Gwened
COA: Ermine with cape
Demographics
Ethnic Breakdown
Gwened is a cosmopolitan city, second only to Naoned and Aleth in terms of ethnic and national diversity. The majority of the population is of Lethaned stock, followed by Akitanian. Anjevin, Gallian and Manchais follow in smaller numbers. Additionally, a sizable population of Ubarite descent, originally part of a large mercenary contingent brought to the city to defend against Fomorian invasion during the Fomorian Interregnum, has continued to make the city their home. Over the centuries, most of these have culturally and genetically blended with the native Lethaned, giving the city's average citizen a darker skin tone and hair color than those found elsewhere on the peninsula.Species breakdown
Korrigan Tuath
The Kriores
The goblinoid Korrigan of the Moors make up the largest of the Korrigan Tuath in Gwened, which hosts their largest population center outside of Ker-Malastred. The Kriores of Gargantua, the mountain-dwelling troupes of the Lethan interior, have integrated themselves widely with Gwenened society, holding positions from unskilled labourers to master craftsmen and merchants to even holding noble titles and positions of power in the region. The Jetin Kriores make up a smaller, but still sizable percentage of the population, mastering the navigation of the Mor Bihan. While found in less numbers than along the Ar Mor Breizh, they still make up a notable community, living and working largely in the Canal District. There is often a high level of tension between the two factions, with the Gargantuans actively pushing back on Jetin incursions into the rest of the city's economic and political theatres. Violence between the rival troupes is not unheard of, but is largely confined out of the public eye in the tunnels and dark hedges of the city.The Teuz
Gwened is exceptional within Letha, as the large presence of the Kriores relegates the Teuz, usually a close second in demographics behind the Bediz, to the third largest population, although the Teuz still have a sizable population in the larger metropolitain areas. The Teuz dominate the Pale Farms, the agricultural land between the city walls and the Vincin river, as well as the surrounding countryside to the North and East. The Teuz are largely of agrarian, peasant stock, living in small villages and hamlets rather than the intra-muros districts. The Teuz have a close relationship with the Kriores, supplying both Ker-Malastred and the Jetin Mor Bihan fleets with produce. Gwened supports the largest number of Teuz sailors in Letha.The Poulpiquet
Kornikaned
Gwened supports a large population of Kornikaned, largely situated in the Hill of Garenne and in the forests to the north of the city. Gwened is a rarity in the level of integration between the normally insular Kornikaned and the larger civic life of the city. Following the War of the Black Dog, the leader of the local Troupes, Belphoebe the Huntress, swore an oath to defend Gwened from future attacks and to work to better the city. The Kornikaned are responsible for maintaining the parks and glades of Gwened, including its famous walled garden.Government
Gwened is one of the three Ducal cities and is the seat of both the Biskonti Gwened and the larger Kontelezh Gwened. The Kont of Gwened rules both, and by extension, the city itself. The Kont is a sworn vassal of the Dug/Dugez of Letha, although the practical effect of this varies depending on the current political situation.
A merchant city, day to day policy is often proposed and enacted by a ruling council, a mixture of ecclesiastic, mercantile and noble interests, who serve at the discretion and pleasure of the Kont.
The semi-lawless Boismoreau Hill is home to Gwened's Court of Miracles, where the city's criminal elements hold sway, contested by the odd community leader, gang upstart, adventurous noble or the city watch.
Defences
Gwened is surrounded by a network of stout curtain walls, keeps and fortified gatehouses, arranged primarily in two enclosures. The first surrounds Mené Hill, including La Cohue Market and the Cathedral of Gwened. The city center is bisected by this wall, while a second ring, with one wall making up one side of the Place Des Lices. This second wall extends to the Kerino Watergate and the Canal District. A smaller wall circles some of the Garenne District to the Southwest. Older fortifications remain in a ruined state around Boismoreau
The town is surrounded by a network of curtain walls and fortified gatehouses, arranged in two enclosures. T]Garenne district. Like the first, it is defended by several towers and small keep complexes. Upper Garenne and the Boismoreau districts are outside the city walls, although smaller fortifications protect some of the manors of the former, makeshift palisades the latter.
The city is defended in part by the Brassgaurd, mechanical automata based on Talus, a fallen hero of the War of the Black Dog. These automata perform a number of tasks, including patrolling the walls and streets, overseen by flesh and blood supervisors who give them simple instructions. These are created and dispatched from a large ruined castle within the Boismoreau District, the Palace of Brass. Gwened hosts one of the largest contingents of Brassgaurd soldiers in Letha, and exports a small amount of them for a tidy profit.
Industry & Trade
Gwened is a crossroads, connecting several overland, maritime and aerial routes. Gwened sits on Old Kingdom coastal road connecting Kemper with Naoned and beyond. Neither the Marle nor the Vincin, Gwened's two rivers, estend much further than the city itself, and therefore most trade is focused on the roads and the thriving maritime trade on the Mor Bihan.
Located on gulf of Morbihan, Gwened has risen to one of the largest market towns in Breizh, a trade nexus of Imperial roads, maritime trade and windships arriving from Naoned of the Penn-ar-Bed. The city marks a key stop along the "Ocean Road", the Imperial coastal highway from Liyon to Brest, as well as 6 smaller Imperial roads.
The city exports fish, shellfish and salt, as well as Brassguard. Its location on the Mor Bihan makes it an ideal harbour for wines from Naoned Vignobles and Akitania, allowing the city to become the largest wine-trading port in Breizh. The city is an important centre of the tanning industry.
Ships and Windships are built in the Mene district.
Districts
Gwened is generally divided by its three hills: Boismoreau, Garenne and Mené.
Boismoreau
Boismoreau is located to the Northeast of the city walls.Garenne
Garenne is the noble's hill, a sprawling district of pastures, hedgerows and estate houses. It is located to the Southeast of the walled city and includes much of the Sene Peninsula.Kerino Canal District
Stretching along the Marle River from the lagoon into the city wall, Kerino terminates at the city walls where the Mené district begins. The Garenne District is located along its Southeast.Mené
The urban core of Gwened, including its harbor and ramparts, is centered on Mené, a tight maze of winding roads and rising terraces.Guilds and Factions
The Merchantmen and smaller guilds control the Mene district, the nobility control the Garenne and organized gangs dominate the Boismoreau. The three factions vie for control of the city, powers constantly shifting between.
History
Early Years
Gwened was founded by Caradoc Strongarm, who resisted the advances of Conan Meriadoc in the Mor Bihan. After the War of the Two Brothers, Gwened was quickly taken by the unified forces of Great Kernev, and the sea-princes of the Mor Bihan bent the knee to Ker-Ys. Gwened bore the brunt of the fighting when the Erlking's shattered army fled North, but the city held. When The Southern Church arrived on the Peninsula, Gwened was where it first landed, appointing an arch-perfect to oversee the growing band of followers.The War of the Black Dog
During the tumultuous Three King's Crisis, the ambitious warlord Waroch I saw an opportunity to make himself king. As Great Kernev crumbled, Waroch sailed into the Mor Bihan and captured the castle at Gwened, establishing it as the capital of his new Kingdom, before marching on Roazhon. Gallian aristocrat Markiz Beppolène of Neustria, Count of Angers, Roazhon and Naoned, launched an attack on Waroch, but was killed on the Oud River, allowing Waroch to add Naoned to his domain. The remaining Gallian forces, under Ebrachaire of Threetower marched on Gwened, seizing it after a betrayal by Arch-Perfect Regalis. Waroch sued for peace, sending his nephew to act as a royal hostage. Before the party could return to Gallia, Waroch's son, Chanao I ambushed the delegation, killing Ebrachaire. Waroch continued to rule in Gwened, Naoned and Roazhon. When Arch-Perfect Regalis suffered a fatal fall from an open window, Waroch appointed his secondson, Macliau to the position. Waroch was deposed by Chanao and Macliau, with the latter fleeing to the protection of Kont Conomor the Cursed. Waroch was reinstated by Muldumarec Artegall, but Conomor's host appearing outside the city complicated matters. Waroch's daughter Trephine was married to Conomor to establish peace, before she was murdered and Conomor moved against Gwened and Naoned. Muldumarec's Alliance of the Brekilien, then based in the city, prepared for the battle, but a series of betrayals, outflankings and magical onslaughts brought down mighty Gwened and shattered the Alliance, before it reappeared in the Penn-ar-bed to defeat Conomor at the Battle of Relec.Lethan Holding
Following Waroch's catastrophic defeat, the dream of an independent Gwened ended when Arch-Perfect Macliau was killed by King Tewdr Mwar. The region shifted between Lethan. Anjevin and Gallian rulers until the reign of King Nevenoe I, who, as Kont of Gwened, led Letha in the Red Hand Rebellion, seizing Roazhon and dramatically declaring independence from the Gallian throne in 737 SI. Gwened became involved in a series of civil wars from 778 to 812 SI, before Naoned was sacked by the Fomorian host of Hastings Fireforged. Gwened survived as a fortified enclave, often attacked but never held, thanks to mercenaries from Asturias and Alkebulan. Emerging from the Fomorian Interregnum, Gwened would never again reclaim its title as capital of Letha, falling to the sidelines during The Poisoner's Game.Points of interest
Tourism
The Kornikaned gardens are a palace of crystal glass located in the Garenne District, a magnificent garden of impossibly beautiful Faerie flora, tended by an army of Kornikaned, a gift to a noble of Gwened by the Korrigan. The Gardens are a major draw of nobility from all over the Western Realms. Competition to match this legendary garden has led to the reputation of Garenne as a garden, with fountain plazas, tree-lined promenades and ornamental gardens around the noble houses and into the city itself. Gardens are also found below the city walls in the other districts to a lesser extent. The greenery has given the city its nickname of the Garden city.
Architecture
Gwened is a city of half-timbered houses, tightly packed within the city walls leading up the Hill of Mené from the harbour.
On nearby Boismoreau, the ruins of the old city still stand, including grand structures like a public bathhouse, amphitheater and the Prince's Palace, as well as largely intact paved roads of the Old Kingdom. Defending Boimoreau after the Fall of Ys became difficult, and the hill was largely abandoned to the monsters that were unleashed within its depths, magical and mundane alike.
The lesser populated hill of Boismoreau host the ruins of the Imperial city. Grand structures like the bathhouse, ampitheatre and governor's palace, as well as the Imperial streets still remain largely intact. Long abandoned in favour of the fortified city, the region has become home to beggars, thieves and outcasts, living in their own community of Imperial ruins and ramshackle construction.
Large manor complexes of small keeps and large houses are found in the Garenne district, its wide, tree-lined streets and fountain squares controlled by the nobility.
Geography
Gwened is located between the Mor Bihan, a large inland sea on the Southern Coast of The Armorican Peninsula to the South, and the Landes be Lanvaux, rising moorlands that form the foothills of the mountainous Ar Goat, or interior of the Peninsula. The city proper is nestled between two rivers, the Marle to the East and the Vincin to the West. The Marle begins at the Dug's Pond, a large pond collecting dozens of streams near the Kont's castle, flowing into the Mor Bihan.
Gwened is well protected from storms and Wyldstorms by the Mor Bihan, but additionally by the Sene Peninsula, which reaches out from the Southeast like a protecting hand, forming a large, basin-like lagoon around which the city's waterfront is built. The Vincin and the Marle flow into this basin, with the latter, artificially widened into a long quai-lined canal, abutting the city's Eastern walls. This canal, Gwened's busiest marketplace, is the Kerino District. The tidal shift in Gwened is very small.
From the waterfront, the city rises towards the North like the terraced steps of an amphitheatre into the moorlands of Lanvaux. The city is largely built up on three hills following the path of the Marle River: Boismoreau Hill, Garenne Hill and Mené Hill. Between Garenne Hill and the Sene Peninsula, marshland dominates.
Bocage farmland and small hamlets fill the remainder of the land between the Western walls and the Vincin River. Large parts of the Northern edge of the settlement is taken up by small patches of forests and prairies.
Natural Resources
The Basin-Harbor of Gwened hosts the shellfish fleets of the Mor Bihan, bringing in large harvests of mussels, clams and oysters.
To the East, salt marshes have been cultivated to assist in the harvest and trade of salt.
Founding Date
45 SI
Alternative Name(s)
The Ermine City, the Garden City, Dervenn
Type
Large city
Inhabitant Demonym
Gweneded
Location under
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
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