Seat of Empire · The Eagle Throne
The Veyrhold Empire
What Everyone Says About It
Far from here, and doing very well.
The empire is a fact of life in Bellhaven and Ironhollow the way weather is a fact of life. It sets the price of things. Nobody has met it.
Overview
Veyrhold is the seat of the empire, and the empire is named for it — which is why the word turns up attached to almost everything official. The Veyrhold Empire. The Veyrhold Imperial Military Academy. A prominent Veyrhold noble family. The Eagle of Veyrhold.
None of the party has been there. Almost nobody they have met has been there either. What reaches Bellhaven and Ironhollow is not the capital but its consequences: commissions, contracts, titles, taxes, and the occasional very well-dressed young officer who has clearly never worked a seam.
It is where the decisions get made, and it is a long way from where they land.
At a Glance
Region
Imperial heartland
Settlement Type
Capital and seat of the Eagle Throne
Known For
The court, the noble houses, and the Imperial Military Academy
Northwest Frontier
Ironhollow, which forged the empire's arms
Southern Frontier
Ironwatch, which holds the abyssal gorge
Notable Houses
House Valecourt · House Montclair
Danger
Nothing that carries a weapon.
The Frontiers
The empire is defined at its edges rather than its middle, and both edges are already on this wiki.
The northwest corner
Ironhollow, a dwarven hold that spent generations forging the arms the empire fought with, sold at premium prices under what amounted to a permanent defense contract.
The southern edge
Ironwatch, the fortress standing over the abyssal gorge, garrisoned under Lord Garrick Valecourt and fed over the passes by Bellhaven.
The two are the same arrangement seen from opposite ends: one place made the weapons, the other holds the line they were made for. When the fighting stopped, only one of them noticed immediately.
Service
Where the empire's officers are made. Adrian Valecourt graduated recently and went straight back to his father's fortress, which is the expected shape of a career for the son of a frontier house: train in the capital, serve at the edge, inherit the title.
Bellhaven University was founded on the same logic and for the same war — it exists to supply Ironwatch with battle-mages. The academy makes the officers, the university makes the casters, and Ironhollow made what both of them carried.
The Houses
Two houses have come up so far. Both are attached to the southern frontier rather than the capital, which is what the party is likely to actually encounter.
Lord Garrick Valecourt holds Ironwatch as Warden of the Abyss and military governor, is styled the Eagle of Veyrhold, and is reckoned one of the empire's most accomplished living commanders. His son Adrian is the heir.
A house whose entire standing rests on holding one place. That is a strong position while the place matters, and an awkward one if it stops mattering.
Lady Elara Montclair is a daughter of the house and betrothed to Adrian Valecourt — a capital family marrying into a frontier command.
For the GM
The name is used both ways in what is written so far — for the empire and, by implication, for its seat. Whether Veyrhold is a city, a dynasty, a throne, or all three has not been decided anywhere, and this page has not decided it either.
The useful question is not what the capital is like. It is why the empire stopped fighting, who decided that, and whether anyone in Veyrhold is still paying attention to the gorge Ironwatch is standing over.