Cities of Kamen
Bosua – a dwelling of silver, ‘the silver folk’. The most sparsely populated farmland area of the Western Counties, Bosua sits in a bleak and shallow valley. Ferns and oaks provide an ominous defence, but for any intrepid explorer, once they have broken through this barrier, the silvery-clear sea views are awe-inspiring.
The cliffs themselves are works of art; some sliced clean and terrifyingly sheer, others a higgledy-piggle collection of rocks and boulders. Tumbling over one of these cliffs are the eerily beautiful Laumė Falls. The waterfall is named after a queen of the Fifth House, who was herself named for a rainbow goddess. When water spills over the Laumė Falls, it catches the sun in just the right place to create a myriad of rainbows.
Genice – ‘beginning of fish’. Situated at the mouth of the Great Itchen, Genice is renowned for its textile and ship-building industries. The bow-fronted cottages that overlook the quay are painted a variety of pastel colours, and were designed to let the brilliant light in; so it is that Genice sailmakers boast the finest needlework. Pleasure sailing is very popular here, as the golden sandbanks and crystal-clear waves provide a surprising break from the rest of the storm-lashed south west coast.
Eilee – ‘hill of stones’; county town of Kamen. One of Caerlean’s oldest cities, once the stronghold of the south while Solmorje was still a fractious newcomer to direct rule, occasionally bursting out in local rebellion.
Surrounded by a great red-stone wall, the city is seated upon a range of hills and mounds, providing a view out to sea for hundreds of miles. It has a busy port, specialising in cloth manufacture and trade. Eilee is where the harsh limestone hills of the extreme west gradually start to evolve into the fertile red-soil of the southern belt. In summer the cliff-tops are awash with yellow celandines; however, from late autumn to early spring, the driving rain can be strong enough to wash a person out to sea.
Ufard – the start of the limestone hills, ‘height of chalk’. Formerly two villages, separated by a pre-historic stone bridge called The Sprake, this region is bounded on its ocean side by a huge ridge of bracken-topped rocks, seemingly spewed up from the sea. Falling away beneath this ridge are disturbingly steep ravines, layered thick with downy and silver birches, beeches and stinking bird cherry. Moorland rivers thunder their way through this bleak landscape, and a few hardy varieties of sheep are about the only beasts who can survive on the gorse-tangled grasslands; all in all, it seems a highly inhospitable place to live. However, thanks to these indomitable creatures, Ufard thrives as a centre of wool production – whilst it cannot compete with the county-wide industry of Ovce, it still produces a quantity and quality impressive for its size.