The World of Ashstone

Welcome to Ashstone!

The known world of Ashstone encompasses eleven nations including the city-state of Ashstone. Some of these nations are at war, some are so close their crowns have united. Peoples from all these nations have come to live on the Isle of Ashstone where they must coexist – some willingly and some without a choice.

The Isle of Ashstone was a barren, rocky island before the wealthy Aithoni family recognised its strategic value and claimed it for their own, several centuries ago. Over time, they transformed the island into the largest and wealthiest city in the known lands. The Isle of Ashstone is situated in an important strait which gives them control of the majority of trade. The ability to tax ships passing through their waters as well as trade via their own merchant vessels has given unimaginable wealth and power to the Aithoni family.

Ashstone as a political entity encompasses the Isle of Ashstone, the tips of the peninsulas to the north and south of the Isle, and the distant fortresses of Eddystone, Blackstone, Highstone, and the forts of Aston and Eaststone on the isle of Astest.

The Isle of Ashstone lies in the middle of the Ashstone Strait. The Isle is the tip of an extinct volcano, and the stone comprising the island is made of compacted ash and other volcanic rocks. This stone was used to build the fortresses and palace of the island, which made it appear from a distance that the walls and buildings had been summoned right up from the ground. The volcanic nature of the island has created underground cracks that have allowed several springs to percolate fresh water up through the cracks in the rocks in a few places which were turned into public fountains (and one private fountain adjacent to the palace).

The Isle has no resources of its own, but there is a little agrarian land on the peninsulas. Some docks and causeways connect some of the smaller islets to the main city. Some space between these has been infilled and now has buildings on it. In low and poor areas, it’s typical for houses to be built on piles due to the tides and flooding.

The position of the Isle of Ashstone and the distant fortresses have given the ruling Aithoni family dominance over the region's trade, as the busiest shipping lanes pass through the Ashstone Strait. The Isle itself guards the east entrance to the West Sea.

Ashstone and the peninsulas are prone to fog which is often heavy. This combined with the tricky currents and rocky geography makes maritime navigation challenging for the locals and quite difficult for captains who have not sailed these waters before, which gives the Ashstonian traders and captains even more control over the straits and regional trade.

The city is warm and sometimes hot in summer, cool and occasionally snowy in winter. The topography is rugged and the mountains nearby are too high to utilise.

Ferries big and small shuttle people back and forth across the strait.

Map of the known world. The Isle of Ashstone is located at the eastern strait between the West Sea and the Isle Of Instrett. (The yellow area)

Map of the safety of each of the neighbourhoods and how run down they are. This map is for building only.

Ashstone is Brugge/London-like economically, gotland/gibraltar/singapore-like geographically.

All species are generally more tolerant of other species in city than in their homelands

Owned/run by a rich trading family (the Aithoni). They enforce to their best abilities peace between the different species in the city, as trade flows better without conflict. Their whole military are hired mercenaries except for the leaders.

The Isle of Ashstone has a few freshwater springs; one in the palace grounds and the other two are hooked up to pipes that deliver water to the fountains of every neighbourhood. The city is bisected by a hilly area. The areas of rough topography are much lower in elevation these days as much of the stone used to build the palace, fortresses, and the fancy homes of the wealthy. The best stone has been removed, leaving a low point between the cliffs and the South Ferry Dock. A result of this was bisecting the island into east and west halves, with the poorer living on the west side of Ashstone.

Ashstone has a number of fortresses, approximately half of which are on the Isle itself. The distant fortresses support themselves by buying food from relatively local shops and farms. No food is grown on the Isle itself, but the North Peninsula has a number of specialty farms. The Ashstonian population imports the rest of its food, mostly from the Foxes and Cats.

The North Peninsula hosts an arena, a gaol, and a fort as well as farms and fishing boats. The topography here is rugged but with a fair few flat places where food is grown for the Isle. The border is guarded but only lightly due to the good relations between Ashstone and the Foxes.

The southern border is more heavily guarded; the cats are generally good neighbours, but the Horses are looking to expand their territory, wealth, and influence, resulting in their small border with Ashstone being more heavily guarded. This peninsula is more hilly and rugged than the North Peninsula.

The distant fortresses are mostly supplied with comestibles via trade with local peoples. Some of the more far-flung receive shipments periodically from the Isle of Ashstone.

Over the centuries, Ashstone’s rulers have grown increasingly distant from the inhabitants of Ashstone; so much so that it’s quite rare to catch a glimpse of any jackal outside the palace grounds. Their language (Astonian) is considered the most socially elite, especially compared to the common version of Ashstonian spoken outside their walled palace complex. When the elite travel around the city, they invariably do it in a heavily-guarded carriage accompanied by foot soldiers. The rare exception to this is the trade houses and the fortresses; the Aithoni don’t fully trust anyone outside of their jackal brethren (and them not very much either), so they appoint their relatives to important posts (harbourmasters, commanding officers, ship captains, etc).

To a small extent, the various neighbourhoods are left to govern themselves, in particular those further west on the Isle.

Aithoni Jackal (Royal) Family

Language - Ashstonian (name given by non-Jackals)

The Aithoni family has been living on Ashstone Island for centuries, having settled there from far overseas. Situated in the middle of the strait separating the West Sea from the East sea through which the majority of trade passes. This position brought them great wealth and with that wealth great power. This extended family are the only Jackals in the known lands.

The Aithoni family are aloof but reasonable rulers. They value their control of trade over all else and do what they can to maintain peace in the known lands, as peace brings better trade than war does.

That said, the Aithoni keep a sizeable standing army which is stationed on the main island, the two adjacent peninsulas, and their various far-flung island fortresses that guard the major trade routes. They also maintain a decent navy to accompany their merchant vessels. The Aithoni have more fortresses than do many much larger nations.

The Aithoni family permit trade vessels from other nations to pass through the strait, but at a high tax rate. Due to this tax and the cost of operating and maintaining ships, many nations simply use the Aithoni's ships to transport their goods.

The Jackal language is used by the Aithoni, who cling to a very 'pure' form of the language. In Ashstone, the language is a variant of Jackal which has absorbed a lot of grammar and words from the various languages in the known realms. This language is also used as a lingua franca in this part of the world.

Despite the distant nature of their rulers, the Aithoni provide protection and provisions to the citizens of Ashstone. The city guards (and even more so at the palace gates) work to keep the peace. The Aithoni understand that a happy population is important for a city to flourish and helps them retain power. Additionally there are regularly-occurring festivals put on by the Aithoni family for the populace.

The Aithoni have their own religion, of which little is known by the general population.

The ruler of Ashstone, Vasilias, is an elderly Jackal who is said to be uncommonly shrewd.9