Dawnbank
When The First were welcomed to Amaltheon, they emerged from the Glimmering Grotto and travelled out of the mountains. It was then that they discovered a large stretch of mainly flat land that was excellent for building upon, as if placed by the Lady of Life herself. It was here that the First built the town of Dawnbank. Dawnbank, which was once the biggest and most successful of the western continent settlements, has slowly started to struggle over time, as with more people, there has been a steady decline in its population. Even though it has had its lowest population since around 10 PW, it is still a political powerhouse of the continent, and it is well respected by most all settlements of the western continent, barring only Scorchton.
Though many of The First and other Wanderer Souls have moved on from Dawnbank to form other settlements or simply explore the world, there are still a few who call this town home.
Demographics
Dawnbank is home to almost all the races of Amaltheon, though the majority of its population is made up of Humans. It once had a large Elf and Dwarf population before the founding of Lyth Radh and Halag's Mond, respectively. Even the Halfling population that once called the town home had a large portion of its population move down to Firstport after its reconstruction due to the new way of life that it was advertising.
As for wealth gaps, Dawnbank is probably home to the smallest amount of class inequality. Due to its long standing mayoral office that has often focused on social initiatives, many of those who still call the town home live comfortably, and those who don't are provided help to ensure it doesn't stay that way for very long. Due to all of these social initiatives, however, many of the richer inhabitants that once called Dawnbank home moved to Firstport or Bizat Onnon before its effective collapse, as this allowed them to capitalise on the wealth that they had gathered.
Government
In the earliest days of Dawnbank, there was a real struggle for power, and usually the loudest voices were listened to. This led to a fairly natural election of leadership, in Logan the Light. Logan was a loud voice of reason for the town, and this only grew when he became the head of the new Church of Dawn around one year after The First entered Amaltheon for the first time. Whether or not this was always planned to be temporary was unknown, but eventually, around the year 5 PW, Dawnbank moved over to an elected mayoral system, and Logan simply moved back to only leading the Church of Dawn.
Dawnbank is now governed by an elected mayor, and elections are held once every five years or when a mayor in office passes away, though this has yet to happen. Currently, Dawnbank is under its 4th mayor, Lumi Smith, the first born native soul who ran her campaign against the town's most successful mayor, Sakhir Bahla. Miss Smith, who is currently serving her second term in the position, has focused on helping keep local artisan talent with her "Build Back Kinder" initiative, which helps subsidise local crafting businesses to ensure they stay in Dawnbank rather than travelling away to Halag's Mond. She also has continued support for Bahla's adventuring initiatives, which help wannabe adventurers stay as safe as possible when beginning their adventures by handing out local contracts through the town hall to monitor and protect them from exploitative contracts and dangerous jobs.
Infrastructure
Dawnbank doesn't have the best infrastructure of all the settlements on the western continent, though it has enough for a comfortable standard of day to day life. Whereas some places aim for all their roads and paths to be paved, Dawnbank focuses on its more travelled roads, leaving smaller paths to be simply dirt paths. This fits the town's aesthetic, though, as the people who live here wish for it to be as close as it was to its original iteration almost four decades ago.
Dawnbank's farm fields, however, have started to use a new technology known as windmills, which harness the power of the wind to help with the grinding of grains grown nearby and even some brought up from Oakenfield. Some places, famously The Lakeside Inn, use an adapted version of this concept known as a waterwheel, which uses the natural flow of its nearby water sources to spin a large wheel for similar purposes to many windmills but without requiring as large a structure to house it.
Points of interest
Dawnbank itself sits at the bottom of the Verdant Peaks, and interestingly, there is a large structure that looms over the town. Above the town there stands a large dam like structure, that appears to have been worn down through time, and strangely, it is widely known that The First saw this when they emerged from the Glimmering Grotto. This led to many scholars conducting research on this ruined dam and many stonemasons trying to analyse the age of the stone. This one structure alone indicates that Amaltheon may not have been created specifically for The First, rather, like the Wanderer Souls who came from other lives, the very land of Amaltheon may contain locations and nature from other places and lives.
Tourism
Many Native Souls and even Wanderer Souls will often come to visit the Glimmering Grotto, whether it is purely for sight seeing or for some sort of spiritual journey. Due to this, the town of Dawnbank often has people from southern settlements come to visit and stay nearby, which led to The Lakeside Inn being formed in the town, as well as many small sellers trying to sell souvenirs of the Glimmering Grotto itself. An example of this is the well known case of the "Glimmering Stone" seller, who claimed to have had stones blessed by the Lady of Life herself from deep inside the Glimmering Grotto. Eventually it was discovered that it was merely a magically enchanted glitter imbued within the stone, but not before many a unit was sold to religious folks and many a tourist.
Founding Date
2nd of Snowmelt 0 PW
Type
Town
Population
400+
Inhabitant Demonym
Dawner
Location under
Included Locations
Owner/Ruler
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