#Dunla Mason

[theshapeshifter100]

Famines

(Day 20 of @thewatchau‘s Annual Prompts! Ending stretch now!

tw: vomiting, but it’s the last line)

Rufus was young, but he remembered the First Great Famine. He was one month away from turning seven years old when it struck.

He was big enough to help in the fields, if not with the sheep. He remembered the horror he felt when he pulled up a carrot and it was black, rotten and reeking of death.

His scream had attracted his Da, who took one look at the carrot and picked up Rufus, letting the boy bury his face into his shoulder so he wouldn’t have to look at it.

His Da told him to go back to the house and help Mam and Dunla and he couldn’t run fast enough.

He couldn’t explain in words why it spooked him so much. It was just a rotten carrot, it was probably the only one. He turned out to be wrong on that.

Dunla was doing some weaving while Rufus went over the farm numbers with Mam. Or rather, she did the numbers and Rufus tried not to fall asleep.

Da came back into the house, and Rufus perked up, glad for something else to do.

“Need a hand Da?” he called out.

Da didn’t seem to hear him, instead slumping into his armchair by the fire.

Mam stood up, ruffling the Rufus’s hair as she passed, and stood beside the chair.

“Brian?”

Da shook his head, running a hand under his eyes. Mam turned to Rufus and Dunla, the latter of which had stopped weaving.

“Dunla, go check on the uplands house. Take Rufus and one of the dogs with you.”

“Mam!” Dunla protested, but a look from their Mam made her shut up. “Come on Rufus.”

Rufus got up to follow his sister, looking back as his Mam comforted his Da. Why he wouldn’t learn until later.

Every single crop they had pulled was black and rotten.

Rufus knew Mam and Da weren’t telling them the whole story, but he knew enough. He wasn’t good with numbers, but he could tell they were going down. He noticed there was less food on the table. Breakfast was the only exception, because they had a brownie, and what they offered in return did not depend on what they could find in the market.

They had it better than most. Rufus could see it when they went to Slinad for market. They had sheep and wool to sell, while those who only grew crops had nothing.

He hated going. He hated seeing people that hungry, that scared.

Everyone hoped it would get better next harvest. It did not.

They couldn’t keep all of their farmhands. They simply didn’t have the money for it. He hated seeing them go, many of them were his friends. He cried to his Mam, who tried to show him the numbers and how it made sense, but that had made him cry harder.

After nearly a year and a half of failed harvest, Rufus’s little brother Liam was born.

Normally this would be a great thing, finally Rufus wasn’t the baby anymore! But, there was less food than before, and Mam was always hungry, matching the baby in appetite.

When Rufus was supposed to be asleep, he overheard his parents arguing. Da was worried that the baby wouldn’t survive, and bring Mam down with him. Mam wasn’t as convinced.

Rufus didn’t stay to listen to the argument, running back to bed before he heard more things he didn’t want to hear.

Liam survived, as did Mam. They weren’t always strong, but they were alive.

Rufus was coming up to nine when he went out harvesting in 1595. He hadn’t been as badly affected by the rotten crops after the first one, but there was still the churning of dread in his stomach.

The parsnip came out, dark from the earth and white underneath. Rufus just stared at it before scanning the field and running for his Da.

“Da! Da!”

Rufus missed that Da’s cart already had a small bundle of healthy parsnips, but that didn’t stop his Da from ruffling his hair before swinging him up into hug. It was over. It was finally over.

He’d almost forgotten about it until he was nearly 21, autumn 1606. He was pulling up a turnip this time, but when the smell hit he turned away, gagging.

It had to be just the one. It happens sometimes. It couldn’t be happening again, not with the raids as well. It couldn’t it just couldn’t!

He pulled another, the same result. The root slid off the stem and plopped wetly onto the ground into mush.

“Holy shit!” a farm hand cried. “What the fuck?!”

He wasn’t the only one. No no no no no.

He heard a lot of the farm hands sounding confused as he turned and walked away. He walked calmly until he was behind the tool shed, where he couldn’t control his nausea anymore and emptied the contents of his stomach.

(As implied in this, the Mason’s are primarily shepherds. Losing the crops wasn’t as big of a blow to them as many, since the crops were supplementary income. It was enough to make an impact.)

[thewatchau]

Settlements of House Brody: Slinad

Most of the lore in the upcoming series will be edited compilations of dozens of posts from the last two years. While there are some minor new details sprinkled throughout, I’ve attempted to post significant new information in a “Watch AU Fun Fact” post so you don’t have to read all of these HUGE posts to find them.

Other Posts in this Series:

Minor Settlements of House Brody: Druffdrom • Tobatyr • Fiansara • Slinad •  Torthúlacht

Posts Related to this Series:

Regional Capital: Aghaboy • Watch Locations: Agrona Bastion Outpost, Pa’Gille Caverns Outpost, Fort Stiofán Garrison

Related Series: House Brody Masterlist

In This Post

Summary

Name Origin

Economy

Layout

Trivia

Additional Art

Summary

Slinad (formerly Sliabh Lárionad) is a large market town in northern House Brody, Duilintinn, almost directly against the steep slopes of the Northern Mountains.

Name Origin

Slinad was originally named Sliabh Lárionad, which roughly translates to “mountain centre,” referencing its location near the Northern Mountains. Over time, the name was shortened to Slinad. Today, the name carries an additional meaning, referencing how the town is the central hub of House Brody’s northernmost agricultural region. 

Economy

Slinad is one of the largest towns north of Aghaboy and the Pa'Gille River, far more urban than the scattered farming towns in the foothill regions of House Brody's agricultural zones. Instead of farming its own goods, Slinad's economy is primarily driven by other farms in the region, which often trade their goods in the larger town. The geographic region is heavily populated by both wild and domesticated mountain sheep and goats, which are also cultivated by those living on the outskirts of the town.

Layout

Central Market

Slinad is extremely old, dating back to the Feadhainn Era. During the Waldren Occupation, what remained of the original Feadhainn architecture was abandoned in favor of the boxy trade warehouses and grid system layout favored by settlers from Waldren.

However, some of the circular elements of Feadhainn architecture still remain in Slinad's layout. Notably, the central market square retains the recessed, amphitheater structure, which originated in Feadhainn culture and has recently made a cultural resurgence in modern Duilintinn.

However, the steps of the central market square are difficult for livestock, so a secondary market area has also grown up around the amphitheater.

Business District

Beyond this open marketplace center, buildings of established shops and traders radiate outwards in a large circle, forming the town's Business District. Stores that rely on the trade from other farming towns (i.e. food-based shops) are located closer to the central marketplace, while other trades sit on the edges of the district. As the most important area of the town, the Business District also holds significant buildings such as the town hall and the local place of worship.

Slinad Outskirts

Beyond the Business District, the citizens of Slinad go about their lives unrelated to the town's trade. Here, the streets become far less stylized, losing both the older circular layout and the grid-like building placements. Houses spread further apart and gradually become more scattered along the city's edge. Multiple schoolhouses can be found in this area, serving both the children of Slinad and those of nearby towns and farms too small to have a school of their own. This area also hosts a few taverns, a doctor, and a windmill, which is mostly used to grind rye into flour for baking.

Defenses

Slinad hires a moderate number of guards from the Guard Coalition each year, generally to protect the taverns, town hall, and the markets.

Within the last few decades, Slinad has hastily constructed an inner wall around the Business District and an outer wall around the entire town to protect against raids from The Enemy's forces. During the brief periods of peace since the initial rise of The Enemy, the town has shorn up and maintained these walls properly, leaving the citizens within feeling well protected.

Trivia

Slinad is the home of the Dunla Mason, whose family lives in a farm about an hour north of the city, the latter of which Ivy Paris stayed with during her time in House Brody

Slinad was created by tumblr user @theshapeshifter100​

Additional Art

Slinad’s layout by @theshapeshifter100​

[thewatchau]

Amber Eyes

Author’s Note: I do like writing the Masons, if you couldn’t tell. Late Jan 1605. 

Bard’s Note: Thanks @theshapeshifter100 for the Day 19 Inktober 2020 submission!

__***__***__***__

Liam watched the light slowly get dimmer and dimmer through the shutters, the sky going blue, to orange, to grey, to black. Right now, his brother and father were out on the farm, waiting for an attack that may or may not come.

His mum was getting Lara to bed, and he was jealous, not of the being tucked in, but the fact that his sister would be able to sleep. There was a good chance he wasn’t going to sleep much tonight, as usual.

One of the older, more steady, if slightly creaky, sheep dogs was sitting in his room with him. He was a mostly grey, somewhat crotchety old man of a dog, but he had a soft spot for Liam.

He was lying at the foot of Liam’s bed, while Liam was huddled up at the head, candles lit on either side of the bed and clutching a mug of warm milk and honey.

The dog whined and looked over, tail thumping against the bedspread and eyes reflecting amber in the candlelight. Liam opened his arms a little bit and the dog crept up the bed and snuggled into his lap.

The warm weight made him relax, a bit. He took a sip of his drink and tried not to think about what was happening tonight.

It was fine. It will be fine. It had gone fine so far, nothing was going to go wrong.

Someone could hurt. Someone could die. They could reach the farmhouse.

The dog whined again and wriggled his way under Liam’s arms. A warm tongue licked his face, and Liam giggled, pushing him away.

“Eww, enough boy,” he gently admonished, and the dog didn’t’ seem to care, settling himself back onto Liam’s lap for what promised to be a long night.

[thewatchau]

(Image submitted by @theshapeshifter100 of their character Dunla Mason.)

[thewatchau]

Craftswoman Dunla Mason of House Brody

Born: 1581

House: Brody

Location: Sliabh Lárionad

Occupation: Weaver and cloth maker

Description: Sandy haired and blue eyed, with hair kept out of her eyes with a band or a tie, heart shaped face. Plain dress while working, will wear some of her own dyed wool products at the market.

The eldest child of the Masons, learnt weaving, business and general household skills at her mother’s knee, finding them more interesting than most of the other farm work. Had a knack for weaving the wool her family produced and kept going. Got an apprenticeship in Cordoire with one of the Craft Guilds and set up shop in her home town of Sliabh Lárionad a few years later. Being a large market town there’s a lot of competition for Dunla, but she’s coping and staying afloat. She has apprentices of her own now.

Author’s Note: There are a lot of characters in Ivy’s story that are more or less developed (not enough for a surname in most cases, but, whatever) that I thought I might as well make some short profiles for them.

Bard’s Note: @theshapeshifter100 originally had these all clumped into two separate posts, but I disagree that each of these are too short for a post of their own. After all, I’ve written far less detailed posts and called it a day, especially in some of those Watch AU Fun Fact posts. Plus… I mayyyyyyyyyy be trying to pad the queue a bit here in preparation for my trip next week. Sue me.