Coolwater Hold (Rough Population:350)- Coolwater was perhaps the hardest hit of the holds in the years following Morwen’s disappearance, though not initially. In the early times, they thrived, but Morwen’s absence brought a thaw to the world. The northern oceans became more treacherous as the ice shelves that stretched out into the ocean have begun to break down. Ice flows and the way currents move through them have made sailing more than just a little dangerous. Those in the hold who perform smaller-scale, local fishing have run into issues with the thawing ice. Ice fishing has become extremely treacherous, and more than just a few Vantha have lost their lives falling through the ice trying to provide the daily meal for the people. The more local sea fishing has run into problems with the ice flows. Smaller vessels have been capsized, and the northern waters are no place to be without a boat. Going into the water is as good as a death sentence. One only has ticks before the cold claims them.
Now, Avanthal’s three greatest whaling vessels are out almost constantly. Whales have left the northern waters. Without the weather changes, their migration patterns have changed, and this has forced the whaling vessels into longer and longer expeditions. Often, the vessels only return with a meager supply of fish. Sometimes, they return completely empty-handed, the sailors nearly succumbed to starvation. Winter’s Breath, Avanthal’s fastest and fiercest whaling boat, has been out for three seasons now, and Avanthal’s people suspect the worst.
In order to give hope to his hold, Envan, Coolwater’s Pavintu Janta, has split his time between supporting local tasks and guiding whaling expeditions. He knows his guidance and wisdom are needed close to home, but his experience on the oceans and with whaling makes him an invaluable resource for Avanthal as a whole. He does what he can to keep his entire hold well looked after, but while he is at sea, Lasheela, the owner of the Ice Treader, has shown herself to be quite capable of taking charge and keeping things orderly.
The Vigil: As the whaling expeditions have become longer and longer, Avanthal’s people have began to gather at the Lighthouse. The building, while still serving its function to keep sailors safe, has become a symbol of hope and a shrine for prayers for safety of those who have gone far from home to provide for the city. While most had reserved their prayers for their Goddess Queen, in Her absence, they have turned their pleas to Laviku in hopes He will allow their sailors a bounteous journey and a safe return. While it has become a gathering place, the people work to be certain their do not interfere with the important work Svarra and Haegran do.
Frostfawn Hold (Rough Population: 400)- Frostfawn has always been a hold that has suffered the dangers of its professions, the parts it plays in the provision for the city as a whole. Providing food and fur requires them to face the dangers of the frigid northern reaches as they hunt. The risks they took didn’t change after Morwen disappeared, not initially, but the warming world took its toll. With the world thawing around them and their natural food sources disappearing, the animals the Vantha hunted for food began to change their migration patterns. Bit by bit, hunting parties were forced farther out into the tundra for food. As with the fishermen, Avanthal’s hunters are out longer and longer, returning with less and less each time. Making the tundra even more dangerous is the fact that the predators are going hungry, and anything, even the skillful hunters of the Avanthal, have become fair game.
One of the most devastating losses came early on in the days after Morwen’s absence. The assassins who had come to make a killing on the murder of the Vantha people were clever. They struck fast and hard at the heart of Vantha leadership. Tovan Frostfawn, Pavintu Janta of the Frostfawn hold, was murdered in his bed along with his wife in the summer following Morwen’s departure. While they mourned, while they were stunned in the confusion and panic that followed, it took the hold a season and a half to replace him. The person elected by the people was Jhaera, their finest hunter, but it was a position and responsibility she hadn’t wanted. It was a position and responsibility no one had wanted. No one had spoken up; no one had asked for it. All Jhaera knew was the hunt, and though the admiration her people had for her drove them to keep their hold functioning, Jhaera did little to keep it that way. About the only way she leads is by organizing hunting parties, but she is gone more often than not.
Despite her absence, Frostfawn hold is still well looked after. Using the skills she had long used to keep the White Elk Stables running smoothly, Lusina has managed to keep the hold functioning and producing. Many in the hold, and in the rest of the city as well, look to her for guidance, though she is content to be in charge of her little piece and no more.
Hunting grounds drying up and the loss of hunters aren’t the only way the hold has suffered. Avanthal is starving, and this means its animals are as well. It is constant work to ensure that their flocks and hereds don’t get too large they can’t be fed but also don’t dwindle so low they can’t provide for the people’s basic needs. It is a fine line, and even with as skilled of herdsmen and herdswomen as they are, the Frostfawns have slipped up more than once.
Iceglaze Hold (Rough Population:400)- Iceglaze hold withstood the initial murder spree fairly well. As builders, they quickly began to secure their Arvinta, seeing to it that there was no other way in. Once their own hold was secured, they set about doing the same for the other holds. It was largely their work, along with the strategies and vigilance of the Icewatch and the Everwatch, that stemmed the killings. Despite their best efforts though, the murders still continued. In their homes, the Vantha were mostly safe, but they couldn’t secure every part of their city, every street and every walkway.
Their biggest loss came in the recent years, in the summer of 519 AV. One of the most potent reminders to the Vantha of Morwen’s absence, of the loss of their connection to their Goddess, is the crumbling of the icestone. It is ever-present and in every hold. Buildings are cracking and crumbling bit by bit. As the world crumbled around them, the builders of Iceglaze strove to piece it back together, struggled to hold their world from falling apart. The efforts require their greatest skill and knowhow as they try to replace parts of buildings with new materials as the old gives away. Several buildings have collapsed on construction crews as they tried to fix failing supports. While some have just been injured, others have lost their lives.
But these were the most minor of the losses that summer. With the buildings collapsing, the Iceglaze builders knew they needed more materials to work with, so they went to the mines to quarry as much as possible, seeking as they did for new, more stable stone. They drove deep into the earth, not out of greed but out of necessity, but nature doesn’t care about motivation. Though the miners plied all their finest architecture to keep the mines stable, the stone they burrowed through was not. On the 73rd of Summer, the mine collapsed. All of Avanthal banded together to try to free those who had been trapped, and while the city as a whole had always been united, it had never shown it so wholly as it did in those efforts. But nature doesn’t care about unity of purpose. By the time a tunnel was made to where they were trapped, every miner had died. Every loss in Avanthal is mourned, but so much death all at once brought the city to a standstill. Now the old Icestone Quarry stands as a monument to lives lost, though the bodies were all buried in the Icefields Cemetery. It is a place of mourning.
Jecore is a wise man, calm in the worst of situations, and he has done an excellent job of keeping his people focused on the future while still addressing the current needs and allowing time for the mourning of those they’ve lost. Currently, they are doing what they can to shore up buildings and walls with the limited supplies they have. Of chiefest concern is the Icewall and its Gate. Cracks, too big to be ignored, have begun to appear o the impressive wall, and if Morwen doesn’t return soon, the wall may not hold. The other project Jecore is working on with the Frostfawn and Skyglow holds is the search for a new stone to use in their construction and a place to quarry it.
Skyglow Hold (Rough Population: 650)- Skyglow has managed to skirt through the disaster that is Morwen’s absence relatively unharmed. That is not to say that they haven’t had their fair share of loss. Their Pavintu Janta, Vannis, was killed in the early assassinations. While this may have halted progress in other holds, Skyglow had Nikari, Vannis’ wife. A perfectionist, she knew exactly what her husband had done to keep the hold running efficiently and found ways, once in charge, to make it ever more so. Under her supervision, the hold is perhaps the most productive it has ever been.
Other unknown things emerged about her as she took over Pavintu Janta, a role that she adopted without election, but nobody questioned it. It turns out that in her free time, Nikari had been an avid astronomer, had mapped the skies in each time of the year, and had worked closely with cartographers to map the surrounding landscapes as well as the oceans. As she came to leadership, she gathered all the astronomers and cartographers together to continue to improve and update their maps as well as to create a rotating schedule of those same mapmakers and astronomers to guide the hunters and sailors and bring them safely back home. This is where Skyglow faces its greatest danger and chance for loss. The cartographers face the same dangers as the hunters and sailors outside the walls of Avanthal, and some of them have been lost. When a party with a Skyglow member goes missing, the worst is expected, because Skyglow cartographers don’t get lost.
While artistic endeavors have gone by the wayside as the necessity of provision and survival has taken over, Nikari and other matron and patrons of the hold have worked to encourage the arts in their people’s free time. Devotion to their art of choice seems to have given her people a renewed vigor for the many tasks at hand, enough so that when their necessary work was finished the Skyglow people gave aid to the other holds that needed it. They have become known in recent years as the hold to come to when extra hands are needed, and it is a reputation they have taken to as readily as Nikari took to her title as Pavintu Janta. However, they know that for everything to function well, a hold must first focus on its own necessary parts before assisting another.
Snowsong Hold (Rough Population: 700)- Being the experts with the aural arts, Snowsong has often been at the forefront of Avanthal’s hospitality. It is often with Snowsong music in the background or to stories from one of its people that the rest of the city gathers. One of the most boisterous and outgoing holds, Snowsong has always been the first to be inviting to strangers, and they strive to make everyone feel welcome who is allowed through the Gates. Unfortunately, Avanthal’s Gates have not welcomed anyone in lately, and the hospitable instincts of the Snowsong hold have suffered for it.
Still, they keep up with their end of maintenance and provision for the city. Snowsong has long been in charge of any lumbercraft. Mostly this has to do with the creation of furniture throughout the holds, but they share the responsibility of maintaining buildings with Iceglaze. With their expertise with lumber, their efforts have been key in keeping buildings standing as the stone crumbles. In these places, with building collapses, they share the same danger as their Iceglaze comrades. They have lost a few construction workers since that summer. Perhaps due to their close work together, shared risk, and understanding of how the other does their work, many marriages have been occurring between these two holds.
While they continue to do their duties, their greatest focus has been on the Lodge. Though it was the brain child of Jennai Coolwater as a way for the now empty Savintar Warrens to survive, the Snowsongs and the Winterflames saw it realized and were, by and large, the driving force that made it happen. It is the new welcome center for outsiders and their home for as long as they stay, or at least as long as it takes for them to earn a part and be trusted enough to be welcomed into a hold. Many of the workers at the Lodge are Snowsongs, keeping the place clean for those who live their but more importantly keeping spirits up. The Snowsongs have always been known to put a smile on people’s face, and in a time where trust is limited between everyone, they are the bridge that maintains peace.
Whitevine Hold (Rough Population: 500)- Whitevine was perhaps the most heavily hunted in the initial attacks of Avanthal and the Vantha. Whoever orchestrated the attacks knew that slip ups would be made, and that meant survivors. Those in charge of the attacks wanted any survivors to succumb to their injuries. Whitevine was hit hard and mercilessly, the Healing Center being the focus of one string of attacks. Healers, assistants, patients, and visitors alike were killed in the space of a single night. Even the Icewatch members there to keep the place safe did not survive. The slaughter weighed heavily on everyone, and a heavier watch was placed on the hospital from that point on. Fortunately, not all of Avanthal’s healers were in the hospital at that time, and there were still some doctors to carry on the work.
Whitevine has always functioned mainly on their own, their focus entirely on healing and maintaining the supplies needed for healing. With the hit their numbers took initially, they rely on Winterflame’s assistance, especially within the Whitevine Healing Center. The hold continues to see to their duties as healers, now more protected than ever as murders and attempted murders still occur. In addition to their usual duties, they care for the fallen, as they have taken to calling those who have been horrifically injured in the hunt of the Vantha people. Some are permanently crippled, some recovering, and others comatose. The fallen have been housed in the Whitevine Arvinta where there are constant eyes on them.
Whitevine’s Pavintu Janta, Seffarah, has survived the hunt thus far and continues to lead her people. She is perhaps the most approachable of the Pavintu Janta and has become an ambassador when negotiations are struck with the Outpost. She is a willing teacher and happily relays any knowledge she can to interested students.
Winterflame Hold (Rough Population: 1000)- Winterflame has come through the disaster the most unaffected. While other holds have met hardship after hardship, Winterflame seems to have only thrived. Their numbers are up higher than they have ever been before, and each new turn of events seems to be a blessing in disguise for them.
They have continued their old roles of Avanthal’s cooks and farmers. It is perhaps their farms and food that have played the largest part in keeping Avanthal fed. While Avanthal’s chefs have always been accomplished at what they do, recent events and rationing have turned most meals into soups, so meager supplies can be stretched. Their farmers do what they can to keep vegetables coming, but one can only get so inventive with roots and vegetables.
With the development of the Gate City and the Lodge, a good many Winterflames have gone to work there to provide the meals for the city outside the city, to spread warmth and cheer with Winterflame’s idea of hospitality. Many Vantha gather at the Lodge for meal times as well. Nennvar is still Pavintu Janta and keeps the kitchens running in the Luminary Commons while younger cooks vie for control of the Lodge’s kitchens.
