Seilo Ford
Seilo Ford stands at a broad ford over the southern branch of the Meander River on the crossroads of the main trade routes from Tarry and the City-State of Castorhage to the west, to the Kingdom of the North Heath and the heart of Foere to the east, and to Streeth Ferry and the rest of Vast to the south. Buildings constructed of massive stone blocks squat like toads along the roads coming in and out of the city and huddle over the central square. More recent wood-frame buildings and wattle-and-daub structures fill in some of the spaces in between. Designers and builders of the original stone buildings have long been forgotten, though some say they haunt the equally ancient cisterns and aqueducts of Seilo Ford.
Merchant caravan traffic here is steady throughout most of the year and makes this small city crucial to the interests of the Kingdom of Vast. Earl Jalen Touret keeps careful control over the city and ensures the trade routes are well guarded and that the various craft guilds and merchant alliances pay their dues and stay in line. His active management of the city causes some to bristle, but he holds his position as a direct appointment from the king and firmly believes that his actions are in the best interest of his king and his country.
While some of the buildings in the city seem extremely ancient, there is little to distinguish them but age. Their design is plain, uninspired, and often repeated from structure to structure. No artwork or writing left behind indicates who originally built them, though the scattering of buildings and the series of aqueducts beyond the city walls suggests that at one point the city was far larger. Some speculate that these buildings, like the strange sculptures throughout the kingdom, may have been created by the Vast, though most scholars discount this theory since the wildly artistic sculptures seem inconsistent with such boring and uninspiring buildings. It has also been noted that none of the strange abstract sculptures found in other parts of the kingdom are found within the confines of Seilo Ford or anywhere nearby.
Nearby farms along the branch of the Meander River heading south along the trade route toward Streeth Ferry provide the city with a wide variety of fruits, grains, and vegetables and nearby grazing lands provide sheep, goats, and some cattle. Strict control of the guilds here by Earl Touret hasn’t quashed the activity of the artisans due to the vast amount of trade flowing through the city, though several guild leaders have in fact penned complaints to the crown.
Two miles upriver on the west bank of the Meander is the battlefield where the Foerdewaith forces under Battle-Duke Ormand fell to the Singed Man. Only stunted grasses now grows where the battle was fought, and it is said that the cries of the fallen can be heard on moonless nights in the breeze over the river.
Settlement
Seilo Ford, City of
Type
City
Owning Organization
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