Ragod

Ragod or Worlds End Town is a small township in the southwestern, coastal part of the Subcontinent. It was originally a garrison, founded sometimes during the peak of the Hadašhim power, when the entire area was under imperial control. Afterwards it turned into an ordinary township populated by the local folk, before getting destroyed on more than one occasion. When the March was created, Ragod served as a sinkhole for every kind of malcontents impressed into service, who usually consumed themselves at a faster pace as they were shipped in from the west.

The municipality gave name to the Ragod Foothills, an otherwise small, but steep mountain chain. Situated along the upper reaches of the River Zaab, Ragod serves as the last fortress guarding the borders of Tantorel. Due to the innavigable river, it needs to be self-sufficient and depended upon overland trade beyond immediate foodstuffs. Its population fluctuated between 2-4,000 within the walls, most of them criminals in disguise or convinct toiling the public fields. Several suburban villages are also populated in the immediate vincinity by the same breed. During the last decades the numbers jumped from below 1,000 to around 3,000 with some minor increases every year, alongside a suprising qualitative betterment. Nowadays Ragod is once more resembling a normal city than the hellhole garrison it was just over twenty years ago.

The March, where it is situated is the westernmost, sparsely inhabitated area under the rule of Karamrost. However in the times of imperial control well into after the Pentarchy both sides of the river were populated by tribes of the some nation, the Lifili, and it wasn't that much different from the other parts of Tantorel. During the Deluge the town was burnt more than once, the original inhabitants fled eastwards, new more warlike people occupied their place just as they did with the wilderness in the west. The March was only reoccupied by a border guard after some two centuries later thanks to cooperation from the ruler of Karamrost and some other eastern fiefdoms. From that time onwards it was a wasteland of natural beauty full of human trash. Highwayman, escaped convicts, refugees, southern freeboaters, fugitives thrived in the area, using it as a base of operationd and often intermingling with the border guard in enriching themselves.

Since Meshuri Karamiš was appointed to the position in 1036 the area experienced a revival. The age-old walls of Ragod were renovated, the city cleared of human filth with an easy choice of death or obedience handed everyone living there before. An eastern master rebuilt, enlarged and refined both the governors palace and a series of other public buildings. The fountains started to function once more, long-distance merchants moved into town, bringing iron and wine, exporting amber and slaves. Several smaller forts were constructed along the river forming a warning chain, while the city garrison was reinforced to some eight hundred man-at-arms, six hundred of whom are cavalrymen. With lands cleared of the overwhelming majority of criminals, yearly excursions have been organised ever since into the west, taking both captives from the wildmen and ensuring that their fighting capacities remain low.

Ragod, as the capital of the region immensely benefitted from all these developments. Twenty years prior it was a small backwater garrison with widespread squalor and penetrating apathy within its confines. Ever since it has been turned into a vibrant hub of trade, a strong bastion full of life, music and hapiness. Survival in the March was never an easy task, but the current is the first period in human memory when the tomorrow seems to keep more than immediate destruction or slow decay for Ragod.