Healer's Hall

Land

Healer's Hall is bordered by the Sea of Veils in the north, the lordship of Elixir Vitae in the west, and the lordship of Pyria of the barony Miller's Isle in the east. While much of the southern border is shared with Meritas of the barony of Ethos, it also shares a small border with the Ethosian lordship of Codex and the Claremont ducal seat.

It is an area with gently rolling hills and a promontory sticking out to the north. Fishing villages dot the northern coast, and Crestholm is halfway from the coast to the School of Healing. The manor house belonging to House Crestwood there in Crestholm is not large, but has fairly extensive lands including a small apple orchard (although the fruit is smaller and less sweet than the apples from Green Fields) and large areas given over to the growth of healing herbs. Villages have sprung up around groupings of farms, which grow not only the healing herbs the Lordship is famous for, but also other essentials that aren't really sufficient to be employed in trade but can keep the population fed in times of hardship, for a very brief period. Occasional marshes yield useful healing herbs, but are not actually farmed for such. Generally, trails lead from small settlement to small settlement and there's one or two horse farms that supply the Lordship with steeds for transportation, but not on a scale large enough to trade.

Climate

Healer's Hall is located in a temperate clime, and its temperatures are moderate. Its weather, however, is highly changeable. There is a prevailing southern wind that is occasionally – but often sharply – interrupted by colder air from eastern Draught. Winters vary from mild to extremely cold and severe, but temperatures below 0°F(-17°C) are rare. Since there are no mountains in Amphorae, weather and temperatures are prone to change quickly and without warning as weather moves unhindered across the country. Cold fronts from further east can strike in the middle of summer and sudden cold snaps can occur in the middle of an otherwise mild winter.

With the Sea of Veils on its western and northern coasts, marine conditions greatly impact the weather. Conditions at the coast often differ from areas further inland. Coastal areas are generally more temperate: wetter and cooler in the summer and wet but warmer in the winter. It is the south that often experiences the lordship's highest temperatures in the summer and the coldest in winter.

The economy is mainly driven by the Healer's College, with many healers living in the area who serve as teachers at the college or taking on its apprentices, but also through the farming and trade of healing herbs. Because of the College's widespread appeal, there is a great deal of non-local traffic through the lordship and bringing in money. For this reason, currency is the predominant manner of exchange in the city of Crestholm and in the villages and towns of any significant size.

The more rural areas, however, exist at a far more agrarian level. They tend to prefer bartering and keep community storehouses, banding together resources in order to fetch better prices for their crops and receive better prices for their purchases. Most of these crops -- certainly, the choice harvests -- are sold to the College of Healing, but there is still a sizable export sold for use to the rest of the Isle of Draught and beyond.

While it is common for families to keep a small household garden, crop fields are typically considered a community resource, everyone chipping in together in order to meet demand for healing herbs.

Religion
Most of the inhabitants of Healer's Hall are extremely laid back on the topic of religion, possessing a loose belief in Providence but preferring mostly to question the nature of divinity and the extent to which a person should let a divine creature rule their lives. A popular saying is, 'There is no greater good or power than Reason.' This relaxed attitude would seem to put them naturally at odds with a great many of their Purist neighbors in Ethos, but there are indeed a small number of Purists from the neighboring lordships of Meritas and Codex who have settled in the south of Healer's Hall. They often congregate in small communities and, save trade relations, tend to keep to themselves.

Holidays
Amity Days. After the last autumnal harvest of the year, citizens of Healer's Hall celebrate the Days of Amity. These are the weeks when communities are asked to remember and reflect upon the importance of community. Due to the varying completion of harvests from farming commune to farming commune, these days are generally seen to occupy the month of November. In them, small communities exchange names within the village. Any person over the age of four is expected to participate (although those under the age of 17 are often known to do so with help from their parents or guardians). After the names are exchanged, everyone is expected to then find -- by knowledge or inquiry in the village -- something that their intended recipient needs. This is not the time for fancy gifts -- unless there is a reason that such an item would be required. Traditional gifts include blankets, warm clothes for winter, seeds for spring, and farming tools.

The only persons to not participate in this exchanging of gifts is the Lord and Lady Healer's Hall themselves, as their greatest gift should always be the well-being and happiness of their people. (It also prevents the temptation to offer up something more fanciful as a gift to one's liege.) This is, however, the traditional time for the lord and lady to make a full inspection of their lands, spending the night in several key villages and towns along the way. There have been a few lords of Healer's Hall who have also chosen to use this time to offer charity to the lands in times of hardship.

Graduation Day. On August 30th of each year, the current class of Healers graduate from the College of Healing and are presented with their sheep skins. A few days before the College of Science's graduation, many of them will begin to travel in that direction to prepare for the test field battles to test their skills (and gain test subjects).

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