Pravend is a town of the Kingdom of Vlandia, ruled by Baron Aldric of House dey Tihr, a cadet branch of House dey Meroc. The city stands on fertile western lowlands where old imperial roads converge, a place that has served as a center of power for longer than most cities in the Marches have existed at all. Long before Vlandia rose to prominence, the city was known as Paravenos, the second great colony founded by Calradios the Great and the Calradians upon their arrival on the continent. For centuries, Paravenos served as the western capital of the Calradic Empire, a seat of senators, administrators, and military prefects before the empire’s center of gravity drifted eastward.
Even after the imperial court departed, Paravenos retained its economic dominance. Markets, granaries, and trade halls built for an empire did not vanish simply because the capital moved. When Osric Iron-Arm invaded the region, he recognized that Paravenos was more valuable as a functioning seat of power than as plunder. Rather than sacking the city, he negotiated its surrender with the remaining senatorial houses, preserving much of its infrastructure and bureaucracy. In the generations that followed, the city passed into the control of House dey Tihr, binding imperial legacy to Vlandic feudal rule. The name Pravend now marks a continuity of power rather than a rupture with the past.
Pravend’s modern role in the Kingdom of Vlandia is practical and specialized. The town has become the primary hub for horse breeding, cavalry training, and remount supply for the realm. The open lowlands surrounding the city are dotted with stables, paddocks, and training grounds, and entire farming villages exist to raise fodder, oats, and draft animals for cavalry use. Vlandic warhorses are trained in Pravend’s fields, where riders learn formation charges, remount drills, and endurance riding across long roads. Cavalry officers from across the Marches pass through Pravend to oversee training cycles and select mounts for their banners. This has made the town indispensable to Vlandia’s mounted arm and a strategic asset guarded as carefully as any port.
Alongside horses, Pravend is also the cultural and practical heart of Vlandic brewing. The art of brewing is taught formally here, under charter granted to the town generations ago. Pravend’s breweries produce ales and spirits that travel along road networks to taverns and garrisons throughout the Marches. Apprentices come from across Vlandia to learn the craft, making Pravend the only place in the Marches where brewing is officially taught and regulated. This has created a constant flow of travelers seeking to establish taverns, supply inns, or secure brewing rights in other towns. Brewing guilds hold significant influence here, and disputes over recipes, water rights, and grain supply are treated as matters of civic importance.
Life in Pravend is shaped by its layered past. Imperial stone halls stand beside Vlandic timber wards. Old road markers and senate foundations are still visible beneath newer fortifications. The city feels older than most places in the Marches, heavier with memory. Markets are busy, but not chaotic. Stables and paddocks sprawl beyond the walls, filling the surrounding countryside with the sound of hooves and the smell of hay and leather. The presence of cavalry trainees and traveling brewers gives the town a transient population of riders, drovers, and apprentices who cycle through with the seasons.
Baron Aldric of House dey Tihr rules Pravend with a careful balance of heritage and loyalty. As a cadet branch of House dey Meroc, House dey Tihr carries the weight of royal blood without direct claim to the throne. Aldric emphasizes service to the crown while maintaining strong local autonomy over Pravend’s training grounds and brewing charters. His governance is pragmatic. He protects Pravend’s special roles fiercely, resisting attempts by other lords to establish rival cavalry academies or independent brewing schools. This has made Pravend prosperous, but also politically sensitive, as its monopoly on two vital functions draws envy and quiet pressure from other houses.
Economically, Pravend thrives on horses, beer, and the steady movement of people. Caravans carry tack, leather, grain, and brewing equipment into the city, and leave with trained mounts, certified brewers, and barrels bound for inns and garrisons. Inns are plentiful, catering to drovers, riders, and apprentices. Taverns serve as informal recruitment halls for brewing ventures and cavalry units alike. The town’s markets are less focused on fish and salt than coastal ports, and less on toll law than Sargot, but no less vital to the functioning of the realm.
Pravend’s defenses are built for stability rather than siege dominance. The walls protect markets and stables rather than massive docks or royal treasuries. Patrols focus on protecting the surrounding farms and training grounds, as disruption of horse breeding would cripple cavalry supply. In times of war, Pravend becomes a hive of movement as mounts are requisitioned and riders assemble. This surge of activity makes the town a strategic prize, but also a target that the crown and House dey Tihr take great care to shield.
Across Calradia, Pravend is known as a city of legacy and craft. To scholars, it is a remnant of imperial administration. To knights, it is where warhorses are made and broken in. To travelers, it is where one learns the art of brewing and finds reliable inns along western roads. Pravend stands as proof that Vlandia did not merely conquer the ruins of empire, but learned to inhabit and repurpose them.