Tylival
Tylival is a massive fortress standing deep within the World’s End Mountains. It is owned by the queen and manned not by the usual feudal levies but a combination of the kingdom’s two standing armies, the Royal Wardens and the Queen’s Own Marchers. The fortress is the headquarters of both forces and serves as the main recruiting, training, and logistics center of the kingdom. The walls are high and strong, the troops stationed there on alert, and most assume the fortress is impregnable. The walls form a ring that encompasses not only the fortress but also fields and pastures. With deep cisterns and sturdy bastions, Tylival is a difficult siege prospect. The center of the fort is an unnaturally tall tower whose upper levels are closed off to all but the lord marshal.
The Royal Wardens are the senior force at Tylival and their commander, the lord marshal, governs the fortress. Charged with patrolling the World’s End Mountains and keeping the peace in the region, the Royal Wardens are as much law enforcers as soldiers. They are a heavily armed and armored force, the younger sons of nobles and landless knights, and maintain a high level of readiness. If the kingdom is ever threatened, nearly 3,000 knights and their supporting squires can be called in to the field.
Standing as a direct opposite in nature and mission are the Queen’s Own Marchers. These light horseman patrol and defend the southwestern border of the kingdom. Riding the edges of the Sea of Grass, the Marchers fight nomadic tribes and monsters coming off the steppe lands.
Membership is limited to those the queen personally selects, and a great selection feast occurs every spring. Mostly these are freemen of some kind, though foreigners who are willing to take and uphold their oaths are welcome. By long standing tradition upon joining the marchers, a person forsakes their name, heritage, and nationality, and adopts a new identity for the length of their lifetime oaths.
It might seem odd to station so many soldiers here, as well as base the Marchers so far from the border they are tasked with patrolling. The queens have long been aware of the danger beneath the World’s End Mountains. However, the kingdom needs the gold, iron, tin, and coal found there. The fortress of Tylival was built in case something awakens. In dire need, the entire fortress can be turned into a weapon, with the tall lord marshal’s tower serving as the focal point of a ritual to drain the souls of all within the fortress as it burns the rampaging horror to ash.
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