Adzvolta

Adzvolta (Afolta Creole: Aĝa Afolta) was a ghost town in South Western Rakkimar upon the most northerly, ultimate reach of the Indrateran mainland. 
== Prehistory Nearby ==
=== Volov Kayak Nomads ===
The modern site lay on the end of the peninsula now known as Eldskar, which was bifurcated along its length by the mountain range Orrel's Girdle. There was some scattered settlement by the Volov people, who were a West Rakkimarran nomadic coastal hunter-gatherer culture. Known as the 'Kayak Nomads', they were notable for building canoes and kayaks to hunt fish and gather kelp for boiling into broth.
=== Kingdom of Braeknge & the Darim Fyrd ===
The Volov people migrated back north in the second millennium before zero, when the contemporary Kingdom of Bracken expanded its borders. From about the mid -1800s to -1778, the Kingdom of Braeknge very furthest northern edge was where modern Adzvolta would be. There was a small coastal fort here with about thirty troops garrisoned, plus a network of mountaintop beacons, to warn the capital of Rakkimarran raids from the north. 
In -1778, the famous Great Raid on Bracken occurred, where a reunification and alliance of the Darim and Rakki people led to a raid and overthrow of the city of Braeknge, (modern Bracken). During the resulting rule of Bracken as a puppet of the kingdom of the Darim Fyrd for the next few centuries, the area fell into decline and was abandoned to the elements. 
== History of the Mining Town ==
=== The Lyskeiön Empire Needs Iron ===
From the mid 1400s to the 1510s, the penal colony of Euluskan Lakay provided much metal to the Lyskeiön Empire. The north coastline and straits of Lakay was where the Empire sent criminals to, among other things, mine iron. This vital iron fed the infrastructure in the capital Lyskeiön, but more importantly it fuelled the slowly industrialising northern capital of Felonil. However, the colony had begun to decline after the year 1500, and, though no one knew it back then, it would soon undergo violent revolution and declare indepenendence in the year 1513. Plus, from the 1480s to the 1510s, piracy was rampant through Lakay's northern Wolcott Straits, and Empire ships were lucrative targets. 
So, as their hold began to weaken on Lakay and the route became more dangerous, the Empire commissioned a notable and wealthy mining syndicate called the North Fallo Mining Company to find them alternate suitable sources of iron in the case of an emergency. The main investing force was Grand Duchess Sipolaska II de'Ferrva of Cessalia. 
The North Fallo Mining Company was a Sanctum-based syndicate. The Empire would pay them and build the infrastructure required to extract the metal, if the Company found a suitable spot and ran the mine. The Mining Company surveyed various locations before settling on the Eldskar Peninsula for an iron mine, which they established in the year 1506 - officially opening their new mining town Adzvolta (from the Falon Aghefoltta & the Euluska Adzvolta, meaning 'New Mine'). 
=== Heyday ===
Adzvolta was a small town built on a barren-ground granite hillside. The buildings were squat, made of wood shipped in from Datria during the summers where there was no sea ice - since there were no trees to use. The houses spanned the hills, with a large and visually striking sloped ore elevator that (in its prime) moved a thousand tons of iron ore a day down the incline to waiting train cars.
It received much snow in winter and the ground as hard, but beneath the mountains it was warmer and easier to dig. In its heyday, the mine housed fifty overseers, Governor Fortza Sanktomu and her family, and about five hundred miners. These workers were a mixture of Rakkimarrans, Brackians, and Datrians. Whilst the officers and Governor communicated in the prestige language of Euluska, the Darim, Rakkimarans and Datrians communicated in a pidgin language of Darim, Rakki, and Tarkas Euluska they called Efolta (from the roots eu and volta meaning 'Mining Language'). Overseers carried muskets and revolvers, as well as elephant guns for use on the local polar bears.
=== The De Ferrva Line ===
The Lyskeiön Empire built a railway in the 1500s for the town, that was over a thousand miles long. It went from Datria to Adzvolta to Felonil. It was a marvel of engineering. It came to be known as the de Ferrva Line (named in honour of the noble family that were the main investors of the North Fallo Mining Company). The de Ferrva line would pick up seasonal labourers, wood, mining equipment and supplies in Datria, take on water in Alverosa, take its cargo to Adzvolta, swap its storage cars and flatbeds for gondolas and boxcars full of iron ore, and travel over 1500 miles west to Stormcrow, take on coal and water, then down to Felonil to deposit its ore to the hungry factories. In Adzvolta's prime, the de Ferrva trains ran once a week, and were 1.3 miles long - among the longest and heaviest trains in the Golden Age world. The trains ran on coal power (Galvanic rail would not be invented for half a century more until the work on Electricity of Arnu Waldenstromm came to light).
=== Decline and Abandonment ===
The mining town only persisted from 1506 to 1520. In 1514, Felonil declared independence; the Company therefore ceased operations to Felonil, which was no longer a Lyskeiön Empire city, and transported its ore to Datria instead. The western thousand-mile-reach of the line lay dormant and forgotten from here on. 
In 1519, the Lyskeiön Empire was overthrown and the capital sacked. The empire crumbled from 1519-20 into various successor states. The Company realised the mine was neither needed nor profitable, so they officially closed it in 1520. They left the 3 steam trains (Saint Valeria, Saint Bellerophon, and Saint Esmerelda), the 3 miles of train cars, and the tens of houses and elevator there for the elements, native polar bears, and nesting Orrel Petrel birds to reclaim. 
== In Modern Times ==
In the Collapse Era, the town was thoroughly snowed in, abandoned, crumbling, and old. It was home to nesting Orrel Petrel birds, polar bears, colonies of leopard seals, puffins, and a large colony of Bracken Penguins. It smelt like guano and the train cars and ore elevator lay desolate. 
In the late 240s and early 250s, it became home to three scientists - Dr Emryn Shrapnel, Professor Ralov Abraxas, and Áþris "Othrys" Anžir. They lived and worked across the old Governor's House, and by Adzeön Station by Mattock Bridge over Caribou Gorge. Anžir was killed by the local polar bear in 252, leading to a feud between the other two scientists. They took on help - the Doctor took on the dwarf Brakki, and the Professor recruited the Redkite Brackian outlaws (Bluegill, Erola, Flint, Obadiah). 
The town church was long since infested by swarms of carnivorous Blackfeld Abbey Acherontia Moths. The abandoned iron mine was also home to Crying Morels and Ferrow-arthropods, as well as being the temporary den of the local 9ft-tall polar bear, Fat Bastard.
In Luana 253, the Wildecards helped heal the feud between the two scientists, retrieved Anžir's bones, removed the moths from the church, and fixed the St Esmerelda Train, leaving town united and happy.
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