Harl's Mine

the Cave Castle

Harl's Mine is the capital of the kingdom of Seely. The town is built partially inside a cave mouth, as well as, on the side of a cliff, 150 feet above its valley floor. The natural cave is the beginning of a larger cavern complex of mining tunnels created by the Zalpula Elf, dating back to the Valmon Age. It is today, as it has been through the ages a mine for Copper, though the town at the cave mouth was built by the Humans in recent centuries. The only access to the town is via a steep Bitumen paved path carved in the side of the cliff. A path with a glacier water reservoir carved into the mountain above it. This reservoir has a valve at the path's cap to send an icy river down the path on would-be assailants. if needed.

For a national capital Harl's Mine's population is small, with only a few hundred people living in the town permanently. Most of these live on the cliff outside the cave mouth. The town inside the cavern becomes less populated the deep one goes. Structures line the walls, some built on top of each other, many with no roof, as there is little need. These buildings serve largely as storage rooms and temporary homes for city guards, traveler, or for seasonal miners.

The Lhakamen of Seely are an independent lot and will defend their lands sovereignty to the last man. Harl's mine has been built with this mentality. The citizens of the nation see the capital as their national fortress. If the rangers of the land can no longer hold the borders, Harl's Mine is to be their last stand. The mines have dug into waterways under the mountains, collecting runoff of snow melt from the Areian Peaks. Fresh, rotating, grain supplies are maintained by law and the Seely government retains a small family of Dwarf to maintain edible lichen and fungi farmed in the Night Below. Several caverns have been carved into the mountains heights, with small vents to the snowpacks above, for maintaining meat, with the sheep herders knowing well that should their nation fall, they need slaughter their sheep to store in Harl's Mine.