Kjörnsjo
The largest and most populous settlement in the Kingdom of Kjörnsholm, Kjörnsjo is the capital of the nation, is the seat of the monarchy and the vast majority of the countries government. The city is a magnet for those that wish to trade with the northern most kingdom in Turoza, and gain access to the high quality ship building timber and furs that come out of Kjörnsjo’s harbour. The city is also renowned for being built almost entirely out of wood, the only exception being the stone curtain wall and a few official buildings situated on the city’s acropolis, Kunglig-Kulle. Many of the city’s buildings have been decorated with intricate carvings, that often wend their way over the entire length and breadth of the structures, and are often embellished with brightly coloured paints to help them stand out.
Demographics
In terms of the different sapient species that are present in the city, Kjörnsjo is very similar to the demographic makeup of the kingdom as a whole. The majority of the population are drawn from Humans, Dvärg and Halflings, though as a capital city, Kjörnsjo does draw in more representatives from other sapient species than are represented in the rest of the country. For example, the city boasts the largest community of Goliaths in Kjörnsholm outside of the province of Stäpplandskap, many of whom have found work down at the lumberyards in the west of the city.
Socially, Kjörnsjo has a much higher percentage of Gesiths living and working there than the other population centres of the kingdom, almost entirely due to the city’s status as a trading hub. In addition there are a large number well-to do Fyrds, who have made a good living through working in many crafts that are represented in the city, and providing for its large population. As a capital city, Kjörnsjo also attracts many of the kingdom’s wealthiest citizens to have a residence there, if not actually live their full-time. The presence of so many people with good to enormous incomes means that underlying all of the society in Kjörnsjo, there is a very large population of the slave class, Thralls, who make up at least 45% of the city’s population.
Defences
Kjörnsjo has no all-encompassing system of defence, and instead has two forts, one in the north-west of the city and one in the south east that act as garrisons for Kjörnsjo’s of City Guard, who are responsible for the keeping of law and order in the city. The fort to the north-west sits near to where the main road that runs through Huvudstaden Province enters the city, whilst the fort to the south-east sits overlooking the city’s port. Both of these forts have been built like small wooden castles, with their own central keeps and a defensive wall built around them. Both of the forts have their own internment facilities built within them, mostly so that offenders picked up by the City Guard can be held somewhere pending trial. As the majority of prisoners are sent to labour camps in Kjörnsholm’s interior on sentencing, the forts’ prison facilities do not need to be overly expansive.
In addition, the centre of the city, known as the Kunglig-Kulle, that houses the Royal Longhouse, the High Temple of Njördr, several embassies including those of the nation’s semi-autonomous regions, Älvasholm and Stäpplandskap and an expensive and highly exclusive residential and retail district is the only area of the city that is protected by an enclosed curtain wall. The Kunglig-Kulle is not protected by Kjörnsjo’s City Guard, but is instead under the defensive auspices of the Queen’s Huskarls, whose central barracks building in the district is a castle in its own right. Access to the Kunglig-Kulle is tightly controlled during the night hours, but is normally during daylight, though the Queen’s Huskarls reserve the right to eject or arrest anyone within the district on little or no grounds.
Industry & Trade
The large logging camps that work further up the Orm River to the north provide the bedrock of industry in Kjörnsjo, as the trees felled in the camps are floated down the river to the city, where they are channelled into the Greater Orm River branch, which has numerous saw mills, warehouses and craft facilities that further process the logs into secondary products. The vast majority of these logs are turned into planks and timbers that go on to be used in the construction of shipping across Turoza. Furs and antlers are also shipped in great numbers from the rich hunting grounds to the north, and there is a thriving craft industry in the city that revolves around turning these hunting goods into clothes, objects of use and curios. In addition there is also a fairly large concentration of potters in Kjörnsjo, with Kjörnic pottery being a major export from the city to the rest of the country and beyond.
Infrastructure
The city of Kjörnsjo is well connected to the rest of the country and to the other nations in Turoza’s north by both road and sea. The city is directly linked by a large branch road to the main north-south road that runs up from the Kingdom of Dazscor and Aramore to the south, a route that sees a lot of trade flowing along it. In addition the sea route moving up the Stor Fjord is a particularly busy shipping route that sees the movement of goods to and from Kjörnsholm’s capital. This means that Kjörnsjo has a large port complex that stretches across the south-eastern portion of the city, and is heavily used by merchant shipping.
As well as this, as the centre of the nation’s administration, Kjörnsjo has all of the major governmental and administrative buildings located within its confines, the vast majority of which are within the Kunglig-Kulle. One building that is not located within the Kunglig-Kulle, but that plays a very important role in the judicial system, not only of the city, but Kjörnsholm itself is the Hall of Champions. This incredibly large building, situated towards the western side of the city is a large amphitheatre, which regularly plays host to the trials by combat that have been ordered to decide the outcome of a judicial case. As trial by combat is such a prevalent way of deciding legal disputes in Kjörnsholm, the Hall of Champions is frequently used. Also, the largest permanent market in Kjörnsholm is to be found in the city of Kjörnsjo, and it attracts people from all over the nation to trade with the much larger number of foreign merchants that pass by the stalls.
Geography
The city is built on a predominantly flat area of land that is bordered on its southern side by the area of seawater known as the Stor Fjord that originates in the Ocean of Memaran, and cuts its way through the territory of Kjörnsholm. In addition, the area upon which Kjörnsjo is built is bisected by two branches of the Orm River, that splits to flow into the Stor Fjord just as the river enters the area of the metropolis. The branch of the Orm River that flows through the west of Kjörnsjo is the larger of the two and is referred to as the ‘Greater’, and the branch the east is known as the ‘Lesser’. Finally, the royal, walled district of Kunglig-Kulle is built on a large, chiefly flat topped hill, which provides the garrison towers of the curtain wall, and the towers of some of the higher buildings a good view over the rest of the city.
Type
Capital
Population
c.80,000
Inhabitant Demonym
Kjörno
Location under
Huvudstaden
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
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