Unifier's Perch

"I have a categorical question." Vance dropped the clutch lever of the power-wagon as it rolled to a stop just before the crest of a hill, surrounded by old stone buildings. "Does it count as a 'town' if I'm pretty sure nobody actually lives here?" The small stone huts had all the tidiness of a museum and none of the features of daily life.
His companion had already unlatched the trunk of the wagon. "No, but it's a historical naming convention." Iocathe pulled out a painted wooden sign. She held it to the sunlight; in large letters,

'Unifier's Perch'

and smaller underneath,

'This sign commemorates the peaceful unification of Saibh and the first step in the Founding of the Principality of Etoile'

Vance covered his mouth with a loose fist. "Peaceful, huh? Why even bother putting that on the sign when we're all taught exactly how peaceful the war was in school?"
"Shush." The two of them walked a short ways up the dirt path towards the hilltop. "The last month of the war was more or less peaceful, I believe. The Forsett Hierarchy records how they fought to the last man, but their surrender was planned some weeks in advance." Iocathe saw what she was looking for on top of the hill; a faded wooden plank nailed to a post with the letters burnt in,

'Conqueror's Perch'
'May All Bear Witness To Our Glory'

The Cartographer gestured to the hunter, and with a heavy tug together they noisily pulled the old sign down. Vance glanced around. "No groundskeeper or museum guide here to yell at us?"
Iocathe shook her head. "My understanding is that there's a local from the actual town a mile over that's paid a stipend to come clean and tidy up once a week. This is all reserved Principality land, anyway, no reason to come here unless you want to take in the history."
"You mean the exact history we're amending on the fly?" Vance held the new sign up to the post and began to tap in a fresh nail. "Someone with a droll tongue would find endless snark here about the sanitization of the records of the Principality."
"Fortunately, Vance, you're not paid to have such a tongue." Iocathe had the old sign under her arm. "The story of this hill is well recorded and not in dispute. The First Princeps came in, made a big announcement, then had his portrait painted as he took a seat. What does it matter what we call this place a hundred years after the fact? The Cartographers will remain aware of both names."
The hunter took a step back. The sign was even, as far as he could tell. "Okay, that's good enough for Principality work. As to your point, you can see the line that starts here and ends with our grandchildren talking about how the First Princeps unified the continent without a single person dying." Vance made a twirling notion with a finger. "Princeps knows the Monitor digs up stuff like this on the regular every time they want to make their journal sales targets."
"Well, that's why this sign is going back to our archives in the Capital City and we're not just tossing it into the bushes." The Cartographer stepped off the road and peered into an open window into one of the stone huts; there was nothing inside of it. "Non rhetorical question. Why do you suppose these buildings are still here? Nobody's lived on this hill in a very long time and there's nothing special about these huts. It's not like the Princeps did anything to the people here when he planted his flag and built his throne."
The hunter shrugged. "Something about not being paid to answer those questions, Iocathe."
"Why do I even invite you out to these errands?" The Cartographer placed the old sign in the trunk of the wagon and closed the lid. "Let's get back to Forsett before Rathnait scolds us for being late to dinner. She told me she was reserving the most expensive restaurant in town."

Government

There are no local residents, the buildings in town are abandoned. Records indicate that prior to The War of Unification, this was a tiny freeholding that was not actually claimed by any of the local petty lords or kingdoms.

Defences

While the countryside in the area of the Perch is not flat, the Perch itself is the highest point for leagues, and under any military commander's eye, would be a strongpoint that controlled the area around it, fortified with some sort of stoneworks or at a bare minimum some kind of palisade work. There is nothing of the sort and no records of any defenses being built; the hill is merely that. This was remarked on by the First Princeps as he stood atop the hill, prior to his enthronement.

Infrastructure

There is a dirt road that leads to the top of the hill, maintained by the local District Commander, but there are no services in the town itself other than a disused well.

History

The Unifier's Perch (previously known as the Conqueror's Perch, and, prior to Unification, known simply as the Perch) is a small hill in a valley deep in southwestern Saibh, and is known for being the last point of interest on the continent to be claimed by the Principality of Etoile. Prior to The War of Unification, the Perch was a small village, notable for being a free village that paid no taxes and reported to no lord, an oddity in the era of petty kingdoms. The reason for this is unknown; the First Princeps' inquiry into the matter yielded nothing.
The nearby Kingdom of Forsett (styled as a Hierarchy) was the last state to fall to conquest during Unification, and the Hierarch of Forsett was the one that informed the First Princeps (then still the King of Nasse) of the existence of the Perch. It was decided that the Perch would be the formal site of investiture of the title of Princeps of Etoile, a symbolic capstone of the completion of the Unification of the continent. The locals (who were in no possible position to object) witnessed a procession in the year 630; the infantry of the First and Second Ground Forces lined up and marched in formation as the King of Nasse strode up the pathway to plant the new flag of the Principality on top of the hill. A grand chair, made of wood taken from every corner of the new Etoile, was placed as throne, and the newly invested First Princeps sat on his throne for a number of hours in the heat as his portrait was painted by multiple court artists.
After the ceremony, the Perch (named by an unknown soldier as the Conqueror's Perch) was otherwise left alone, and the First Princeps is not known to have ever returned to the place. By 652, nobody lived in the village, with all residents having moved away to the newly Powered cities. Sometime between 652 and 700, it was decided by the local District Commander of Forsett to preserve the site for posterity. Very recently, the Perch was renamed as the 'Unifier's Perch', by decision of the Cartographer's Guild.

Points of interest

The stone huts and dwellings are in a relatively good state of repair, but have been abandoned for tens of seasons and have nothing of note to show. The site of the investiture of the First Princeps, once the seat of the most powerful person in the world, is marked by a small sign, but with little else, though the chair and the portraits painted that day are in museums in the Etoile Capital City.

Tourism

The Unifier's Perch is a bullet-point site for history buffs looking to 'walk the path' of Unification, but the general lack of local interesting sites means it's often the first stop to be dropped from the itinerary. A notable columnist from the Principality Standard is on record recommending that would-be visitors instead behold the enormous landscape of the scene of investiture at the Grand Etoilean State Museum, north of Central in the Etoile Capital City - the real life scene is comparatively shabby.

Geography

The Unifier's Perch is on a tall hilltop that commands the countryside around it and is a natural strongpoint, though with no access to nearby freshwater other than a well and with rocky and thin soil unsuitable for farming.

RUINED SETTLEMENT
652

Founding Date

Unknown

Type

Village

Population

0

Location under

Saibh

Owning Organization

Principality of Etoile