Ostpadash
Contents
Description
The economic center of the Padash region. Adjacent to an inland freshwater sea and a river that flows from there to the ocean. Natural barriers shield Ostpadash from the river's seasonal floods, and the flood plains left behind are large and fertile enough to supply grain for much of the southern continent.
Ostpadash has a reputation as a large but essentially boring city. Other than grain, it produces little of interest, and is culturally somewhat staid and conservative. However, a recent upswing in crime within the city, bandits in the countryside, and refugees from the northeast has unsettled the local Obelisk garrison, long used as a dumping ground for sub-par troops.
Local Geography
The Bantine Sea lies just north-west of Ostpadash and stretches from there to the Andrical mountain range to the west and the Whitehollow range to the north. The Bantine River meanders from there all the way south to the ocean through farms and agricultural villages.
Over the river and to the west lie (undetailed Imperial lands), while travelling northeast leads through (unnamed desert) to (desert region). South of that, walling off the neighboring region of Istagat are the Denrom mountains.
With easy travel in some directions and, charitably, "fucking nothing" in some directions, there are large swaths of land that are fairly near Ostpadash that see almost no traffic from respectable travelers. Only a day or two off the Dantine river, and one is likely to find overgrown coniferous forests, jagged cliffs, white water streams, and terrain that is just not suitable for speedy overland travel. Things that go bump in the night prefer to keep to away from the city, where the night is longer people aren't walking around with fire and steel looking to bump back. For those that look, though, these forests, cliffs, and rivers are littered with old artifacts and rare finds. If you know where to look, you could pass an old fort, the rubble of a homesteaders stake, and a looming cave all within a few miles of each other. Or you might go for days and find nothing but pine cones and trout.
Relevant Inhabitants
The Peoples
Fifty years ago, Ostpadash population was stable, mostly human, and made up of the same two dozen or so large families. Some of the families dug in the dirt. Some of the families made tools for people who dig in the dirt. Some of the families took money from people who dug in the dirt. Few people came or went. Fathers taught their sons the family business, grew old, and their sons took over. Mothers taught their daughters how to keep a home, grew old, and married their daughters off to some other father's son.
Due to economic and social forces unknown, or perhaps sinister machinations of the Empire!, Ostpadash has seen an influx of new blood. New humans with new skin colors and new family names. New non-humans. New craftsmen. New ideas. New diseases. New ideas about who it is that should be digging in the dirt and who it is that should be taking money away from those who dig in the dirt. New foods.
With this influx, Ostpadash is a city grappling with change. The grappling is very slow, and little talked about in public, as is the Ostpadash way. But late at night around dying fires, or early in the morning at wash parties, the old Ostpadashi worry the city they know is changing. Sure, it was a good idea to put a handle at the top of a spade and why didn't we ever think of that. And yes, the market for meat and dairy is stronger than it was before. But maybe it's not so safe to go walking down blind allies in the middle of the night with a pocket full of coppers and too drunk to see straight.
The new residents don't have much to talk about. They set up their shop or sell out their labor in a market that seem a little more prosperous than they are used to. Like mostly sticks to like, with little enclaves of Eastern Hordites here and a warren of dwarves there. Mostly though, business tends to draw a community together, old and new.
For now.
