Ghosthold

In the harshest region of Onea's farthest northeast reaches, the Bloody Flanks have done the impossible. This blighted land --characterized mostly by featureless sheets of ice-- should, by all logic, be uninhabitable to equines. Banished to certain death in the frigid tomb of the continent's northeastern peninsula, the clan has struggled against the elements for decades, eventually mastering the art of withstanding nature's extremes. Many Bloody Flanks were lost in the first long winter as the village was built. Now, hidden in the snow, stands the clan's new home: The Ghosthold Encampment.

    Named both for the fallen Thigain's great warship --The Ghost Knife-- and for the unlikely  survival of its citizens, presumed long dead, Ghosthold is a testament to the ingenuity of a clan faced with oblivion, and a symbol of defiance against incredible odds.

## Topography

   The land surrounding the encampment is as harsh as it is difficult to map. A significant portion of the landscape is made up of glacier. Huge, flat drifts of snow are frozen sometimes dozens of feet deep. It can be hard to say how far from the surface the actual ground sometimes is.  The vast, flat tundra separating the Bloody Flanks from the rest of Onea is mostly featureless, making it extremely difficult to navigate. Howling winds, the white skies of winter and frequent snowstorms make it easy to wander in circles. Even with the guiding shape of Mt. Skeldr visible on the southwestern horizon, most who attempt to cross this wasteland on foot do not come out the other side. To reach Ghosthold by land is largely a fool's errand.

    As one nears the coast, black strips of sediment begin to break up the endless white of snow and ice. At the continent's edge, dark pebbly soil is exposed in small irregular valleys, ground smooth by the passing of great glaciers eons ago. Even here, where the earth can be reached, nothing grows. Trees and other foliage are a distant memory, if they ever survived here, and indeed the land doesn't seem to host wildlife of any kind. Stunning blasts of arctic air and relentless dry cold prevent anything from thriving in this land.

    The sea, however, is strangely teeming with life. Hidden beneath the surface, an ecosystem of hardy, bitter plants, bizarre plankton, and fish keep the ocean alive with activity. Occasionally, seals or sea birds are glimpsed along the shoreline, but rarely close to the activity of Ghosthold. The thriving marine ecosystem has been vital to the survival of the Bloody Flanks. The plant life provides the primary local food source, but the eggs of coastal birds are also a rare delicacy. The hides of seals (and their blubber, which makes for a topical treatment to cracked skin and frostbite) help the Flanks fend off the cold.

    From the surface, the ocean is usually calm, particularly inside the natural harbor the Bloody Flanks have made their home. After months of initially searching for a habitable area in this wasteland, they discovered a small bay, sheltered by the ice cliffs, where the violent winds were less fierce and their damaged ships could be preserved. Inside this harbor--jokingly called the Socket by some of the cheekier members of the clan--the clan built the camp called Ghosthold.

## Architecture

    The Ghosthold encampment is of course a relatively new dwelling --built merely 20 years ago-- and due to scarce resources has a definite makeshift quality to it. The actual buildings are very few. With the lack of any trees for lumber or any other natural building material, the Bloody Flanks had to resort to breaking down their damaged warships to repurpose for shelter. The once-proud fleet of Bloody Flank boats had been reduced to twelve ships by the battle with the Warlord. The battered dozen ships had been reduced to eight (five smaller battleships and three huge destroyers) by the time the clan found the safe harbor of the Socket.

    The fleet's flagship, Thigain's Ghost Knife, was run aground by a storm mere days after laying anchor. It was the first ship to be gutted for the clan's survival. The Ghost Knife's gigantic hull was dragged ashore and upended. For the first, longest winter, the entire clan clung to survival in the dark shelter it provided, though as Ghosthold expanded and more structures rose, it has since become a governing hall and gathering place, still amply capable of containing the whole clan. Today it stand as the Great Hall, or the Ghost Hall, and the pitch-black interior has brightened considerably; when the Ghost Knife's bow was removed (to be used for the newly-built Trespasser), a wall of sheer ice replaced it in the great hall, allowing for sunlight to glow into the space.

    Of the original fleet of twelve ships, only one --the smallish Guardian, captained by Calder-- survives. The rest of the ships sank inside the Socket, were pulled apart to build homes or have had their parts repurposed to build newer, smaller ships. The camp that makes up the town of Ghosthold is full of bizarrely-framed buildings crafted from portions of dead ships and patched with ice and snow.

    In the past two decades, the Bloody Flanks have mastered the art of building with ice, and in the never-melting climate, these structures have been able to grow in size and intricacy. The ice insulates well, provides a translucent building to trap rare sunlight without requiring windows, and can be shaped however necessary, providing an unexpected amount of flexibility in construction. For some Bloody Flanks, this type of architecture has become an art form, and the ability to create shelter and beauty from the harsh environment is something of cultural significance.

    All in all, Ghosthold is made of about two dozen large wood-and-ice structures from the first years of settlement, and a larger number of ice structures have cropped up as individual residences. As the clan grows and the raiders bring valuable tools back to Ghosthold, the town has boomed. No longer as small or as bare as it was for a bleak decade, the town is now draped with scarlet banners, full of supplies, and loud with life.