Earbeford

Earbeford was a wealthy townUpon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 16, p.72Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 3, p.12/13/15 on a lakeUpon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 1, p.2 in an unspecified area of the Malazan world. It derived its wealth from silver mines less than a league away, from gold found in the Flatter River, and Blood Pearls from Lake Flat only two leagues away. 
It was isolated enough that no power could readily enforce a claim to be its liege,Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 3, p.13 but not so isolated that its citizens had not heard of the Malazan Empire.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 6, p.31 Visible from town was an old and derelict fortress standing atop the only hill in distant sight.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 3, p.12Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 7, p.27Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 16, p.72 The old keep was only a burnt shell after a revolution two centuries ago had replaced one set of poor rulers with another.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 13, p.64
A road leading from town turned into a stony trail as it crossed a treeless plain inhabited by Bhederin.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 7, p.34/37 The trail eventually became a cobbled road before reaching a city many leagues away.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 4, p.20-21Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 4, p.16
The town's government consisted of a mayor, a chancellor, and a council of six.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 1, p.1Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 5, p.22 The town employed a Manuromancer to divine the future from excrement. In addition to the town guard, Earbeford could organise a motley rabble of about four thousand poorly armed conscripts wielding old halberds, fishing spears, and an array of swords, axes, and mallets in time of emergency.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 1, p.1/3Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 5, p.21
The Council Hall, marked by a bell tower, was somewhere within site of Earbeford's cobbled main square at the centre of town. The unshaded square featured a fountain enclosed by a low wall and fruit stalls.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 5, p.21-22Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 16, p.68-69/70/72 Also near the square was the treasury, "a squat building with narrow windows and two guards flanking the iron-bound entrance."Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 16, p.73
The local currency was the jeerkhin. The town government held around one hundred thousand jeerkhins in its entire treasury.
==Notable residents==
*Anavalistia, wet-nurse
*Bleat, guardsman
*Burok, town Manuromancer
*Grabella, guardswoman 
*Grizzer
*Gullyb, chancellor
*Ilma, seamstress
*Mayor
*Nistilla, council member
*Thibly, cobbler
*Lady Verbis, council member
*Villiob, guard captain
==In Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords==
The necromancers known as The Tearful Three seized the abandoned fortress outside the town to serve as a base from which to create an "empire of horrifying tyranny".Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 3, p.13 Earbeford's council refused to submit to the necromancers' authority causing the Tearful Three to raise an army of ten thousand undead intended to annihilate the populace and put the town to torch.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 16, p.72 In response, the council raised their own motley army of four thousand conscripts under the command of Captain Villiob.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 1, p.1Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 5, p.26
Villiob immediately established patrols by the Earbeford Defense League about the edges of the town. But complaints about the hot, dusty, and boring work from the citizen soldiers forced him to to downscale his efforts to a single patrol about the town's main square.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 16, p.68-69
Before the Tearful Three could send their army against Earbeford, a carriage bearing Bauchelain and Korbal Broach made a dramatic entrance into town. Chancellor Gullyb and the town council quickly contracted the new arrivals to eliminate the Tearful Three and Gullyb made the unfortunate decision to show Bauchelain the town's treasury.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 16, p.69-73Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 17, p.73-74
When the Tearful Three's ten thousand undead came down the hill from the keep they found the famed Bauchelain and Korbal Broach awaiting them. Bauchelain immediately redrew the terms of the contract to double the payment from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand Jeerkhins--the entire contents of Earbeford's treasury. Gullyb pleaded that the new amount would leave the town destitute, but Bauchelain argued it was better to be poor than annihilated. Gullyb eventually gave in knowing it would require generations of austerity to regain their lost wealth.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 1, p.1-5Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 22, p.83-84Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 23, p.85 
Bauchelain ascended the hill with a flaming longsword scattering the undead before him. He and Korbal Broach slew the Three and Broach set about stocking the abandoned keep with haunts.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 23, p.85-86Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 25, p.88-90Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 26, p.90-91 Gullyb asked Emancipor Reese what his masters planned to do with the thousands of undead left roaming the town's outskirts. Reese told the horrified chancellor that the ultimate disposition of the undead was not covered by the contract and opined that the dead might leave on their own or or perhaps remain underfoot.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 29, p.96
Villiob and a group of conscripts had their own ideas for what to do with the dead. Since the undead did not require pay or food and would be desperate to rejoin society, the people of Earbeford could welcome them back as the town's new working class. In the process, people of the lower classes such as themselves would be elevated to a wealthier, more privileged class.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 30, p.97-99 But the newly freed horde of undead, under their leader Ilma, reacted to the proposition by killing and devouring the townspeople.Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 31, p.102-104Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 32, p.104
==Trivia==
Although Earbeford is twice referred to as a city in the first two pages of the novella, it is referred to as a town in every mention afterwards. On the way to Earbeford, Bauchelain specifically says, "I have an eye towards a more modest endeavour. A town rather than a city, of sufficient size and self-reliance to support without crumpling our many wants and needs."Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords, Section 4, p.17
==Notes and references==
Category:Towns