It is said that as elves fled, nobles followed their wake, and wealth; and with hired labour bent branch and back, and founded the first heavy, sea ready vessels to aid in realising the dreams of distant shores, untainted lands.
Others say no such organised departure ever occurred, and that those nobility with sensibility simply moved as far South as possible from that new build and imposing break-wall, and what lay beyond. Better to let others wage wars, and risk wares and wives, while those who controlled the old wealth, held the old ways, looked after their own, rebuilt the political ties, pushed back the woods, and built their own walls, shy mimicry of those great cities though it was.
Regardless it was that those blistering white walls of a fledgling town came to ensconce the fractions of nobility who remained beyond the Lost Fiefdoms. And so they lived, and the beauty of the bay and the seas called to them, as their gold called to idle hands with keen wit. But never could that jealous noble blood mingle, they kept to their walls and their ways and their own.
And so it was that less formal dwellings and farmlands began to cling to the outsides of the walls and the slopes surrounding the bay, and shipping, nay ship-building, yet in its infancy, began to grow, as did demands on the harbor.
Several incidents of damaged vessels and lost cargo due to wild waters sweeping across and into the bay prompted the undertaking of a grand design. Enormous cut stone breakwaters were laid, extending out into the wild waters, taming the bay beyond. With final dredging and laying down of the docks, the small walled city, and growing town truly came into their own, becoming the trading hub for the Twins, Criever, The Summer Isles and even the occasional passing of the Floatilla.
This is a free writing piece and stands to be re-written and changed to better tell a story.
The drawing below is a work in progress and serves as a concept art and a check point, which is intended to be taken further, and shared in a future post.
Saelesstor - A view from the hills
