The Heel

In the far west, the Heel is a spur of land off the continent, settled by farmers who live a little above subsistence but who are not by any means wealthy landowners. The Heel was once more strategically important, and actually figured prominently in the Battle of Oku , but today the capital largely ignores the area but for tax collection.
The Heel is good farmland, especially in the southern region (the "bottom" of the Heel, so named for both its southerly location on a north-up map and its lower slopes toward the sea), but because of its remoteness, the many exchanges required to move produce and goods to a major market means the purchase price in the Heel itself is minimal. Thus many families will have respectable homes and comfortably filled larders, relying on the resources of the region, but they will be cash-poor. If an usurer is not willing to accept produce or barter, he can extort terrible interest or can even bring legal means against an indebted family who appears to outside eyes to be well off.
Formal education is limited in the Heel and is not considered important. Farmers' children will grow up to be farmers, so they must know what is necessary for agriculture, and other supporting tradesmen may bring up their own children to their own or to related work, but few will see a benefit from more esoteric studies. The local temple does offer classes for interested students, including less technical subjects such as history, and some families take advantage of this to teach arithmetic and other useful skills.

Type

Hamlet