Maeloch is the capital city of The Southlands surrounded by the snow topped mountains of the Crescent Range, the city is falling on hard times since it’s former leader has left to live a quiet life.

Demographics

Being the Capital City of The Southlands Maeloch attracts a diverse population of beings, the majority of the beings here are humans, followed by dwarves since those are the main peoples in The Southlands but you can find a little bit of anything there as in almost any Capital City of MagusTerra.

Government

Lord Depic is the ruler of Maeloch, though he isn’t the direct cause of it, in his time as ruler, the realm has been on a constant decline. Admittedly he was given the throne at a bad time, the pollution of the city had been angering the Elementals for a while and he was rather young at the time but unfortunately, since then things have only gotten worse. He has been so preoccupied trying to manage the Elemental War he hasn’t had time to rule over the rest of the realm. Taegar the Animator has created and completely taken over The Banshee Badlands essentially doubling the travel time from Astraloth to Hollowford. There are rumors of witches and werewolves in The Haunted Woods. And no one has realized yet but the Hand of Den Gru’le has been kidnapping people from Hashey Village for decades now.

Defenses

The capital city of Maeloch was erected in an extremely strategic location, surrounded on 3 sides by the mountains of The Crescent Range. There are access points around these mountains such as rivers flowing through the mountains to the city and other small passageways but nothing large enough to get a substantial army through to attack the capital city.

That being said, the mountain surroundings have actually proven to be extremely detrimental to Maeloch. Being a capital city there is a lot of waste produced in the city and the best way to get rid of this waste was to dump it into one of the rivers leading out the back of the city that isn’t used for shipping. However, this pollution of the natural lands has angered the Earth Elementals of The Crescent Range and the Water Elementals of the polluted river. The elementals have animated and started to attack the city, and with such a good offensive position being above and surrounding the city it has been very challenging for the town guard to deal with this threat.

In an effort to improve the defenses Lord Depic has been working with the Dwarves of Beckforge to build an Iron wall around the city as well as iron ramps facing up the city to catch falling rocks that the earth elementals send hurtling down the mountain side.

Maeloch has been dealing with these threats for several years now and they have managed but it has been an extremely taxing effort.

Industry & Trade

Beckforge has a near-limitless supply of iron expertly extracted from The Echoing Hills and with Maeloch’s constant need for new weapons, armor, and repairs to the iron defenses surrounding the city Beckforge has become Maeloch’s main trade partner.

They also are one of the few cities that have relatively easy access to Clifton goods from SeaCliff. The Cliftons don’t like to trade too often but with Newsung Harbor being the only port they trade with there is enough supply coming in to be worth it, and there are two main benefits to the Cliftons’ distaste for trading. First, the goods which are remarkably well crafted are very scarce and thus highly demanded. Second, the Cliftons don’t have a wider context of how valuable their goods are so they don’t charge a high price. The money that Maeloch makes and taxes from the markup on the Clifton goods is the only reason they have been able to keep up with the Elemental War at all.

Guilds and Factions

The Smithies

The city guardsmen, affectionately known as The Smithies for their fondness of hammers when fighting the Earth Elementals, are remarkably capable warriors. They have been at war with the elementals for several years now in a strongly disadvantaged position and though they have not prospered over the enemy they have survived for far longer than most city guards would have. As well since they have been under constant battle for several years many of the veterans are battle-hardened and the new recruits have much conviction. That being said fighting a losing battle for years on end takes its toll on morale. The new recruits are fired up and ready to go but many of the veterans see no end to this war and realize it is only a matter of time before they end up a “fallen hero”. With the inevitability of the situation staring the Smithies in the face, they have started to petition to find alternative solutions to resolving the conflict.

Undercover Pirates

Smuggler’s Cove is a pirate hideout in the northern Southlands right where the polluted river of Maeloch lets out. The rancid smell of the pollution despite being rather objectionable to deal with is actually one of the best assets of Smuggler Cove. The rancid smell keeps random travelers from poking around the area frequently making the cove an ideal hiding spot. When the Pirates of Smugglers Cover heard about the Elemental War and The Smithies’ interest in finding alternative solutions and potentially trying to reduce the pollution rather than fight the war they knew their hideout would be in jeopardy. In order to protect their refuge they started dispatching small rotating groups of pirates to work undercover in the city and spread dissent and opposition to cleaning up the river.

Dwarves of Beckforge

The dwarves of Beckforge aren’t overtly for the Elemental War but it has been an incredibly lucrative endeavor for them and has given them plenty of opportunity to train new miners, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen.

Geography

Maeloch is surrounded on 3 sides by The Crescent Range with rivers, fed by snow melt, running down the mountains to the city and back out to the sea.

Climate

Being in The Southlands Maeloch’s climate is generally cold, the mountains surrounding it do provide it a buffer from the wind which makes it a bit warmer but it still regularly snows there in the winter months. The peaks of the mountains in The Crescent Range are perpetually snow-covered.

Natural Resources

Maeloch has very few accessible natural resources. At one point they were able to mine a good amount of stone and ore from the mountains surrounding them but with the Elemental War it is far too dangerous risking sending anyone into the mines in the mountains controlled by the Earth Elementals. Not only are there likely earth elementals patrolling the mines, but at any time the elementals could easily create a rock slide or collapse in the mines trapping and killing all inside.