Klerkenshoop

Klerkenshoop, also referred to as "Klerk", is the most populous district in the Daelyrian city of Aeryon which in turn the most populous in the Archonate of Cliffton and is technically the fourth largest city in Daelyria. It's current district administrator is Broyo Fireborn Silverhand who governs the city along with his district advisor Nitro Domussanad.
== History ==
=== Founding ===
The foundation of Klerkenshoop started with Broyo Silverhand meeting Miksa Silverhand in a bar in the city of Frostarch. Miksa would overhear Broyo's drunken rants about his desire to own a town of his own and would then approach him offering Broyo to fix up the ruins of the former town of Painfield. Broyo eagerly accpeted the proposal and quickly recruited settlers from towns around Kastollia, promising them a fresh start away from their messy lives in Kastollia. The excited band of settlers would set off into the cold north singing songs of the pioneers of old. Broyo and his party would arrive to find the ruins in a state of near-disrepair, the ground was shattered, streets were nonexistant, houses falling apart, the city walls filled with holes, a harbor replaced with a farm, shacks literring the town and worse of all, the squatters inhabiting those shacks. Broyo and his band would spend a long painful month pushing out the squatters, an experience Broyo described as "worse than living in Meteora". The settlers would succeed in pushing out the squatters and planted the first diorite post in the town, naming the town "Klerkenshoop" after Broyo's recently deceased friend Klerk who died during the scuffle with the squatters. 
=== Early years and the Plauge ===
The settlers would immediatly get to work, fixing the streets, demolishing ruins and clearing out trash. The first street, Wilkinson street, would be laid down two days later and houses would begin to spring up along the street. The town would rapidly grow, much to the surprise of everyone, as more and more houses drew migrants in from all over the country, raising the town to a population of 14 people in total. But a sudden plague would throw a wrench in the town's development, killing 70% of the town's population. Broyo would be incredibly saddened by this, molding the once eager, energetic man into a quiet, reserved man. But he would pick up the pieces and recieve unexpected help from a newcomer to the town.
=== Recovery Period and the arrival of Nitro Dommusanad ===
Klerkenshoop would slowly recover from the devastating effects of the plauge with more migrants arriving as part of the former Helmian Federation promoting Klerkenshoop as a young town of opportunities. But the arrival of one man, would accelerate the recovery of the town and pushed it towards prosperity, that man would be Nitro Dommusanad. Nitro would arrive in Klerkenshoop and immediately got to work reworking parts of the town, notably the Wilkinson Street area. Broyo would also develop the long neglected south-west region of the town, building another street which would be beautified by Nitro with a public market and general store. 
=== Housing Crisis ===
As Klerkenshoop made a full recovery from the plague, another problem soon arose, this time it was due to a rapidly increasing population. With Klerkenshoop now fully recovered from the plague, migration intensified which lead to minor housing shortages. But with the current-government promoting Klerkenshoop even more than before towards migrants lead to the housing crisis to fully swing in. Broyo would announce the "Dense-Housing Scheme" which mandated only dense housing units be built until the crisis is deemed to be officially over. Broyo and Nitro would first get to work, undertaking the most ambitious building project Klerkenshoop would see. The pair would extend the walls around the Klerk Heights which opened enough room for the "Oranje Center", an apartment complex which also includes some space for shops. But the construction of this building would be significantly delayed as Broyo would suddenly contract an illness that was ravaging Helmia at the time, leaving him stuck in his bed as he was too weak to even walk. This left Nitro, who had been named deputy-mayor at this point, to take on the responsibilities of eleviating the housing crisis. Nitro would remove the squatter farm that still somehow managed to remain untouched all this time to make room for a proper harbour, which provided much needed space for more houses. By the time Broyo had recovered, Nitro had cleared out so much more space for housing that it allowed Klerkenshoop to have a surplus of housing well after the crisis. With Broyo now recovered, Oranje Center was completed in 3 days and construction on houses around the harbour area quickly began. Finally, the houses would finish and Broyo would officially announce the official conclusion of the housing crisis on the 10th of April, 2022. 
=== Merging with Silverhill and as a district ===
When Miksa Silverhand was exiled from the High Kingdom of Daelyria, Broyo's nephew, Hera Silverhand took over the city of Silverhill and proposed merging the cities of Klerkenshoop and Silverhill. Broyo would agree to this as well as the current Archon at the time, Broyo's nephew Nitro Silverhand would also agree to this and thus the two cities merged to form the city of "Aeryon". The land in between the two cities would be named Seaforth and was declared the 3rd district. Klerkenshoopas a district continued to essentially carry the entire weight and productivity of Aeryon on its back as Silverhill stagnated and development in Seaforth was delayed. Klerkenshoop continued to carry Aeryon along in this manner until the infamous riots destroyed Aeryon and the district along with it. 
=== Silverhand Extinction, The Last Clifftonian Riots, Destruction, Abandonment ===
After the death of Broyo Silverhand, House Silverhand was declared extinct and a new governor was dispatched from the south to rule the leaderless Archonate. The people of Cliffton didn't take too kindly to this new leader, with many Clifftonians expressing their anger and discontent in different ways. The remaining few people in the interior opted to leave the Archonate entirely and seek a home elsewhere outside Helmia whilst the proud people of Cliffton Proper protested relentlessly outside the governor's office in Seaforth. The final tipping point which finally brought upon all out destruction of Aeryon and Klerkenshoop was when the governor ordered the construction of a wall covering the Suburb of Koringfontein outside the District of Klerkenshoop to comply with the central government's demands for more defensible cities. The people of Aeryon protested the wall heavily and an apparent incident where a guard attacked protestors caused the protests to turn into riots. The riots lasted for two weeks, with citizens and guards slaughtering each other mercilessly, shops being looted, houses burned down, and monuments vandalized or destroyed. Klerkenshoop being the most densely populated and Aeryon's economic center was hit the hardest by the riots. Entire streets were left as craters as both rioters and guards used explosives on each other. Houses were left burning husks along the street and glorious monuments met the earth as they were pulled down in the chaos. The rioting was at such a level of brutality that the district's largest and most elegant bulding, the Oranje Sentrum, had its entire top floor blown clean off simply because it housed the office of the District Administrator. After troops from the south arrived and put an end to the riots, the district and the city as a whole was beyond saving, with countless people dead and the whole city in ruins. The government decided to abandon the city and evacuate any important artefacts that survived. Thus, Klerkenshoop along with Aeryon became another carcass on the Helmian subcontinent.
== Culture ==
The culture of Klerkenshoop can be divided in two phases, the first phase of Klerkenshoop culture was heavily influenced by Kastollian culture as mentioned above due to the original settlers originating from Kastollia. The second phase refers to culture after the effects of the Klerkenshoop Plague and was infuenced more by culture from Caeraeneryon, Illeryon and Duskyon due to many of the original Kastollian settlers dying out during the plauge and increased immigration from those regions. 
=== Language ===
The language spoken on the streets before the plague was mainly Kastollian (later Clifftonic-Kastollian) while Daelyrian was only spoken in official speechs or when a Daelyrian official visits. 90% of the of the town had been noted to be very proficient in speaking Traveler's Tongue due to Klerkenshoop being a preferred pitstop for merchants from around the world looking to travel to Adwa or Arbitor at the time. After the plague, only 1 other citizen in the town besides the mayor spoke Clifftonic-Kastollian, the death of that citizen marked the end of the first phase of language in Klerkenshoop. The most spoken language on the streets would be Traveler's Tongue due to immigrants from around the world and other parts of Daelyria replacing the previous Kastollian population and thus replacing Clifftonic-Kastollian with Traveler's Tongue. Clifftonic-Kastollian would be reduced to a cultural language through the mayor's attempts to protect the town's fading Kastollian identity, with street signs always having a Clifftonic-Kastollian translation right beneath the Traveler's Tongue name, official documents having a Clifftonic-Kastollian copy and the largest building in the town (Oranje Sentrum) having a Clifftonic-Kastollian name. The Daelyrian language's position within Klerkenshoop had also slightly strengthed as many prominent citizens of the town would learn the language in ordrer to blend in with the upper-class of Duskyon and Illeryon. 
=== Identity and Mindset ===
Initially the first settlers were very hard distinguish from the average Kastollian, but after years of interactions with the locals, the population of the town had developed their own identity. The settlers still enjoyed Kastollian cuisine and still had the same pioneer spirit of the Kastollians. Although they would adopt the mindset of "This land was made for you and me" which was a belief held by the locals of Cliffton that humans had every right to twist and shape the land however they pleased. This would cause the settlers to develop a culture that prided itself on constructing buildings and bringing civilization to the untamed land, ironically much to the disgust of Kastollia, who have a culture that respects nature. The people of Klerkenshoop also have an underground culture, with two major public amenities of the town located underground and the people holding great pide in their individual basements as they go all out in decorating their basements in anticipation for the annual basement competition the town holds. The people of the town are also noted to be very stoic as they had lived through the housing crisis with very little complaint or any protest at all. 
=== Culinary Culture ===
The cuisine of Klerkenshoop is heavily influenced by Kastollia through the heavy involvement of bakery and pastry products in many dishes of the town with the love for wheat still present in today's non-Kastollian population. Although the introduction of alchohol and potato has changed the diet of the average citizen quite a bit. 
== Trivia (OOC stuff) == 
Category:Towns
Category:Daelyria
Category:Traveler's Era