Aryngol

Government

The Huldufolk are lead by a council of monarchs from the various families called the Unseen Courts. However, unlike the Digir nations' senate, the Huldufolk gathering is more akin to a riotous party of over-indulgent dilettantes stabbing each other in the back almost constantly; both literally and metaphorically.

Demographics

The primary population consists of Huldufolk, then surrounded by the Boggarts and spriggan tribes that live underfoot. Mixed in amongst the dark manors and shadowy slums are the many servitors and serfs the Huldufolk keep for entertainment and labor, drawn from all across the Inis.

Industry & Trade

The Boggart and spriggans in the holdings of Aryngol are said to be expert smiths and miners thanks to the proximity of the Ardenroots and the lack of Digir in the eastern fringes. They don't export much beyond their frivolous arts and typically imports are acquired from raids, but they are not picky if the inquirer has a proper payment.

Above that though, there is not a place on the Inis that has more artisans with greater skill than those of the dilettantes of Aryngol. With all their daily tasks seen to by a caste of debtor serfs, the average aristocrat turns to art to alleviate their boredom. Masonry, carpentry, painting, weaving and textiles all perfected and designed to invoke wild emotions; many nobles of other Caern-Raths begrudgingly send for the products of Aryngol.

Many fighting pits, a coliseum and circus for entertainment. Some say it has a fortified harbor for the few Huldufolk Carachs that sail out for raiding and to return to a safe haven and unload their stolen goods and captives.

Most of the buildings that aren't rundown or dilapidated shacks are a parody of those majestic buildings described by visitors to Otherworld. Sweeping and ornate buildings with rounded corners and ostentatious foyers, but the similarities stop there as many are crowned by rings of grotesques, iron-banded doors to block buildings where laborers sleep, or carven reliefs of the debauched masses indulging in ludicrous frivolity.

Districts

• Black Palace & Grim Tower - Two caern's topped by raths sit closely together within the western side of the city between the rest of the caern-rath and the grey hills that jaggedly tumble up to Áit an Bhróin. Caer ag Faire, the Grim Tower on the southern caern is the defense works of the city where the debt-militia is trained and where the nobility and upper class would seeks shelter during attacks. Caer Cóisir, the Black Palace on the northern caern is a palatial rath and less defensible, however, it is opulent and absurdly decadent. From the peak down are the darksome manors and high-homes of the upper class and nobility.
• Contorted Streets - Seated at the base of Caer ag Faire are the Contorted Streets; the dark slums and shanty towns where the lower class and the indentured make their homes. An appalling mix of filth-laden streets, workshops, open air markets and tumbledown homes. The air hear is heavy with the hopelessness of its inhabitants and even the buildings seem to sag under their never ending oppression. That its located directly beneath the primary military fortification and adjacent to the circus coliseum is little wonder. Forays from both come down into the contorted street in a mock parody of a wild fox hunt to gather up any indebted inhabitants and force them into the militia or the twisted games of the circus.
• Shrouded Wharfs - Beyond that is the Shrouded Wharfs where the shorestalker carachlinn make birth their vessels. Here, they offload the pilfered goods and stolen peoples from various places across Trynnalta. Stolen goods and product are auctioned quickly and loudly in the vast markets that crowd around the crumbling docks, and what people aren't lucky enough to find patronage from the caern-rath's elite are dumped into the diseased gutters of the Contorted Streets.

Guilds & Factions

Aryngol is filled with a contentious and fractious people who often split into cliques that come and go with the season, but here are some of the more consistent organizations:

The Unknown oversee the political and economic affairs of the city. The only job in the city that cannot be passed off to the serf caste, it does not stop the leaders from debauching themselves during council, however. Each gathering is a decadent party, a thin layer of gilt-leaf over a mire of treachery and espionage. To that end much of the Courts' reach extends into the city itself where agents and assassins on government command push their patrons' agendas.

Aryngol would not run if it wasn't for the thousands of oppressed and broken that grind its daily bread. However, the masses that keep the city grinding forward require oversight which is why the Taskmasters' Guild was founded. Comprised of Huldufolk and their Boggart underlings the Taskmasters' Guild is responsible and remarkably adept at controlling the disenfranchised caste of the city, whether it be for labor or for war.

While the caern-rath does in fact sponsor a sizeable conscripted army and scout corp. it uses these primarily for defense of Aryngol herself. Stalking the streets of Aryngol and, in fact, the streets of many caern-raths are the Blades of Verithul, a shadowy organization of assassins and spies that ply their trade at the behest of the senate or anyone willing to pay their outrageous fees. However, you get what you pay for and many petty schemes have been resolved by the poisoned blades of Verithul's disciples.

Less an organization and more a loose mass of pirates, cutthroats and slavers; the harbor of Aryngol is home to the worst of the worst of carachlinn. Colloquially referred to as Shorestalkers, there isn't a caern-hearth or dale safe from the predations of these pirates on the broken shores of the Inis. Each one is an independent entity and they typically are short-lived as their preferred professions are dangerous and, understandably, confrontational. While the Huldufolk nation does not officially support piracy or slavery, it feigns ignorance in the matter of its pirates. After all, they can't watch every single wharf, can they?

Geography

The twin caerns rise up over the low ground caught between them and the sea-line, the caern-rath proper rises up from this low ground along the northern most caern while the shanty towns sprawl out against the southern walls. Past the western walls jagged, mountain terrains sweeps down the peninsula towards the awful grey hills of haunted Áit an Bhróin. Sweeping along the southern edge of the land that Aryngol controls are the twisted pines and trees, scattered across the rolling hills that signal ones arrival at Coillte ag Screadaíl.

History

Theoretically a conquered caern-rath that was once used as a trade outpost and waystation for Ardruid vessels. Originally, so it is told, the caern-rath was a way station for the long sea routes that came from the north in the Age of Spring and Summer down to Manannan Port. Sometime after The Wounding of the Good Son there was a civil war in the Unseelie Courts and a revolt lead to the lesser Unseelie of earth and fire declaring independence. However, they could not stay in the low, dark places as the other Unseelie courts hunted them throughout. So, as a large horde they made their way to the surface and laid siege to the first caern-rath they came upon.

Its theorized they exited from one of the immense caverns in Áit an Bhróin and took control of Aryngol, deposing the Lughlinn there and installing their own despots in their place. This is what the city's moniker is attributed to. The date of this siege and consequently the city's fall is dated to approximately AoA 2603 as this is where mention of the Conquered Rath first appears in historical texts.

Outside of these vague and questionable assertions, little else is known about the City of the Hideous Folk.

In the Year of Invasions, set to RE AoA 2808, Aryngol was invaded and conquered by the Fomorii. This was what the Huldufolk always feared; slavery. It was unimaginable to them. Little wonder the conquest was so swift. The accumulated outrage, and promises of freedom to their slaves should victory be won, quickly saw the Fomorii despots overthrown and executed. Later that year, the Ard Righ forbade the Huldufolk from slavery and it was officially abolished. However, the lords of Aryngol quietly decided this only applied to the shores of Inis Mona and governmental actions. What their people did in the shadows of their own homes was up to them. 

While Aryngol regularly disbands slave-dens, those slaves are often considered indebted to their former masters for the food and shelter they received. Often, they find themselves turned back over to those same families as serfs to pay off their debts or to find a means of leaving on their own.

Heraldry

The Huldufolk decorate their capital's seal with brash colors of violet, emerald and gold to reflect the more festive nature of their people. yet, the sequestered sabers are symbols of duplicity hidden among the riot of over-indulgence. Three smiling masks amid a gold field symbolize the three Scáth Rí, or High Shadow, families that rule Aryngol; the Pyrecutters, the Xiltorzzas and the highest of the three which is the Vrammyr family.