Roan-Rath

Government

Much like the rest of the Inis Roan-Rath is ruled by a Lughlinn Mór: Bodocenos Senodonna and his staff of Lughlinn, though this close to Dòchas Ùr the lughlinn mór swears fealty to the Ard Banríon & Ard Righ.

Demographics

The town of Roan-Rath covers an area of approximately 99 acres, with a total population of 6,000 people. The town has 36 Lughlinn houses and 1 Lughlinn Mór house. The peace is kept by 52 guardsmen and another 156 can be drafted.

Many of the mortal races end up here although it is a predominately Daoine settlement. Few Fwoarians can be found this far from the Bulthron, but some come as mercenaries and skilti. A few Huldufolk merchants slink their way through the markets with their Boggart allies and one might even catch a rare glimpse of a lone Elfin Childe wandering the streets.

Industry & Trade

Unsurprisingly the caern-rath of Roan-Rath is well known for its trade and barter of horses. A rare commodity throughout the Inisa, most other caern-raths and their holdings are forbidden under decree from the Ard Righ Mochuma the Unifier from selling and raising horses. While this was regularly enforced, some places ended up bartering the horses from Foalport or Roan-Rath, then surreptitiously sell their excess to prominent Unknown or nobility. While this may go uncontested, as the restrictions still make truly profiting off horses a dismal affair at best, raising them is an entirely different matter. More than one local alderman who thought they were clever has cost their people dearly when the powers that be chastised them from breaking the decree.

Roan-Rath was designed, later after its founding, as a way-fort and much of the city continues to display this with walls that are a third higher than most other caern-raths, the central rath itself is positioned to the south of the town rather than the center, and the only gate has a small fortification built around it in the manner of a gatehouse.

Districts

Roan-Rath is small, situated on less than a hundred acres of dry, dusty prairie. As such it only has a small market, farms and housing for the general population with nobilities' homes build on the caern as is tradition. It has no proper districts to speak of and most of the caern-rath is poorly divided with the market often spilling into the residential areas. Farms are spread as they can be around the walls of the caern-rath and beyond with very little care for planning or purpose.

Infrastructure

Like all caern-raths, Foalport is surrounded by a low rising wall of stone faced with stark white plaster. However, dust and wind often renders the walls here a tawny brown. Sprawled between the rath walls and the walls of the caern-rath are the myriad homes, stables and the small market with its colorful array of canvases.

Stone, wood and plaster buildings, with high walls for defense. The homes have tiled roofs close to the cities walls, a tradition from the days when Roan-Rath was a fortress planning to stave off siege warfare.

Geography

There is little of the surrounding country to notice. Rolling hills in the north and the perilously tall cliffs that drop to the Roiling Sea in the south, with Roan-Rath leering out over the plains, daring anyone to challenge her authority over the region.

History

Roan-Rath was constructed some time later of the establishment of Foalport. Originally it was built as a settlement for the training and taming of the small horses of the Inis. They would regularly move them to and from the northern and southern edges of the Horselands depending on seasonal changes. Much of the land and plains for raising these beasts falls under the control of Roan-Rath, but the only immediately accessible harbor was the twin port caern-raths. So the trek to mercantile states was often long and arduous, eased only by the horses.

When the Age of Summer ended, and much of the Horselands and the greater southern Inis emptied with people heading north to aid with some long forgotten calamity, the available amount of skilled labor that was not horse-masters left with them. The decline in the regions wealth affected even Roan-Rath with the purchase and sale of horses tanking sharply. However, the farms managed to sustain the people until the refugees flooded back into the region, although even then their numbers were greatly diminished.

As the War of Spears began to pick up steam, Manannan saw in Roan-Rath an opportunity. At the behest of the Ard Righ shipments of stone and raw material were delivered to Roan-Rath to build her walls higher and fortifier her. Now a way-rath and a fortress, it was the duty of the lughlinn to ride out into the plains and thwart the armies of Lwyg-Rath and on rare occasion North-the-Lake. They managed to prove quite an obstacle as any army moving through the Horselands must deal with the superior maneuverability of cavalry, harrowing them with arrow and spear. But, should their foes track them back to Roan-Rath, they discover a fortress town ready for siege.

Now, however, as the War of Spears has long since come to a close, Roan-Rath is a sleepy hamlet fortress. The days of the people are rustic, spent afield or at market, while the lughlinn of the city parade around in their winged panoply and try to recapture the bygone glory of war.

They had their chance, and claimed it, when war arrived at their walls in 2808. The Fomorii tried and failed consistently to capture the city. The warriors of Roan-Rath used greater mobility on the open plains of the Horselands and kept the Fomorii Unknown at a distance, crushing them under lance and steed. But, Roan-Rath would not enter the wider struggle for a free Inis Mona until word reached them that Foalport was liberated and a call for lughlinn was raised by the Ard Righ and his coalition. It was then that the lughlinn of Roan-Rath joined with their cousins in Foalport to play a major role in the liberation of Manannan Port.

Heraldry

A field of yellow represents the Horselands, bisected by a strip of black to allude to the cliffs that partition the Horselands from the sea which is represented in blue. A red steed represents the roan horses often rode by the lughlinn of Roan-Rath and their own rage in battle. The wings and rush of the stallion harken to the wings the lughlinn of Roan-Rath are so renown for wearing.