Torch Point

Once a small frontier settlement north of The Hundred Boroughs on the Drakefall continent, it is now a human city that has grown exponentially over the last several decades. The town, made up almost entirely of humans, is home to at least a thousand people. Once a meager trading and fishing village, it is now a large town. It trades selectively with the Boroughs but is largely built around being self-sufficient and avoiding outside contact. The current leader is Mayor Kendrick Blackwater, brother of the now deceased previous mayor, Levi Blackwater, who had become leader after Zecklund Aushler was relieved of the role at the end of the Axiom War.

Fishing & New Starts
The Hundred Boroughs are a prominent piece of Viru's puzzle. But there are a great many reasons why people might want a fresh start elsewhere, as the families who run the segregated cities of the Boroughs often cause turmoil among their own people. Many people leave for new starts elsewhere and Torchpoint is a creation of those exoduses. A few people looking for a verdant place to live, they fished off of the coast, they lived off of the nearby forests. The settlement became a town and then the town grew further. Miners, woodworkers, many others joined Torch Point's growth and it became a full fledged place to call a home.

The Holy Axiom
Unfortunately, a seedy element began to seep into the blood of Torch Point. A man named Zecklund Aushler brought a religious element to the town and at first this new spirituality to the small town was welcomed. Unfortunately this eventually lead to the persecution of non-humans, particularly tieflings who had found a home in the wayward town when it began to grow, as they were looking for a place to call home away from the many eyes of the large cities. This only became more fervent and eventually violent, as time went on.

Eventually the mayoral leadership of Torch Point, the people who had helped to start Torch Point, were overthrown by Zecklund and his followers and the town of Torch Point became a religious state run by Zecklund and his tainted way of worshipping the goddess Tulli.

The Rise of Corinth
As Torch Point underwent its shift in leadership, a little settlement began to grow to their east. Some of the tieflings who were kicked out of their homes in Torch Point, many others from the surrounding areas of eastern Drakefall. The idea of tieflings being not only near, but also thriving and building their own community, did not sit well with Zecklund. But it was merely a camp, and it sat near the Elven home in the Blackwoods, a dangerous place to wander near without permission. So, for once, he let his baser instincts simmer and left it alone. In the meantime, he would train his forces, he would gather the strongest of his followers and he would deck them in red plate armor and arm them with great swords and hammers. They became the Templars of the Holy Axiom, the fist of Torch Point's military.

Meanwhile, Corinth grew past a small camp of little consequence. They quickly became a town under the leadership of Cosima Wisesight, they flourished. They invited the people in the area that might offer them skills to help them build their town who might also be seen as outcasts and were looking for a true home. So their numbers grew and so too did word of their growth. Zecklund could no longer ignore them.

Truly, Zecklund intended to give the people of Corinth a warning. He rode for Corinth with a force of near a dozen of their Templars, surely with a show of force their fledgling settlement would see the light and move further away from their holy walls. When he saw the horned woman before him, with her lackies at her side, looking so sure of herself, so resolute... his intentions changed.

The Axiom War
With the blood of their leader still wet in the mud, the 'lackies' of Corinth fought back and the handful of bladesingers pushed back the force of Templars and so the war between Torch Point and Corinth began.

And it lasted for more than a decade. It wasn't until Ebonveil finally became involved and pushed the battlelines back to the front gates of Torch Point that the war began to show signs of an end. Torch Point was under siege when Chaith Mageborn offered the town a reprieve. One on one combat with their leader. In gleaming red armor, and Tulli's flame in his heart, Zecklund walked from the front gates and the two faced off in the mud of the autumn storms. Should Zecklund win, they would leave, should Chaith win, Torch Point would tear down its own walls and disband its military. The future of his Holy Axiom was in front of him, but the siege seemed to show a dire future for them indeed. With the help of the elves, the war seemed untenable. This could be an easy reset for their cause if he won, and win he would, he was sure that his skill with a hammer and the protection of Tulli would help him against this simpleton tiefling with a fancy blade.

So he called to Tulli.

Zecklund Aushler fell in the mud, like the old wise woman he had murdered ten years prior. Tulli left him to the wrath of the bladesinger and so Torch Point changed forever.

The Tragedy of the New Torch Point
Years have passed since the Axiom War ended in a loss for the town. Things have not gotten any better since that day. Power vacuums, no allies to help with trade, there is little light for the Torch Pointians. Dark, impoverished, suffering a cursed land that fails to give them harvests, rumors of vampirism... Torch Point needs a new start, or a hero, or both.