Hardgate (Settlement)

Hardgate is a fortification attending a village in eastern Bastonia, a minor earldom of Estmarch along the River Coldwater. By all accounts, the town is of little economic or military importance, and existed chiefly as a necessary holdfast in the shadow of the Atlas Mountains, vassal to Skywatch. Long-standing as a minor Baroncy, Hardgate was raised to the status of an Earldom when Billiam Hardgate, First Earl Hardgate served in the armies of Eldrech V during a war of succession. The town has since alternately been a holding of the Hardgates or under the direct authority of Count Skywatch.

The town is most famous for a structure within its keep known as Hardgate's Folly, a large tower named for the First Earl, though neither the tower nor the town itself is widely known outside of its county.

Geography

The village of Hardgate as well as the minor castle that protects it occupies the eastern bank of the Coldwater River, having cleared out broad surrounds of the birch and fir forest in which it finds itself. A small, unnamed island parts the river just to the north of the fortification, within sight of it. The diaries of multiple barons and earls Hardgate quip that the island itself would be easier to defend than the castle, though it is desolate and accessible by neither bridge nor ford. Both the castle and the village are serviced by a minor landing built roughly even to the island on the riverbank, with a worn cart-road leading from there to either the castle or the village.

The castle itself is a minor fortification only - a single and relatively low wall with a single gatehouse, surrounding a small yard that housed a stables, a storehouse, a somewhat squat three-level keep, and Hardgate Tower - the tower known elsewhere as Hardgate's Folly. The tower was constructed by the First Earl and was at least twice the height of the keep, containing internal chambers housing an overflowing library, and unused laboratories for arcane and alchemical practices, with a small observatory on the uppermost floor. As the First Earl never retained the services of a wizard, the folly was therefore known as a Folly and was seen by many to be the cause of the Hardgate Uprising. The castle held an armory and treasury on the uppermost floor of the keep but was otherwise extremely limited, and was more of a fortified house for the Baron (and later Earl) of Hardgate and their immediate household than a military facility.

The village, for its own part, was quite well-situated, having its own church building, dedicated to the Almighty, which was known to have featured an elaborate stained glass of San Lukas above its alter. Housing was relatively limited, as was access to arable land; by 1500 Age of Bastion, works were underway to clear more of the surrounding forest to create farmlands. The town did, however, have its own sawmill, and a small inn that chiefly catered to fishermen plying the river.

Economy

Hardgate is economically quite poor. At one time, there was a goldmine at the southern source of the River Coldwater, and Hardgate was one of many towns that chiefly offered a safe place to tie up overnight and avoid the depredations of the Carcolie, but by the time of the Southern Expansion this trade was largely no more, as the mine had long run dry. While the village had the means to sustain itself, it didn't have great access to the trade that made the more northern half of the River Coldwater so very profitable to inhabit. Its chief means of enrichment after about 1450 Age of Bastion was the adventuring and profit of the exploits of the Hardgates, who like many noble houses often engaged in the Bastonian wars of succession and other military exploits.

Politics

The validity of the Earldom is in question. The First Earl's misrule was so significant that the villagers lead an uprising against him, after which, his heir, the Second Earl Sir Draven Hardgate, purportedly refused to take on the Earldom, surrendering the holding to its liege lord, Count Skywatch. This was supposedly done because, as a Companion of the Light, Sir Draven would then have had split loyalties between the Duke of Estmarch (through Count Skywatch) and the Queen, Alhenna of Oversea, as the liege-lord of his chivalric order. Given the practical nature of the Hardgates, some speculate that the real reason Sir Draven abandoned the claim was the impracticality of quelling a rebellion in such a remote location.