Summarch
Summarch is a city of Westerland. Sometime between 800 and 900 A.B., it was made the capital of Regimen’s kingdom by Daemar I.
Description
The city is situated around High Hill and the Stony River, which girdles its southern flank. An outer wall encompasses the oldest part of Summarch, known as the Quarter. Daemar’s Triumph, a grand archway made entirely of bloodsteel, functions as the wall’s southern gate. There is also an inner wall about the peak of the hill that protects the Seat, palace of the Kings of Westerland.
Most of Summarch’s most reputable establishments are located within the Quarter, which was built on the slopes of High Hill in the city’s beginning. The shop called Amaury’s Astounding Artifacts and Articles is located here. Outside of the Quarter, however, the city becomes more ramshackle, with the worst of the slums being the eastern neighborhood called Chetmark. The city’s glass and alchemical industries, however, also operate outside the city walls. Both are clustered around an array of streets named the Glass Corner.
Two of the Eight Houses reside in Summarch: the Allhammers and the Asters. In the city’s south, along the river, the Allhammers house themselves in the Winehall (P. Pherūkhar). Meanwhile, the Asters maintain a temple in the capital’s center, facing an enormous statue carved in the likeness of Regimen Māgor.
The East-West Road ends at Summarch.
History
It is not remembered when Summarch was founded.
In the time of Regimen Māgor it became a part of his kingdom, and its people fought in both his wars of expansion and in Gutter Wars that came after. Initially, Kingly Mickleburg was the capital of Westerland; but after Regimen’s passing, his heir Daemar removed his court to Summarch, preferring the trade and communication fostered by its nearness to the Stony River. The fortress at High Hill’s crest was then expanded, and Daemar named it his seat of governance. The arch called Daemar’s Triumph was built some years later, after Daemar won a great victory in which he slew Palagon II, seventeenth emperor of Patrinor.
In 898 A.B., King Piran the Bad was worsted in battle by Relkorīn, the twentieth emperor, and he was forced to retreat to Summarch. Relkorīn besieged the city in the spring of 899 A.B. Within two years, the city’s provisions were spent, and Summarch surrendered, opening its gates to the armies of Patrinor. Thusly the Gutter Wars ended in 901 A.B.
Selwin, born two hundred years after the War of the Patrons, was the last heir of the House of Regimen, but among the people he was unpopular, for he was brash and ungentle. He quarreled often with the Allhammers, who were much loved by the Westermen.
Blank
An early sketch of Summarch
In the summer of 1374 A.B., Grandmaster Hagar of the Allhammers was murdered in Summarch. Consequently, every Allhammer was recalled to the city for the election. Two Allhammers—Frösted the Hord and the Elf Guantanamo—were sent to speak with Selwin to investigate the murder, but they were imprisoned in his hall (though they later escaped). Selwin claimed afterward that they assaulted him and his men, but his subjects grew doubtful.
The debate over who would be elevated to the rank of Grandmaster was thus chiefly about how the imprisonment would be handled. That night ran long, but at its end Rennick, who held the title of Marshal, and who’d demanded an immediate response, was elected as the new leader of the order.
Rennick swiftly took advantage of the unrest within the city, drawing many to his side as he revolted against Selwin, whom he named Tyrant and Deceiver. Then his Allhammers invaded the Seat, Selwin’s fortress, and marching into its throne room Rennick seized Selwin, and hewed his feet out from under him, and slew him. In the wake of the siege, Rennick declared himself the new King of Westerland.
Etymology
Summarch is a corruption of the two-word phrase “Sun’s March”, which was the settlement’s name when it was first established.