Ustal
USTAL is a city of dirt and dishonor. Since the days of old when Aoife first corrupted the highlanders into violence, the location has been marred by a slovenliness and diminishing of its residents humanity. No matter what it looks like when it is rebuilt it is invariably shabby with mud-choked streets and ramshackle construction. Only the ancient stone walls with their breaches mended this way or that give the place any sense of permanency.
The highlander clans and war-families have long held the city even back to the beginning. There have been numerous campaigns to tear down the walls and burn the highlanders out whenever they cause too much trouble. Unfortunately, the city is built on old and sturdy ruins so there is always something for those who return to rebuild upon in anticipation of the next cleansing.
The city is known in the north and beyond to be a place where blackhearts and rogues from all over the Western Lands, and sometimes the East as well, come to hide or work in the shadows. The city is usually dominated by a highlander population and the longer it remains unburnt; the more tend to accumulate there. This invariably emboldens the brigand peoples and they begin raiding south into Rhone and the chaotic lives of the people in Mournloc. This often triggers a series of back-and-forth bloody struggles until some leader gets it in their head to burn USTAL down and gathers enough folks to do it.
Founding Date
Time Immemorial
Type
Large town
Population
~600 to 4,000
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