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Williamshire
WILLIAMSHIRE
The second largest community in the Eastern County of Greenbough, Williamshire is the town closest to Cava’s birthplace, and where he says he is from. Cava knows, and is known by, many here.
Lying between the villages of Bigcliff and Brownclay in the beautiful Wandering Mountains, Williamshire grew out of a strategic intersection of the Greenbough River and the Wandering Highway, making it an important commercial hub in the region. Although it has a stable population of only 680, Williamshire appears much larger due to a substantial transient population of merchants and travelers, which causes the population to vary widely throughout the year, sometimes swelling to nearly tens of thousands during Williamshire’s annual Barbequa festival every fall.
Williamshire features The Lord Mayor’s Estate, the Town Hall, an armory and barracks, parade grounds, a small magic guild (with several loose confederations of witches and wizards throughout the outlying area), and a multitude of apartments, inns, hostels and public houses surrounding a large central mercantile district.
Karowyn’s Merchant House has established a year-round presence here, with the Gold Coast Trading Company regularly opening a temporary office throughout the year, especially during “Barbequa season.”
Williamshire is also home to a fair-sized Church of Light and Dark. Although most of the community now worships the Pantheon of Light, the town also retains a Priest of Dark by tradition, as well as for the convenience of travelers.
To ensure the safety of the town, as well as the merchants doing business there, in Dominion 187, The Count Greenbough ordered the creation of Williamshire’s Citizen’s Army, more famously known as “The Red Boots” because of the stylized red boots embroidered in the lapels of the members’ uniform cloaks.
Once they are of age, every citizen of Williamshire, Bigcliff and Brownclay, undergo rigorous military training where they are taught how to be proficient in the weapon of their choice, as well as hand-to-hand fighting. After training, everyone is required to serve for 4 years as a full-time member of the Red Boots, after which they are given the chance to enlist in Count Greenbough’s standing army, re-enlist as active-duty Red Boots, or join the Reserve Corps and return to their homes and trades.
Count Greenbough’s decision to form the Red Boots yielded unexpected results when they single-handedly repelled the combined forces of Duke Castigan and Duke Loraan during the War of the Duchies in Dominion 196, earning them a reputation for fierceness in battle, and loyalty to the Count.
Because of this loyalty, as well as the allure of the Barbequa festival during the second week of Kym-nark-mar, and the famously majestic presence of Bigcliff Falls, Williamshire’s Lord Mayor often plays host to Count Greenbough and other visiting dignitaries.
Williamshire’s reputation for law and order was significantly marred by an especially horrific treble murder in Dominion 333. On 11 Majestic, prominent merchants Stev and Leta Twistrain, their son Cava, and his fiance Rivatha were set upon by brigands. Stev, Leta, and Rivatha were slaughtered in a manner most foul, and the gristly scene discovered by travelers some few days later. To a man, the unfortunates who discovered the macabre scene undertook a campaign to drink hard spirits without paying for at least a score of days.
Cava was feared lost as well, but he reemerged several months later; heavily scarred and crediting his survival to a clan of Wolfen slaves.
Cava liquidated his family’s holdings and bought the clan of slaves that saved his life for several times their value from an extremely startled merchant. He then freed the Wolfen and gave them the remainder of his family’s estate, which was in excess of 2 million gold.
Cava left Williamshire shortly thereafter.
The culprits remain at large.
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