Iron Hills Barony

Iron Hills Barony

  No one knows why, but the local are dampens magic. Magic is not impossible to cast in the area. but it's a lot more difficult to cast here than in most other places in Scarterra. No one knows why. On a related note, naturally occurring reagents do not exist here. Very magical creatures such as spirits, dragons, and half spirits feel mildly ill here and thus rarely stay.   Lots of scholars, alchemists, and mages have tried to study this effect. Many have searched for a means of exporting the magical effect of the area to create sort of anti-magic reagent. Nothing seems to work. Not the salt, not the iron, not the rocks, not the plants, not the water. No one has figure out why the area acts the way it does or how to export the effect.   Scarterra has other anti-magic sites but all the other sites are in the middle of deserts, tundras and desolate mountain tops. Not places that have plenty of clean water and a modest amount of arable farm land.   Over the centuries, many people migrate here if they really hate magic. It doesn't always work as a sanctuary. At least in one famous example, a man fled here to avoid an angry dragon. Sure the dragon's fire breath was a little weaker but, that just means the dragon had to use his fire attacker longer, so his target just suffered longer.     Tentative Geographic Assignment: Spot 12     Basic Concept: A mining town that has an odd supernatural anomaly near it.     History: Iron Hills has got it name from a famous iron mine. There is also a salt mine. Both mines are somewhat tapped out and less productive than what they used to be, but the name stuck.   The previous Baron of the region was a tyrant and treated his subjects like slaves in all but name. He was killed by the current Border Baron is a laissez-faire benevolent dictator.   If the foreman of the minds are abusing or underpaying the miners he will go in and beat them. Well he is beginning to show his age now. If the mine foreman abuse their power, the Baron will send his men to beat them up.     Government Style: Laisses Faire libertarianism with frontier justice when things get out of hand.     Character of the Realm: Fairly stereotypical to the Borderlands region. Rugged individualism is prevalent here.     Religion: Most of the locals are areligious here, but there is a small offshoot of the Cult of the Compact here that preaches that mortals should worship the Nine without the incentive of divine spell casting casting magic on The Nine's behalf.       Challenges: Obviously the locals cannot use magic to resolve many of their problems. The anti-magic effect attracts some colorful characters. While the Borderlands has a lot of Scum and Villainy types, this realm seems to have an extra share of bad apples.   The local Baron is a good man with a sharp mind and the loyalty of the people but he is getting old has no clear heir. It's likely whoever succeeds him will not be as noble of spirit.