To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

Fastheld is an Empire with a population of around 300,000. Suffice to say that these people don't all live in rural areas, and the majority call a vast number of townships and cities home. Thus, within Fastheld rest a good number of urban areas that make up the heart of both the economic and cultural aspects of the realm, but also act as the bases of power for the six Nobles Houses that vie for influence and power.

Aegisport (Kahar)
Aegisport, the effective mouth of the Fastheld River as far as those who dwell within the confines of the massive wall are concerned, is home to the riverside township where Talus Kahar XIV was born more than three decades ago. The port town, with its modest warehouse district and wharfs, has been a Kahar family stronghold since it was founded on the site of one of the most decisive battles in the Wildling War.

It was on this site, on the hills north of the river, that the first Kahar Emperor finally cornered and defeated the Wildling warriors who decimated the Fastheld forces at the Valley of Blades. Eventually, when the war ended, Talus Kahar I returned to found Aegisport in his noble family's name.


Aegisview (Kahar)
Aegisview, city of industry and commerce, was once the provincial capital of the now-defunct Vozhd dominions. Straddling three trade routes at the Aegis' major eastern gate, rolling hillocks and loamy plains give way to dense urban quarters and a skyline populated by brick smokestacks.

Hundreds of stone chalets dot the rural lowlands, centered amid the great farm-estates of the landed gentry. The Eastwatch canal, a broad, glittering waterway, feeds surrounding fields with irrigable water and descends into the very heart of the city itself. Narrow cobblestone streets coil through the cramped city districts, yet inevitably lead to the expansive central square: the living heart of Aegisview.


Apple Village (Freelander)
A little group of houses nestles in the sheltered center of the valley. Clustered around the main street they number no more than two dozen. Each and every one is cared for, the mud-and-timber structure whitewashed into brightness and painted with gay trim. Golden straw thatches each home, and wooden shutters bar them from the casual voyeur.

Some of the little yards in front of the houses are fenced to hold in the clucking forms of brown poultry; all have small plots of vegetables and many bear flowers as well.

The houses cluster thickest around a small central market square; other buildings front on the square as well, and activity is often thick there with human and livestock both cluttering the clear air with the noise of business.


East Leg (Lomasa)
he riverside town of East Leg, founded two centuries ago by Yontalas Lomasa, has over time become a popular settlement area for those who have served in some capacity within the Emperor's Blades until they became too old to ride, patrol or defend against threats within and without.

Old horsemen and bladesmen can often be found in the Clanging Gong Tavern, telling stories of their adventures in the Emperor's service. The township hugs the northern shore of the Fastheld River, and a busy dock juts out into the jade green waters.


Eastwatch (Kahar)
A chaotic maze of muddy cobblestone pathways and wooden storefronts form the Cardo, Eastwatch's infamous subground marketplace. Reclaimed from slavers during the reign of Talus Kahar II, the ancient casbah grew in the shadow of Eastwatch's stone dikes; along the the yawning grottos betwixt those mighty walls. Merchants ply reed baskets of pungent spices in the ivy-choked passageways, the sky barely visible through the tegument awnings. The aroma of spice is nearly suffocating; permeating every crevice of the market streets.


Elkmont (Lomasa)


Fanghill (Zahir)
The town of Fanghill was settled nearly seven hundred years ago by Avram Zahir, the father of Gavor Zahir and grandfather of Goram Zahir. Avram Zahir oversaw the construction of the bleak fortress known as Fanghill Keep, and it was that castle that Goram Zahir inherited when he rose to prominence in service of Emperor Talus Kahar I.

But Fanghill fell into ignominy and shame throughout the realm when Goram Zahir betrayed the Emperor and hundreds of Bladesmen to a Wildling ambush along the Fastheld River.

These days, the township and keep are ruled by a dour and merciless man known as Zolor Zahir, who is suspected to have links to gambling and other vices in the Shadow District. It is also well known that his only legitimate son and heir, Zolde Zahir, died after being trampled by a royal Mikin's horse while in service to the Emperor's Blades.


Hawk’s Aerie (Nillu)
The sprawling township of Hawk's Aerie is one of the plushest, wealthiest and most politically important settlements in the realm of Fastheld, poised as it is at the fork of River Road and the Imperial Thoroughfare, with control over the economically vital Fastheld Wharfs and the strategically critical access point of the bridge that spans the Fastheld River to Aegis Road.

Founded five centuries ago by Edran Nillu, the bustling riverport town has been a primary source of that noble house's cache with the throne on Caryas Hill and the guilds of the Market District, and has enabled the Nillus to establish themselves as an economic powerhouse.

The streets are kept clean of garbage and filthy peasants as much as possible. The elegant stone and wood buildings are kept in fine repair. It is rumored that the ravens of Hawk's Aerie get their talons polished, morning and night.


Hedgehem (Zahir)
Slender spires of verdant green harvest pines flank Zahir Road as it straightens from its loops, bends, dips and twists long enough to meet up with Hedgehem Road, at a crossroads village that has helped fuel the legend of the House of Serpents over the centuries.

The buildings at Hedgehem Crossroads are constructed of smoky gray stone and roofed with shardwood slates, and most of the structures stand one-storey tall - the exception being the Nest, a two-storey tavern and inn catering to the tradesmen and vassals who pass through. Other buildings include Yalkul's Market, the Hedgehem Constabulary, a temple of the Church of True Light, and a smithy.


Lightholder Crossroads (Imperial Seat)
A small village has sprouted on the edge of the Lightholder River where the cobblestone roads from Fastheld's other prominent districts intersect, in the shadow of Caryas Hill and the majestic gray silhouette of Fastheld Keep - the seat of power for the entire realm.

Sutlers, traveling performers and other small-time merchants ply their trades along this main crossroads - competing for space with carriages hauling passengers, couriers rushing important communiqués from one district to another, and the soldiers of the Emperor's Blades who regularly patrol the area.

On the northwest corner of the intersection, next to the road that twists north toward Lightholder Bridge and the palace, sits a large tavern and inn where weary travelers can refresh themselves.


Light’s Reach (Mikin)


Marble Grove (Kahar)
Centered around a silvery lake, the township of Marble Grove has grown amid the tall biinwood masts that blanket the undulating hills of the east. Multistoried stone-and-thatch cottages encircle the town's central crossroads, cool and shaded under the treetops.

High above, banners of Kahar blue shudder in the breeze, seconded by the gray banners of the House Nillu - the masters of the township. To the north and south, great snowy mountains rise above the foliage, and the din of lumberyards can be heard through the forest thick.



Nillu’s Lode (Nillu)
Founded in the year 127 by House patriarch Hisam Nillu, the site of Nillu's Lode was chosen because of its convenient proximity to lands rich with deposits of gemstones, valuable ores and masonry stone.

All those years ago, this land in a bowl valley below a series of high hilly ridges was shrouded in dense thickets and verdant forests. But the industrious vassals of House Nillu leveled the forests and used the lumber to build many of the utilitarian-looking structures that form the center of town and the surrounding homes and estates.


Northwatch (Zahir)


Road’s End (Imperial Watch)
The gray stone face of the Aegis looms over a town that has grown where the road ends and the great wall begins. The scattered buildings that formed the foundation of the community were built by the armies of Talus Kahar I when construction of the Aegis began after the Wildling War.

Taverns, mercantiles, temples and homesteads have sprung up over the years, providing sustenance and recreation for the Bladesmen who stand upon the wall, and shelter for the multitudes who visit the Aegis or simply wish to dwell near it. The town's location has led to a quirk due to the geography: Its residents never see a sunset, and twilight begins soon after midday.

Oddly enough, the town never officially has been named. Those who live in the town call it Road's End. Those who walk the Aegis call it Downtown.


Seamel Valley (Seamel)


Silkfield (Seamel)
The main track of the Seamel Road intersects the wide, wagon wheel-rutted Silkfield Road at this crossroads commons that has been home to the hard-working fieldmasters and horsetamers of House Seamel for at least six centuries.

Buildings clustered around the crossroads include a True Light temple, a smithy's shop, a general mercantile, the Sprouting Keg tavern, and the local constabulary - where Silkfield's noble-designate serves as magistrate and dispute arbitrator.


Southwatch (Mikin)
Southwatch is a busy town nearly big enough to be named a city, with stone and sod shops lining its beaten-dirt streets. Surrounded by a long low wall, it has long since recovered from the Storming of 321, when a horde of dark creatures climbed the nearby Stanchion Falls and overran it save for the seven towers.

Now commerce takes place in a lively bustle, fuelled by the presence of rivermen, patrolling Blades, and nobles seeking to hunt the rich grasslands nearby. The heart of Southwatch is Southwatch Tower, a monolithic structure in the centre of the city; six more towers are also set into the surrounding wall.


Sweetwater Fields (Nillu)
The pioneering town of Sweetwater Fields, young and rather exuberantly constructed from native materials and imported quarried stone, grows on this relatively flat grassy sward along Market Road, on the north shore of the Fastheld River. The cobblestone road built through the settlement is made from paving stones delivered from Nillu's Lode.


Wedgecrest (Mikin)
The town of Wedgecrest sits on the northern height of a cliff overlooking Fastheld Gorge, through which the river passes as it arcs around a tall knob of granite called Night's Bane - a smooth-sloped hill that exceeds the cliff by about thirty feet, imbued with flecks of minerals that glimmer under the light of the sun, moons or stars.

Wedgecrest was first settled three centuries ago, founded by Trastar Mikin, and the town seems to have all the earmarks of a Mikin borough: The architecture is all straight lines and sharp angles, somber and devoid of decoration, and where nature has sought to deprive Wedgecrest of amenities, Wedgecrest has cowed or outright brutalized nature into submission.

Although a fine defensible position for the town, the cliff made it an unlikely port town, which threatened Wedgecrest's economic prospects. So Trastar Mikin leveled a fairly large chunk of the Wallwatch Wood for lumber used to build a series of angled walkways down the face of the cliff to the piers known as Wedgeport.


Westwatch (Lomasa)


Wildling Reach (Zahir)
Navigating the village is a careful affair, best done by rowboat for those unsure of foot. Narrow planks range high over the swamp, set from the doorway of one house to another; each stilted home has a trapdoor also, which descends by way of a ladder to a floating platform below each home as well. Many boats are clustered around, both wooden rowboats and the high-riding woven marshboats unique to these folk.

The houses are set in a random cluster above the deepest part of the central most pond of this marshy area. Safe as can be from any swamp- or forest-dwellers they stand on their tall tree trunks over deep water, a cluster of shops settled atop a common platform in the center. Made of smoothed boards chinked with mud and shingled with wood, they gracefully gray with age under a cover of marsh moss.