![[karnost-banner.jpg|banner]] > [!infobox|right] > # Karnost > ![City Crest](https://example.com/karnost-crest.png) > **Crest**: Gules, a tower atop a jagged hill, above crossed spears argent > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
General Information
RealmThe Reaches
Populationca. 110,000
Dominant CultureMartial caste, frontier clans, oathbound families
Local DemonymKarnathi
Ruling AuthorityBaron Drel Vask
Key Features
FoundedAs a hill-fort from attempts to settle the land(~350 years ago)
Known ForFortifications, discipline, frontier justice
LandmarksSpine Gate, Red Bastion, Iron Oath Chapel
Military PresencePermanent garrison, oathbound retinues, militia levy
TemplesVeil shrines, war shrines, oath altars
Trade GoodsStone, weapons, charcoal, livestock
## Overview Karnost stands like a clenched fist at the edge of the Reaches—a brooding fortress-city built on basalt cliffs overlooking the windswept wilds of the western interior. It is not a city of comfort, but of **endurance**. Here, the wind never rests, the hearths burn ashwood year-round, and every street bears the wear of marching boots. Karnost exists not to flourish, but to **hold the line**—against raiders, mountain tribes, and worse things that slip down from the [[Shatar Mountains]] when the fog is thick and the sentries falter. Its people are equally unyielding: stonelayers, shieldwrights, oath-sworn soldiers, and pale-eyed farmers who till the thin soil and bury their dead with salt and blade. Ruled by **Baron Drel Vask**, a reclusive warlord turned magistrate, Karnost maintains order through iron codes and ritual discipline. Few come here willingly; those who stay either owe the Baron a life-debt, or have nowhere else left to run. In Karnost, duty is the only luxury—and survival, the only pride. ## History Karnost began not as a city, but as a last redoubt. During the early waves of post-Shattering expansion, settlers and warlords pushed westward into the broken hills and narrow valleys that fringe the Shatar range. There, at a windswept crag marked by ancient stone and scattered bones, a hill-fort was raised—first from timber and dry-laid rock, then later rebuilt in basalt and iron. It was meant to be temporary, a foothold for further inland colonization. But the land had other plans. For every foothold gained, the wilds pushed back. Mountain tribes descended in waves—some seeking blood, others justice, others simply land they refused to cede. Beasts, spirits, and other older things stirred in the mists of the uplands, attacking roads, scouring fields, and unraveling fledgling settlements. One by one, the outer posts fell. Only Karnost endured, garrisoned by survivors, exiles, and oathbound war-companies who refused to retreat. Its identity was forged not in victory, but in **defiance**. Throughout its history, Karnost has served as the **shield of the Reaches**, standing vigil even as other cities prospered behind safer borders. It played little part in the wars of succession or the Ninefold Severance, but became a magnet for outcast warriors, broken houses, and clans too stubborn—or too dangerous—for other Free Cities to stomach. Baron Drel Vask, its current ruler, is the fourth of his line, though the title has never been inherited by blood alone. Each Baron must be confirmed by an **Oath Assembly**—a gathering of captains, garrison leaders, and retired militia who bear the scars of defending the city. Karnost has never fallen. It has never been taken. But it has bled, year after year, without fanfare or songs. Its victories are carved in stone, not sung in courts. Its legacy is not glory, but survival. ## Geography & Layout Karnost rises from the black cliffs of the western Reaches, built atop a crescent of basalt ridges that overlook the mist-choked valleys below. The city is laid out like a fortress even in its civic quarters—narrow switchback streets, layered gatehouses, and terraces carved into the stone itself. The older parts of the city still bear the scars of the original hill-fort: squat towers with arrow slits, stone cisterns, and barracks-turned-homes reinforced with iron beams. **Everything in Karnost is made to endure.** The city is divided into three functional districts. The **Red Bastion** crowns the highest ridge, containing the Baron’s keep, the garrison command, and oathstone chambers where official oaths of service and fealty are sworn. Beneath it lies the **Stoneward**, a broad, wind-scoured plateau where smithies, workshops, and armories clank day and night. This is where weapons are made, armor fitted, and fortification crews organize supply runs into the wilderness. At the base of the ridge lies the **Lower Tread**, a more sprawling, sloped quarter of market stalls, homesteads, and holding pens for livestock driven down from the highlands. There is no harbor, and no river runs through Karnost. Water is drawn from mountain cisterns and rainfall is jealously preserved through stone-pipe aqueducts. The city’s perimeter is defined by natural cliffs and fortified switchback trails. There are no slums in the traditional sense, but **Outwalkers’ Hollow**, a tight-knit quarter just outside the inner gate, serves as a haven for caravaners, exiles, and those who refuse formal citizenship. Beyond the walls, the land becomes wild fast: rotting watchtowers, cairn-marked trails, and torch-stakes meant to ward off the night. ## Governance & Law Karnost is ruled by **Baron Drel Vask**, but his authority is not absolute. True power lies in a balance between his office and the **Oath Assembly**, a rotating body of veteran officers, ward captains, and ancestral line-holders sworn to the defense of the city. The Assembly has no fixed meeting time or chamber—instead, it is summoned when matters of defense, succession, or war demand judgment. Debates are often terse and brutal, and votes are cast not by hand but by placing one’s seal on the **Oath Table**—a centuries-old slab of carved obsidian in the Red Bastion. Karnost’s laws are few but unyielding. Every citizen above the age of sixteen must be **bound by oath**—to a family, a profession, or the city itself. Those without oath are considered **drifters**, and may not own property, petition leadership, or remain within the walls for more than three days unless granted special status. Breaking an oath is a severe crime—punishable by exile, branding, or, in extreme cases, execution. Lawkeepers known as **Oathblades** enforce these decrees, their armor marked with the unbroken loop of the city’s seal. Courts are simple and direct. Minor disputes are handled by district elders or retired captains; major crimes are brought before the **Oath Hall**, where evidence is heard before the accused either reaffirms their oath—or breaks it in full view. Public executions are rare but carry ritual weight: the condemned must break their own sword or tool before sentence is carried out, symbolizing the loss of function, name, and place. There are no jails in Karnost—only the city, or the cold beyond it. ## Society & Culture Life in Karnost is austere, harsh, and shaped by the constant proximity of conflict. The city’s culture is built on **oaths, endurance, and martial discipline**. Every Karnathi child learns their first pledge before their seventh winter—often to a house, a trade, or a watchpost—and those who cannot hold to their word find little welcome in the city's walls. Manners are few, but formality is everything. Respect is measured not by softness of speech, but by clarity of purpose and the consistency of one's actions. In Karnost, even a compliment is earned. Festivals are rare and solemn. The **Day of Iron Pledge**, held in early winter, marks the swearing of new citizen-oaths and the remembrance of those who died defending the city in the prior year. During the **Windsway Vigil**, Karnathi hang bells from spearpoints outside their homes to drive off hungry spirits stirred by the shifting mountain winds. Fashion is utilitarian: layered wool, leather, slate-colored cloaks, and insignia bands denoting profession or oath-group. Ornamentation is limited to metal clasps, weapon craftsmanship, or ancestral tokens worn close to the chest. Vanity is viewed with suspicion, and extravagance with outright contempt. Social structure in Karnost is not determined by wealth but by **oath-lineage** and military standing. The highest status belongs to those who can trace their service across generations: long-serving garrison families, the stonewright clans who maintain the fortifications, and elite militia captains. Outcasts and oathbreakers, when not exiled, live in **Outwalkers’ Hollow**, a tight-knit, insular community where survival replaces status. Foreigners are accepted if they pledge to the city—mistrusted if they do not. ## Religion & Education Religion in Karnost is sparse, pragmatic, and tightly woven with the city’s identity of duty and defense. The **Veil** is respected but not venerated—seen more as a cold truth than a source of guidance. Temples are few, modest, and mostly functional: the **Iron Oath Chapel** serves both as a shrine and an oath-hall, where initiates speak their vows before a blade embedded in black stone. The dead are burned or entombed in sealed barrows outside the walls, their names inscribed on lead plates and kept in the **Book of Stones** beneath the Red Bastion. There is little patience for mystical excess. **Heresies are neither outlawed nor indulged**—they are simply ignored until they interfere with civic order, at which point they are extinguished swiftly and without spectacle. Some whisper that old blood rites are still practiced in the hills beyond the city, but few speak of it openly. Mountain spirits are occasionally invoked in private, especially by highland-descended clans, though such beliefs are treated more as family tradition than faith. Education is provided through **service and apprenticeship**. Children learn to read contracts, identify weapon grades, and track forage routes by the time they come of age. The city maintains no formal academy, but several **training halls and forge-cloisters** serve as centers for practical learning—blacksmithing, tactics, field medicine, and engineering. Magic is rare, and what little arcane practice exists is typically folded into military utility: wardcraft, reinforcement runes, or battlefield diagnostics. Knowledge, like everything in Karnost, is valued for its use in keeping the city standing.