Faramond Keep

Faramond Keep, often simply called 'the Keep', is the capital of the titular country, lying in the far north of the kingdom. The Keep lies on a high promontory sticking into the Trade Lake, and high cliffs bound much of the northern city.

The city is dominated by the Keep, rising several stories and built of granite brought from quarries near Limebridge in neighbouring Dunfleasel. The Keep is positioned to have sweeping views of most of Faramond, though due to its elevation, the reverse is not always true.

The rest of the city sprawls from the high promontory onto the plain to the south. High stone walls were erected by the local government following the Second Sack of Faramond in the late 2nd Century BCE, and these were upgraded by King Arnulf III during the Scanbroughan Secession; though these walls have been long outgrown.

## History

Faramond Keep was one of the first settlements built by the Faramondians descended from mediaeval English and Scottish members of the Halcyonian Flotilla. They arrived by way of sea, sailing up the Flentia and Spurnian rivers, then along the southern coast of the Trade Lake until they saw the defensive potential of the area.

The majority of the Faramondian fleet settled in and around the new settlement, which was originally named 'Faere Monde', meaning 'Fair Land'. Over time this name bastardised into 'Faramond', which then became the name for the culture stemming from this area. Thus 'Faramondian' literally translates to 'Fairlander'.

The settlement in its initial form, in around 700BCE, housed around three thousand people in huts of wood taken from the Prince's Wood to the southeast. This was surrounded by a wooden palisade, and the town was dominated by another inner palisade marking the bounds of the palace of the Black Prince.

Over time the town grew, and by the 2nd Century BCE was a bustling metropolis of over forty thousand. It had established trade relations with many other settlements in the area, but itself was by far the largest. In 143BCE it was subject to a large-scale militarisation as marauding raiders from Suren's Desert encroached closer to the city. Despite this, the military technology available to the Faramondians' ancestors was all but lost, and the city was sacked twice - once in 128BCE and again in 120BCE.

After the Second Sack, the hegemon of the city decided that enough was enough. They put everything they had into defensive technology, and sought far and wide for advances that might better protect the city. Their breakthrough came in the form of stonemasons, brought from the warring states of the Qiutianshan. With their help, and the cooperation of quarries controlled by the nearby town of Lynerycg, sweeping stone walls were constructed around Faramond. There were three layers of wall, with the innermost also replacing the palace boundary.

These walls paled in comparison to the keep which was constructed at the same time. The hegemon of the time purchased and demolished every building in the Old Town (the bounds of the original settlement) to build his grand residence. The cost and opulence of this keep was enough to permanently change the way outsiders saw the city, and over time Faramond became known as Faramond Keep instead, as the settlement around the keep resembled a shanty built around a fortress.

These new defences were tested in 108BCE, when a large raiding party was caught between the first and second curtain walls and annihilated during the Battle of Faramond Keep. This taught the raiders that Faramond was not to be taken lightly, and the city was never threatened again by raiders.

Despite these formidable new fortifications, Faramond Keep never sought to expand - its walls and keep were seen as purely defensive measures, and the people of the city had no offensive military technology anyway. The city remained at the centre of a bustling trade network, and over time reined this network closer until, by the 2nd Century, it became the capital city of a formal Kingdom. King Edward Rimbach was crowned in 123CE, and immediately began to consolidate his borders and fend off other nation-states on his borders.

The Vardanid Empire began to pile on the pressure during the 140's, resulting in taxes being raised in the capital to pay for armies on the borders. This, in turn, sparked riots throughout the middle-class of the city. King Edward II's response was seen universally as being far too harsh, and he was ousted the next year in favour of his nephew.

Once this civil unrest quietened down, the city of Faramond Keep was a stable, functional and peaceful city for several centuries. It was unaffected by the Great Gap, and afterwards played only a minor role in the Scanbroughan Secession. It has recently been in danger during the War of the South Lake, however the Second Battle of Faramond Keep resulted in a crushing defeat for the besieging forces.