| The Lordship of Gwencalon
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Duchy: Guardian
Barony: Caerdach
Leaders: Lord Grear MaritusNPC
Population: 132,000
Known For: Trade, Largest city on Guardian
Major Towns and Cities: Gwencalon
Characters of Gwencalon: Here
Description: Gwencalon is the largest port city on Guardians, and one of the major ports for goods entering and leaving the Empire. All trade to the isle must pass through the city, or at least stop at the harbor to be counted at the Customs House before continuing on to Sentinel Spire or one of the smaller ports around the isle. All roads, they say, lead to Gwencalon.
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| History
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Gwencalon was the first city settled on Guardians after the Keeper raised the isle in the year 30, and rose to immediate importance as the isle's entry point for goods from other shores. The deep waters of the bay played a particularly important role in Gwencalon's prominence, allowing vessels with deeper drafts to deliver food from Green Fields and goods from Draught. The city grew up around the docks, first, and then the stone quays that replaced them a century later, spreading from the water up the hillside of the cliffs. While providing a location for supplies to arrive at the island raised Gwencalon to prominence, the city grew wealthy off the trade that drew merchants to establish their business in the port city.
For a time, the city was directly overseen by agents of the ducal family. The Lords Mayor of Gwencalon were appointed directly by the duke or duchess to oversee and regulate the ever-burgeoning trade passing through the city. Rank corruption tending toward treachery in the office was discovered in 212 by the duke's chamberlain, Curo Argentis, who was subsequently installed as the first Lord Gwencalon when the Lord Mayor's office was abolished and its occupants beheaded. In 384, the Lady Gwencalon was assassinated and died without issue. The title passed to her cousin, Timoteus Maritus, whose descendants have held the lordship since.
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| Politics
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Under the well-meaning but ultimately ineffective Lord Julius, the city suffered a period of increased crime, both violent and financial. His son, Lord Ambrose, undertook a campaign of reorganizing the city's trade networks, including redirecting the income streams of some of the worst offenders to the public coffers and relocating the heads of those who refused to cooperate with his reforms. The past twenty years have seen Gwencalon return to a state of relative peace.
Gwencalon sided with the Barcas during the civil war in 504, and Ambrose and his sons threw their support behind Philip Barca when he reclaimed the ducal seat in 505. Lord Ambrose died after a short, unexpected illness in spring of 506, leaving his eldest son, Grear, as his heir.
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| Succession of Lords
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506 – Present
- Lord Grear Maritus
477 – May 17, 506
- Lord Ambrose Lucian Maritus (b. August 7, 449; d. May 17, 506)
- m: Lady Justina Soranus (b. January 8, 455; d. November 18, 487)
454 – 477
- Lord Julius Maritus
- m: Sara
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| Geography
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The lordship of Gwencalon consists primarily of the port city of Gwencalon, built over generations below and along the cliffs over a deep harbor, and a few tracts of land at the top thereof that comprise the Ducal estate.
The cliffs and the harbor are the dominant features of landscape, and the city has grown up around and over them. The quays, through which so much of Guardians' shipping passes, are located on the northwest edge of the harbor, with the accompanying warehouses and mercantile institutions sprawling south and west of them. The magnificent Customs House presides over these, and a lighthouse guides ships from the northwestern most point of land.
Three avenues spread outward and upward from the shipping center of the city, the easternmost widening into a broad marketplace over which the high cliffs preside. The cliffs have been worn down in past generations to allow the two others to lead upward through the city at a steep but passable slope. Closer to the docks, the city's streets are a warren of alleys, home to the poorer and less desirable elements of Gwencalon. As the avenues proceed upward, the shops and houses grow larger and wealthier, many owned by merchants who have made their names and fortunes through trade from this city.
Atop the cliffs stands the hereditary castle from which the Barcas have ruled Guardians for nearly five hundred years.
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| Economy
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Gwencalon's economy is robust and diversified. A port city, and that nearest Gateway, Gwencalon sees most of the trade flowing to and from the isle. All shipments passing legitimately through Gwencalon are required to submit paperwork at the Customs House, where import/export taxes are levied. Little manufacturing takes place in the city itself, which is primarily given over to residence and trade.
There are, at this time, few instances of unofficial trade that occur in the vicinity of Gwencalon. Official, on the other hand, is a relative term.
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| Culture
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The people of Gwencalon are the merchants of Guardian, the most civilized of its people and those who interface most easily with citizens of the other isles. Still, they maintain their isle’s reputation, and are rumored to be the wrong merchants to double-cross if you don’t like the idea of a knife in your back.
As a result of its mercantile nature, the culture of Gwencalon revolves around the market, the center of business and trade in the city. Festivities and ceremonies are centered in the open expanse, and the market never closes save for days of high mourning: the death of a lord of Gwencalon, Caerdach's baron or baroness, the Duke or Duchess of Guardians, or the Keeper himself. The public baths, with their entrance off the market square, serve as the other center of socialization in the city.
Society in Gwencalon is dominated, as expected, by the wealthy: a family's status rises and falls with their fortunes, and the citizens of Gwencalon have little respect for a lord who can't keep his wealth. The wealthier the family, the higher up Gwencalon's cliffside they live: from the poorest in close, dirty housing near the docks, to the clifftop villas of the wealthiest.
With wealth and civilization, of course, comes opportunity: Gwencalon's citizens are more literate, by and large, than the rest of Guardians and tend to be better-educated than their coastal and inland neighbors.
 Gwencalon's Bay and Caerdach from Above |
| Bestiary
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The animals one finds in Gwencalon are the sort of animals one expects to find in such a city. There are dogs. There are cats. And there are rats. Oh, there are rats. And not all of them go around on four legs, either.
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