Progress
Ostiarium
With the influx of new settlers into the Gate City, Ostiarium takes a huge breath of vitality and energy, exploding into a frenzy of activity and pursuit. The ships that arrived a few weeks ago are loaded and sail away to return to Salos filled to the brim with raw materials. News are already circulating that 3 more ships are arriving in a few weeks as the Empire ramps up the connection between its colony and Helias. The city is expecting another 500 souls to arrive before the Fall Festival. Many of those will be soldiers of course for the ongoing war in the Plains. Most citizens have not paid much attention to what is happening outside the city walls and past the forests. The war has not affected them much. Most are happy that the natives are being driven away from the city giving them an opportunity to claim more land.
The city walls are near completion with the influx of more skilled workers. The new water powered mill is working overtime supplying wood for new homes, for farms springing upon past the edge of the forest in the Plains, as well as supplying materials for the construction of a naval shipyard, a few miles away.
Priests of Vastad, Hoi and Cambena have arrived in the city and already petition the Duke for land and tithes to erect new temples to the other Pillars. The faithful have arrived in full force in Arcadia. Among them and prowling the streets one can see here and there members of the Silent Flock and of the Inquisition keeping a watchful and glaring eye on the crowds, ready to bring sinners into the light.
Huge sums and bonuses are offered for settlers to travel to Aquilo, to work on its mines, foundries and overseeing the influx of slaves arriving as spoils of war. Those that wish to live away from the watchful eye of the Keep and its law jump at the opportunity.
The ranks of the guards and soldiers in the city swell, but so do the wounded and maimed returning to the city from the Plains. The dead are not returned, given field burials instead where they fall.
Ostiarium grows with every new arrival. Grows and stirs, slowly reaching to grasp more of the land and from its people.