Laurenburg

Laurenburg is a lightly-fortified city of the Kingdom of Bastonia, located just south (or "outside") of the Bastion Line. During the Age of Rebellion and even into the Age of Bastonia, the city has its origins in a village then known as Val Mara. As a settlement outside the Bastion Line it enjoyed (until recently) a unique legal position of being at once beholden to the Bastonian Crown and not per-se part of Bastonian Territory, though this changed with the incorporation of the Frontier Counties. Unsurprisingly, Lauren is itself a county seat, and an important point along land routes into the Frontier Counties.

The city has a long history of warfare with the orcs of the Orcish Nation and is avoided by both them and their allies in the Confederacy of Sages as a result. This association goes all the way back to the origins of one of the dieties of the Bastonian Pantheon, their Saint of the Hunt, San Lauren. The city holds various hunting festivals throughout the year and these festivals are known to be recruiting operations for any of several instances of the Order of San Lauren. It's hypothesized that their illusive headquarters, Valley Lodge, is located in or near the city.

Geography

The area around Laurenburg is richly forested, and it sits in the base of a pass leading up toward the cliffs of the Bastion Line and the road into Seapoint. This forest is an act of conservation, and while it is occasionally farmed in a rotation for its lumber, it is also aggressively maintained. The city is home to a suborder of the Order of San Lauren known as the Laurenburg Lodge which accepts responsibility for this work.

There is a nearby lake known simply as Lake Lauren that serves as the primary fresh water supply for the city through an aquaduct that diverts part of its overflow into cisterns beneath Laurenburg Keep.

Like most cities in Bastonia, Laurenburg is fortified. However, these fortifications are largely token, having been constructed largely of wood. The city is now deep enough into the portion of the Frontier Counties held by Bastonia that it is mostly under threat only by Bastonians. Given the relatively low influence of the Count of Laurenburg and the historically-detached nature of the city, it rarely participates in Bastonian wars of succession, and so is seen to be more at risk of overpopulation or famine than outright asault.

Economy

In spite of being technically in the wilds, the city has been considered safe for centuries. It is occasionally the vacation home of nobles who feel that they need a little bit of carefully-curated excitement and wilderness in their lives, which the Laurenburg Lodge grudgingly facilitate. Since the expansion into the Frontier Counties, and especially since the Green Knoll Purge, the city has seen an influx of recruits for the Laurenburg Lodge and other chivalric orders.

What does exist for economic drivers in the town are the immediate needs of its citizenry (supported by extensive farming in its northern expanse) and the increasing armament of the Knights who man the castle.

Politics

Once considered a backwater, out-freyn settlement, Laurenburg is suddenly firmly inside the asserted borders of Bastonia, and the position and loyalty of both the Count of Laurenburg and the Order of San Lauren is that much more firmly pointed toward Whiterock, which the locals accept, albeit to different degrees. As military forces are passed through the city, this creates some friction with the locals, who would prefer to be left alone.

The city is increasingly attended to by members of other Chivalric Orders, searching more or less subtly for clues as to the location of Valley Lodge, the secret primary lodge of the Order of San Lauren.