The Sunken Barony of Stars
Collected and Written by Civil Service Archivist Rayk Hafenstatz
Years ago, writing this document would have been a long drawn out process of examining records in town council halls, likely a genealogy of Barons, and perhaps some amount of wandering the wilderness looking for strange creatures to sketch.
But years have passed.
It has been more than a decade since Vassertal was lost, first to the plague, then to the Zekartaal, then to the Onyx Aristocracy. In many ways, what I am writing about here is not something that exists anymore, as the eventual Vassertal this is reclaimed will bare only a passing resemblance to the Vassertal in these pages. But this was the land that raised many people, that gave us heroes and comrades, as well as heartache and hard choices.
Writing this document was a process of interviews with those Vassertallers who managed to escape the Blasserstreit plague, the review of documents still held in trade halls in Eisen and Wolstad, and what personal journals were graciously donated. It is not a full reckoning, but is likely as full of a reckoning as can be gathered until there is once again a Baron in Vassertal.
As a note on this point, unlike other Baronies such as Resinderholz, most Barons of Vassertal either turned their own residences into baronial estates, or built new ones upon attaining the title. This causes there to be baronial estates spread across the region, with only Dorstenfurt lacking at least one.
With this in mind this document is organised along regional lines, detailing the relative histories, notabilities, and locales of the various provinces of Vassertal. It is unfortunately not exhaustive, but that is not likely to be possible until the barony is once again in our hands.
We will endure.
Civil Service Archivist Rayk Hafenstatz
Hochwasser
“Winter mornings in Pfielhoffen felt like the entire world could pass you by. The mist from the River Pfiel was gentle and kind, the dew was frozen on the eaves of our front door, and everything existed in a kind of half-light drawn from a dream. I still dream of it.” - Frau Janine Kuchler, now of Eisen.
The wild western frontier, Hochwasser’s legacy is that of quiet. Vassertal and Verlorenherz were two baronies that never particularly cared for one another. The reasoning is lost to social history, but can be seen in the world. No road is carved through the Weald travelling east to west beyond the Zildora and any would be traveller would be better served travelling south to Wolstad and then east, or attempting to climb up the River Tierblut. In this Hochwasser became somewhat of a barrier province, largely untouched, particularly in the south, and largely forgotten.
Broadly speaking, Hochwasser can be split into two generalities; the high northern demesne at the base of the Festung, inclusive of Pfielhoffen, the Hochwassers Schwarz and Tief, and the rivers that flow onwards from them, and the vast southern lowlands, a largely unsettled expanse of woods bordering the Eisen and Salzhausen rivers, sharing borders with Resinderholz and Verlorenherz.
These southern lowlands were sparsely populated, and even then were primarily done so by insular havens that had little to do with the barony as a whole. Existing in this strange shared land between three baronies, but distant from control of any one, it was a place of rough frontier law. Small scale violence between Havens was not uncommon, and it was said to be a place where criminals and cultists were more numerous than honest folk. Unfortunately this same separation made the region want for support when the Blasserstreit came and it is said that matters there were dire indeed.
Pfielhoffen - Home of the White Mist
All of Vassertal’s settlements are defined by their relationship to water, in that they are either lowtowns built among the reeds and swamps, or hightowns, built away from the morass that defines the duchy. The lowtowns are rough-and-tumble places, lacking in wealth and prominence, while the hightowns are populous and formidable, albeit existing in conflict with the Weald around them.
Pfielhoffen is likely the highest of these hightowns, but also the smallest.
Set among the granite-faced hills that surround The Festung, Pfielhoffen almost feels like a different Barony entirely. While the river Pfiel flows through the town, that is the only matter that links it to Vassertal. The township is high above the surrounding Weald, its structures were uniformly crafted from heavy stone, and its people were Hoff-folk for generally their entire lives, leading to an insular, if stable, population.
Well known for its school; The Hochwass Tower, Pfielhoffen was generally regarded as a civilised and wealthy settlement, whose industries were based in stone-carving, writing, and enchantment. By all reports it was a fine, if cold, town to live in.
The Hochwassers - Tief and Schwarz
The two mountain lakes known as the Hochwassers are found above Pfielhoffen, accessible by cut rock paths and cobbled gambles. While not notably large, both lakes are reported to be deeper than any diver, cast rope, or fool has been able to discover. Fed by snowmelt and rain from higher in The Festung, as well as mountain springs, they are blisteringly cold, and beautifully clean. Reportedly swimming in the Hochwasser Tief was said to cure madness, while submerging your head in the Hochwasser Schwarz was rumoured to allow individuals to commune with the mountains themselves. Both lakes formed important sources of water for both the lowland provinces of Vassertal, and the town of Pfielhoffen. The exact specifics of their arcane or cursed natures is largely unconfirmed local superstition and attempts to foster tourism, but one would be hard pressed to find any natural structure in the Weald that was not replete with superstitions and legends.
The Low Rivers - Salzhausen and Eisen
While the High Rivers of the Pfiel and Tierblut are more notable for their origins, the Low Rivers are far more the standard Vassertal affair, which is to say deceptively wide, difficult to cross, and filthy.
The Salzhausen flows from outside the Barony, being fed from the Festung and its cool mountain springs, before flowing into the Zildora. It is a true Vassertal river in that it appears to only be a few dozen paces across, but in reality just as much of its water-weight flows through the ground a couple hundred paces either side of it, resulting is a wide black-mud expanse of swamps, pools, and bogs either side of the river.
The other Low River is the mighty Eisen, a waterway that truly belongs more to Vassertal than it does to Resinderholz. Flowing from Turstoppen in the east, through the centre of the Barony before eventually turning south, it is one of the largest rivers by weight in The Concord. Home to all manner of biting things, it is difficult to say any one thing about The River Eisen, aside from the fact that it is the lifeblood of Vassertal, for better or worse.
The Hausevagen - The Gray Lake
Certainly overshadowed by the larger lake to its North, the Hausvagen is by no means a small body of water. Home to a half-dozen lake-Havens, it was generally well regarded by the people of Vassertal for being predictable, gray, and generally free of curses. The people who I spoke to who had strong memories of the place recall a yearly ‘Festival of the Dragonfly’ where the different Havens, boating companies, and even distant townships, would build heavy rowboats and bring them to the lake at midsummer. The groups would then attempt to cross the lake from north to south, while also fighting off boarders from rival crews. The crew that arrived aboard a boat into the southern Eisen would be dubbedthe winners and adorned with reed crowns, regardless of which boat they happened to be piloting at the time.
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In all, Hochwasser is a quiet place, a place defined by its land (as all of Vassertal is), but one that found itself separate from the Barony more than influenced by it. Set aside from Vassertal as a whole, it became a place of peace and reflection. Reports from scouts, heroes, and others who have set foot in the region since it was lost have reported that it feels far less broken than the remainder of the Barony, as if it was never lost to plague and enemy alike. I can only hope that this is true and that I might get to see a winter morning in Pfielhoffen or feel the ice cold waters of Hochwasser Tief. Although I believe I could skip attempting to cross the Salzhausen.
Dertocher
“You’d be hard pressed to find any folk in Vassertal tougher, stranger, and harsher than the Dertochens, and that’s coming from a Barony that contains some of the toughest, strangest, and harshest people I’ve ever met.” Herr Klaus Stamm, riverboat merchant, Eisen.
It was exceedingly difficult to get any particular recollection from the people I contacted regarding Dertocher. While many had opinions ON the province, very few had opinions FROM the province. It strikes me as a place not dissimilar from the Ravensreach Wilds in many ways, that being a vast stretch of unbroken Weald, where paths are as fluid as frostmelt rivers, where Havens are swallowed up by the darkness of league upon league of unconquered forest, and where strange things can reside. What I have managed to gather is as follows.
The Great Weald
Dertocher is defined by ‘The Great Weald’, that stretch of Wealdland bordered byPfielhoffen in the west, The River Eisen in the south, the River Von Dertocher in the east, and the open grasslands of Maracuis in the north. Despite its relative wildness, the Great Weald was reasonably populated, with many people saying that a savvy traveller could rest in a Haven every night if they knew the paths, had the right charms, and enough coin.
From the Great Weald the Barony drew forth nearly a third of its fighting-folk, whose propensity and skill at violence was only matched by their predilection towards regional rivalries.
Much like the Lowlands of Hochwasser, it was said that these same Havens suffered greatly when the Blasserstreit spread from Schlafentern, being insular to incubate whole swathes of the disease, while also distant enough to suffer when aid was rendered. I will note that it did not appear to be entirely the cause for the destruction of the province, as one man, Herr Mikkel Lidenbaum told me a very detailed recollection of the Havens of Torrau, Muchenstein, and Drotzlander battling the Zekartaal to a standstill in 216. He refused to detail how he knew the battle in such detail, but I am forced to believe it based on detail alone. If it is truth, then some Havens in the Great Weald possibly continued to survive well after the Barony was abandoned.
The River Von Dertocher
Smallest and least well known of Vassertal’s many waterways, the Von Dertocher is fed by the northern reaches of the Wyrmspine Mountains , eventually joining the Schlafentern in the south. The Von Dertocher is only notable for meeting the barest amount of flow to be called a river and not a creek and that it was reported to be the home of the Baronies first Baron.
Markus Von Dertocher, as the pair of retellings gave it to me, was a monster-hunter from the Great Weald who rose to prominence for his skill at arms and violent tendencies. Often presented as a humorous figure, Markus reportedly became Baron when he killed a Burghermeister in Unster, a mage in Pfeilhoffen, a ‘lord’ in Hasselbach, and no-one in Brumhaven (apparently the town surrendered before any violence occured). Importantly, Von Dertochen is never retold as being a general or captain, he didn’t conquer these settlements. Rather it seems that in various stages of drunkenness, disagreement, or madness he killed somewhere between a dozen and fifty people, which somehow made him the first Baron.
To be honest, I don’t follow how this occurred, but matters from ~10AE are seldom understandable or presented clearly. What we do know is that Baron Markus would often appear in Vassertaller theatre, killing troublesome antagonists (and sometimes protagonists) with a handaxe in a bloody manner similar to the deus ex machina of Artebazzani literature. We also have inherited the phrase ‘Dertoching’ or ‘Dertocher’ meaning to be surprisingly violent, or violent in general.
It should be of no surprise that I have no other records of any other Baron from this province.
Schlafentern
“Water and stone done mix, it's no mystery why the worst thing to ever come out of Vassertal had its roots in Schlafentern.” Herr Heiner Rothke, now of Wolstad
Schlafentern despite being the home of more than a few barons, part of essential industries of Vassertal, and being quite unlike a lot of the rest of the Barony, is known for only one thing. It is from this land of rock, root, and river, that the Blasserstreit originated.
I do not mean to imply that the very land of Schlafentern gave rise to the disease, but rather that the first cases were reported in the far east of the province, among the mountain havens that mine iron, tin, and copper in the Wyrmspine mountains. These are hardscrabble places and it is difficult to draw much history from them at the time, let alone now with leagues and decades between us and them.
What we do know is that prior to the outbreak of Blasserstreit, Schalfentern had an outsized effect on the history and prosperity of Vassertal. I even had it said that all of the barony's wealth flowed the same as its rivers, from Schlafentern. Important minerals, stones, and even timber were harvested in the High Weald, transferred to Unster, where they travelled downriver on boats, to be offloaded at Dorstenfurt or Eisen, either to be traded onwards, or to be sold to artisans and merchants in Hasselbach and Brumhaven.
Because of this, the shipping, mining, and farming families of Unster, known collectively as ‘The Zermahlen’ or ‘The Grinders’, held great sway in Schlafenturn and great wealth elsewhere. The brother-barons Artur and Macks Schoder were both from Unster, belonging to the Schoder mining bloodline, and the Baron Zachariah Worgen supposedly came from a mountain family in the High Weald.
A hard land, but a profitable land, the Schalfenfolk were proud, stern, and imperious. A kind of folk that are sorely missed.
Unster - Gateway to the Mountains
Unster is a town with a purpose and was designed as such. A trio of great mithril pulleys and platforms moved raw ore, lumber, and stone from the cliffs that surround the town onto a level with the lake at its base. All of the township was directed towards the movement, weighing, certification, and sale of raw resources, with comfort, life, and really all of humanity as a secondary concern. Where in other settlements structures such as taverns and seats of government had pride of place, in Unster it is warehouses. The counting houses were the ones hosting lines of fans, rather than notable bards.
Because of this Unster was not a particularly large town, while also being huge. The structures were predominantly massive warehouses, industrial concerns, or dockyards, while the smaller detritus of humanity was found elsewhere, in distant lakeside burgs or Havens in the High Weald. Even the boarding houses that held the working population of the town were large and heartless.
The only structure of note that was not of economic concern was that of the town church. Known as The Abbey of the Cold Hand, it was a holy place dedicated to Arcadian and Panoply. Of particular veneration was the Low and the Bloody Handed. Its priests preached a kind of ‘winner-take-all’ ambition which was the only thing to survive in a township such as this.
The Turstoppen - The Dirty Lake
A rather unfortunate place, no one I spoke to had anything good to say about The Turstoppen. Likely dirtied by finishing and cleaning works in the town of Unster, the lake was often a dirty grey-brown, with surface sediment and multicoloured banks. Thankfully the pure weight of the River Schalfentern becoming the River Eisen washed it clear before travelling west, it didn’t stop this lake from being known predominantly for being unclean and unkind.
The only lakeside Havens of the area could be found on the northern banks, where the weight of water kept the shore mostly clear of detritus. These havens were home to beautiful homes of Unster’s wealthy families, resembling Bordevarian manors rather than Greenweald fortified settlements.
The High Weald - Riches and Ruin
Rising out of Unster, the High Weald is set atop Vassertal, ringed by moss-covered cliffs that hold it over the canopy of the surrounding barony. A rocky and rugged landscape, travelling here is difficult, and carving out civilization is even harder. Every path is a winding snake avoiding outcroppings of cold stone, dark pools, and impassable briars. It is a petty and vengeful place that appears to resent giving up its riches. But riches it does contain.
The further east one travels the further uphill you go, until you are already part way up a mountain without realising it. The trees; gnarled oaks and prickly firs obscure the true extent of this upward journey until your legs begin to complain with blisters and pulled muscles.
Scattered among this place at the Havens of the High Weald. Dense settlements built around large, topheavy houses known as byrehauses, where multiple families, livestock, and travellers will cohabit. Some havens were said to be composed of single massive structures, like the tenements of Legend City.
Each of these Havens had a specialty, be it working stone or ore, or perhaps its transport, or some other necessity. Very insular and removed from the world, education was poor, and despite the worth of their work, so was wealth. I was unable to find anyone with experience of the High Weald directly in my travels, such was the extent to which these living spaces became charnel houses when the Blasserstreit curled its way through this harsh place.
The Rivers - The Schlafentern and Von Dersohne
The two rivers of Schalfentern could not be more different.
The Schlafentern, that gives the province its name, is a thundering deluge of clear mountain water that carves a thin but deep canyon through the rough terrain. It is the heart of the waterway that will become the River Eisen. Its refusal to be tamed and its essential nature to the Barony is a point of pride for the people who lived near it and the river is generally regarded as a furious local presence, not dissimilar from heretical nature spirits.
The Von Dersohne, by comparison is a meek, shallow, green-black river that flows out of a single mountain spring, before trickling overland and tumbling into the southern flows of the Turstoppen. I could find very little information regarding it, save for the fact that the founder of Unster, Johann Von Dersohne (the Burghermeister killed by Markus Von Dertocher) is buried with his family on its banks. Exactly where though, I could not say.
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Having never been, Schlafentern sounds like a tough, terrible, tragic place. It is unlike anywhere in Resinderholz, and anywhere I have been. The industry, avarice, and strength of the Iron Valley, darkened by the Weald, and as inhospitable as the far reaches of Andash. A truly difficult province, but one that shows the wealth of toil. For what good it did them in the long term.
Zildora
“You’re either a boatfolk, or a bloatfolk and I don’t have much time for bloaters.” A common sentiment given to me regarding distributions of people in Vassertal.
The Heartland of Vassertal, the Zildora province is what comes to mind when you think of Vassertal. That is to say; a vast swathe of swamp, kept in the dark by an oppressive canopy of willows, full of biting insects, monsters, and foul-mannered folk. I would also like it noted that this was an understanding of Zildora that was given to me by its people. So I feel like foul-mannered was valid.
While the towns in Vassertall are split into lowtowns and hightowns, the people are similarly split. You’re either lowfolk, such as the Dertochens, the Highwealders, or the Boatfolk of Zildora, meaning you work in the muck of the Barony, you walk its ways, and know its secrets, or your a highfolk, a townfolk, or a Wolf, that being the people who seek to tame the barony, to carve it into something resembling civilisation. As one would expect, this disunity breeds colourful terms for each other and generalised disgruntlement, made worse by the fact that this separation also tends to follow wealth, with Highfolk being overwhelmingly wealthier and more influential.
The Zildora province exemplifies this, being full of mud-walking boatfolk who man the riverboats that allow the barony to function, while also existing in the shadow of the baronial capital; Hasselbach. A dirty and dark place, Zildora was also home to the vast amount of people who managed to escape the plague to Resinderholz, a majority of which were lowfolk.
The Zildora - The Silence
The largest of the lakes in Vassertal, and also its most cursed. Earlier in this document I have decried my nation's predilection towards superstition and mythmaking, but the sheer volume of reports regarding the Zildora is staggering. I have no choice but to tell the truth of it.
As the legend stands, the Zildora is silent. Its meagre waves make no noise, oars breaking its surface leave no trace, and even speaking on it is difficult. Supposedly the silence is ‘oppressive’ and deeply unnatural. None of the rumours I heard ever spoke to the cause of the lake’s unfortunate condition. If anything people looked at me with a disapproving disdain for daring to ask. Which does not bode well in my experience. I left this mystery to lie, but the next one to address it would be better suited as a Houndspriest rather than a bureaucrat.
Dorstenfurt - The Twicetown
Smallest of Vassertal’s settlements, Dorestenfurt is a crude place built on the south-eastern shore of The Zildora. Sometimes called ‘The Twicetown’ given that it is two towns sitting atop one another. ‘The Lowtown’ is the layer directly above the shallow-swamp waters around The Zildora. It is built on pilings forced into the sodden soil. While ‘The Uptown’ is built atop it, resting on the lampposts, roofs, and walls of Lowtown.
Lowtown is a quiet place, still affected by the curse of silence. Home to meagre dwellings, poor drinking houses, and dockworks, it is a bleak locale, one that the residents take macabre pride in. Roughly half the population of Dorstenfurt reside in Lowtown.
Uptown is conversely overly colourful. It seems that in an attempt to overcome the bleak surroundings the people of Uptown had a tendency to paint their homes in garish colours, to import stained glass from Brumhaven, and even sprinkle alchemical elements in the lanterns to give them colour.
As a place of travel and meeting, Dorstenfurt was felled by the fast spreading plague. I cannot imagine the horrors of attempting to flee the bleeding infected across the rickety gantries of Lowtown or the garish walkways of uptown, all while your screams cannot break as they should.
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A messy province, there is some amount of honesty in Zilodra, and while its namesake does not fill me with confidence, its people are unlike any other. Although I’m not sure if that is a compliment.
Hasselbach
“I am of Hassalbach as much as it is of me. From the water in the marshes to the tears I have shed. The trees and their canopies breathe as I do. The blood from scrapped knees adorn the steps of the city from children rising again to face the day's great challenges. Hasselbach is the heart that beats within us, and us the hearts that keep it alive.” Houndspriest Wenche Vanatoure, now of Wolstad.
While it falls within the borders of the Zildora province, Hasselbach is so very unlike anything around it, it feels odd to simply include it among the swamps and curses of Dorstenfurt. Also, as the capital of the Barony, there is plenty to cover regarding it.
The largest city in Vassertal, Hasselbach was a sprawling place set atop the first high ground out of the lowlands of Zildora. A town large enough to feature six taverns, a Cathedral and two other churches, A Houndspriest Chapter, and for a time two Ritter’s Colleges. While Wolstad is a large settlement, it is not by much.
It is said that in Hasselbach one could buy anything the Weald had to offer, could meet travellers from distant Ritterswald, and could find somewhere to be at any hour of the day or night. As close to welcoming that Greenweald settlements got, it was Hasselbach.
Pride of place within the city is the Iron Star Cathedral. A fine place of worship built in the Greenweald style not seen outside of the largest cities, Iron Star looms over the entire city, built of interlocking stones of white marble and dark granite, with capstones of arcstone, and reportedly covered in murals depicting each Sphere, herald, and eternal. The largest single church in the entire Weald, the Iron Star was dedicated to Arcadian and Stallia, and so large was its influence that not only was there an order of priests dedicated to is occupation, but it held an orphanage, Houndspriest Chapter (Chapter Benedikt) and a secluded monastery on its grounds.
Elsewhere in the city one might walk in the alchemist-gardens of Baroness Delilah Nightsbane, who grew a particular kind of Thronesboon that flowered in the night. The Baroness gave the gardens to the city in apology for moving her Baronial quarters to Unster to facilitate trade negotiations with the Zermahlen.
You could find Sanguinary Street, where the Red College and the Grave College of Ritters would glare at each other, two toy fortresses built in rivalry before one (the Red) eventually overcame the other). A street capped by the Mercantile Mortuary School, where layfolk could study to be funerary workers and eventually Doktors. War and death in one competitive locale.
It is an open shame speaking of what has come of Hasselbach. I do not know exactly how much to write here, I do not know how much of it is true. But we know the city is lost, we know it is infected even still with Blasserstreit, and if rumours are true, then the city itself, its stones and streets carry the disease. It is said to be a place of rot and horror. That is all I will say of it.
Wolfsbuel
“Oh they hated us. Called us Pettyknights and Dryboots if we were unlucky, Wolves and Highfolk if we were lucky. But they got to play in the rivers while we fought to keep evil people from their doors, so I didn’t give much time to the opinions of sheepfolk.” Ritter Akser Kraizenhutz, now of Eisen.
Southernmost of the provinces of Vassertal, Wolfsbuel is unlike any of the other provinces. Generally composed of solid ground, it bears more of a similarity to the lands of Resinderholz more than the sodden landscapes of Zildora and Dertocher, and is free of much of the rocky ruggedness of Hochwasser or Schlafentern. Instead it is a generally modest province of heavy wealdish woods, largely unbroken, save for the dispersed havens, the city of Brumhaven, and the river that gives the province its name.
But the people of Wolfsbuel are a severe and proud sort, distinctively outward facing, as their province was the sight of many battles, campaigns, and skirmishes against the Bordevarian Kingdom to their south. Most notable of these being the three year reign of Duchess Catarina Arbington who took the city in siege and ruled it as ‘The Duchy of Kingswood’. Duchess Arbington was eventually killed by a force led by Baronness Anna Reichsvein in 148AE.
Even before this the people of Wolfsbuel were said to have fought the Endemani of the Archibald Valley to the south, and before that each other. While the Dertochens are fighters, the Wolfsbuelers (often shortened to ‘Wolves’) were always soldiers.
The Wolfsbuel and Hundegrab - The Barrier-March
One of only two independent rivers in Vassertal, the Wolfsbuel marks the north-western border between Wolfsbuel and Zildora, something not immensely useful unless you were a particularly parochial group of people. A cold river, it flows modestly and reliably west from the Wyrmspine Mountains before crooking in the shadow of Hasselbach and ending soon after in the Hundegrab. The river itself is not useful for much aside from a smattering of water-wheel powered mills in havens dotted along its length. Its southern bank is followed by the road that travels from Hasselbach to Brumhaven, and it is generally not worth it to build a boat upon such isolated waters, leaving the Wolfsbuel unbothered and unused, continuing much as it has for hundreds of years.
The Hundegrab is the smallest of Vassertals lakes (if one ignores the Hochwassers for their unique circumstances). A low and flat expanse of black water, it is supposed to be very deep and heavily caved, both underneath its surface and in the fens that surround it. Many of the guilds of Hasselbach and Brumhaven have trials or traditions that involve the Hundegrab, be it swimming in it or descending into its caves.
Brumhaven - The Hearth of the Warwoods
Brumhaven has claim to be the second largest city in Vassertal, sister city to Hasselbach, and home to more than a few of the region's barons. While not quite as large as its larger sister, it is still notable. Built atop a series of squat hills in the crook of the Wyrmspine mountains, the city is known for its rolling districts, strong walls, and martial character. Scarred from war and siege, Brumhaven wears these scars with pride.
Notable sights within the city include The Watchpost, a keep-like structure on the southern wall which is home to the baronies Huntsmarshall Sanctuum, a prison, and a tavern, which I can’t imagine had an immense clientele. On the northern climbs travellers may wander through the Brumhaven Wagonworks, a series of workshops dedicated to the testing and construction of catapults and trebuchets during times of war, or wagons and cranes during peace. There is even ‘The Hall of the Duchess’, a fine manor and grounds in the centre of the city that were once the home of Baron Nichen Moonwhile, which was taken by Duchess Arbington, and was eventually repurposed as the centre of the city's government.
In all, Brumhaven reminds me of a larger Eisen, a city that has war in its blood and bones, but is also a home to many. We know very little about what befell it during the Plague Crisis, save for the fact that the last letters from Baroness Gertrude Reichsvein were sent from the city, giving rise to the thought it was the last holdout against the infected and the dying.
Conclusion
Throughout this piece I have struggled with tense. In general I have tended to write of these places in the present tense, as if they still are as described. In truth we can’t know what these places are today without the risk of Concordian lives either in war or in morbid scouting.
In the process of collecting these tales, in writing of these distant places, and coming to know the shape of them, I filled with melancholy. Every place is unlike any other, and Vassertal is no different. I would very much like to visit many of these places before I too am gone from this world.
Or at least what we can do with the ruins when we find them.
We will endure.
Civil Service Archivist Rayk Hafenstatz