Nice map.
> The settlement is home to 500 people, and it never had more than about
> 1000 people. It was found in 1583 by Prince Terasarin to accomodate
> refugees/exiles from Tarsh, and raided and half burned by Harvar
> Ironfist's troops when they crushed the Righteous Wind Rebellion
> around 1612.
So it had about 30 years to develop a "sartarite urban" economy, complete with a thieves' gang (Griselda's family, possibly a former Bagnot mob).
If there was any special trade, it would have to have been troll goods from Dagori Inkarth. Traffic from Pavis and Prax goes through Torkani lands, and while there is a trail from Sword Hill to Amad lands and Alone, it is not a major trade route.
The city's main business would have been to carry on whatever business the refugees left in Bagnot or Dunstop, and catering for the neighbouring tribes.
> I picture the "city" has a very rural character, with long houses,
> cottages, garden plots, etc. The buildings will not use all the space
> inside the walls, leaving room for gardens, grazing - and some ruins.
Ruins would be used as ready building or at the very least heating material, so unless there are cellars, most ruins would have been razed.
> The Lunar & Yelmalian/Harvarite presence can be seen in some larger,
> walled blocks and the Lunar Villa.
Not sure about the Lunar "villa" - if there is empty space inside the walls, that is where I would put Lunar presence. Anything on the outside would be slave barracks or similar.
> I picture the walls and gates are quite sturdy, trying at least to
> look like a real sartarite city.
Definitely a standard Sartar dynasty city wall. Aldachur and Boldhome are the main exceptions from the Wilmskirk architecture, Aldachur predating the Sartar dynasty, and Boldhome being special with a single dwarfen wall and lots of mountains to provide fortification. Wall building was as much a requirement for the Princes of Sartar as was road building.
> Also, the location of the settlement probably has some mythical &
> historical remains: in the case of my map, these are from the
> Vingkotling and EWF eras. (In my map, the low bend of the hills
> actually is a wall of a Vingkotling ring fort, and the hill/structure
> in the southern wall of Alone was erected by the EWF, "conquered" or
> "tamed" by the city founders, and is left untouched by the citizens
> today.)
Assuming that there was no perished tribe in the region (and who would claim lands right next to the trolls?), Alone would have been a border fort at best, either of the Orgovaltes (Quivini), or of the tribe occupying the Black Eel valley (some splinter remnant of the Lastralgortelli, if I remember correctly).
EWF era is a lot more likely, after all there is a dragonewt city "just two hexes away" (on the Dragon Pass boardgame map). Prior to the EWF settlement, friends of Arkat may have been in the region, courting the trolls of Dagori Inkarth. Any such activity would have been doomed by the Tax Slaughter, but the nascent EWF would happily have taken control over the troll-friends as a source of labour while courting the dragonewts. Not too different from Wulfsland in the Maboder territories, as far as treatment of the previous population goes.
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