The Imperial Fort

Nostvary    Section 6: The World Guide    The Sondaran Empire    Kin'ta      The Zento      The Imperial Fort

A hundred and fity people live in the fort, soldiers and their families, along with civillians and priests sent by the Grand Unified Temple to study the Zento. It is a well ordered place with shops, an inn, and a canteen. Due to its remote location outsiders are welcome but encouraged to move as soon as they are able.

Zento- The Imperial Fort

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Dragon Eggs

At the centre of the fort is the treasury, guarded by three soldiers and a further two that patrol the walkway above. Together they protect not just the gold that pays their wages or the artefacts taken from inside The Zento but also a clutch of the most valuable objects in all of Nostvary. Fortunes have been spent in the pursuit of dragon eggs and those that have them guard them jealously.
In nearly a thousand years The Sondaran Empire only managed to collect eight dragon eggs, five stolen from the Jurati, one from The Dragon Eyrie, and the last two found in The Blue Mountains. Six of these eggs were escorted by the Sentinel Imperial Regiment when they went to the Zento.
When the Zento was opened up three of the eggs were taken to The Bathhouse and allowed to soak up the magic while the remaining trio remain under guard in the fort.

Demographics

The imperial mission has been stationed in the Zento for over twenty years and in that time people have come and gone. A seemingly endless rotation of clerics from the Grand Unified Temple have spent their summers studying the crater and its mysteries before returning to Sentinel or Nesher to share what they have learned. In all that time the only permanament presence has been a company of soldiers from the Sentinel Imperial Regiment. The men and women of the company, along with their families have made a home in the harsh climate of the Zento. The company belongs to the 'sitting battalion' of the regiment and its mission is to set up permament settlements in locations of interest to the empire. Nearly all of its soldiers, no matter the rank, are married and those that aren't are either widowed or veterens unable to serve in the active battalion. In eight hundred and eighty-three, when the company marched into the Zento, the did so with one-hundred-and-one soldiers and twenty-three clerics from the Grand Unified Temple. Despite some losses their numbers swelled as children were born and their names added to the company lists. Now a second generation is coming to adulthood, one that has only known the windswept plains and the giant trees of the Villen Forest, born into the ranks of the Sentinel Regiment despite never stepping foot in the city.

Government

The fort is a military outpost so the colonel of the regiment is in charge but funding is provided by the Grand Unifed Temple and its representive in the Zento is a high priest of Dromae. The high priest is in charge of the clerics and the exploration of the Zento while the Colonel is responsible for the fort and keeping looters away from the crater.

Defences

The fort is laid out in the standard pattern for a sitting battalion. Circular earth banks are raised creating inner and outer rings. The centre where the stores are kept along with an armoury, treasurey, and a three storey barracks designed to house the entire populace in case of emergency.
The next ring is where everyone lives including the colonel and the clerics from the grand unified temple, leaving the outer for the stabling of horses, pens for the cows and the goats, a lumber yard, and an area for armourers, blacksmiths, and various workshops.
A system of bridges connects the rings allowing the soldiers to quickly cross to where they are needed and maze of gates means that any attacker is open to prolonged missile fire from the defenders.

Infrastructure

Everyone in the sitting battalion has two jobs. They are soldiers prepared to fight in defence of their families but they also work at one of the many jobs that make a settlement run smoothly. They are builders, cooks, weavers, herdsmen, innkeepers, cleaners, and teachers. As such the fort has everything that a small town would have, at least nearly. There are no farms around the fort and all food stuffs, other than meat and dairy from the herd of cows and goats that the company brought with them, must be waggoned in from the nearest town.

Climate

The Zento is a hard place to survive let alone raise a family. Wild storms push in from the grass plains to the south and an icessent wind drys out the land making it impossible to grow crops. Snow can pile as high as the rooftops in winter and in the summer the temperature can reach unbearable levels but the soldiers persist because those are their orders.
They could have built the fort a mile to the north and taken shelter among the towering Villen Oaks but then they would have been too far away from the entrance to the Zento to do their job properly. Instead, they built their walls high and added windows in the eaves to take advantage of the cooling wind in the summer. The soldiers of the imperial regiment are experts at adaptation and to them the climate has been just another challenge for them to meet.

Maps

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  Zento- The Imperial Fort

Founding Date

881

Type

Military, Camp

Population

150

Location under

The Zento