Labremulyor

**Labremulyor is a nation in maligon** a totalitarian human regime presides over one of the more dangerous borders to the plains.

Mulyor, Labre, Whitekeep and Scheld

before the first great human diaspora humans spread to the corners of the merec wilderness to set settlements, some as early as the just at the beginning of the twilight of the elves. Labre was one such, built just in the lowlands beneath the dwarven mountain keep of Lumthonom. The books of labre, kept to emulate the historical record keeping of dwarves, say that enemy humans moved from the merec wilderness, and established the town of Mulyor in jealousy of Labre. This is however, a lie. Mulyor was established after a failed military coup some one hundred years into the founding of labre. Now the book of labre forms the only link to the culture that came before Mulyor had its revenge, and is seen as a comical heresy. Hygoras Ventastus was a town guard captain who attempted to overthrow the democractic parliament that had been the government since the founding. After he failed to garner public support he was exiled with his co-conspirators and antagonistically founded Mulyor, named for his father, Mulyor Ventastus who had a similar reputation for violent dissent. Mulyor was built close enough for the watchmen of labre to see, and Ventastus has been quoted in saying that he hoped they would see his city as the aetherlight rose behind it, each morning. Centuries passed, and the antagonistic relationship was written as falsehoods to both cities history and myth making, both cities survived the collapse of the coalition of shorter lived races. In the aftermath Arghig the cruel emperor of the orcs began his march to conquer the dwindling empire, swallowing up peaceful communities and making serf knights of his subjects.

Arghig saw the strategic potential in conquering Labre as both a ready made fortress for him to control, and a way to damage the Dwarven thrones of Lumthonom. Lumthonom was a much larger and grander territory then, and Arghig made no secret of his desire to destroy it. Arghig has made promises to the ogre queens of the bendattan wastes, and rallied the weight of the ogre forces against labre. The siege was long, and brutal. Under Arghigs orders, diplomats sent to agree terms were eaten. As the Aetherlight rose of the 17th day of the siege, a grand cavalry was heard, and the miltary might of Mulyor rode against the ogres. The wasteland city had followed the lead of Ventasus and was ruled by its military commanders, they had trained themselves in the same manner they had trained the wild horses of the merec. Having not faced resistance on two fronts, the ogres were overwhelmed and retreated, drawing Arghig’s ire. The army of Mulyor found their old enemy decimated and little resistance was presented when Mulyor’s Commander general Azara Engay took control of Labre while providing relief after the siege. The Cities were unified under the banner of the human art of soldiery.

Arghig’s death and the immense weight of the power vacuum he had left came at the perfect time for these cities. They established the fortress city of Whitekeep in the merec wilderness, displacing the gnolls who had lived there for millennia. Whitekeep was seen as symbol of the power of both cities uniting against the world, and the white fortress became the heraldry for all of Labremulyor. Commander Azara Engay declared that she would conquer the forest of Yeroifox for the supremacy of the humans at the founding of whitekeep. She died just over a year after of a sudden illness but to cement her legacy, the town of Scheld was carved into the forests most northern tip. Unsurprisingly, Labremulyor has had a hostile relationship with much of the continent. Any non-human in their lands is seen as suspicious, as are any who question their enshrined beliefs of supremacy and foretold destiny of expansion.

Modern day labre has little in common with its origins. Ruins of the siege with the ogres are left where they fell with iron bars around and descriptions of the events, taken of course from their warped history. symbolic representations of the original democracy are kept to be a reminder of failure of that weak system. The city is not an expanded barracks though, like the majority of Eautipet, nor is there a mandatory service term in their armies. The civilians of labremulyor are merchants and craftsmen, paying the high taxation rates demanded by the lord commander of Whitekeep. Labre’s primary craft is pottery, often white and blue glazes reminiscent of their heraldry. The kilns of Labre date back to a civic project before mulyors founding, but are now all privately owned. Potters pay rent to use them as well as the taxation to be protected by the military while doing so. The biggest kilnlord is Heallus Tralis, who also owns the majority of wine houses across the town, the only settlement that is allowed to consume alcohol. Engay’s Stirrup, Ogre’s doom, Mage’s ruin, Saint Ventastus and the sword’s rest are all owned by Tralis, who can be often seen gregariously flaunting his wealth in his establishments wearing an ornate gilded gold and gemstone copy of a ranking officers uniform. Most often with outlandish accessories. Due to the disparity of wealth, Labre has had a problem with increased vagrancy and beggars in the last century. The majority of homes are owned by those of wealthy families who pay minimal taxes in comparison to their tenants, whose taxes are collected directly by serving members of the military. An ideology has been popularised by the wealthy such as Tralis and the towns Colonel mayor Argestis Polularis that those experiencing poverty now are the repercussions of the weakness of their ancestors in subscribing to the flawed democracy.

Mulyor has reaped the rewards of its tribalism. it’s populace sees its military as an aspirational career, one that was never sullied by the weakness of labre, proved right in history as much as it is in might. Murals of battles, some more imagined that remembered, cover every building. Every road is named after a great hero. Soldier poets and skalds are the primary entertainment. A trade that would be curious to a travelling outsider are the ‘Veneration shops.’ Simply a veneration shop is home to a studio of craftsmen and apprentices who create art in the image of soldiers, but the culture around them is more complex than that. Almost every household in Mulyor, Whitekeep and Scheld has several soldier statues in their home. More of labre does as well, but it is forbidden to start a Veneration shop in labre for fear of offending the spirit of Hygoras Ventastus. It has come a point of social pressure for the parents of a soldier to have a mosaic commissioned when they graduate from recruit, and display it as one of the first things seen in the entry way to a house. Larger families will often have the dull artificial eyes of several offspring staring out into street from a foyer. It is a custom now to have a bronze statue made of a soldier’s likeness when they die in battle as well, and designs are taken from the recently deceased corpse before it is taken to Scheld. Beyond that, houses will often have statues of Ventastus, Engay, Warmaster Gaius Brange, Andecht Thunderhanded and a selection from hundreds of other heroes from the history of Labremulyor. This means that the Veneration shops are constantly producing idealised versions of both commissions and historical figures. It is not an uncommon sight to one walking into a veneration shop to see a lifeless body on the table with an artist and apprentice drawing from it, while ten other apprentices mould and sculpt along with a master leading the class.

The highest honour for a veneration shop is having its work displayed in ‘Bloodshed reward’ known as reward park. The parkland was a project of Commander general Azara Engay’s successor Sephakona Ushef, who saw it as an easier way of securing a legacy than attempting to conquer yeroifox. That something her successor Andecht Thunderhanded would try to do. Reward park has shaded verandas, fountains and lush grasses, that bronze plaques indicate only exist because they have been watered with the blood of pure Labremulyor soldiers. One can not walk ten feet without encountering a frieze of battle or mosiac of martyrdom. Unlike privately commissioning a veneration shop, nothing is placed in Bloodshed reward without being approved by the lord commander of Whitekeep and the colonel mayor of Mulyor, currently Iktirpus Collis. The ratifications are read aloud from the grand temple of Leholimo on the first moon of nahowl. While this was put into place to watch guard from the undeserving being proclaimed hero, it was already a cost of gold and not of blood that erected the grandest plinths. Unlike labre, the consumption of alcohol is prohibited in the borders of Mulyor. This makes water the beverage of social occasions, specifcally from a font of a santified soldier in Reward park. Food is also traditionally to be purchased and consumed inside the home, to promote a unity in families, making a traveller finding sustenance intentionally difficult.

Whitekeep is the seat of power in Labremulyor, as the symbolic unification of both enemy cities. The absolute ruler is given the title lord commander of Whitekeep, among with any others they have accrued in their warfare. The current position is held by Claudilos Begistus, who goes by the honorific Claudi the spear. The majority of whitekeep is the fortress of the whitekeep itself, the barracks and training grounds and extensive horse stables of the Mulyor cavalry. This being the case, the civilians have little permanent space in which to peddle wares. Each third day at aether dawn, the southern field of whitekeep is transformed into an expansive and labyrinthine market of tents, lean tos and stalls, two hours after aethernight it is dismantled and the civilians retreat into the complexes of houses built into the rocks beneath the fortress. Taxation is as high as all the other parts of labremulyor, so the market is the entire livelihood of its sellers. The Whitekeep southmarket is only place across the land that other races are even slightly tolerated, providing what they sell is deemed worthy enough by whatever military official assesses them.

Inside the Whitekeep are both the palaces of the Lord commander and the most wretched of dungeons. Elaborate maps and topographical sculptures cover tables for officers to discuss. Spaces are left bare for the propensity of high ranking officers to engage in duels or trials by combat, rarely to the death. Of course there is statuary, but it is always the work of a master from an established veneration shop and without exception designed to be a virtuoso piece. There is also the chapel of Leholimo in her aspect of the supreme. Many outsiders would assume Labremuylor the state to worship warlike Kushinda but Leholimo is the strictly enforced god, worshipped along with war heroes. As a Theologian of Ragnnloth known simply as the Pious brother had reported to the holy family, ‘one would think the sons and daughters of Ventastus crave war and victory, as to hawks they are. One would be mistaken as I hath been. They crave only order, and through order they find purity.’

Beneath Whitekeep are the dungeon known as the ‘prison of cowards.’ While the commonly accepted crimes are punished here, there are also a mass amount of deserters, tax avoiders and politically motivated captives held and tortured. One singular torture chamber is infamous all across the cog, because it has a fluted oubliette hole that leads all the way to the eastern fields of the surface. The noises that can be easily heard from there are bone chilling.

Scheld is the newest town in what the powers of labremulyor believe will become a long history of conquest. Established as the forward camp of Lord commander of whitekeep Andecht Thunderhanded, Scheld encroaches on the Yeroifox forest in a very defensible path between to rocky cliffs. While the army of the Thunderhanded intended to go further, less than a week after the ground was broken on the encampment, the lord commander was killed in combat against minotaurs. His body was interred at the camp, it is claimed according to his dying wishes. This began a tradtion, and every soldiers body that falls in Labremulyor desires to be buried in Scheld. The effect is indeed, potent. If one were to approach the lands of labremulyor from the western coast, the first thing they would meet would be rows and rows of mounds and grave markers to the dead. Some bear heraldry, some have swords enshrined in rock and all list the amount of lives the purpose entombed took. Carved into the rockface of the mountain behind them is an enormous icon of Leholimo, one hand held out to her honoured dead, the other clutching a sword in defiance. The town of Scheld has grown to cater to the morbid trade, its primary occupants are stonemasons, gravediggers and the clergy. As alcohol is prohibited in Scheld there are no taverns, but unlike Mulyor there are privately owned and operated restaurants of some popularity. The Saint Andecht eating house is the most prominent, taking advantage of the boar that can easily be hunted from the forest.

The wildlife of Labremulyor is as diverse as the Merec wilderness, but the Labremulyor themselves are famed for their domesticated animals. First and foremost their horses, which from the days of the unification of the two cities have been bred and trained to be as effective as calvary as they can be. They also take great pride in their dogs, bred for warfare and often accompanying officers into battle. The Cordanus breed is the pedigree most associated with Labremulyor, named for the colonel mayor of Mulynor who is credited with taking the pointed eared herding dog and training it to attack. In the last decade, it has become fashionable amongst officers of the Whitekeep to domesticate and train the large Lum hawk to attack and carry messages, whether this proves effective has yet to be ascertained.