Jaculan is a town of the Kingdom of Vlandia, set along the warmer southern reaches of the Biscan Coast where the Perassic Sea meets rolling green hills. The town is initially held by Baroness Calatild of House dey Arromanc, whose family authority rests on fertile land and long-standing ties to coastal estates. The hills surrounding Jaculan are known for their olive groves, terraced slopes that shimmer silver-green in the sun and supply oil prized across the Marches for cooking, preservation, and lamp fuel. The climate here is milder than in Galend or Sargot, and sea winds carry warmth rather than chill.
Before Vlandian rule, Jaculan was a favored retreat of imperial aristocrats. Hunting lodges once dotted the oak forests inland from the coast, and the region’s reputation as a place of leisure lingered long after the Empire’s decline. Wild boar still roam the wooded hills, and noble hunting parties continue to ride from Jaculan into the forests each season. Old stone villas, some abandoned and some converted into Vlandic estates, mark the countryside with reminders that this land was once shaped for pleasure rather than defense.
Jaculan’s economy is rooted in olives, oil pressing, and coastal trade. Press houses cluster along the streams that run from the hills to the sea, and oil is stored in sealed amphorae and barrels bound for inland markets. Fishermen work the warmer coastal waters, while farmers tend groves and small vineyards on sheltered slopes. Compared to the harsher north, life in Jaculan appears gentle. This surface ease masks a long history of tension between the town’s independent-minded peasantry and the feudal structures imposed by Vlandian rule.
The people of Jaculan’s hinterlands are known across the Marches for heterodox ideas and stubborn independence. Village councils hold more influence here than in most of Vlandia, and families are less deferential to noble authority. This has made the region a breeding ground for periodic unrest. The Brotherhood of the Woods is merely the latest in a series of peasant movements that have risen from the oak forests and hill villages, preaching autonomy, resistance to tolls and levies, and rejection of feudal obligations. These movements are rarely unified for long, but they flare often enough to keep Jaculan under watch.
The unrest is complicated by aristocratic interference. Rival noble houses have, at times, quietly aided rebellious groups in Jaculan as a means of weakening House dey Arromanc or destabilizing the southern coast for political gain. Weapons, coin, and shelter have found their way into forest camps through indirect channels. This has created a pattern of rebellion that is never purely peasant in origin and never entirely extinguished by suppression. Baroness Calatild rules under constant pressure to distinguish genuine dissent from manipulation by outside powers.
Baroness Calatild governs Jaculan with a mixture of firmness and political caution. She maintains strong patrols along roads and coastlines, but avoids heavy-handed crackdowns that might provoke broader uprising. Her authority is challenged not only by forest rebels, but by rival nobles who view Jaculan’s unrest as leverage in wider court politics. Calatild’s position requires constant negotiation with the crown, neighboring lords, and local councils, making Jaculan one of the most politically unstable towns in the Marches despite its mild climate and apparent prosperity.
Jaculan’s defenses reflect this internal threat more than foreign danger. Watchtowers ring the nearby forests. Patrols ride the hill roads more often than the coast. The town walls are solid, but the real struggle lies beyond them, in the groves and wooded slopes where rebels can vanish into familiar terrain. The oak forests have become both livelihood and refuge, their cover used as often for dissent as for hunting.
Across Vlandia, Jaculan is known as a beautiful trouble spot: a place of olive groves, warm winds, and persistent unrest. Merchants prize its oil. Nobles prize its hunting grounds. The crown watches it warily as a region where loyalty cannot be assumed. Jaculan stands as a reminder that not all resistance in the Marches comes from foreign borders. Some of it grows from within the very soil Vlandia claims as its own.