Inside Shivenmolt
Shivenmolt is the heart of the Palemen’s rebellion, crowded with fighters, stolen goods and people who never chose to be there. Dagan Rell governs from its tower, while his commanders compete for followers and favours below, their quarrels reaching into every part of the fort.
The Palemen
Resentment of Sarnath had been growing across the Shivefrost Plain for generations as soldiers demanded punishing tolls, seized goods and used violence to enforce the Quince lords’ authority. Steading families resisted, caravan workers lost their livelihoods, and bandits won fame for humiliating the army. The Rell brothers gathered these scattered enemies of Sarnath into the Palemen, named for the pale crystal dust coating their cloaks and horses.
Some joined for independence and a fairer share of the trade passing through their homeland; others wanted revenge, plunder or powerful friends who would let them do as they pleased. Former caravan guards now fight alongside the raiders they once kept off the roads, joined by mercenaries, desperate drifters and families driven from their steadings.
Their victories came quickly, beginning with the seizure of Shivenmolt and the slaughter of its garrison on the Night of Shiven Skulls. Fort Globurn fell soon afterwards, giving them control of the main crossing and leaving Sarnath’s army fighting to regain entry to the plain.
A Fort Full of Raiders
The captured fort has filled faster than anyone can manage. Tents and stolen wagons spread beyond the gates, where new arrivals wait among raiders, drovers and prisoners being brought in from the roads.
Inside, men argue over shares of the loot as workers haul water and mend clothes among tethered animals and prisoners penned against the courtyard walls. At the gate, a newcomer’s welcome depends on whose followers are on watch and what they think they can take from them.
Dagan Rell’s Cause
Dagan Rell was a merchant on the Woolback Road before Walter Hale’s soldiers demanded a payment the brothers could not afford. They blinded Corren and ruined Dagan. The rebellion grew from that grievance, and Dagan still speaks persuasively of a plain free from Sarnath’s extortion.
Corren remains under siege at Globurn, and Dagan is desperate to keep his brother alive. He needs fresh sperenweave for his fighters and capable people who can work beyond the fort. Outsiders give him a way to act without relying entirely on commanders whose interests are drifting further from his own.
Quince’s Head
Under a sign showing Sarnath’s lord with his head split open, the Palemen drink away their latest haul. Captives carry stolen wine between tables where rival bands gamble, shout over one another and draw knives over debts. Charna flirts with men who should know better, while Hagen Bander keeps their tabs running and quietly turns debtors into useful people.
The noticeboard gives a fair account of life under the rebels. Dagan forbids killing in the courtyard “without cause”. Drunks on watch lose teeth; thieves lose fingers. Charna asks for “pretty things and useful people”, and someone has carved “JORAN’S BOYS ARE NOT WELCOME” deep into the wood. Paid work, threats and personal grudges all compete for space.
Charna Velbin
Charna Velbin holds court in Quince’s Head, drawing people close with easy conversation, flirtation and the promise of a favour. Men compete for her attention, tell her more than they intended and leave owing her something. She knows how to make someone feel welcome while finding out where they are vulnerable.
Her lovers have a habit of disappearing, and ugly rumours about their fate have done little to discourage the men seeking her company. Her warmth can vanish just as quickly when someone displeases her. With Hagen Bander, her oldest ally, handling private business in the tavern’s back room, she maintains a network of favours and debts that gives her influence well beyond the drinking hall.
Angis Meldon
Angis Meldon, an enormous man with an iron-headed mace, controls the barracks and the largest body of fighters inside Shivenmolt. With Hobb, his closest companion, enforcing his demands, he makes newcomers prove their nerve and keeps order through threats and beatings. Their men are kept ready to fight, and anyone who makes Angis look weak can expect to pay for it.
Sera
Sera treats Joran’s captives like dolls, arranging them to her liking before wounding them and carefully dressing their injuries so she can start again. Their fear and pain amuse her, and Joran encourages every cruel invention. These visits often end with them killing their captives, though Sera considers them time spent with a dear friend.
She speaks softly and asks childlike questions, often appearing shy or eager to please. Her knowledge of medicines makes her indispensable to wounded Palemen when other remedies fail, even though she also prepares the poisons used to kill Dagan’s enemies. Her rank lets her requisition ingredients and confine anyone she declares a risk of disease or poisoning.
Joran the Grin
Joran grew up among the highwaymen of Froskin Steading, a family known for skinning its victims, and still enjoys the practice. Laughing through his punishments, he forces captives to choose who suffers and makes others take part. His talent for breaking prisoners and frightening settlements earned him a place among Dagan’s commanders, attracting men who wanted freedom to indulge their own cruelty.
The other commanders keep him outside the walls, barred from Quince’s Head and Angis’s barracks. Joran bitterly resents that restraint and enjoys making a public spectacle of Angis’s rage. His followers’ thefts, fights and incursions spread disorder through the fort, undermining the authority Dagan is struggling to hold onto.
His followers occupy a ruined farmstead just outside the gatehouse, where captives and stolen animals are brought in from the plain. Bodies are left as warnings across its trampled fields, with a smoking corpse-pile beyond the yard. The steading has become a refuge for raiders too vicious or unstable for the company inside Shivenmolt.