Difference between revisions of "New Hibera"

Revision as of 11:19, 15 August 2006

Topography

The tiny fairy kingdom of New Hibera sits, roughly, in the south-central region of Myrken Wood, being positioned underground in a cave on the southern border of Silver Lake. Its actual borders extend only a couple hundred square feet at most, which is ample for its thousand or so citizens, most of whom stand a mere four inches. The region is rocky and damp, being below ground in a cave, but fairy magic keeps the place slightly lit and warm enough to be comfortable.

Location

The entrance to New Hibera is a cave about 100 yards behind the cottage once owned by former Governor and Councilor Aloisius Treadwell, on the southern border of Silver Lake, a short distance from the Broken Dagger Inn. Two caverns into this cave, which slopes downward and is filled with the usual murkiness, two green-winged fairy guards stand at their post: a six inch around passage known solely as 'The Tunnel'. The Tunnel itself stretches only a few feet through the rock, approximately ten or fifteen feet underground, and it is the only entrance to New Hibera. The bulk of the kingdom is isolated to the one town, which is centered on the king's palace with the business sector around that and the residential areas at the outskirts.

The relationship with Myrken Wood is unclear at best, depending on who is answering the question. Myrken Wood's records of the kingdom's official existence -- a peace treaty recognizing such, established sixty-one years ago between the then-current council members and then-Lord Protector James Aengus, cousin to current king Richard Aengus -- have been lost or destroyed. New Hibera, however, maintains its records of such, keeping them safe in the palace library under lock and spell. The current opinion of the Myrken Wood Council appears to be one only of uneasy tolerance.

Climate

The white-winged fairy mages of New Hibera keep the climate inside the chief cavern -- especially the immediate area in and around the town -- pleasantly warm and only mildly humid. If one travels more than a few feet outside of the town itself, though, the caves themselves are damp, chilly, and hardly conducive to comfortable living for fairies. No rain or snow ever covers the town or the rest of the kingdom's land, as there are no direct openings to the sky.

Transportation

New Hibera, being structured more up than out, is designed with fairies in mind: 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 and must travel accordingly in the middle of the air, including hunting and manufacturing. 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 New Hibera. They are restricted to the uppermost flight paths and 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 New Hiberan society. Green-winged kingdom and royal guards, blue-winged messengers and officials of middling status, and the royal family pink-winged fairies (currently only King Richard Aengus) may travel as they wish or need within the city, the king usually favoring travel by a coach pulled by trained honeybees that are cared for in an environment tightly controlled by a sizeable number of white-winged fairy mages. No other fairies enjoy such costly, expensive, and simply ludicrous luxuries.

Public Service

The green-winged New Hiberan Guard protects the people of New 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 New Hibera mainly by word of mouth or town crier.

Leisure Activities

Most fairies have little time for leisure, but there are a few places of general interest in the city, from a small museum (with its permanent exhibits on those odd biglings of Myrken Wood) to a gallery for arts and crafts. The mostly urban life and the hostile, cold environment of the cave lead to minimal room for exploration unless absolutely needed.

Local Economy

The fairies of New Hibera have next to nothing to offer to or take from their human neighbors, maintaining self-sufficient, isolationist policies out of self-interest. Magic is relied on quite heavily for everything from repairs to construction to food creation. As there is very little available that can be molded to proper currency, barter systems and exchanges of services extremely common, although silver is especially prized for its beauty and malleability.

Contents of the New Hibera/Myrken Wood Peace Treaty

Anno Regalis 145 Myrken Wood Meetinghouse, Myrken Wood Province Raymond Elias, scribe and Councilor of Administrative Sanctions (A.R. 143 to present) for Governor Maxwell Beauregard (A.R. 143 to Present)

Treaty of Acceptance and Recognition: New Hibera

It has been decided in the course of our events that Myrken Wood cannot and will not remain an entirely isolated whole to itself for all of time. As a province of Trae Kelsa, we border upon other territories, they border upon our own, and, we have found in the past year, others have been in effect long before our own might have even been conceived.

One such of the last is a realm of the Fae Folk, who hail from a land they refer to as New Hibera. To their reckoning, their kingdom has been established, either through another location to the west or through the present, for over the past six hundred years. They are ruled by one Richard Andrew Aengus, the third in a list of monarchs from a family of the same name, and a recent mission from his scouts to seek out further sources of food to alleviate recent famine in their cave by the lake has caused a need for acceptance and recognition of one province for one kingdom and one kingdom for one province.

Without recognition of such sovereignty, our very existence on what each considers the other's soil is potentially quite dangerous. Currently, the fairy realm apparently means no harm to the territory we inhabit, and we mean none to them, so in an attempt to enable further cooperation, we have drawn up this initial agreement, as dictated below.

ITEM: The existence of Myrken Wood and New Hibera will be mutually agreed upon from this day forth. The proposed relationship is that of neighbors with mutual respect for one another's realms. The need for such is apparent; to prevent needless bloodshed, apathy, or isolation from one another, we must work together.

ITEM: The kingdom of New Hibera, however, must take into account the size of its neighbors. It has been agreed upon that this initial agreement restricts them to the caves just north of the western shore of Silver Lake by approximately one hundred yards. They have agreed to establish an outer perimeter two caverns into these caves, posting guards at an entrance they refer to as, simply, "The Tunnel." Otherwise, they are free to make use of the resources available within those caves to further their own survival. No domestic expansion to outer territories--such as the shore of the Lake, the woods, et cetera will be permissible without prior agreement from the Myrken Wood Judiciary Council.

Currently, these tunnels are not in use by any of Myrken Wood's citizens. It is for this reason that we of the Council feel it safe to allow the fairies their kingdom there.

ITEM: The Myrken Wood Judiciary Council has agreed to assist, free of charge, the Fae with a show of good faith by offering them necessary food and water to bring an end to their current famine. The amount of supplies given are surely minimal on our part--two (2) large bags of fruits, vegetables, meats, and bread with two (2) large jugs of fresh water. The king assures us that with proper rationing, these should be sufficient for getting the fairies through these leaner times.

ITEM: In an equal show of good faith, the people of New Hibera have, through King Richard's word, promised assistance in the future. This assistance, he assures us, might be drawn from magical means such as healing, scholarly means such as the wealth of fairy wisdom from the past hundreds of years, or even military means if necessary.

With these terms, it is thus initially agreed. This original document will be stored in the office of the Governor in the Meetinghouse. A copy will be given to Richard Aengus of New Hibera for safe-keeping in the New Hiberan records. A copy will be sent to the offices of the Trae Kelsan Crown, a copy will be given to Altruian Mudd for storage in his Library on Thimble Street, and I will keep a copy of this in my own records as the official scribe for the Governor. Further copies are only recognized as valid if they are made totally from one of these sources without alterations. Any copies given to or to be accepted from the fairy king will, of course, need to be smaller to fit them.

(The document ends with a variety of signatures and titles, ranging from the aforementioned Governor Beauregard and Councilor of Administrative Sanctions Elias to people filling the other three (still existing) Council positions to the signature and seal of Richard Andrew Aengus of New Hibera--a signature and seal that still match after many years.)