Hyclaer
Above the mining town of Mont Inaer, on the Stalensprae Peak, which is shrouded in snow for six months of the year is the citadel of Hyclaer. Construction of the fort was first begun by the Firg in the year -743 KB (Perhaps in response to the founding of the kingdom of Pelonastrius the year before) and took three decades to complete. It is one of several now abandoned fortresses along the Lower Orne Mountains. Whilst the Firg originally built Hyclaer and its sister forts to dominate the Mill Lands and intimidate the Swithicks, the forts became much more important following the Sundering. They comprised a defensive line against the possibility of the Mordikhaani invasion, which eventually came not against the Mill Lands, but Firg and Wardenhal. In Swithick folklore it was Hyclaer and the ‘Firg towers’ that made the Queen of Mordikhaan think again. When the Firg left the mountains, they hoped in vain that the Swithicks would take on the responsibility of manning the fortresses, but Swithick rulers for the following three centuries based their calculations on the Haatchi, the Firg and Wardenhal intervening to stop the Khul if she landed ships at Mirrorvale.
Hyclaer was largely abandoned for centuries, sometimes wandering mining prospectors or fugitives might shelter in its outer walls during heavy snowfall, but beyond that, it stood empty. In the first few months of 295, it acquired new inhabitants. Rumours have spread around Mont Inaer that figures have been spied on the battlements and the light of a lantern has been seen flickering in a window.
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