County Felway

Coat of Arms of the House Fel-Direnni.

County Felway, Felway County, or The County of Felway, however it is known, is a land of quiet moorland, craggy outcrops and mist-wreathed forests in its south, and sloping farmland and rugged coastline in its north. With a history of elven rule that lasts to the present day, and a reputation as a land of both wilderness and culture, County Felway has much to offer any visitor to its borders.

It's current reigning overlord is Count Alecor Fel-Direnni, who in turn kneels to the Monarch of Northpoint, currently Queen Elissa Caron.

History of Felway

The history of Felway is to note the history of one single individual and his line, the Count Fel Direnni, and his subsequent House that took his name, the House of Fel-Direnni. A lordling of the sprawling Direnni clan, Fel Direnni was able to gather a dozen ships and crews and their families, and set forth in search of new lands during the late middle merethic era. The journey was generally uneventful, until a storm swept down from Atmora and drove the small fleet into seeking landfal before they were swamped.

Taking the helm, Fel Direnni set his course directly east, towards the rising sun that struggled to break free of the storm clouds that blackened the sky all around them. In a great stroke of luck and divine aid following a mass prayer to Auri-El, a ray of light from the sun illuminated a path for them, and enabled Fel Direnni to guide the fleet to safe harbour. Landing, Fel Direnni climbed to the top of a nearby crag, the headland of the unexplored coast they had travelled up, and unfurled his personal standard. Giving thanks to Auri-El, Fel Direnni pledged his new settlement to the Divine, and swore his first act of settlement would be the construction of a lighthouse to help guide others as Auri-El had guided him. So it was that the first stones of what would come to be Felway were lain down and a new land founded.

Over the course of a century, the coastal route that Fel Direnni had taken would lead scores more Aldmeri, and then Altmeri, settlers across the northern reaches of High Rock and beyond. In time, this passage would be named Fel's Way, and then the Fel Way, and finally, Felway. Granted the rank of Count after a petition to the Adamantine Tower, Fel Direnni founded the Direnni cadet branch, the House of Fel-Direnni, and from then on, the history of the Fel-Direnni's and Felway were to be bound together.

Whilst other Direnni's would go on to forge paths into the Wrothgarians, founding the city of Shornhelm, or Sharnhelm depending on one's own opinion on the matter, Felway would remain the largest elven settlement north of the Wrothgarians. Northpoint was discovered later on, but with the arrival of the Nords in Skyrim and the subsequent destruction of the Falmer, most elves chose to secure themselves behind the soaring walls of Felway. Leaving the Northpoint to the Nedic tribes under hegemonic rule as opposed to direct rule, the Altmer would rather secure themselves in Shornhelm or Felway than chance the north-eastern reaches that were increasingly beset by Atmoran, and later Nordic, raiding and settlement parties.

By the early first era, Felway had grown into a considerable polity. The county and city swelled by Falmer and Ayleid refugees, as well as other Altmeri refugees driven west by the Nordic invasions and a precious few escaping the Ra'Gadan pogroms that chose Felway or Shornhelm over the majority who re-settled across the Iliac. During this period, the warding tower of Erokii, more commonly known as the "Doomcrag", was constructed to act as the citadel for the region. Ostensibly in the event of any Nordic thrusts via Shornhelm, but more realistically to delineate the border between Shornhelm and Felway, and solidify Fel-Direnni control over the southern moorlands. It was during this period that the Cathedral, later the Minster, and the University of Felway were both founded and constructed within the Second Ward of the City of Felway. The early first era would be the twilight age for Felway as the greatest northern city beyond the Wrothgarians. For beyond the gulf to the northeast, a new power in the region began to rise to contend against Felway.

Northpoint had at first been a simple Elven trading post, a small town of wooden halls and wharves that had retained a frontier feel, never quite settling into any permanence, resisting any attempts at any placement of elven stonework. Lost to the elves by the early first era, following the Nordic War of Succession, the Nords at last turned their attention outwards once more.

The history of Northpoint is more well told elsewhere, but suffice to say, where the Direnni had lain wooden halls, the Nords raised up stone towers and now the two cities were poised against each other in a struggle for domination over northern High Rock. Open warfare never erupted between the two, beyond a few small border skirmishes and one-off naval engagements, the struggle settled into a more nebulous conflict, a cold war for influence and hegemony over the other.

The struggle is perhaps epitomised, as well as finally ending, with the Council of Anvil. Since the fall of Alessian Order, debates had raged with the emergence of the Church of the Eight, over the borders and placement of dioceses and archdiocese. What was to be settled was the placement of the Archbishopric of Northern High Rock. Shornhelm had emerged as the Archdiocese for the Wrothgarian Dioceses, but the Coastal Dioceses had yet to receive their own Archdiocese.

Such a matter would centralise religious power in the north, bringing in greater tax revenues, more pilgrims and many more side-effects that would tip the balance of power in favour of either Felway or Northpoint, or at least forestall Felway's decline for a brief while. The lobbying was frantic, no expenses were spared and in the end, through the simple fact that Northpoint now held the demographic and economic advantage, the Archdiocese was given over to Northpoint. For Felway, a conciliatory prize was given, the Cathedral was affirmed as a Minster and permission granted for the construction of an Abbey-Cathedral.

Whilst no longer the economic, military or political centre of northern High Rock, Felway managed to retain its position as the intellectual and cultural centre north of the Wrothgarians. Having been definitively overtaken by Northpoint by the early second era, Felway was given no time to nurse its wounds, and would soon be caught up in events that would forever shift its political situation. Having thus far escaped Nordic depredations, from out of the Rift, sailing forth from the great lake, up the river past Windhelm and Winterhold and west along the coast, there came a challenger to the House of Fel-Direnni.

Torren the Horn-Helmed was one of those would-be Nordic hero-conquerors that emerge from Skyrim every few decades. Formerly a Thane in the court of the High King, Torren was expelled from the court by the successor of the old High King for agitating for war against High Rock, Torren gathered other agitators and set out with the goal of encouraging the new High King to follow in their wake. Seeking a target that would bring glory and honour to the name of him and all his descendants, Torren settled on Felway as his target.

Now an exclave of the Direnni Hegemony, with the by now complete and total collapse of Direnni influence beyond the shores of Balfiera, Felway stood isolated amongst its Bretic neighbours. The task of ensuring the survival of this Altmeri bastion in a sea of Bretons would fall to Count Alveorwyn Fel-Direnni. Landing on the western shores of Felway during the autumnal months with a hundred ships in his wake, Torren raised his standard and leaving a token force to construct a Burg in his name, took his host east, intending to lay siege to Felway and pave the way for a Nordic conquest of High Rock.

Sending a desperate entreaty for aid to Balfiera, Alveorwyn mustered his forces and took stock of the situation facing him. A poor harvest had left little food available in the larders to withstand a long siege. Five thousand Nords stood against him, equipped with siege engines and ships to boot, five hundred and one with neither had been all that had been needed to conquer Skyrim. His own forces numbered only a thousand spears and bows that could be gathered to meet the rapidly encroaching threat, the rest of his forces tied up either holding the Erokii Pass or the eastern frontier against Old Gate. Alveorwyn was then dealt a further blow when Balfiera's reply to his entreaty was a rescript, telling him to look to his own defence whilst they attempted to reconquer lost lands in Hammerfell. Whilst Felway had been de facto independent from the Direnni Hegemony for the past three centuries, Alveorwyn took matters into his own hands at this one step too far act of folly, and formally seceded from the Adamantine Tower.

Facing a Nordic host in the winter, outnumbered and alone, Alveorwyn decided to roll the dice and meet the enemy in the field, at the same time, sending a missive offering fealty to Northpoint. Taking to the field, Alveorwyn took a two-stage strategy. Sending out his outriders, Alveorwyn harried Torren's host, leading them to a ground of his choosing, managing to enrage Torren's forces with the capture, beheading and ignominious return of the despoiled corpse of one of Torren's captains, adorned with messages insulting the honour of the Nords and other such expletives. Now facing an enraged host, Alveorwyn stood his ground following a long nights rain atop a sloping farmers field. Fortifying his flanks with heavy bracken hedgerows and a clear line of retreat, Alveorwyn and Torren prepared to decide the fate of Felway.

The resulting battle was a disappointment for both sides, a tactical stalemate. Advancing uphill against longbows, the Nords had managed to hold against all odds, fuelled by rage and typical Nordic heroism, albeit at the cost of staggering casualties. With the Nords closing in, and further two thousand uncommitted reserves on the enemy side, Alveorwyn acknowledged the bravery of his enemy, doffing his helmet and inclining his standard to Torren, who replied in kind, before turning and retreating in good order whilst the Nordic host busied themselves attempting to navigate the mud, stakes and ditches before them with growing success.

What the battle allowed for however, was time to be bought for the Fel-Direnni's. With the Nords laying siege to Felway for three days, upon the fourth day, a fleet arrived from the east. Northpoint's reply to Felway's offer was an affirmative. The situation further changed with Alveorwyn able to negotiate a promise of peace from Shornhelm and Old Gate, allowing him to recall his forces to Felway proper. Now beset with fresh reinforcements, bloodied and bruised, Torren sued for peace. The resulting affair, known as the field of silver and spears, granted Torren and what remained of his host, those that chose to remain that was, the land surrounding Torren's Burg, in exchange for holding the western marches against the rising Barony of White Haven and swearing fealty to Alveorwyn Fel-Direnni. In turn, the Count of Felway knelt and pledged vassalage to the Kingdom of Northpoint.

It was a drastic turn of events that has thus far set the stage for the history of Felway up to the present era, an Altmeri vassal to a Bretic overlord, serving dutifully and quietly, content in its own state of affairs. For now.

Physical Geography of County Felway

County Felway's borders both internal and external.

Felway is divided into two Ridings, the North Riding and the South Riding, each serve as both a political and geographical division of the county. Others terms for the ridings refer to them as the Moors and the Dales respectively. Beneath the Ridings come the Shires, each Riding is divided into four shires, with a varying number of hides beneath them. An archaic system, a holdover from the heady days of the Direnni Hegemony in which lands were typically divided over which area could provide the most tribute.

The Dales

The North Riding, or the Dales, are a temperate and peaceful landscape composed of gentle sloping valleys and abundant farmland. Bordered by the coastline with its soaring jagged cliffs of dark grey granite to the north.

The Felway coastline, from where the county has always been defined as beginning historically, geographically and politically; has no safe ports along the coast other than Felway and Torrensburg. Of the two, Felway is the safer port, being the lone deep water port in the County, and secured with a harbour, lighthouse and headland to boot, as opposed to Torrensburg which primarily serves flat-bottomed and shallow-drafted boats of the Nordic style, such as longships.

The Dales of Felway.

Further inland, the Dales begin to give way from sloping hills to more sharper valleys and plateaus, eventually giving way to the Moors of the South Riding. The tower-houses of the gentry are a recurring theme in the Dales, some more house than tower, others an attempt at Adamantine-writ-miniature.

Before that though, the North Riding is crisscrossed by hedgerows laden with flowers and berries and sharp drystone walls, hills topped with pastoral scenes and gentle bubbling streams that water villages and hamlets and the farms that dot the Dales.

In the western half, trees become more abundant, managed woodlands and orchards helping to feed the demands of Ebonport and Felway for produce and lumber to feed crews and build ships. A few fens in the western half also occur, feeding into the River Ebon that delineates the border between Felway and White Haven. A scenic and agricultural landscape, the North Riding is often described as the "Tamed" half of Felway, in contrast to the "Wild" half, more politely known as the South Riding.

The Moors

Across the Moors.

The South Riding, or the Moors, arrive sharply to the eye of any approaching wanderer. A shelf of foothills and rocky outcrops rising up from the low dale valleys capped in the distance by the misty peaks of the Wrothgarians. Moss creeps over the drystone walls, the hedgerows thicken into thicketed forest and cottages of whitewashed walls and thatched roofs turn to earth and heath. For the moorland hosts though, a simple Hill-Home will do over any stone walls. A cut dug into the earth, topped with timber and moss lain over that suits them finer than any stone shelter ever would or could.

Sheltered from the wind and the driving rain that blows in from wherever, these hill-homes are often feel comfier than any of the cottages that are built in the Dales. For the moors are a wild landscape, pretty enough on a summers day when the purple heather emerges from the dark, and shines in the morning dew. More often than not though, an overcast landscape watched and worked over by a hardy and proud folk given to farming and mining.

Nedic hillforts continuously occupied since their construction form the largest settlements, never numbering more than a few hundred souls. Standing stones, circles and other henges, along with cairns, barrows, gallows-hills and burial tombs give the south riding a sinister air in the darker days of autumn and winter. Whilst in the summer and spring, the blooming moors of heather and other shrubs and flowers give the land a positively lush scenery.

Into the Wrothgarian Mountains.

For the most travellers, the cobbled causeways lain by the Fel-Direnni in the early first era offer the safest routes through the moors, with way-stones lining the causeways marking the distance to the next settlement in clearly marked lettering. For the more daring adventurers, the causeways give way to droving paths and in turn to more wild tracks and countryside, where the barrows offer a chance of death or riches to those brave or foolish enough to risk it. Further south, the moors give way to steeper and craggier slopes with prominent outcrops, known more locally as Tors.

This is where the beginning of the Wrothgarians proper start from. Here, the paths all lead towards, or out of, the settlement of Erokii, detailed in greater detail elsewhere.

All in all, divided between two hemispheres of landscape, Felway's geography offers a number of scenes to those who deign to visit it. Of course for most, the part they are likely to visit and see alone is that of Felway, or rather, the City of Felway.

The City of Felway

A painting of a street in Felway's Second Ward.

The City of Felway, or Felway proper in some texts, is the beating heart of the County of Felway. In more modern tongues, is known as the city of dreaming spires, the lighthouse city, the elven enclave, the sapphire city of the northern coast, the learned city, and a dozen more names. In early times, in the Merethic Era, it was given the label of Veawend Ede, or Sea Journey's End.

Founded by Fel Direnni in the early era of the late Merethic, Felway has grown from castle-lighthouse, to a bustling city devoted towards the pursuit of learning and other cultural devotions. For most, the approach comes from the sea. Sweeping across the Felway coastline, a picture of soaring cliffs and treacherous rocky outcropping that ward away most ships from chancing a closer look. Situated at the northernmost point of the county, the city of Felway is overshadowed by its great castle, a dense collection of towers from the centre of which sprouts Fel-Direnni Tower, half castle, half lighthouse, a beacon which guides sailors from all over Tamriel to safe harbour.

Whilst a natural harbour upon discovery, a half-cove situated in between the headland and a number of rocky shoals that act as breakwaters, Felway's harbour has since been sculpted into its present form. Soaring light grey harbour walls topped with small towers encapsulate the harbour, closing off what was once a number of entrances and exits into a single easily controllable entry and exit point. Inside the harbour, a number of docks and quays are available with cranes for swifter loading and unloading of cargo, along with a shipyard for any wishing to carry out more intricate repairs to their ship.

Beyond the harbour, the city is composed of three wards, the first, second and third wards. Greater detail for each in turn is given below, including various places of interest within the wards and various other miscellaneous details.

The First Ward

The first ward is centred around the docks and the castle, as well as Felway Abbey at its heart. A strip of buildings that hugs the coastline of the city and is sheltered by the highest walls in Felway, both land and sea. Cutting off the first ward from both the harbour, the outer wards and the castle, the walls stand currently at a height of fifty feet, having been remodelled as the ages have passed to provide more adequate protection, along with being inlaid with numerous wards. Here, the buildings are in overwhelmingly Altmeri style, predominantly constructed of whitewashed stone cut and quarried locally, and roofed with black slate quarried from Felway Moor.

As the oldest, and smallest, section of the city, much prestige is afforded to what little residential housing exists within this ward. With space at a premium, the first ward is noted for the number of tower houses scattered throughout its reaches. However the majority of the first ward is given over to trade and industry, various livery companies centring their guildhalls, warehouses and offices throughout the ward in order to be as close to the harbour as possible. Along with the docks and the dockyards, the first ward also hosts a number of inns and boarding houses to cater towards the continuous stream of travellers that move through and past Felway, often on their way either to Camlorn, Shornhelm or Northpoint, or further afield.

The Second Ward

The second ward is given over near entirely to the University of Felway, along with Felway Cathedral. The rest of the ward is filled out with student dormitories, theatres, galleries, arboretums and museums. Here the houses are distinctly more bretic in some forms. A blend of whitewashed altmeri style stone houses with slate roofs sit alongside bretic style houses of terracotta roofs and creamy chalk-coloured rendered brick buildings. Most of the churches of the city can be found in the Second ward, often with church schools attached to teach the local populace and those from further afield in the academies attached to the University.

Constructed during the early first era, the second ward shows a more planned design than the first ward, with wider avenues and firebreaks, along with mage-light lamps in a more uniform pattern than the first ward. Here the walls stand forty feet high, and are built of a more whiter stone than the first wards walls. For the second ward, the Minster and the University dominate, and are covered in greater detail elsewhere, leaving little else to be said of the second ward.

The Third Ward

Last, but by no means least, is the third ward. The outer ring of Felway and its largest by far in more recent years, the third ward is home to the residential section of the city, along with a number of markets and other businesses. Houses here are a mix of bretic stone houses and timber houses, with a few elven timber buildings. No buildings in elven stonework currently exist within the ward. The third ward is also a planned ward, albeit on a more informal scale than the second ward. More for defensive and hygienic reasons than any intent towards beautification. Here in the third ward is where the First Ward and Second Ward are fuelled from. Numerous businesses make themselves home in the third ward, glaziers, printers, blacksmiths and more.

It can be said that whilst, with the exception of the dockyards and fisheries that the first ward is the commercial sector, the third ward is the industrial sector of Felway City. Here are where the furnishings of the churches, colleges and guildhalls of the rest of the city created.

The walls here are also the newest of the city walls, in wholly bretic style owing to the ease of construction, with the walls having been periodically deconstructed and moved now and again in an attempt to contain the sprawl of the third ward. Standing only twenty feet tall in stonework, with a current remodelling underway in order to raise them up to thirty feet. As such a number of segments of the wall are currently capped with wooden palisades in order to try and maintain a standard height, resulting in a patchwork appearance to them at present.

In the area beyond the third ward is the informal fourth ward, which is wholly agricultural businesses, farmers markets and other industries that owing to public health reasons are not permitted within city limits.

Felway Minster and Felway Abbey

There are many cathedrals, abbeys and churches scattered across High Rock. Across the Rivenspire, most are of these are of a Nordic or Bretic style, often austere and simple in their craftsmanship. Felway Minster and Felway Abbey do not follow in the footsteps of the rest of the others.

They are both a pinnacle of ecclesiastical architecture, early Direnni style and Auri-el-ian style respectively, with soaring towers, ornate cloisters, vast windows of stained glass and more.

Felway Minster

A view to the Minster from the City Walls.

Devoted to Julianos, the foundation of the Minster is linked to the foundation of Felway University. With the foundation of the University in the early first era, as well as the development of Felway from frontier town into a beacon of civilisation, the reigning Count of the day, Count Imcaril Fel-Direnni, decided to embark on a series of projects. One of these projects was the construction of a Cathedral, the establishment of which would, following approval of a charter from Balfiera, grant Felway city status and thus bring further glories, and tax privileges, to the house of Fel-Direnni.

With a bevy of funds to call upon following generations of careful financial management by the Fel-Direnni clan, Imcaril broke ground on the cathedral in 1E109. Construction for the cathedral in its entirety, including the chapter house and surrounding Bishop's district, would, through a well managed schedule and financial acumen, take only a century as opposed to a more typical timeframe of two to three centuries. In 1E210, on the day of its opening, Imcaril alongside the Bishop of Felway, formally consecrated Felway Cathedral to the Church of the Eight and devoted it to Julianos in particular.

The choice of Julianos as Patron Divine of Felway Cathedral was a peculiar one, and not without a little consternation among the county populace. With the origins of Julianos linked to that of Jhunal, a Nordic god, that a cathedral in an overwhelmingly elven city should be devoted to a god with such trappings, especially given the ongoing Nordic conquests that seemed everyday to loom closer to Felway's borders, was nothing if not a strange choice. For Imcaril, the reasoning was simple. With the rise of Bretic groupings within Felway's borders, and the university neighbouring the cathedral, devoting the cathedral to Julianos would be seen as both placating the Bretons by acknowledging their own wants and desires, and pledging Felway formally towards the field of education.

On a more secular level, with the rise of the monotheistic and overbearing Alessian Order, Imcaril also sought to attract fleeing scholars, further ensuring the prosperity of Felway and the success of its university. With the passing of a decade, Imcaril's views were proven right, the growing bretic population was placated, and with the swelling of the city by scholarly refugees in addition to ayleid refugees from the Alessian Order, Felway further prospered with all of the skills and resources its new citizens brought to its shores. And thusly constructed and consecrated, Felway Cathedral was viewed as a milestone in Felway's history, marking the evolution of the County from rural grounding to high civilisation.

By the later years of the first era however, a new issue arose concerning the cathedral. As covered earlier in the history of Felway, a struggle between Northpoint and Felway for dominance culminated in the settling of an Archbishopric for Northern High Rock. The issue of Archbishoprics had emerged following the collapse of the Alessian Order, and the emergence of a Tamriel wide Church of the Eight under the emergence of the Second Empire. Whilst the Archdiocese for the Wrothgarians had been settled in Shornhelm, the settling for the Northern Coast Arch-Diocese had yet to be finalised. At the conclusion of the Council of Anvil, which formally set the dioceses and arch-diocese for all Tamriel, Northpoint emerged victorious in the matter.

The Rood Screen of Felway Minster.

For the House of Fel-Direnni, in recognition of their efforts and services to the Church of the Eight, a conciliatory prize was granted, with Felway Cathedral risen to the rank of Minster. Whilst already having attached a formidable Cathedral-College to train new priests for service in the Church, this move was a more formal acknowledgment of the Cathedral's status as a centre of theological education in High Rock and beyond. Since then, the Minster has stood amongst the many spires and towers of Felway, overseeing the training of entire generations of priests, a temple to education, and to the gods.

As a centrepiece of the city, and a monumental landmark of Early Direnni style ecclesiastical architecture, the Minster is renowned for its exterior and interior. For the many guides to the Cathedrals of Tamriel and High Rock, Felway Minster is a staple amongst these works. It is not hard to see why. Its exterior is ornately sculpted, with numerous Aldmeri religious figures depicted amongst the stonework, flying buttresses riven with delicate dressing and the high bell towers above it all. Inside, the Minster has more than a few sights, such as the stained glass and all their ornate tracery around them, but above all, the eyes are drawn towards the chancel, with the great organ and rood screen thereon. A masterwork in sculpture, the Rood screen depicts the first fourteen counts of Felway, each one sculpted to lifelike appearance and set amongst ornate carvings.

For the people of Felway, the Minster is one of the precious jewels of the County, unmatched in their eyes by any other structure, save perhaps one. This one exception being Felway Abbey.

Felway Abbey

Felway Abbey, viewed from the docks.

Devoted to Auri-El, Felway Abbey is the older of the two central churches in Felway, but was not constructed at the outset as a church or cathedral. Founded by Fel Direnni in the Merethic Era, as thanks to Auri-El for the god's light delivering them into safety. The Abbey stands in the first ward of the city and retains its old structure as the inner monastery and chantry serving the cloistered monks and a small number of anchorites.

The greater Abbey-Cathedral constructed in the early second era serves the coenobitic monks who live and serve the community as a whole. The Abbey is renowned for its stained glass and whitewashed walls, serving to bring in and lighten each and every corner of its interior. It's spire is among one of the tallest sights in Felway, beaten only by the towers of Castle Felway, constructed and roofed with whitewashed stone and crowned with a gleaming golden finial in the shape of the fiery sun of Auri-El.

The Abbey holds regular singing services on feast days in which the doors are opened to the wider community, both inside the abbey, as well as beyond its walls. With columns of monks progressing through the streets at night, holding up lanterns and bringing light to the darker corners of the city, providing illumination, alms and aid to those who need it most.

Prominent People within Felway Minster and Felway Abbey

Bishop Jacques Montpierre - An elderly breton, Jacques is a more politically than spiritually minded priest, often found conferring with the Count over some temporal matter or another, and has aspirations towards the Archbishopric of the Rivenspire.

Abbot Hassaril Elklingas - A middle aged altmer, Hassaril is a humble and devout soul. Often given to periods of seclusion in order to gain a closer dialogue with the divines.

The University of Felway

A University scene in Felway.

Founded in the early years of the first era, the University of Felway can claim to be one of the oldest educational establishments in all of High Rock and Tamriel at large.

Set among numerous spires and domes, the University was the other great founding of Count Imcaril Fel-Direnni. Founded with the purpose of encouraging a greater cultural and intellectual scene within northern High Rock, as well as retaining elven mages within the region as opposed to losing them to the Ivory towers of Shornhelm or further beyond.

The University was founded with the intention of offering both mundane and arcane avenues of education. Numerous grants were also offered to encourage scholars from across Tamriel to attend the university, whether as researchers or teachers, in order to help improve the reputation of the university, as well offer as offer a high-quality education for its students.

This two pronged approach enabled the success of the university in its early years, drawing in mundane focused scholars from across High Rock searching for an institution from which to enable their studies and by the mid first era, the University of Felway was now considered one of the premier educational institutions of High Rock and Tamriel beyond. The University was further swelled during this era by the numerous refugee-scholars from across Tamriel, whether Falmer from Skyrim, Altmeri from Hammerfell or Ayleids and Polytheists fleeing the oppressions of the Alessian order. And further benefited from the establishment and presence of the nearby Minster, with the two being partners in the teaching and conferment of theological degrees to students. All these factors led to a distinctly cosmopolitan and learned air for Felway, and with the founding and construction of numerous of libraries, theatres, galleries and museums within the city walls, Felway rapidly became considered the cultural and intellectual heart of the so-called Rivenspire region, a position it proudly maintains to the present era.

In more recent years, following the collapse of the Arcane University and the internal strife within Cyrodiil as well as across Tamriel as a whole, such as the escape of House Hlaalu remnants from Morrowind and the flight of Altmeri and Bosmeri refugees from the Dominion, the University has once again undergone a period of refugee driven growth. leading to an influx of new scholars that in turn further draw in more students from across Tamriel.

The University of Felway is organised as a centralised body led by a Parliament that handles all funding and admissions in order to ensure control over the colleges and faculties. Each Faculty is led by a Dean who in turn answers to the Vice Chancellor. Teaching is fully controlled by the central administration, led by the Chancellor (The Count of Felway) formally, but by the Vice Chancellor and their surrounding bureaucratic apparatus in actuality, with lectures, seminars and other studies at the university controlled and ran directly by the central body, along with the main libraries, laboratories, and other noteworthy facilities.

Potential students apply directly to the university for a placement within its boundaries, candidates are then assessed against tests, or interviews or by letters of recommendation by esteemed figures. Once a decision is made, applicants then receive their formal offer of placement, or declining letter. Any offers of placement are expected to be replied promptly with both due haste and sincere formality.

The Colleges

Students, only when accepted formally and never before, then apply either to the University Colleges for accommodation, or make their own arrangements locally such as at one of the many smaller dormitories that offer little beyond bed and board. The Colleges are a central aspect of life within the university, but do not offer any formal education beyond lectures and seminars by College Alumni, such is a golden rule lain down by the University. Providing lodging and board and, offering sports and hobby societies for their denizens to compete against the other colleges, as well as attached chapels and study libraries in addition to the main depository libraries of the university. The colleges are arranged more around courses and interests than anything, with Theologist's typically attending Bishop's College for example. There are twenty colleges in all, a smattering of which are listed below:

Bishop's College - Attached to the Minster, composed predominantly of students for theological courses or particularly religious students. Known for a more serious air compared to the other colleges, Bishop's College maintains the most ornate and renowned chapel in the university. A long hall, with a fan vaulted roof, serenely carved wooden panelling and beset amongst stained glass. It is also the largest in terms of students.

Justiciar's College - The call of port for most legal students in the University. Justiciar's College is one of the larger colleges, owing to the laws of High Rock being often ancient and riddled affairs, requiring the keenest of minds to unravel and interpret, years of study and esteemed tutors. The University handily provides a place for those with keen legal minds to study under the best teachers.

Hospitaller's College - Made up of both mundane and arcane students of the medicinal and restorative arts respectively, or conjoined together, as well as veterinary students. Hospitaller's College runs the city hospital alongside the Minster and the Abbey, and alongside Bishop's College has a strong charitable ethos that is formally

Counter's College - A college for students of the mathematical arts and sciences. One of the smaller colleges, most courses involving mathematics at the University are highly theoretical, practical mathematics often being taught via apprenticeships by guilds across Tamriel.

Scrivener's College - Writers and suchlike make their humble homes within Scrivener's College, often working in tandem, if not also populated by, any aspiring actors from across the University and the City beyond to stage plays written by denizens of the college. For the more formal minded, librarians and archivists and contractors also make their nests herein.

Crest of the University of Felway.

University Curriculum

The University offers a varied curriculum, led by three faculties split into the Faculty of the Mundane, the Arcane Faculty and the Faculty of Divinity. Each Faculty is then further divided into Academies led by a Provost, with any Subjects under them typically managed by a Fellow or Professor, depending on the level of esteem attached to the post in question. That there are a few hundred fellows and professors, usually hovering around a hundred and fifty, speaks volumes of the number of subjects offered by the University,

For their Baccalaureate, students will study towards a general degree within their faculty with a specialism, producing in their final year of study a dissertation for that purpose.

The course of study is typically nine years in length, with most students attending the University from the age of 13 onwards, studying for six years for a Baccalaureate, then three for a Masters. From thereon, students may study for a Doctorate, and eventually a Professorship should sufficient talent be evidenced from them.

The styles of degrees awarded is also a relatively simple affair that helps to easily distinguish graduates. All baccalaureate students are awarded a Baccalaureate from their faculty, either of the Mundane, of the Arcane, or of Divinity, styled as a B.M, B.A, or B.D respectively. From thereon, a Masters student graduates from their department, preceded in styling by their faculty, such as a Mundane Master of Laws, versus an Arcane Master of Conjuration for example, so an M.M.L or A.M.C respectively.

Town and Gown

Town and Gown are the two distinct communities of Felway City; "town" being the non-academic population and "gown" being the university community. It is a local term helping distinguish the identity of the once-town-now-city as separate from that of the university. The term is easily identifiable in practice by the fact all students and staff of the university are required to wear gowns and caps whilst attending the university.

Baccalaureate students wear a simple black gown and cap, with Masters students wearing black gowns trimmed with a faculty colour and a plain mortarboard. Doctoral students wear black gowns and hood trimmed with faculty colour and a plain mortarboard. After graduation to Doctoral status, the mortarboard is exchanged for an uncrowned academic bonnet. Professors are granted coloured roped bonnets corresponding to their field, Fellows are granted a white ruff, Provosts a white stick, Deans bronze crowned bonnets, the Vice Chancellor a silver crowned bonnet, and the Chancellor a gold crowned bonnet.

The University of Felway evolved separately from the town, and later City of Felway, engaging in traditions that are looked upon as queer by outsiders, but as normality for the University population. For instance, when having exams in the hall of Bishop's College, rubbing toecaps of the brass statue of Saint Terentius - a saint from the First Era renowned for his endeavours to bring education to the masses - with the sleeve of the gown of your writing hand, the side you rub should be opposite to that of your writing hand, so if you are right handed, you should rub the left toecap, as students file by to enter the examination hall for good luck in their exams.

In ceremonies, Felway is graced with nothing especially bizarre, or at least anything that exceeds boundaries of the sports fields or the second ward, until the end of the year. Whilst most formal university ceremonies are usually quiet days that commemorate the birthday of a noted alumni, or the opening or closing of a semester of education, which the Count always endeavours to attend, the final day of the year is an altogether different occasion. On the last day of the academic year, the year is ended with a foot race around the town, then a boat race around the harbour, and a final sprint up to the Castle. People of the town are often exasperated at the day, but find it amusing to watch students struggle to row around the harbour.

Castle Felway

Castle Felway from the Land to the Sea.

Of all the structures shaped by mortal hands in County Felway, the castle is, if not the oldest left standing or the first ever constructed, then it is certainly the most impressive. Even the Minster and Abbey, the Doomcrag or any other structure throughout the county borders pale in comparison to it.

The origins of the castle begin when on that fateful day when Fel Direnni raised his standard, he raised it whereupon he would also build his home, a lighthouse and castle both. A guide to those travellers who would come after him, and a home to the line that would be sired by him.

It is a dense cluster of towers, the Adamantine tower writ small over and over again. Here and there, a few more daring additions, all in various stages of Direnni style architecure. Some functional, others simply adornments serving no purpose beyond providing another view.

The Castle's most defining feature is the Count's personal tower, or Fel-Direnni Tower to give it its proper name. Jutting up from the Crag, Fel-Direnni tower stands tall and proud above the landscape, typically Altmeri in all aspects. Rising five hundred and thirty feet high, it's height is further accentuated by the fact that it rests on a mound that already rises three hundred and twenty feet in height from the sea level. Though it is nonetheless dwarfed by the Raven tower of Daggerfall, as well as a number of other towers throughout High Rock. At its pinnacle, from dusk until dawn, the Lighthouse-Keep still shines out as a beacon into the night, guiding seafarers around a significant chunk of the coast of Felway, as well as a signal to all as to where the port-city of Felway stands.

In the day, one can note its silvery grey stone, lighter than the rest of castle and city walls themselves. It is built in Direnni style comparable almost to a miniature Adamantine tower, a common theme among any towers built during the long reign of the Direnni Hegemony. At night, illuminated by gleaming mage-lights, it appears a tall glowing needle from which sailors set their course by in addition to the stars above them.

The construction of the Fel-Direnni tower was a centuries long affair, and a testament half to the vision, and half to the ego, of Fel Direnni. Nothing less than a grandiose tower would befit any of his name in his sight, and so, casting a mage-light high as he could, he proclaimed that the tower would climb to reach that height, no less, no more. By the first year of the first era, Fel-Direnni tower was completed, a keep for the growing castle around it and a lighthouse for the settlement and sea surrounding it below. Much of the stone was quarried from its immediate surrounding area, serving a doubled purpose of lending to the castles construction by raising the walls and creating a great defensive ditch below.

As a result, Castle Felway appears half an island. A thin bridge crests over from the city to the castle, below the foundations sculpted to serve a double purpose, a harbour wall and as support for the bridge. Elegantly carved, decorated with tracing patterns, the bridge abruptly gives way to the walls. A sheer drop down, the whitewashed walls rise flat from the dark grey craggy foundations of the Altmer-made island below. Rising fifty feet high, the walls are Direnni in style, but given over to function than form. The gate to the castle also follows this precedent, served by a portcullis to its front and rear, the gate bears the arms of the Fel-Direnni clan as their only decoration, painted bronze on a black metal gate.

Past the gate, Felway castle opens itself up to its visitors, yielding its first treasure to those seeing its interiors for the first time. The Lonely Yew Tree Fountain is an epitome of waterworks and Altmeri Magic-Masonry. A single lonely yew tree, in its old age having slight slivers of silver permeating its bark, stands proud on a single island in the middle of a white marble fountain basin. Below it float water lilies and mana blooms. In turn beneath them swim various fish imported from Balfiera among a sculpted waterscape to provide exercise to the fish and aesthetics to the onlooker. The rest of the courtyard is relatively spacious, stables are tucked away within the castle, leaving the courtyard more to form than function, light-grey tiling give way here and there to raised flowerbeds, carved statues or do not rise but shift into mosaics instead.

Whilst the courtyard was once a more spacious area, later additions over the eras have meant that the first tower approachable, and required to be passed through to enter the rest of the castle is the warding tower and the lesser hall. The warding tower houses most of the guards quarters for the castle, and access through it is strictly controlled, with its confines being bare and austere and closed to the public. The lesser hall is a mix of stone walls, plain glass embellished with a few stained glass patterns and a timber hammer-beam roof, and whilst open to the public, serves mostly as a waiting chamber for any entrants to the Castle.

Beyond the warding tower and the lesser tower though, once appraised by the guards and approved passage, lies the Fel-Direnni tower. the gate here is once again simple, built for defence, not for decoration, and bordered with another double portcullis to either side. Inside blue carpets cushion the floor, banners displaying the Fel-Direnni crest proudly hang above from the rafters among chandeliers where mage-lights glow. The only part of Castle Felway open to most visitors is the throne room where the High Reeve Louis Vautrine makes the arrangements for an appointment with the Count, though on the first Sundas of every month he will be present in the throne room for the whole day to generally sort out anything that people believe requires the Count’s personal attention.

The rest of the castle is a warren of spiralling towers, ornate galleries, arcane chambers, private chapels, servants quarters, greenhouses, gardens and more, and closed beyond a privileged few visitors allowed access to it at the invitation of the Count.

Prominent People within Felway Castle

Count Alecor Fel-Direnni - The Count of Felway, he also works as the court mage and healer as he finds the usual people who take this rank to be, tedious, so he generally took the ranks to save himself a lot of bother, as well as saving money. 

Sir Louis Vautrine - High-Reeve of County Felway, acts in the Count's stead in his absence, but is essentially the County Steward and Chamberlain for the Castle.

Sir Eorlas Handerwyn - First Ealdormer of Felway. More often found at Erokii serving in his post there, but now and again can be chanced upon inside Castle Felway to make a report to the Count in person.

Sir William Hunter - Chief Shire-Reeve of Felway.

Joanna Dartley - House-Reeve of Castle Felway, is the head of the Household below Sir Vautrine and is the one who oversees the Household on a hour-by-hour basis.

Douglas Fletcher - Grounds-Reeve of Castle Felway, Douglas makes sure all of the gardens, flowerbeds and more are as they should be and can often be found checking on various parts of the Castle.

Phillipe Javier - Head Chef of Castle Felway, Phillipe generally prepares and oversees the dinners of everyone in the castle, apart from the guards who have their own cook.

Quentin Harford - Court Treasurer and by extension, County Treasurer.

Prominent Settlements of County Felway

Here is listed the five prominent settlements of Felway, in population size order.

Felway - 31,956 people - Capital of County Felway - North Riding - Felway is the largest settlement in the County by far. It is the central trade node, with over nine-tenths of any seaborne or landward trade passing through or by its limits. All roads in the county ravel back towards it, and with the safety its walls and the castle provides, is also the choice of safe harbour for any who choose to make the county their home.

The population of the city is also increased more than it otherwise would be owing to the large numbers of students that attend the university, roughly a full quarter of the population are students, staff or scholars attending the University. In addition to this, the minster and the subsequent priests-in-training also attending further lend to Felway's population, leading to a single great settlement that completely dominates the rest of the county.

Torrensburg from the North.

Torrensburg - 1,945 people - North Riding - Torrensburg, or Torrensburgh or even Torrensberg depending on who you ask, is the second-largest settlement in County Felway and is famed for its smoked mackerel and of being the most Nordic, in appearance and character, in all of Felway.

Composed of a stalwart stone keep and a surrounding town, Torrensburg is served by the sea with a tidal harbour that means only shallow drafted craft can dock, though they in turn are reliant on the tides for when to enter and leave the port.

Founded by the Nords, Torrensburg retains an air closer to Northpoint than to Felway. Building longships in its small dockyard, and with a moot in place of a council to serve as the political heart of the settlement as in other areas of Felway.

Garnes - 659 people - North Riding - Located in the middle of the western woods of Felway, with an economy centred around exporting lumber to Felway, Garnes is a village surrounded by sawmills and lumberyards, with all its houses proudly constructed in timber in Direnni style. In recent years a number of Bosmer refugees from the Aldmeri Dominion have come to call the area home, with the Count of Felway and the Lord of Garnes warmly hoping to encourage more to the area, in keeping with the Felwayian tradition of being a destination of choice for elven refugees. 

Garnes also is the site of Garnes Priory, a monastic foundation jointly devoted to Jephre/Y'ffre and Kynareth that also serves as a waypoint for any passing hermits. As such, the ornate stone walls, timbered roofs and carefully managed waterworks of the Priory contrast with some of the denizens temporarily resting within its walls before moving on. 

Elkstone - 298 people - South Riding - The second largest settlement in the south riding. Famed for the tale of the Elkling, it goes that in the merethic era a lost nedic babe was apparently raised by a talking elk and later on in life went on to found the hillfort of Elkstone and married an altmeri witch. Elkstone is dominated by its local landscape of quarries and mines, both active, inactive or somewhere in between, a result of centuries of mining in the area.

Erokii - 1,232 people - South Riding - Located in the lower mounts/upper foothills of the Wrothgarians, Erokii is situated in the lower mounts of the Wrothgarians, and overlooks the Erokii Pass, a key and direct passage into and out of Shornhelm. It is by far the single largest settlement in the south riding, owing mostly to its location as a trade node. And the fact that the administration for the southern riding is located within the confines of its foreboding granite walls and structures, along as being a depot for a Northpointer garrison.

Approach to Erokii from the moors.

Founded in the first era, Erokii is loomed over by the twisted stone tower known as the Doomcrag, but in more formal documents, known as Erokii Keep. The Doomcrag was carved from a mountain, and in the daylight seems half a mountain and half a tower from afar. Up close however, the doomcrag clearly appears as a tower. Marked by its battlements, staircases and windows that dot its facade here and there. At night, it stands on the skyline a spire twinkling with dim orange mage-lights that serve not to beautify, but illuminate portions of it in darkly inspiring scenes.

Perhaps the most elven in feel of the settlements of the southern riding, Erokii also seems the most permanent, constructed almost wholly in carved grey stone. The settlement is simply put, intended first and foremost as a fortress and all else is secondary to this fact. In recent years, Erokii has found itself a garrison and depot for Northpoint soldiers stationed in Shornhelm. A fact which has led, given the usually amicable relations between the Grand Duchy and the County prior to the Grand Northern War and Erokii in particular, to considerable grumbling among the local populace.

Economy of County Felway

A Felway Clipper, the county economy and the sea are often one and the same.

All told, much of Felway's economy is centred around the sea, from the sea came the origins of the county, and to the sea goes much of its attention. Shipping is one of the beating lifelines of the county, producing ships and sailors, repairing and decommissioning them, offering them harbour on their journeys and more. With the first, or last, harbour to or from the route around the Northpoint, Felway finds its wharfs and quays often bedecked with a variety of vessels and travellers from across Tamriel. From the port of the city flow a thousand and more vessels each week.

It is perhaps the city of Felway that, being steered by the sea, in turn steers the rest of the county economy towards the sea. For instance, the city maintains a fishing fleet consisting mostly of herring busses that seek out the great shoals of the Atmoran currents to feed the bustling city at the centre of the county for instance. This in turn requires sailors and material to maintain, drawing in dockyard workers, carpenters and more to work in the city.

More trade is stimulated from and to the city also by landward routes, with the old Fel Way road running by the city, an ancient vestige of the Direnni Hegemony, its paved and cobbled path tracked by numerous pilgrims and caravans from across High Rock. Once again, here most are often on their way to or from elsewhere, whether on towards Northpoint, Ebonport, White Haven or Darrington. Or perhaps into the Wrothgarians via Erokii, or simply just taking the long way around High Rock to some other destination.

Beyond the fruits of simply being a key part of a trade route, Felway, or at least its city, enjoys a status as a regional centre for the production of luxury goods. Or rather, cultural goods for consumption across the United Kingdom of the North. These goods consist of books, musical instruments, paintings, perfumes and more, a side-effect of the presence of the University drawing in learned figures, requiring specialist equipment and suchlike. Though the merchants of Felway have found themselves penned in by Camlorn to the west and the Northpoint-Solitude conglomerates to the North-by-east, and as such, remain mostly localised in much of their trading.

Beyond the city of Felway, the county economy is mostly self contained and mostly agricultural, with some mining activity within the moors and a little tin and jet mining along the coast. But for the most part content to feed the yawing appetite of the city, or trade within itself and little else beyond.

Judiciary of Felway

Law in Felway is old, its cases mostly petty ones though.

As a centuries old polity, the County of Felway has evolved to develop a solid legal system, both in terms of enforcement and the courts. Enforcement of the law being overseen at a county level by the High Shirereeve who in turn oversees the Shireeves, and in turn, the Bailiffs. The gaols and courts of the county are based within Bailiwicks. For the most part, the law is enforced most stringently within the urban settlements of the county, and generally left in the rural areas to the Gentry to keep the peace. Typically in the moors for instance, most justice is dispensed swiftly at the end of a rope atop the appointed hanging hill.

In terms of the judiciary proper, the legal apparatus is divided into the civil and criminal courts, but for the most part the same judges and courtrooms are used. The legal rankings in the county are thus:

Count of Felway - Extraordinary cases and highest appellate court.

Master/Mistress of the Rolls of the County of Felway - Highest level for ordinary cases in the county.

Recorder - Chief judge of one of the ridings.

Magistrate - The most common judge, in charge of helping to maintain the peace in the shires.

Advocate - The term for a lawyer within the county.

All in all, much of the legal system of Felway is mostly focused within the urban settlements, with any rural disputes that aren't between the gentry rarely rising to any notice.

Military of Felway

The spear and longbow remain central to Felway's martial culture and practices.

Though at peace at present, the County of Felway can rouse itself from its slumber easily enough, calling upon a host roughly two and a half thousand strong. Of these, a thousand are spears, a thousand are longbows and the rest are knights and battlemages, both mounted and dismounted. It is unsurprising, to any sufficiently learned figure, that a county of elven rule should lean towards a mix of spear, longbow and spell.

These have always been the traditional weapons of the Altmer, of the Direnni Hegemony, and this is no different for Felway.

Indeed, such is the desire for a source of longbows in the County that it is an ancient mandate that all nobles and members of the gentry maintain a Yewery upon their land for this purpose. As a result, the fields of Felway are often dotted with Yew trees for this purpose.

Upon the high seas, Felway has no navy. Rather it contributes to the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom of the North, providing taxes, supplies and sailors to Northpoint's coffers in exchange for protection in this regard. A private navy is an expensive business, and for the Counts of Felway, ensuring the strength of Northpoint in this regard, ensures their own safety as well.

When dealing with the military forces of the County, is well worth at least being aware of a small number of terms used to refer to them among the County populace. Such terms are explained in greater detail below:

The Ealdormer

The Ealdormer/men are the battlemage-retainers of the County of Felway. Composed wholly from the social strata known as the Gentry, and sworn in direct service to the Count and the House of Fel-Direnni, they are the most well equipped and trained of all the warriors in Felway, with a history stretching back to the first days of Felway when the guards of the Fel-Direnni family landed with their overlords. An Ealdormer provides all their own equipment, along with three horses, the charger, the palfrey and the sumpter. An average Ealdormer will also, in addition to the above, also have two squires, provided with their arms, armour and horses.

Numbering only five hundred souls at most, the ealdormer also form the battlemage corps for the Kingdom of Northpoint. One of Felway's greatest contributions to the kingdom is its strength in the arcane arts, with the rest of the kingdom steeped in the more directly martial arts owing to their Nordic heritage.

The Muster

Every other year at the end of the harvest and before the onset of winter, the reigning Count sends out a call for a biannual gathering of the forces of the House of Fel-Direnni. A Muster, in official terminology. The Houses of Felway gather their forces, and are drilled in preparation for war. A sense of discipline and comradeship is instilled into the warriors of the county. This time, is both a time for a sobering reminder that in times of war, the fight and die as one, and also a time to rejoice and reunite with old comrades and trade war-stories and whatnot. Usually during this time, a census and stock take is made, enabling the County treasury to create a budget ready for times of war. All in all, the Muster is a time for the the Count to ensure his people are fighting fit and to rectify those who are not.

Culture and Society of Felway

Of all the mainland territories of High Rock, Felway appears the most to be a direct ancestor of the Direnni Hegemony. With a ratio of one in ten citizens being Mer, Felway maintains an air of elven rule unmatched anywhere outside of Balfiera. The traditional elven pantheon still holds much sway within the county, as does a propensity towards magic and tower-building among a notable minority of its denizens, specifically its elven and half-bretic nobility.

The result is perhaps a glimpse into the past of Direnni rule at its height, a substantial elven minority ruling over a bretic majority, buttressed by half-elven retainers here and there. The arcane nobility encapsulated within their wrought stone towers, looking down at the bretic peasantry and yeomanry toiling in the fields or trading on the docks respectively.

Though for most visitors, the county can once again can be divided into three sections for when noting the various cultural nuances of the county. The city, the dales and the moors. For the first, the air is distinctly metropolitan, cosmopolitan and learned. Numerous balls and other social events dominate the scene, young nobles often gather and gossip and hurry to and fro in their carriages from one place to the next. Theatres and concerts, galleries and museums, libraries and lectures, Felway city offers much to the distinguished traveller. And for those not given to the typically highbrow and often high elven scene, a more typically, though still metropolitan and cosmopolitan, with numerous taverns offering musicians and bards a chance to earn their keep by providing the merchants, workers and sailors with more ribaldry entertainment.

Beyond the city walls in the dales, the picture becomes more feudal and rural, as one would expect. Though it still holds a restrained air. Much of the upper social scene revolves around the gentry and the nobility in their towers or country manors. Fox hunting is a particularly popular pastime in the county, along with all other equestrian events, martial and magical duels and tourneys and more. For the more sedate, most are given over to managing floral gardens, often selling their produce to the perfumeries of the city for export to Northpoint or elsewhere.

For the yeomanry and peasantry, archery, games of cricket and rugger are popular. In summer, picnics under the laden orchard trees are a common sight, and in all seasons, the social scene for the lower classes revolves around the country inn, providing refreshment and respite to the weary masses. Though most of the time the focus is on work, whether in the fields managing the cattle, or tilling the fields for their crops.

In the moors, for the gentry and nobility, most prefer to hunt grouse or other game birds over foxes, or are busy honing their martial skills and keeping the peace in the more wild landscape that surrounds them. In the many hill-homes, the lower classes typically keep to their hearths or their local hill-hostel after a hard day in the mines or on the fields, sitting by the fire in the warmth and in good company, out of the rain under earthy rafters and decorative horse brass. For most, the most social event of the calendar is during the livestock shows, when the sheepdog trials take place, along with a number of other activities prior to most of the stock being driven down to Felway for butchering and shearing and suchlike.

All in all, with its culture aside, society in Felway can typically be divided into five distinct subclasses.

The Peerage - The smallest section of Felwayian society, the peerage wield the most influence and resources within the county. Ensconced within their keeps and halls, looking down upon all others beneath them, the noble peers of Felway are few in number, no more than a dozen families, and zealously guard their station in life. Whether given to arcane pursuits, mercantile pursuits or other callings, the peerage are all given to political manoeuvring against one another, and occupy their time half politicking, and half managing their own affairs, looking out only to ensure others are not trying to rise up into their ranks.

The Gentry - More often than not, the Gentry make up the battlemage class of Felway. Arrayed in holdings they hold in tenure from their liege, the Gentry are the residents of the numerous tower-houses that dot the landscape of Felway, keeping the peace in the countryside in the name of their lieges. This class, whilst holding no inheritable titles for all they hold they do so at the pleasure of their liege in theory, they do inherit the status of their forebears in practice, often being inducted into knighthood upon their adulthood as a matter of course and tradition. As such, in peace, they are a scholarly lot, often given over to courtly pursuits, hunting and studying of the aetherial mysteries. Now and again, they are called upon to serve for a period of time in the Ealdormer, but generally, are left much to themselves.

The Yeomanry/mery - What could be termed the mercantile class of Felway. This class of fellows sit squarely in the middle of Felwayian society. Most of the priesthood and the university scholars are also tied to this class, with the exception of the higher rankings such as the Bishop. The yeomanry typically provide the bulk of soldiers in war, whether with spear or longbow, the traditional weapons of this class. An aspirational lot, much of the yeomanry often seek to join the ranks of the gentry, sending their sons and daughters off to study at the University if they can afford to. There to rub shoulders with other yeomanry and organise themselves in fawning circles around any attending peers or gentry, but being mostly given to commerce, are like near all the classes in Felway, more often busy with their own matters than anything.

The Smallholders - The largest section of society in Felway. The Smallholders are essentially the common class of Felway, the peasantry. Smallholdings, whether owned or rented, are the most common property. Whether a two story townhouse, or down to a single roomed hovel, the smallholders are a tenacious class of people. In the country, they are the ones who work the land, in the towns and city, they work the forges of industry, man the ships and more. Artisans and clerks at the higher end, and serfs and at the lower end.

The Vagrants - The lowest sorts, the itinerant workers and the wandering hermits at the higher end, and the starving homeless, horse-thieves and suchlike at the very bottom of the pile. Of little note, the vagrant class is the underclass of Felway, given little focus by any of the other classes, and often taking little note of themselves in turn.