organization

Followers of the Miles of the House of Ellis. The majority of Walkers spring from this sect.

A Walker carries with them a pouch of mixed seeds of hardy edible plants: apple, purslane, potato, sunchoke, bean, dock, dandelion, and wax reed. When their travels take them far from known roads, they plant furrows of these seeds around their fire circle.

Years later, someone lost or fleeing finds a bountiful hearth in the wilderness, and knows someone tread there before them and that they will live another day.

The university for which one of the Jorvian states is named. Founded by a band of Ethereals, this sprawling campus is the most catholic educational institution to be found in the Land.

Jorvik’s cities have long traditions of boarding houses. They emerged naturally as cheap living for workers and their families and gave travelers and merchants a safe, reliable temporary home. In recognition of the benefits these houses bring, most cities subsidize and monitor them somewhat.

The houses have always little communities unto themselves, where everyone gathers for shared daily meals and conversation. The cheaper ones invariably drew artists, thinkers, and performers who struggled to turn these gatherings to their own passions. Where they congregated the thickest, the dining rooms and common spaces of the houses were pressed into service as open parlors for their patrons and associates, or performance spaces and galleries.

Competition between these artist houses became common with each trying to attract to themselves the best talent.

In sharp contract, and often direct opposition to, the Journeymen, the House of Kings are masters of finding where misery does not exist and filling that void. Extortion, underground gambling, and political fixing form their livelihood. Though strongest in Jorvik, their influence extends to all the nations, and exerts a slow, choking pressure on many borderlands.