Soaring Skies

The landscape of Soaring Skies is primarily composed of broad and sweeping plains, giving way on its southern borders to sharp inclines that rapidly become a part of the treacherous and beautiful mountain regions of Knife's Edge and the higher grades of Copper Run's southern half, while in the north those plains yield to comparatively fertile stretches occasionally laced through with ribbons of moving water and greener pastures. These scenes of intimidating mountain passes in the south and pastoral beauty in the north are nothing short of spectacular, but they're dwarfed in presence by the arid and visually endless plains that dominate the lordship, granting it both its name and its present role in the isle's economy as the only lordship in the duchy with extensive, flat ground area (that isn't already urbanized) capable of sustaining large amounts of livestock.

These plains are not immune to a changing in the seasons despite their broad lack of distinguishing feature, and in the more dry months of the hot summer dust storms -- dangerously unpredictable, whipped to a frenzy by the unexpectedly sharp, cold air that whistles down out of Knife's Edge -- are not uncommon, claiming the lives of a few unwary people and more than a few horses each year. In those months, many of the families in Soaring Skies choose to drive their herds to the north or, less commonly, to the far south, to those regions where moisture remains in the ground for longer periods of the year.

The native grasses and scrub on the plains are enough to satisfy only the basic dietary needs of the many, many herds of horses the lordship claims and the soil is incapable of sustaining a crop of grain or the difficult demands of agriculture on the environment. Hence, Soaring Skies imports all of its grain and fresh produce and nearly all of the food required by its citizens, though the lordship contains enough in the way of game that a family can subsist through most of the year on the spoils of the hunt or whatever livestock they care to raise.

If there's at all an urban center then it can be considered to've sprung up around a massive fortification called The Wall, the lingering testament to the Arx family's long history and significance in the lordship despite their prior lack of dalliance in matters of politic. Built from stone quarried out of Copper Run and dating back to nearly the conflicted formation of the Isle, The Wall stands out as a landmark feature with its immediately recognizable conical battlements, its walls several feet thick at their thinnest and still almost impenetrable when fortified. It's for the construction of this edifice that the family took their name: 'Arx' means 'wall', 'citadel', 'defense' or 'refuge'.

Today, The Wall serves as a central public gathering place for the community to've grown up around its feet, an open market and auction taking place in the interior and many shops set up within its sprawling footprint. It also houses the primary offices connected to the lordship as well as serves as the lordship's seat, and while Bane operates both his business and his lordship from its interior and the structure still contains the ancestral keep of the House, the Arx family owns and uses as a primary residence a different estate built some distance to the south, toward the sharp rise of the mountains.

The Plains

In the South

The emptiness and lack of feature that characterize the vast majority of Soaring Skies' holdings might initially seem like a detriment, but the people of the lordship have found ways to capitalize on that untouched real estate: only here does the landscape truly cater to the needs of equestrian pursuits, providing the duchy with the long stretches of empty land necessary for not just the breeding, improvement, and education of horses for wartime or military pursuits but also the space for training of large groups of men to the same purpose, making it a frequent stop for auxilliary units polishing and honing their capabilities and nearly a second home to the Legion's mounted demographic.

Occasionally, fresh stock from Green Fields -- the swifter, more agile and prettier animals more widely known in the Empire -- is imported in an effort to keep the lines vital and nimble. The beasts produced by Soaring Skies have very little in common with those sleek palfreys from the lusher and more verdant Fields; the hybridized draught horses and destriers to Fields' hunter-jumper bloodlines, these are -- for the most part -- animals specifically intended to remain solid under pressure, difficult to lay low, heavy and occasionally temperamental but well-disposed to learning the finer points of saddled conflict, as deadly in the carrying of the deadly men who ride them as they are unmounted, with steel-shod hooves the size of dinner plates and trained immunity to the fear that both blood and chaos seem to inspire in their fairer cousins.

Foremost among the families involved in this dominating segment of the economy are the Arx (pronunciation: Arz), a large family with a name as old as the Isle and a long history of involvement in its business, curiously only to've risen to nobility in recent years, immediately following the uprising of the Conways against the Barcas in 504, something people typically attribute to the typically removed attitudes of the lordship as pertain to politics as well as the family's primary interest in business. Though by no means the only family cultivating a stock of horses, they enjoy a prominent enough hold on that field that many consider it a monopoly in any case, especially as they claim the duchy's contracts for half of the Legion's cavalry, providing it with half of the requisite horses and all of the requisite training.

Other far smaller contributions to the economy include the spoils brought about by hunting (pelts, horn and other animal byproducts), a few pockets in which private institutions train individuals in combat techniques and some minor maritime interests as a result of the extremely long coastline...but none of these contribute so wholly to the economy that the lordship would be able to sustain itself without the horses for which its become widely known.

Most homesteads in Soaring Skies are spread widely out across a large amount of acreage. As a result, the people of Soaring Skies tend to be self-reliant people who spend a great deal of time outdoors, educated about and sensitive to the nuances of the land in which they live. They usually display an uncommon affinity with horses, dogs, and other working animals, and while it's rare enough that there's an event in the lordship that brings large numbers of these far-flung families together, it's evident when this happens that in Soaring Skies the order of the day is to work hard, fight hard and play hard. Some small communities share lodges or long halls for socialization, and hunting lodges in the middle of the arid plains aren't uncommon to come across, independent of any living communities whatsoever and there to provide respite for people traversing the long and unforgiving distances of empty land. It's customary to ensure that one leaves these small locations well-stocked upon departing, as emergency visits are not unusual.

Gatherings do occur, however, and when they do the turnout is usually excellent. Sporting competitions involving horses of every kind are immensely popular, from jousting to mounted hunting to other less common equestrian sports. When the dusty seasons of summer arrive, the mass driving of horses to the north and to the south is often cause for more than one family to come together and celebrate, working the horses hard during the day and spending the evenings celebrating in raucous bonfire fetes. Major auctions take place from time to time at The Wall and always serve to draw a crowd, useful not only for keeping the bloodlines of the equine stock fresh but for doing the same for the populace of Soaring Skies, whose widely-spread homesteads don't often enjoy the mixing that provides an opportunity for eligible young people to court. As a result, it's not uncommon for a house to hold something of a social event when a son or daughter comes of age in order to facilitate that kind of networking.