Ashcrown Dominion

Identity and Purpose

The Ashcrown Dominion is the dragonborn mountain kingdom that holds the southernmost highlands of Oblivion Vale. It survives through fortress discipline, controlled roads, and strict ration law. The Dominion measures strength in duty, compliance, and results. Mercy exists, but it is always weighed against stability.

Territory and Strongholds

Ashcrown territory is built around cliff roads, narrow passes, and chained fortress sites. Movement is controlled through pass gates and inspection yards. Most population lives in fortified holds cut into stone, with layered stores and sealed chambers for food, salt, and water. Outlying watchtowers exist to spot raiders, track smoke, and confirm convoy routes. The Dominion avoids open lowlands where it cannot control sightlines or supply lines.

Rule and Law

The Dominion is governed as a fortress state. Authority is centralized, with commanders and magistrates holding direct power over water access, travel permission, and punishment. Honor codes are not ceremonial. They are enforced law. The Dominion treats desertion, bribery around rationing, and falsifying records as attacks on the realm. Trials are fast, document-heavy, and designed to deter repeat behavior.

Punishments favor outcomes over fairness. Common sentences include forced labor in quarries, long-term escort duty on dangerous roads, public branding for theft, and exile beyond the pass line. “Water theft” is treated as treason because it risks collapse under scarcity.

Water Doctrine

Water is managed as a strategic asset. The Dominion relies on deep wells inside sealed stone chambers, protected by keyed valves, layered locks, and guard rotations. Cistern yards are built behind inner walls and watched at all hours. Distribution follows ration calendars that change by season, convoy reliability, and threat level.

Aquifer knowledge is restricted. Survey notes are kept in fortress archives, and unauthorized mapping is prosecuted. The Dominion prefers fewer water points with extreme defense rather than many water points with weak control. This concentrates power in the fortress chain and forces smaller settlements to attach themselves to garrisons.

Economy and Trade

Ashcrown exports high-quality metalwork, fortress hardware, and volcanic glass goods. It also trades rare salts and mountain minerals. These exports are essential because the Dominion depends on outside timber, medicines, and preserved foods that its mountains cannot reliably produce.

Trade is conducted through formal pacts and escorted convoys. Caravans are inspected for sealed casks, accurate tallies, and approved route papers. Warehousing is militarized. Storehouses are treated like armories, and missing inventory triggers investigations. Smuggling exists, but it faces extreme retaliation when uncovered, because it weakens the ration system and invites copycats.

Military Structure and Border Control

The Dominion’s military is organized for passes, walls, and convoy security. It favors disciplined infantry, shield formations for narrow roads, and trained patrol units that can hold choke points for long periods. Units rotate through watch duty, escort duty, and internal enforcement, which keeps soldiers tied to law as much as battle.

Border friction with the southern human forts is constant. Disputes usually center on pass control, caravan rights, and contested mining claims. The Dominion also faces raids and skirmishes in nearby woodlands and glades, where visibility drops and ambush becomes easier. Ashcrown responds by restricting travel, increasing inspections, and applying collective punishment to settlements that “fail to report.”

Society Under Scarcity

Ashcrown citizens are raised under ration reality. Most households keep written allotment records, seal habits, and emergency drills. Public life prioritizes order: curfews near cistern yards, mandatory service periods, and inspection culture that treats privacy as a luxury.

Status is earned through service roles that protect infrastructure: well guards, valve keepers, convoy escorts, quarry crews, and storehouse clerks. People with those jobs have better survival odds, but they also live under harsher rules and closer scrutiny. Crime is framed as sabotage, and the state uses fear to prevent it.

Faith and Temples

Life, Death, and Fate are all present in the Dominion, but each is contained by state priorities. Life orders are valued for keeping workers and soldiers alive, yet they are forced into triage logic that can look like cruelty. Death orders hold authority over burial, quarantine, and boundary rites, which the Dominion treats as security measures. Fate orders oversee oaths and contract witnessing, but they are kept away from direct control of water, because Ashcrown distrusts any power that can bind leaders through paperwork.

Blessings are accepted as real, but never treated as permission to disobey law. Priests who challenge ration doctrine often find their access limited, their heal houses audited, or their routes revoked.

Magic Policy

Magic is rare in the Dominion and handled as a controlled resource. Casters are required to register, submit to oversight, and accept assignments tied to defense, infrastructure, or containment. Unregistered magic is treated as a threat to public safety, especially if it touches water systems, disease events, or crowd behavior.

Plague-touched power is handled with maximum suspicion. Even when results are helpful, the Dominion prefers containment and monitoring over trust. The core belief is simple: one uncontrolled mage can ruin a fortress, poison a cistern, or break a border line through panic.

Infernal Risk and Lineage Pressure

The Dominion is not the main center of contract culture, but it is not immune to infernal influence. Devils exploit scarcity, succession fear, and border desperation. Ashcrown response is institutional paranoia: registry checks, loyalty oaths, and harsh investigations when a house gains sudden advantage. Tieflings are rare compared to some human realms, but when they appear, they are treated as a political problem first and a person second.

Core Institutions

• Pass Gate Commands: control movement, inspections, and road permissions.

• Well Chambers and Valve Keepers: guard deep wells, keys, and distribution schedules.

• Convoy Oath Offices: assign escorts, approve routes, and punish escort failure.

• Storehouse Guards and Ledger Clerks: manage ration stock, seals, and audits.

• Quarry Crews: provide stone, metal access, and punishment labor capacity.