Larford

Larford is a settlement on the upper reach of the River Lar in Trésard. Once a prosperous town of agriculture and industry, it declined after the destruction of Rasia during the Long War and was largely abandoned, its fields slowly being reclaimed by virid forest.

The ruins were resettled, but it remains a small, isolated village on a broken, seldom-travelled highway.

Before the Long War it was a prosperous market town surrounded by farmland, its wharves shipping produce by river and road to Rasia or via Rana to the north.

In the third century BME Larford became home to the Signtistsplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigSigntism

Signtism is an ancient philosophy and subculture in the Anrel Isles, one of the many Schools of Thought who found a home in the Rasian Academy. The Grand Master Belikast was born into the Signtist community of Larford, and his association with the culture and the city led to its utter destruction during the, an academic sect who had been expelled from the Rasian Academy and settled here in a community on the edge of the town called The Circle. This was a former clay pit with circular walls and a pond at its centre, which in time became a wealthy enclave of houses and gardens. The Signtists lived separately from the town but were tolerated, since they owned local businesses and brought further prosperity to Larford by setting up foundries and mineral works, supplied by the mines in hills to the east. These industries refining various minerals and metals, producing a variety of chemicals, dyes and other industrial products which fuelled the economies of Rasia and beyond. By the first century ME the works formed a significant part of the town's income, so that The Circle turned from a quiet suburb to an affluent suburb of the town.

The town was burned to the ground by Anretian forces during the Long War at the Battle of Larford, in which Northern League forces were also massacred. Since the town was essential for metalworking supplying weapons for the war effort, its destruction was a critical blow to the North. Its destruction was a prelude to the Battle of Rasia, which utterly destroyed that city also.

Following the battle, the fire engulfed the green forest and farmland surrounding the down, stopping its eastward march only at the virid burn which formed a natural fire break. Although some patches of greenplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigGreen

The Green Kingdom of flora and fauna includes humans, mammals, birds, whales, greenfish, and most green plants and crops cultivated by humankind. forest regrew, over the following years virid forest gradually spread throughout the area. Following the war settlers re-established the settlement and repaired the road to Rana, but it was never prosperous, so that Larford survives today as an isolated village encroached by the virid dark.