the town, his word law and his power projected by way of a contingent of mercenaries. He takes a cut of all business and mining in the area as ‘taxes’ to his state, as have the Mayors before him. He will likely hold the post until someone with a larger mercenary contingent, or a strongman amongst his own miners or mercenaries, kills him and takes his place at the top of the town’s political pyramid.