Mont Inaer

Mont Inaer is a mining town in the northern Mill Lands, it was established in -570 as a small settlement for trappers, hunters and traders with the Haatchi, but it was only when coal and iron were discovered in the Lower Orne Mountains that the town rapidly developed. It is typically looked upon by other Mill Landers as a hard, rough frontier town, but it supplies the coal to keep Pelonastra warm during the winter and to fire the furnaces of Drake. Mont Inaer also supplies coal and iron to the Firg to the north. It is a way-point for travellers to the Firg and into Welland and so it is a useful place to meet and hire armed men and cavalry. Haatchi can often be hired here as well

History

Mont Inaer was founded initially by Inarius, an Aruhvian mystic who was exiled by the church (a common practice), for speaking 'ecumenical blasphemes', and suggesting the Aruh had no real presence. Inarius found the harsh wilderness existence ideal for his own meditative solitude and he built a small holding, which, after his death from exposure in -562, was inhabited by traders and furriers making the route from the Shay Valley to Welland. A collection of makeshift buildings developed and the Inarius's Mountain (or Mont Inaer in Swithick), became known also to fugitives from the south. When Pelonastrius was established, Mont Inaer was its northernmost border outpost and decades later, King Karst Rever knew it would be an important stronghold against the Haatchi. He built the first stone buildings, bridges and town walls at Mont Inaer, originally envisaging it as a fortress against the Firg and the Haatchi. The discovery of coal a century later in -458 led a trail of speculators northwards, and none were more talented or rapacious than Narrys Jorhander, later made first lord of Mont Inaer, or the black king (a reference to coal) of the north. Jorhander dug the Eastern and Western Prospect mines and became the wealthiest and most influential man in Pelonastrius. New sources of cheap energy fired the forges of Drake and kept the wealthy warm during the long winters and made Mont Inaer a small but rich town (not much of the wealth trickled down, it must be said). Jorhander was widely disliked and seen as grasping, greedy and crass.

Within eight years Jorhander had brought war on Pelonastrius. The creators of his mines were the Firg engineers of the Firg clan Vas'Nagan, who Jorhander had made a deal with. He had crossed the Lower Orne Mountains into Firg in -457 and offered the Firg virtually unlimited free coal and iron in return for helping him build the mines. He wrongly thought the giants to be simply and naive, not canny, warlike and quick to anger and had no intention of honouring his deal. A Firg invasion led to total paralysis in Pelonastrius as King Rhander Rever was completely taken by surprise (having no idea of the crisis that Jorhander had brought upon him) and was unable to lead any kind of resistance. Secretly, Southern nobles were glad that finally Jorhander had got what was coming to him, especially when the Firg took him back with them across the mountains, never to be heard of again. King Rhander was overthrown by the rival De Hauer family, led by Samuel De Hauer, who would be known as Good King Sam.

Mont Inaer is built into the mountainsides that the town mines and it spans two peaks, which are connected by sturdy brick and stone bridges, which are treacherous half the year round because of snow and ice.