Kryepostniy (kreh-pohst-nee)

Isolated on an island in the middle of a frozen expanse, the town of Kryepostniy produces some of the toughest people in all Luuxinor. If the year-round frigid weather wasn't bad enough, there are all manner of dangerous creatures in the area that enjoy humanoid snacks and have little fear of the swords and arrows the hunters tend to wield. Contact with outside towns and nations is only possible in the summer months, and even then icebreaker ships are needed to cross the Eismer Bay. At no time of the year is the Icefloat passable, and very few even try to venture out on foot to see what might be found southward.
Life is tough for the people of this far-flung settlement, but their ancestors braved the wilds to set up a culture here, and so the people who call this island home feel they have to live up to their ancestor's hopes and resolve. Some of the earliest settlers on this island came seeking riches or resources, and what they found was an absolutely enormous supply of platinum in the rock upon which the island is built. Against all odds, this brutally frigid outpost produces one of the world's most valuable resources, and the trade goods they get in exchange make life here well worth the discomfort of the weather. There are no beggars or completely impoverished individuals here - for one, they would starve or freeze without shelter or food - and even the lowly miners live in what would be considered comfort if not outright splendor by the common citizen of any large city. That the most hardy people in the world live in one of the harshest places yet enjoy some of the cushiest lives is an irony not lost on the Kryeposters.

Demographics

The population of Kryepostniy is made of hardy peoples, namely humans and giant-kin, though a few dwarves have even called this place home for several generations. There are also a sizeable number of white and silver drakonids that live here and find the weather tolerable, if not enjoyable, due to their dragon ancestry and genetics. The outskirts of the town feature homes of actual ice giants, happy to cooperate with the "little people" by protecting them from the dangerous creatures in exchange for the trade goods and luxuries they bring in from afar.
The main industry in Kryepostniy is mining, where the citizens hack at frozen rocks underground to extract pure platinum from the ground. The mines are communally owned by the entire town, and miners literally work for their pay - they take home whatever platinum they are able to extract. Many deposit their platinum in the central repository, for the town leadership to hold and exchange en masse with traders in the summer. The traders bring all manner of goods for the townspeople to purchase, which they can do using a system similar to money orders or cheques representing the amount of platinum they had deposited in the "bank". Because the common currency and household spending is in platinum, the traders tend to save the best goods they have for their trips to this island.
As a result of all of the above, the people of Kryepostniy live fairly comfortably. Contrary to other places in the world, miners are by far the highest social class in Kryepostniy - with various adjacent services (smiths, mine cart operators, etc.) making up what one might consider the middle class. The only "lower class" people in Kryepostniy are really the hunters, who are paid and share in the town's wealth only dependent on the game they are able to hunt and bring in. Most families have artisan dishware and furniture, and one would be hard pressed to find a Kryeposter house without at least one piece of high art on the walls or a statue plinth. While the climate dictates fashion and necessitates wearing furs and layers, the Kryeposters tend to accessorize like few other cultures in the world, adorning their fur cloaks and clothing with all manner of jewelry and finery.

Government

Every ten years, the town of Kryepostniy convenes and elects a new Jarl to represent the town in dealings with the Giants and traders, and to administer the various departments of the town's government. One of the most important jobs the Jarl has is making sure the town's foodstores are adequately stocked and protected, as once the autumn sets in there is little hope of attaining new food stores until the next thaw. In times of need, the Jarl can organize hunting parties or pay the Giants to hunt larger creatures for the town to eat, though there are several groups of hunters that do this year-round anyway without direction from the Jarl. In all, the harsh environment of the town has somewhat forced the people to think and act communally, so the Jarl's job is fairly trivial most of the time.
The Giants that live on the outskirts of the town act autonomously from the town's governance, operating in their own small clans or even households. They have a loose social hierarchy that places one Giant in a position to represent them with the Jarl of the town to negotiate on behalf of all Giants for all manner of mundane or special arrangements. Other than that, individual Giants or households will essentially contract with individual people to trade a service for some human goods. The benefits of this arrangements for the Giants are: they get access to the goods that the traders bring in to the town, which improves their quality of life as well; and they can live among a slightly larger concentration of people to help deter the dangerous denizens of the island and the Icefloat from attacking.

Defences

The central area of the town has little in the way of defenses, sporting a simple wooden palisade around its perimeter. Because timber is very sparse in the region, the wall is only about 10 feet tall in most places. It was constructed several decades ago, and the perpetual freezes and general climate have created several layers of frost and ice encasing this palisade, further fortifying the wall. Despite this, the wall is still far too short and crude to stop the Giants who live just outside its area and who would pose a massive threat to the town if they ever decided to stop cooperating with their smaller neighbors.
The mines have a bit more exterior protection, with higher walls and arcane cannons to protect the area from creatures. There are dedicated Mine Sentries who keep watch round the clock in all weather and situations, protecting the town's main lifeblood from destruction or tampering. Within the mines, these same Sentries patrol the deep corridors and keep an eye out for any type of monsters that may have found their way in, sealing any deeper passages when they become too hazardous for miners to continue working in.

Industry & Trade

The main industry in Kryepostniy is mining, and its main product is platinum. Almost every government around the world mints platinum coinage, as well as gold, silver, and copper - so there is always a market for this precious metal, and as certain nations become even wealthier, they purchase an ever-increasing amount of platinum to mint into new coins. In exchange for the platinum - and to a lesser extent other metals and gems - the citizens of Kryepostniy are lavished with the most luxurious goods in the world. Every year, hundreds of traders make the trek to the southern reaches of the continent, spending the winter in towns like Gel'Eismer or Fuargainem so they are ready to take their goods to Kryepostniy at the first opportunity when the winter breaks. A few even brave the harsh conditions to schlep their carts over the frozen bay in the midst of winter, with varying degrees of success and deadly failure. These same traders not only trade with the people of the town for their pure platinum, they also bring their goods to the Giants who live just outside the town and who are more than happy to purchase these goods or barter with animal pelts or massive scrimshaw walrus tusks.

Infrastructure

There is very little infrastructure to speak of, owing to the weather and environment in general. There are no wells, as any water underground is either frozen or would be frozen by the time it was hauled up in a bucket for the citizens to drink. Instead, there are several collection points - similar to cisterns - where runoff collects and freezes and citizens can come chip off part of the ice and melt it over their fires. The climate also prevents roads from being paved or made of anything other than dirt and gravel. It snows often enough (with some rain in the summer) to keep the ground moist frequently, so there is almost always at least a thin sheet of ice on the ground.
The one place where there is infrastructure and organization is in the mines. Neat rails have been laid and maintained over the centuries, allowing waste rock to be dumped and larger concentrations of metals to be brought to the surface. There are several smiths onsite at all hours to maintain the miners' tools and make sure they can work as efficiently as possible. Around the turn of the fifteenth century, the town paid for several mages to come and enchant permanent lights in the mines and at several locations around the town above-ground. These "fires" burn constantly and provide a source of light in the nights, especially in the winters when the sun almost never shines.

History

Various peoples have wandered the frozen south since the first days of Luuxinor's existence. Legends and folk tales speak of people who would travel through the harsh lands that now house Kryepostniy on a nomadic circuit that spanned different areas at different times of the year. Attempts had been made several times to establish a town or settlement on the island in the Eismer Bay, but they always failed due either to the inability to cope with the harsh and dangerous winter or to the danger posed by the Giants and roving creatures that called the area home. The people of Fuargainem and Gel'Eismer experienced harsh enough winters and had contact with the nomads who traveled throughout the frozen wastes, but even they were not hardy enough to venture into the freezing southern waters outside of the "heat" of summer.
Then in the eighth century an explorer who was traversing the frozen lands discovered - the exact method or process is still unknown and open to speculation - that there was a vast platinum resource buried underneath the island ready to be extracted. Platinum had been a very rare metal before this, and nations were always looking to discover new sources of the metal they used for high-value currency and high-status jewelry. This discovery took a bit of time to reach all the nations of the world, but they were all excited at the prospect of a reliable source of platinum for centuries to come. Attempts were made to establish an international mining presence in the area, but the Giants and dangerous wildlife kept chasing away the settlers before they could get fully established.
In the year 834, an eclectic group of outcast miners from various cultures set out to found a new mining community they felt would be more equitable and less exploitative than the mine towns they had all come from. They had heard the stories of vast platinum lodes on an island in the far south, and they also heard the stories of the ill fates that had befallen all previous settlers. Determined to make the mine work this time, they spent their travel time on land collecting hides, weapons, and other valuables they thought might entice Giants to cooperate with them instead of just killing them. They slowly worked their way south, a winding caravan on the then-nascent Great Trade Road stopping at various cities or camping for a few months at a time near the forests and hills to hunt and gather their own goods. They made it to Gel'Eismer just as the frost set in and winter had begun. After waiting out the winter, the first thaws arrived, and the group made their way across the precarious ice of the still-frozen Eismer Bay and onto the island.
Instead of setting up a settlement right away, they scouted where the platinum might be located - having brought a mage with a knack for locating deposits of metals. Once they determined where the largest concentration of metals and gems was located, they sought out the local Giant clans to entreat with them. They presented themselves as traveling merchants and traders from the mainland, there to do business with the great Giants of the southern island. They showed the Giants the goods they had brought - magical weapons, pelts from animals not native to the area, and different food and drink that the Giants had likely not seen before. Their main goal was to convince the Giants that if they cooperated and helped protect the town that was to be built that they would have a reliable, steady supply of these goods for all time. It took a bit of discussion with the clans, but eventually the group was able to strike a deal with one of the Giant families, cementing the solidarity necessary for Kryepostniy to survive.
Having secured promises of protection and cooperation from the Giants, the settlers returned to the area they had previously surveyed and began building up the town. They sent messages back to other areas (a bit prematurely) of the world that they had successfully set up a mining town and had worked out a deal with the Giants to provide protection as the town grew - so other traders should feel free to come to the island and trade their best goods for the platinum and other raw minerals the town would be producing. They knew it would take a while for word of this to get around, and perhaps at least a year for any traders to make their way to the island, but they were prepared and had planned ahead. They had stockpiled several caches of the items the Giants valued - hidden away in various magical bags among the settlers - so they had enough loot to entice the Giants to stay for more than a year. In the meantime, the settlers spent the relatively warm summer months digging the mines and constructing their houses. When the following winter arrived, the first for the settlement, the town was prepared and was able to withstand the harsh conditions sustaining very few losses.
The following spring and summer their planning paid off, as traders and merchants began to make the trek to the island with their wares. They were surprised to see the small but solid town in the frozen wastes, and even more surprised to see Giants mingling nearby or sometimes actually among the townsfolk. The traders were happy to sell their goods in exchange for raw platinum, and they left the town later that summer with carts laden with one of the world's most precious metals. The citizens, in turn, gave some of the goods to the Giants to fulfill their promises and "taxes" owed to their protectors, thus cementing the economy and system that would come to form the foundation of Kryeposter life. The mine continued to yield valuable minerals, traders continued to show up every summer with their best goods, and the Giants continued to be valuable protectors and allies for the town.
As the town grew, they eventually realized the need for a perimeter wall to help protect the town, as the Giants could and would only do so much. Contracting with the Giants, a group of workers from the town set off toward the sparse wooded areas of the island, hoping to bring back several Giant-sleds of timber for the construction of a palisade. After several months of timbering, they accomplished just this, and the group returned to the town with their goods in tow. The palisade was constructed over the summer months, completed just in time for the first freeze of 979. In the centuries since, not much has changed in Kryepostniy; the population continues to slowly grow, the mines continue to produce valuable goods, and the Giants continue to be good neighbors. Life in the town seems very quiet to those who visit temporarily, but its citizens speak of a lively community all living freely and amicably with each other.

Geography

The town is built on a few very small hills, situated on a vast mostly-flat plain on the southern island (which does not have a name). There are small copses on other parts of the island, where Giant woodsmen work to bring timber and firewood to the town of Kryepostniy. The dangerous denizens of the forest are no match for the Giants but would pose problems to any smaller folk traveling without proper protection. The southern part of the island is completely barren, a frozen desert of snow that eventually meets the completely frozen ice sheet known as the Icefloat. The northern part of the island is surrounded by the Eismer Bay, which is frigid but liquid only during the summer months and frozen solid most of the year. Thus, the island on which Kryepostniy sits is mostly a frozen wasteland surrounded by frozen waters and ice sheets, enduring almost constant winter, just to produce one of the world's most valuable minerals.

Founding Date

873

Type

Town

Population

3,681

Inhabitant Demonym

Kryeposters (kreh-pohst-erz)