Yafa Thalor

The City of the Work Calliope

She would have enjoyed the house I built for her, I like to think that. It makes the loss of my family easier.

— Excerpt from Memoirs of a Lost Soul

The city, while less grand than the capital, still holds a certain charm about it. From the maze-like Daith Market to the Prestigious Smithy House's soot-covered walls, there is just something about Yafa Thalor that draws people here. Boasted as the only place to learn the way of forging Frost Steal weapons and armor as well as where a lot of the premier sculptors, painters, and artisans go to learn/hon their craft. While others travel from the far reaches just to say they have stepped foot on the grounds of the Daith Market and bought something.

Important Locations

Vericent Mine

• Location Type: Mine
• Alternative Names: Mother of Frost Steel
• Purpose: To harvest Frost Steel Ore, stone, coal, and semi-precious gems.
• History: The second mine to be started in the Vlard Highgrounds at first it held little more than coal and stone it wasn't till a few hundred years into its life that they struck gold or well Frost Steel Ore. What they thought was going to be a small amount turned into one of the largest veins of the ore. As such it has grown to be the second-largest in the Vlard Highgrounds. Public visitors are generally shooed off the grounds as a means to protect the Frost Steel Ore and other valuable materials within and to protect the general populace.
• Description: The mine itself on the outside is nothing to write home about, some of the caverns are said to the most gorgeous. Filled with crystalline stalagmites and stalactites, while others lay host to large geode formations. Most of the caverns are held together by beams of stone crafted through magic. While the deeper into the mines you go the warmer it gets there are a few caverns that open up into large bodies of crystal clear pools that are slightly heated, not as much as hot springs but warm enough for dips.

Althor Mines

• Location Type: Mine
• Alternative Names: Alleth Althor[Little Brother]
• Purpose: To harvest Frost Steel Ore, stone, and coal.
• History: The third mine to be started in the Vlard Highlands mined due to the small vein of Frost Steel Ore only to find out it wouldn't be as good as the larger Vericent. It is one of the smaller mines and mostly producing stone and coal with sprinkles of Frost Steel Ore. It hasn't been dug as deep or as grand as it's sister mine. But it is mined enough to keep in use for the moment.
• Description: While the sister mine bolsters breathtaking caverns, this mine was mostly just shafts and few stopes. Pulling only what they needed rather than following the massive vein. The veins are mostly just stone for mason work and coal to help keep Falkovian cities warm.

The Prestigious Smithy House

• Location Type: Smithing School
• Alternative Names: Presti House
• Purpose: Teach people the art of smithing and forging of weapons, armor, etc.
• History: Started shortly after the mines began producing Frost Steel Ore in large quantities. Starting from a simple metalsmith quickly developing the Falkovian way of working the ore and mixing it with other metal ores. Quickly it became her teaching others and evolving from there. What was once her home and personal forged grew into large forge and smelting areas. Leaving its mark upon Yafa Thalor.
• Description: Expansive grounds with numerous forges and anvils, where classrooms are not like they are in Farcara's Libary but where there is heat and the smell of the heated metal. There are no live in dorms and most housing comes from the town around the Presti House. The architecture of the school is simple and basic excepting the front entrance which is slightly more detailed on carved murals of metalworking and the tools of the trade along with being decorated in ornate weaponry and armor often crafted by either senor apprentices or retired teachers to display what all the school can teach a budding smith. the one thing that is unlike other old grounds in the Vlard Highlands is the original structure is still on the grounds.

Daith Market

• Location Type: Market
• Alternative Names: Daith Way
• Purpose: A place where things and even Calliope are sold or traded.
• History: When the first people of Yafa Thalor began converting to sell and trade goods with each other the center of the town was being used. Over time it went from people holding baskets to tables to even stalls. Soon the town square was turned from just that to a market of such, often overgrowing and spilling out down other streets and walkways. Large enough that it is known if you are anyone who values a good deal to go there.
• Description: A robustly large expanse of grounds that are often scattered with booths, tents, small shops, and even selling windows built into some of the residential homes. While most first-timers walking the highways and byways of the market can be daunting and even seem cluttered there is at least some form of organization. Competing products are never allowed close out of respect for each seller and often a no refund or exchange policy is about at most booths and stalls.

Iymriia Vrammyr House of Arts

• Location Type: School
• Alternative Names: House of Arts
• Purpose: Teaching the fine arts of the Falkovian.
• History: After settling in Vlard Highlands, Nieven Presydark wanted something to remember his late daughter in law, remembering of her fondness to not only the arcane arts but of the arts themselves. Setting out the thought into the people that would later on seed the House of Arts. Unlike a lot of other places of learning it did not start small. Niewven had had plans drawn up of what he wanted and thus all that was required was the building of it. It was a grand task at the time something that dwarfed both the Daith Market and the Presti House.
• Description: While the grounds are no longer as massive as once said to have been, the House of Arts does play host to a wealth of what most would call opulence and grandeur. Boasting of fine works of art from even artists who may have never attended the House of Arts. Having room for a few lessons on either painting, sculpting, or even jewelry making.

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Population

2,583

Location under

Vlard Highlands*

Owning Organization

Ivadour Dynasty

Size

• Medium

Demographic

• Falkovian: 100%

Factions

• Not Available

Trade Routes

• Falk Way

Services

• Work Calliope Stables
• Numerous Forges
• Vericent Mines
• Althor Mines
• The Prestigious Smithy House
• Daith Market
• Iymriia Vrammyr House of Arts
• Tavern
• Inn
• Shrine
  -Facara

Resources

• Main mines of Frost Steel
• Stone
• Coal
• Craftsmen

Exports

• Forged goods
• Stone
• coal
• Work Calliope

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Rumors/Tall Tales

• There are alleyways even locals avoid within Daith Market. No one will give reasons even when pressed. Whether this works or not has yet to be seen or even if anything happens.