Merilrond is the largest settlement in the Golden Woods of Anwyn and the home of Dîmeril Laeghartha, Heryn of Merilrond. More than four hundred people now live within the settlement and its immediate surroundings, although a traveller approaching through the Golden Woods might initially struggle to believe that so many people live there. Merilrond has few conventional streets and nothing resembling the tightly packed rows of buildings found in most towns. Houses and workshops stand amongst gardens, grassy clearings and mature Gold Maples, connected by winding paths and broader tracks suitable for horses and carts. Some buildings gather around the central Green, while others stand well apart with gardens, paddocks or working yards of their own. The result is a settlement which seems to merge gradually into the surrounding forest rather than ending at any clearly defined boundary.
At its heart stands the old hall from which the settlement takes its name: Merilrond, the Rose Hall. Originally Merilrond referred only to the Hall itself. As families, craftspeople, Sisters, retainers and others settled nearby, the same name gradually came to describe the community which grew around it. Both usages remain common.
The Character of Merilrond
Merilrond is prosperous without being ostentatious. Most ordinary houses are substantial buildings of local stone and timber, generally roofed with coloured clay tiles. Blue, green, red and plum-coloured roofs appear amongst the trees, giving the settlement a surprisingly colourful appearance when viewed from higher ground. Gardens are common, and even relatively modest homes may possess vegetable plots, fruit trees, sheds, workshops or small animal enclosures. The Gold Maples are never far away. Mature trees have been retained throughout the settlement wherever practical, while the deeper woodland surrounds Merilrond on every side. There is no enclosing wall. This occasionally surprises visitors. Dîmeril has spent much of her life fighting things which build walls, besiege walls, climb walls, undermine walls or simply fly over them. She has never shown much enthusiasm for surrounding her home with one. Merilrond's defences are considerably less obvious.
The Green
At the centre of the settlement lies the Green, a broad open area of grass crossed by several of Merilrond's principal paths. It serves no single purpose. Children play there, travellers meet before departing, horses are occasionally gathered there, announcements are made there and stalls appear during festivals and larger gatherings. At quieter times it is simply an open communal space beneath the golden canopy. At its centre stands a modest stone fountain. The fountain (pictured) depicts Ehlonna, represented in the Half-Elven form favoured within Anwyn. Water spills quietly into the basin below and, to most visitors, the ten-foot stone figure appears to be little more than an attractive piece of devotional sculpture. The residents know better.
The statue is the Fountain Guardian, a powerful stone golem placed at the heart of Merilrond's defences. Should the settlement come under serious attack, the water ceases to flow and the stone figure steps down from its fountain. The children of Merilrond find this considerably less alarming than visitors do.
Merilrond, The Rose Hall
Standing well back from the Green at the farthest point from the entry road is Merilrond, the Rose Hall, the oldest and most important building in the settlement and the home of Dîmeril Laeghartha. Rose Hall is a substantial but irregular complex of pale stone and timber which has been repaired, enlarged and altered repeatedly during its long existence. Roses climb across its walls and roofs with very little respect for architectural intention, giving the Hall the appearance from which its name derives. Within its central courtyard grows the Cutting Tree, a vigorous oak raised from a living cutting taken from the Heart Tree of the dryad Glovanna of Foxglove Glade. Glovanna can travel between her Heart Tree and the Cutting Tree, allowing her to emerge directly into the courtyard of Rose Hall. Those who live there regard this as entirely normal. Rose Hall remains first and foremost a home. Dîmeril's household, wards, guests and assorted friends have ensured that whatever dignity the building might once have possessed has long since become thoroughly lived-in.
Explore: Merilrond , The Rose Hall
Elenrond, The Star Hall
Visitors to Merilrond normally do not stay within Rose Hall, they are usually directed towards Elenrond, the Star Hall. At the entrance to the settlement Elenrond is a long, substantial guest hall capable of accommodating thirty visitors. Its large dormitory is divided by cloth partitions to provide a degree of privacy, with each sturdy bed accompanied by a lockable chest. The main entrance opens into a small entrance hall, with the washrooms and laundry facilities arranged to either side. Beyond lies the great dormitory, containing thirty sturdy beds separated by cloth partitions. At the far end of the dormitory is the communal dining hall, with the kitchens beyond it at the very end of the building. The arrangement is practical. A traveller arriving muddy from the road can wash before entering the sleeping areas, while the kitchens and dining hall are kept together at the opposite end of Elenrond.
Three meals are normally provided each day. No fixed fee is charged for staying at Elenrond. Merilrond's tradition of hospitality considers food, a bath and a safe bed things which should not be denied to an ordinary traveller merely because their purse is empty. Wealthier visitors generally make a donation, and those who repeatedly take advantage of the arrangement without good reason may eventually discover that Theren Copperkettle, Elenrond's elderly Gnomish steward, has noticed. Theren notices most things. During festivals, when even thirty beds are insufficient, tents are erected in the surrounding meadows and amongst the more open woodland.
The Healing House
Close to Elenrond stands Merilrond's Healing House, positioned deliberately where injured travellers can be brought without first passing through the busier heart of the settlement. The Healing House cares for considerably more than people. One part is arranged for humanoid patients, with beds, treatment rooms, stores and space for recovery. Another is intended for injured animals, including horses, woodland creatures and the companions of rangers and Sisters. Herbs are grown immediately around the building, while stores contain ordinary medicines alongside some of the more unusual remedies produced within the Golden Woods. These include Silvermoss Poultice, Clearwater Reed and, when supplies permit, the valuable Anwyn Healing Honey prepared by the Sisters from honey supplied by Tobin Barley's giant bees. The distinction between healer, herbalist and veterinarian is considerably less rigid in Anwyn than in many human settlements.
Ithilora Vaelathir
Close to Rose Hall stands Ithilora Vaelathir, one of the more distinctive private residences in Merilrond. It is the home of Solara Elenhi, whose interests in scholarship and magic require rather more space than the average woodland cottage can conveniently provide. The house incorporates Solara's library, workrooms and magical workshop, together with a broad tower which has become one of the settlement's more recognisable landmarks. Despite its size, Ithilora Vaelathir remains a residence rather than a public institution. Those seeking Solara's expertise are welcome when invited. The distinction is occasionally lost on visitors. Solara generally restores it.
The Smithy
Merilrond's smithy is a practical working forge rather than the workshop of some legendary Elven weaponsmith. That makes it considerably more useful. The smithy is run by Kelda Ironhand, a Vargrimist Dwarf and skilled smith who settled in Merilrond after escaping the brutal society in which she had once been enslaved. Kelda is a formidable, scarred and intensely self-reliant woman, considerably more comfortable with iron, fire and honest work than she is with questions about her past. Merilrond suits her. Nobody expects Kelda to explain herself, and Dîmeril has never demanded that she do so. She was given somewhere safe to live, a forge in which to work and the freedom to decide for herself what came afterwards.
The smithy contains three working forges, providing ample capacity for ordinary ironwork, tools, horseshoes, nails, hinges, fittings, repairs and the countless small pieces of metal upon which a community quietly depends. There is deliberately generous working space, allowing Kelda to take apprentices and teach those willing to learn. This has proved unexpectedly important to her. Kelda spent much of her earlier life being treated as something somebody else owned. In Merilrond, younger residents instead come to the forge because they want to learn what she knows. Much of the work undertaken here is thoroughly mundane. Kelda can make weapons and armour when required, but most days are occupied by considerably less glamorous work. Nobody appreciates mundane ironwork quite so much as somebody whose cart has just lost a wheel several miles from home
The Stables and Livery
Although both Rose Hall and Elenrond possess modest facilities for horses, Merilrond also maintains a separate settlement stable and livery close to its centre. The stables accommodate the sturdy forest horses and ponies used throughout Anwyn as well as the mounts of visitors. Paddocks lie nearby, and there is space for grooming, tack, feed and the ordinary work involved in maintaining a community in which horses remain an important means of transport. The small, hardy horses favoured within the Golden Woods are particularly well suited to woodland tracks and uncertain ground. Visiting cavalrymen occasionally underestimate them. Usually only once.
The Weavers' Hall
The Weavers' Hall is one of Merilrond's busiest workshops and one of the few whose products have acquired a significant reputation outside the Golden Woods. Its long working hall contains looms, spinning equipment and ample natural light, while great cascades of purple wisteria grow across the exterior. Among those working there is Hettie Barrow, an elderly Half-Elven weaver whose skill with the notoriously difficult Golden Woods spidersilk has made her work particularly sought after. Wool and linen remain the everyday business of the hall, but spidersilk provides its fame. The fibre is extraordinarily strong and can produce anything from almost translucent gauze to the heavier material Hettie calls double-weave. Hettie's finest work commands extraordinary prices elsewhere. Hettie remains largely unimpressed by this. As she once observed of an exceptionally valuable spidersilk tunic: “Could do. But it's still a shirt.”
Barley's Apiary
Towards the quieter edge of the settlement lies Barley's Apiary, the home and principal working ground of the Halfling beekeeper Tobin Barley. The cottage itself is modest. The surrounding land is not. Hives stand amongst extensive wildflower planting, while additional colonies are maintained in carefully chosen clearings elsewhere in the Golden Woods. Tobin moves some hives according to the flowering season and the needs of nearby orchards and gardens. His bees produce several distinctive honeys, including Goldenwood Honey, Rose Honey and darker Heather Honey. During the Flowering, a few colonies occasionally produce tiny quantities of the exceptionally prized Flowering Honey. Tobin is also responsible for unusual colonies descended from the giant bees of Anwyn. Their honey is supplied in limited quantities to the Sisters, who bless and prepare it to create Anwyn Healing Honey.
Visitors occasionally assume Tobin therefore possesses magical bees. Tobin has largely given up explaining the difference.
The House of Memory
Merilrond has never possessed much enthusiasm for bureaucracy. It does, however, possess a considerable amount of history. The House of Memory serves as the settlement's archive and record house. Maps, letters, agreements, genealogies, journals, accounts and records accumulated over generations are stored within its distinctive round stone tower and adjoining building. It is not a great scholarly library in the manner of those found in large cities. Its purpose is more personal and practical: preserving the memory of the community. Births and deaths are recorded here. So are marriages, land agreements, significant events, old maps and accounts of the families who have lived beneath the Golden Woods. It is particularly valuable in a place whose inhabitants include Elves and Half-Elves capable of remembering events which occurred before many human kingdoms were founded.
The Bakery
Nearer the centre of Merilrond stands the settlement bakery, immediately recognisable by its enormous chimney. Bread is baked daily, along with pies, cakes and other food for local households. During festivals and gatherings the ovens may remain hot for much of the day and night. The bakery also makes extensive use of local produce, particularly fruit, nuts and Tobin Barley's honey. Arguments concerning which varieties of honey are too good to put into baked goods are normally left to Tobin. Nobody else has the stamina.
Homes and Gardens
Most of Merilrond consists neither of halls nor magical towers but of ordinary homes. Some are detached cottages; others are larger family houses or short terraces. Stone lower walls and timber-framed upper storeys are common, as are steep tiled roofs designed to shed the heavy rain which occasionally sweeps across the Woods. No two are quite alike. Extensions have been added as families grew. Workshops occupy former sheds. External stairs climb to upper rooms. Covered balconies overlook gardens. Wood stores, chicken runs, vegetable plots and small orchards fill the spaces between houses. The result is neither planned nor chaotic. Merilrond has simply grown.
Work and Daily Life
Merilrond is sufficiently large to support specialised craftspeople but small enough that most inhabitants know one another at least by sight. Weavers, smiths, healers, bowyers, cooks, stable workers, carpenters, gardeners and foresters work alongside the rangers and Sisters for whom the settlement is better known elsewhere. Children grow up amongst all of them. There is no sharp division between the household of Rose Hall and the wider settlement. Dîmeril's wards mix freely with other children, Sisters have families and trades of their own, and residents regularly work within Rose Hall or Elenrond without being formal retainers. Visitors sometimes arrive expecting to find a military headquarters or religious community. They generally discover a village. That distinction matters to those who live here.
The People of Merilrond
Dîmeril is undoubtedly the most prominent inhabitant of Merilrond, but the settlement does not revolve around her alone. The Sisterhood of Anwyn form an important part of the community, ranging from experienced rangers and priestesses to younger women still learning their calling. High Priestess Lusara Elmare provides its principal spiritual leadership. Rose Hall itself is home to Dîmeril's wards, several of whom have now reached adulthood while remaining very much part of the extended household. Around them are Dîmeril's old companions, the retainers who help keep Rose Hall and the settlement functioning, and numerous craftspeople and residents who belong to none of these groups.
Merilrond also attracts less conventional inhabitants and visitors. Pixies, dryads and other Fey are hardly unknown. Énglantine is a familiar presence, while Glovanna can simply emerge from the Cutting Tree whenever she wishes. Cooshee (pictured) wander through the settlement as well. Dîmeril keeps two of the great green Elven hounds herself, while Bracken, companion of Lethiel Aranel, is another familiar resident. Nobody sensible leaves food unattended at cooshee height.
Guardians of Merilrond
The absence of walls should not be mistaken for an absence of defences. Merilrond's protection reflects Dîmeril's preference for defences which do not dominate ordinary life until they are actually needed. The Fountain Guardian waits silently upon the Green. The White Guardians, apparently decorative stone unicorns, protect important approaches and can animate when the settlement is threatened. The ancient Bell Tree watches over Merilrond in its own fashion. An intelligent and independent guardian rather than a construct or servant, it can raise the alarm when danger threatens and provides shelter beneath its branches. Less visible still is the Warding of Merilrond, magical protection woven around the Rose Hall which resists the entry of creatures of evil intent. None of these replace the living defenders of the Woods.
Rangers patrol the surrounding forest, Sisters travel regularly between Merilrond and more distant outposts, and the Silverwings provide a swift system of communication between them. In serious danger, warning can spread through the Golden Woods remarkably quickly. Merilrond therefore presents a curious contradiction. It has no walls, little obvious fortification and numerous paths by which a visitor may approach. Attacking it remains a very poor idea.
A Woodland Community
Merilrond is sometimes described as Dîmeril's seat, the home of the Sisterhood, or the principal settlement of the Golden Woods. All are true. None quite describes it. To those who live there, Merilrond is simply home. It is Rose Hall beneath its rambling roses and the Star Hall welcoming another muddy traveller. It is hammering from the smithy, horses calling from the livery, looms working beneath the wisteria and bread baking near the Green. It is Tobin arguing about honey, children racing between the houses and Sisters returning from patrol.
Beyond it stand the Gold Maples. There is no gate marking where Merilrond ends and the forest begins. Houses simply become fewer, gardens give way to meadow and the paths continue beneath the golden canopy. Like Rose Hall at its centre, Merilrond has never attempted to conquer the forest around it. It has simply learned how to live there.