High Seat of the Greenwood Expanse
Marunath is the seat of the High King of Battania and the principal town of the Greenwood Expanse. Though its name means “Horse of the Ford,” there is no great river near its walls. Battanians delight in such contradictions, weaving stories into place-names until legend becomes inseparable from geography. The tale most often told is that of Ochlaigan, the hero foretold to defeat the seven sons of Glanys in seven duels near seven fords. At Marunath, with no stream to bar his path, Ochlaigan is said to have slit his own horse’s throat and crossed the stream of blood that poured from it, facing his final enemy upon that grim ford of sacrifice. Whether this story is taken as truth or dark allegory, it has shaped how Battanians speak of Marunath: a place where prophecy is fulfilled through terrible resolve.
The town stands on a broad rise overlooking forested lowlands and broken hill paths that converge upon its gates. Roads are not paved in imperial stone but worn by centuries of boots, hooves, and wagons grinding through mud and leaf-mold. Marunath commands movement through the central Greenwood not through walls alone, but through its position astride the routes clans use to gather in times of war. It is a town built not for trade dominance, but for assembly. When the High King calls, Marunath fills with banners, tents, and warbands spilling into the surrounding clearings.
The villages of Ath Cafal, Beglomuar, Dalmengus, and Ebereth are bound to Marunath, supplying it with food, timber, wool, and fighters. These villages rotate their support to avoid being stripped bare by constant musters. The land around Marunath is worked hard, for the town swells suddenly and without warning when clans answer the High King’s call. Granaries are kept full by custom rather than law, and every bound village maintains emergency stores meant for the capital in times of gathering.
Marunath’s halls reflect its role as a meeting place of rivals rather than a seat of centralized control. Clan halls cluster around a central council ground rather than forming a single dominant citadel. Each major clan maintains a lodge within the town, more embassy than palace, where they host allies, argue grievances, and prepare for war. These halls are fortified enough to withstand sudden violence, for feuds do not always sleep even in the High King’s shadow. The town guard is drawn from multiple clans to avoid the appearance of royal partisanship.
Caladog fen Gruffendoc rules from Marunath as High King of Battania. His authority rests less on administration and more on personal legitimacy earned through war and tradition. Crowned upon Dunthanach and recognized among the Twenty of Dunthanach, Caladog embodies both ritual sovereignty and living mastery of the Greenwood bow. This convergence gives him a rare hold on the loyalties of fractious clans. Warriors who would bristle at orders from a distant king listen when Caladog speaks, for he has stood in the same fog-choked skirmishes and shed blood beside them.
In war, Caladog commands from the edge of formations, directing volleys and timing sudden charges that shatter enemy momentum. He favors coordinated ambush and terrain denial over grand pitched battles, using Marunath as a rallying point rather than a throne-room of distance. Some whisper that his dual status as High King and one of the Twenty makes him dangerous to rivals within Battania. Few can openly challenge a ruler who may lawfully meet them in ritual combat and whose skill with the bow is spoken of in the same breath as old heroes.
Marunath itself is a place of constant tension between unity and rivalry. During councils, the town fills with feasting, boasting, and barely restrained hostility. Outside times of war, it grows quieter, its halls half-empty, its streets given over to craftsmen, drovers, and messengers carrying news between clans. The people of Marunath are used to living beside power without fully trusting it. They know that today’s honored guest may be tomorrow’s enemy, and that banners raised in unity may soon be pulled down in feud.
Across Battania, Marunath is known as the place where the Greenwood speaks in one voice, even if only briefly. It is not loved as a market town or revered as a sacred site. It is respected as the place where the clans come when the Greenwood must decide whether it will bleed together or die apart.