Knoklen (Ku-NOK-len)

Knoklen is a small Jentillak village in the eastern Alps just west of Castle Warrick. It was settled two years after the Battle of Ronceveaux Pass (when the Jentillak helped the Basque defeat Charlemagne's rear guard). It was established as the easternmost of a series of Jentillak villages built high in the Alps to monitor human activities across Europe. After the destruction of the Great War between giants and dragons, the Jentillak withdrew to their mountains and avoided contact with others. With Charlemagne's armies marching back and forth through their mountains they saw a need to keep an eye on humans and dragons so that they would not be caught by surprise in the event of an invasion. The village is built almost entirely underground and works hard to maintain a low profile. Its homes, workshops, etc. are all housed underground and connected by subterranean streets, even its village commons/market area is underground. The only things above ground are several entrances covered by dolmens and a few carefully disguised fields of grain and vegetable gardens.
The village communicates with other villages throughout the Alps by using trained hawks to carry messages.

Demographics

Twelve Hunters/Warriors (mostly male), Fourteen Farmers (mostly female), Ten Herders/Animal handlers (male and female), Three Priests/Priestesses, Four doctors/herbalists/midwives (mostly female), Eleven assorted Artisans (smiths, bakers, cooks, brewers, carpenters, masons, etc.) (male and female), and Two teachers, and eight children too young to have an occupation. There are a total of 31 males and 33 females. Twelve would be considered children (four are older children learning a trade), forty-two would be considered adults, and ten would be considered elders.
Such a small population will eventually become inbred but giants reproduce so slowly that they are still a century or two away from this becoming a problem

Government

The Elder Council makes important decisions for the village. It is composed of Chief Akiles (who manages the daily affairs of the village and acts as a judge in small disputes), Huntsman Harzko (who manages the hunting and warrior parties), and Earth Mother Arbela (who manages the planting and harvesting as well as the midwives, doctors, and herbalists). Anyone in the village may speak at the public portion of a council meeting but then the council will withdraw to a private meeting to make the final decision. The three council positions are elected for life (but they may be removed from office if necessary). The Huntsman is traditionally male and the Earth Mother is traditionally female. The Chief may be either male or female.

Defences

Being underground the village is only approachable through a couple of defensible entrances.

Industry & Trade

Baking, brewing, winemaking, farming, animal husbandry, leatherworking, clothmaking/tailoring, wool working, smithing, mining, and falconry. Every family has a trade that it teaches to its children. Farming and animal husbandry are the predominant trades followed by mining.

Infrastructure

Several carefully disguised grainfields and vegetable gardens are outside along with several meadows for grazing that are rotated. A small vineyard produces grapes for winemaking. Several other dolmens scattered around the valley mark the entrances to isolated caves used for animal pens. One of these caves is used as a tannery (to keep the stench away from the village).
Inside the village is a large common area with a smithy and forge. The common area has stalls set into the walls for a bakery, brewery, wool worker, weaver, seamstress, and leatherworker, as well as a community kitchen and storage area. There is even an aviary next to the main entrance. A small waterwheel connected to an underground stream deeper down lifts water up into a community fount/pool. The village includes a small temple with an attached cemetery/catacombs.
There is a narrow crevice in the ceiling above the center of the common area that allows in light and fresh air as well as providing a vent for the forge and a central fire pit. Support pillars flank the fire pit. The Jentillak have been selectively breeding bioluminescent mushrooms (mugri) for over a thousand years and supplemental light is furnished by large planters filled with mugri (and generous amounts of fertilizer) spaced around the perimeter of the village. 
Food is gathered and prepared as a community. Many giants choose to eat together in the common area, though some (especially those with young children) choose to take their food back to their homes to eat as a family.

Districts

The "business" district lies in the center of the village with artisan stalls arranged around the common area. The temple and cemetery are at the north end of the market and the homes are arranged around the periphery.

Assets

Grain fields, vegetable gardens, vineyards, grazing land, small herds of cattle, goats, and sheep, as well as a large flock of chickens. They also have access to iron ore, wood from their forests, and building stone.

Guilds and Factions

No guilds but many of the trades are "owned" by a particular family. Part of the marriage negotiations is the decision about which trade the new couple will take up as a family. On occasion, if both sets of parents have very few children they may not be willing to "give up" their child to other family's business. When this happens, each member of the new couple will continue to practice their own trade with any future daughters being taught their mother's trade and any future sons being taught their father's trade. It is possible to change trades (the child of a farmer who desperately wants to become a blacksmith) but this is rare, done only with parental permission, and involves the new apprentice being adopted into the teacher's family.

History

After the Battle of Chadra and the defeat of the giants during the Great War. The Jentillak realized that their seclusion in the Pyrenees far to the west kept them in the dark about important events in the east. The Jentillak elders began encouraging small groups of Jentillak to migrate east and settle into different mountain ranges such as the Alps. The original goal was to get a Jentillak settlement into the Ural mountains with all of the settlements using trained hawks and falcons to share information between them. This plan never quite achieved its goal with Knocklen being the last and the farthest east of any Jentillak settlement to be established. Founded in 780 A.D. in a Carinthian branch of the Alps, Knocklen is less than 200 years old, with many of the older adults also being founders of the village.

Points of interest

Knocklen generally tries to be unobtrusive. It can't completely hide its existence (especially from any humans on the ground doing a detailed survey) but it tries to avoid any obvious signs of habitation, especially to dragons flying overhead.

Architecture

The architecture of the village is very practical, due in part to the limited light levels in the village that make most adornment irrelevant. The temple has some decorative stonework as do most of the homes but the large majority of the village is just carved passageways and open rooms. One of the more artistic stonemasons has undertaken a project to carve the history of the Jentillak into the walls of the common area where it will be illuminated by sunlight through the room's central crevice. (His intent is for it to be used by parents to teach their children Jentillak history.) Large planters filled with murgi (domesticated bioluminescent mushrooms) provide supplemental light. This light is dim and greenish in hue but works well for the dark-adapted eyes of the Jentillak.

Geography

Knoklen is built into the mountainside of a glacial valley high in the Alps.

Climate

Being high in the mountains, Knoklen has an Alpine climate: short, mild summers, and cold, snowy winters.

Natural Resources

Water, iron ore, building stone, forests, farmland, pastureland.

Dolmens like this dot the valley and are used by the Jentillak as entrances into their underground settlements. They are obviously not natural but since they look old and abandoned everyone assumes that these were built by an ancient people who are long gone and that no one is currently living in the valley.

RUINED SETTLEMENT
Still active

Founding Date

780 A.D

Type

Village

Population

64

Inhabitant Demonym

Jentillak