Blutberg

Blutberg is a town high in the northwestern area of the Alps hidden from view & not marked on any maps. Close to the city of Vienna near Lake Genova, and settled originally in the year of 742 AD. The original settlers were made up of Tieflings & Dragonborn, and some 50 odd years were exterminated by the Ulmist Inquisition & the Church of Ezra, alongside hardline elements of the Roman Catholic Church.

Demographics

The population is made up of primarily human, along with a minority of Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, and Halflings. All are of adult age and the majority are made of Ulmist Inquisition members, about twenty Church of Ezra members, and about five Roman Catholic priests. They carry out regular jobs throughout, including building maintanence, farming & food produvtion, blacksmithing, weapon & armour production, clothing & dying. Most are a breed apart not being members of Frankish society and belonging to either from the Papal States or Slavic.

Government

The town is run by a council of the highest rank of Ulmist Inquisition master, Church Father, and Catholic Cardinal. They rule as a triumvirate and collect a tribute from each member monthly of 10% of income, while they get a yearly tribute from their respective organisations. They take what is needed, storing enough food, drink & items they may need for at least three months, and senting the remainder to their organisations headquarters split three way.
No killing of members is allowed unless they break the law. They have to attend the church at least once a week if not once a day if at all possible. Weapons training is mandatory, as well as single & unit military training is also carried out. Each citizen has to lead a religious life and are intolerant of both Tieflings & Dragonborn above all else, and other 'monstrous' sentient specis, who they view as abominations to their religions. Honesty and a strong moral compass is expected if not rigourously enforced.
All outside contact is not tolerated except as & when necessary to the survival of the community. If they need to they will accept outsiders into their midst, but if anyone, both their own and outsider, ever reveals eactly where Bludberg is and details of the inhabitants, results in extreme punishment in the form of a torturous execution.
Their punishments are extreme usually involving being immediate multilation or execution, even for minor infractions. The worst crimes or being of the 'wrong' species almost always involves a slow agonizing death. This regularly involves execution by crucifixion at the very least, and either done in freezing cold in midwinter or the heat of midsummer, if at all possible.

Defences

All citizens are trained in weapons & armour use, allowing for a strong fighting force at any time. The clerics of the Church of Ezra & the Roman Catholic element, has access to 'miracles' (effectively spells) in place of some weapon & armour training. The buildings, especially around sacred buildings, are heavily fortified to allow to each them to be defended separately. Furthermore, each contains food & water stores, and heavy blockades stand to one side in many roads to allow parts to be blocked off with ease to slow down enemy troops.

Industry & Trade

Everything in Blutberg is built around the need to supply & maintain the Ulmist Inquisition members. Weapons, armour & clothing, and food production is paramount. Spread throughout the town is blacksmiths, leatherworkers, fletchers, leatherworkers, clothiers, and dyers are common traders. Farming is also carried out where & when possible.
They only seem to trade with their own kind and never with outsiders. If any do it's usually related to information about targets that threaten their religious beliefs, and even then they never trust anyone that just happens to stumble into Nlutberg.

Infrastructure

Furnaces, forges, carpentry workshops, farms, leather workshops, and dyer shops are common. Bakeries, butchers, and the odd apothecary is found throughout. Religious shrines and a large church is present with the former spread throughout. Training grounds for fighters and similar fighting arenas & schools are spread too.

Districts

The majority of the town is decentralised with the church near the centre that acts like a meeting place. Also, the town is generally split in areas with subgroups of the Ulmist Inquisition controlling small areas based round shrines. This is due to specific fighting styles, and religious outlook.
One district does stand apart. Near the church is an area that used to hold religious shrines to the previous inhabitants. This now has been desecrated and repurposed for the crucifixion of some sentient species. Many of the previous inhabitants have been crucified here, with their bodies still present. Nearly all are Tieflings & Dragonborn.

Assets

Blutberg has extensive stores of equipment, and foodstuffs. Not known to have great amounts of treasure, there is a few especially in their church and their sacred sites. Weapons, armour, foodstuffs, clothing, and practical gear (such as rope, grappling hooks, etc) are extensive, spread throughout, and heavily defended. Torture devices are stored as well for as & when needed.

Guilds and Factions

There appears to only two main factions in Blutberg, those that follow the Church of Ezra, and those that follow Roman Catholism. At present it appears to outsiders that the Church of Ezra is stronger though only in numbers, and the Roman Catholic faction seems to be slowly growing & are much more fanatical.

History

Originally built asa village it has remained that way for years. It was built by Tieflings & Dragonborn fleeing from surrounding regions that would have killed them otherwise. Using a badge of a horned daggerlike symbol as it's mark, Teiflings started to take over as the political ruling class. They were backed up by the Dragonborn who took up religious cruling class.
Both lived in harmony for years in the village slowly expanding it. They made sure it was removed from maps and the harsh conditions of his mountain pass was made worse. When doing the latter they used magic to augment it, and triggering spells for ease of passage for both Tiefling & Dragonborn alike.
Not necessarily a comfortable existence at times, the village was on the verge of becoming a town when tragedy struck. One of the leaders called Kendle had been out of the perimeters trying to find one of his sons that had ran off. Not initially noticed by him were a set of hunters, a group deadly to the community.... the Ulmist Inquisitors.
After Kendle had made a few feet nearer, the Inquisitors stepped forward aiming weapons at him. Unable to do anything against this group of holy killers, he was questioned while others tracked where he had come from. Finding out the path to the village, they killed him.
When they followed the tracks back, they soon found the path up, and summoned the rest of their troops. Soon over 100 troops stormed into the midst of the village and starting massacring everyone. This led to one child called Owle survived, although it is thought a young Dragonborn escaped too.
The Inquisitors took to torturing and crucifying any survivors, and building up the defences. Soon they were in control, and others of their kind & their allies poured in. Turned into a formidable town with defences it has increased in size, and used as a base for their most zealous indivduals to prowl the Alps looking for more 'devils' to kill. They took to calling it Blutberg after this.
One thing that not many know was that the town had a previous visitor, another Tiefling and one so dangerous was forced out. The Teifling, whose name is unknown, belonged to a group both revered and reviled by many, including the Teifling & Dragonborn communities, the dreaded agents of the Black Pope. She had came to do one thing and one thing only, to recruit the village to the cause of the Black Pope. The village hated the idea seeing it as a form of slavery to a cause that could corrupt & kill them.
Unfortunately, this came true but not in the way they thought. Leaving the village the Teifling made her way back to Rome reporting the news to the Black Pope and alerting the Papacy Above to the village. Word spread and the Ulmist Inquisitors formed a large strike force and set out to kill them. Whilst leaving she secretly destroyed the protections surrounding the village.
And the rest is sadly history.

Architecture

The town is a hodge podge of Germanic & Celtic design, build primarily of wood with some stone. Carvings of animals & plants are common motifs, though a careful study will pick up Dragon-like and Fiendish designs here & there, though much of these have now been erased or worked over. There are shrines to both churches everywhere, and religious symbology is now more present.

Geography

Surrounded by mountains that are commonly snowcapped, Blutberg is in a rudged region, and uite inaccesible for most of the year. It has quite a number of tough animals & plants that live in the area, and hard to find if not actively searched for. More than a few have lost their way in this terrain trying to find it.

Climate

The town faces warm summers, while freezing cold winters are common. It can turn cold at almost any time though due to the placement high in the Alps. Snowfall is common, and quickly fades in the summer.

Founding Date

742 AD

Type

Town

Population

251

Location under

Europe

Ruling/Owning Rank

Cardinals

Owning Organization

Ulmist Inquisition

Characters in Location

• Cardinal Machiavelli

Related Plots

• Scouting Blutberg