Dumella (Doom-mell-uh)

Dumella is a secret township, hidden along the Flower Coast in a cliffside cove few merchants know. It is a bastion of the Old Religion of South Izekra, a trade port for those who refuse to accept the new Ishkibite Order. It holds the hopes, dreams, and sacred artifacts of many tribes who have joined against the rising militaristic kingdom of Sarokai; some in the village even imagine a future where they subsume the neighboring tribes and become a kingdom unto themselves. For now, though, they are a hideaway, a half-secret, an anonymous detail that is content to just exist.
Those who know the way and approach by sea will see it as a gap in the white-grey cliffside. Navigating a ship between the crags isn't too difficult, but it isn't something you'd want to do at night. Those who notice the hidden guard towers poking between the rocks above them might also note that it would be a very lethal thing to do while being attacked from all sides.
Once through the crags, the green-blue water becomes a tranquil half-moon of a bay, a cove of even waters, tiny waves, and white-yellow sand. The village is built into the hill facing the entrance, with wooden docks extending a shaky hand of welcome to friendly foreigners. The buildings, wood and brown-red adobe, peek out behind the layers of foliage. Dumella's size is uncertain from a distance, with as much of the township obscured from the major angles of approach as possible. Behind walls of banana trees, temples of unusual grandiosity, interconnected by elaborate underground tunnels, mark the corners of the main village. There is no formal boundary to the town, but rather a slow fade from clustered buildings to agriculture for the next seven miles out. 
Dumella belongs to the Fezea tribal network/cultural group.

Demographics

1000 - 1500 humanoids live in Dumella and its immediate surrounding areas. The settlement (more than a village less than a town) is at the heart of a decentralized network of extended families that move between the residential cluster and the countryside. During the harvest and planting seasons, people move out into the forest to tend to their gardens and fields; when there is less agricultural work, people move into town to create goods, trade their surplus, and perform community religious rituals. 
The town is 70% Dryad, 29% Human, and 1% Half-dryad.

Government

Dumella is led by the council of elders, an oligarchy of 5-15 esteemed elders from the more prestigious families in town. There is also the town priest, who is the council's advisor, emergency tie-breaker, and regulatory agent. The council manages irrigation, land disputes, and criminal justice - they do are more arbiters of tradition than agents of constructive change. The council is also not a collection of every elder in town, only those who are the most respected - beneath the council is an entire class of respectable old folks who carry some authority in town politics.
Most new constructions, military actions, and the like are led by the major families. There are 48 extended families in Dumella: the 8 great families, the most prestigious, wealthy, and populous; the 25 old families, who are traditional, respected, and well-established; the 5 new families, who are foreign and still finding their footing in the world of the town; and the 10 lesser families, who are either descended from slaves, criminals, or freed war captives and are seen as the lowest-status and have minimal authority. 
In matters of military leadership, there are two ways an armed host can be raised: the council of elders can proclaim an emergency, or a warrior can call a War Moot. A War Moot requires both a show of dedication - the warrior doing this must marathon through town and the surrounding area making noise and performing some act of self-inflicted hardship - and the approval of an elder (not a council elder necessarily; just a non-disgraced old person) to be legitimate. The War Moot is also purely voluntary; the warrior must convince their fellows that fighting is necessary and victory is probable. Traditionally, a Moot is a rare thing done to avenge a murdered villager, fight off bandits or pirates, or to punish and raid a neighboring community who is seen as violating traditional religion. 
While this military system is designed to discourage a warrior class and promote only necessary reactive violence, the last century of conflict against the Kingdom of Sarokai has created a series of perpetual moots and emergencies. This has created a de-facto warrior class that is detached from any outside leadership, oversight, or loyalty - a dangerous thing.

Defences

Dumella is well-fortified as villages go. The seaside approach is a death trap: a narrow crevice between cliffs, which would limit a ship's ability to do a coastal barrage and force them to drastically slow or crash horribly, and where hidden watch towers allow for guards to rain down arrows and stones with little ability for deckhands to return fire. Small hidden watchtowers mark the edges of Dumella's territory, typically embedded into hills where the enemy would be exhausted and exposed.

Industry & Trade

Dumella is self-sufficient in most things; they weave their own hemp fabrics, they grow their own food, they make their own pottery. They mostly trade for iron products and dyes. To foreign merchants, they trade bananas, pearls, cocoa, pineapples, and surplus cloth; they often trade the foreign luxuries inland to their allied tribes, to access cheaper prism-crafted metal tools, as well as more luxury goods to sell to foreigners.

Infrastructure

Dumella may look basic, but a lot of work has gone into this village over the years. Elaborate tunnels connect the temple to various parts of the village and provide sanctuary during hurricanes and attacks. Canals draw water from the nearby ponds into hidden fields and banana groves, which are positioned to hide the town and its fields from foreign raiding parties (as well as divert floodwaters during monsoon season). Underground cisterns store extra irrigation water. The main thing Dumella lacks is honestly good roads; the hilly terrain and hiding of the town means that it is a nasty hike to get from one place to another, and overland merchants can't use pack animals to move their goods.

Guilds and Factions

The Dockmasters: A cluster of portside families manage the docks and police the trading of goods with foreigners. They are an alliance centuries old, who once worked with paladins of Theia the Liberator to shut down the local slave trade; they still perform cult rituals reaffirming ritual in her name. They have become less of firebrand abolitionists and more merchants in the last century. 
The Warriors: As the wars against the allies of Sarokai have dragged on, a perpetual flow of young hyper-specialized warriors has gone Northward. They have become radical, insular; they are connected to the warrior classes of the surrounding tribes, and less connected from their own families. They have created their own rituals to take ownership of their religion from the elders (they care little about age), and they seek to create their own kingdom by conquering the ungrateful peoples of the surrounding lands. They feel that Dumella itself is ungrateful as well, and demand more power despite their youth.
The Earthworkers: An alliance of families who have inordinate power over the canals, these families specialize in building and water control. Traditionalists, isolationists, and sometimes elitists, these conservative families tend to reject both trade and war as dangers to the peace.

Founding Date

210 ME

Type

Town

Population

1000 - 1500

Inhabitant Demonym

Dumellan

Location under

The Flower Coast