Old Hibera

Kingdom of Old Hibera
Information
Type	Monarchical city-state
Description	Near Westenford, Amasynia
Population	~1000; 100% Hiberan Fairy
Area	~200 ft²
Demonym	Hiberans
Government	Monarchy
Ruler	King Oswald Grimley
Currency	Cap
Religion	Priesthood of the Great Fae

Name of the Kingdom

Old Hibera was established first as Hibera, prior to an eventual split in the realm as some left to found what would become New Hibera. The two kingdoms remain divided, with Old Hibera being ruled by Oswald Grimley, who sometimes goes by the name of Oswald Aengus to honor the Aengus line that founded the kingdom, despite his not being of Aengus blood.

Topography

The portion of the fairy kingdom known as Old Hibera sits in a forested area adjoining the lands south of Westenford, Amasynia. This part covers approximately the same space as its other half, which is in a cave surrounded by Myrken Wood. However, the contents of this grassy stretch are both shielded and kept invisible by a fairy ring of stones at the edge of a forest clearing. The exact location of this region is well known to inhabitants of Westenford, and the space is normally avoided out of fear.

Location

The entirety of this half of Hibera is contained within the fairy ring that surrounds it. It has no visible exterior entrance or exit, although if shrunken to fairy size and permitted inside the fairy ring, then a thriving town otherwise invisible can be seen. As with New Hibera, the sole town that comprises this half of the kingdom is divided into regions based on the colors of the fairies who live there, with the royal castle being set at the center and all other districts built around it in a roughly circular arrangement.

Climate

The climate around the region ranges from moderate and temperate to cool being so near the Amasynian coast. The currently slim fairies themselves thus tend not to leave their forested area, not being very well adapted to colder temperatures. The magical shielding over the region prohibits most external precipitation from affecting the town, although it fails to keep out everything.

Transportation

Old Hibera is designed, like its sister city, with fairies in mind: buildings are arranged both vertically by tiers accommodating flight and regionally by the caste system based on fairy colors. Buildings are multi-leveled, with doors and landings up and down their outermost walls. Most fairies go around individually on their wings, and there are three levels for flying on each thoroughfare in the city. However, that all depends on social class. A strict caste system exists based on inherited wing and aura colors, and it regulates everything from job selection to marriage to inheritance laws to travel.

Red and orange fairies are solely lower occupations and manual labor; they are the only ones restricted to the lowest flight paths in town unless necessary for their work. The majority of fairies are yellow-wings; they may hold most jobs available to average members of society, including hunting and manufacturing, and must travel accordingly in the middle of the air. White fairies are born into the upper classes, ranging from highly respected physicians to lawyers to magic-users who live only to make life simpler, safer, and more comfortable for the populace; they are the ones with the strongest inherited magical abilities, and magic is crucial to common life in Hibera. They are restricted to the uppermost flight paths, so they rarely see any connections with the lower classes except, as with the red- and orange-wings, for what rare dealings might come from their contact with others from their work.

Finally, there are exceptions to the typical rules enforced on well over three-quarters of Hiberan society. Green-winged kingdom and royal guards, blue-winged messengers and officials of middling status, and the pink-winged King Oswald Grimley may travel as he wishes or needs within the city; historically, any in the royal family have favored travel by a coach pulled by trained, enchanted honeybees that are cared for in an environment tightly controlled by a sizeable number of white-winged fairy mages. The King maintains such method of travel, just as Richard Aengus and Dr. Orin Barrin do in New Hibera.

Hiberan Color Laws

Fairies of both Old Hibera and New Hibera are subject to the Hiberan Color Laws that fully dictate a demanding caste system based on the coloration of each individual fairy in the two kingdoms. Rumor has it that other, more distant fairy kingdoms that are populated with descendants and relatives of the Hiberan fairies have heard of the Hiberan Color Laws and implemented them, as well.

Public Service

The green-winged Hiberan Guard protects the people of Hibera, serving as police and military with their specialized emphasis on their human-toothpick-sized pikes. Red- and orange-wings take care of construction (and the rare demolition), whereas a few white-wings serve as capable physicians.

News

Information spreads through town mainly by word of mouth or town crier.

Leisure Activities

With Old Hibera's being based in a forest, unlike its counterpart, many of its fairy citizens are used to navigating the nearby trees and flora for survival reasons. Otherwise, most fairies from this region have little time for leisure, arguably even less than those in New Hibera. To that end, they have even less in the way of cultural centers and entertainment than their fellows.

Local Economy

The fairies of Old Hibera have long since taken their economic pursuits in a very different direction from their relatives. Their currency is the cap, so named due to their historical use of acorn caps as currency. With acorns and other nuts being used for food, the caps attached to them were put to use as shields, armor, house decorations and protective surfaces, and especially money. With the advent of Westenford and a gradual increase in human/fairy relations, the use of actual acorn caps was slowly replaced by small, wooden coins engraved with the current king's or queen's face on the obverse and an acorn on the reverse, although the older currency is still accepted, mostly for larger denominations and payments.

Such human/fairy relations were brought to a severe and sudden halt in AR 207 when a shrunken human dignitary visiting from Westenford accidentally infected Old Hibera with a form of plague that killed approximately three hundred of 1,300 fairies before it was contained and cured the next year, leading to Old Hibera thus adopting isolationist policies even more extreme than its sister kingdom at the time.