Vayanham Gazetter Part I

Vayanham Gazetteer 

Still in process more to follow & I also intend to add more local maps and sketches of building elevations to illustrate.

 This expands on a previews article read that here 

Note on spelling of the towns name

I have noticed that I have spelt this in several ways, for the real world reason I am dyslexic and can't therefore spell reliably without the aid of a spell checker, and it seems I omitted to add the name to my spell check. I have however decided not to go back and edit this but be inventive as we are on the edge of two linguistic areas. So the town is called Vayham or Vaynham in B'Paran and Vayanham in the less guttural Brandobian. 

I        Temple of the fruitful coin, the larger building and the Lion Inn the smaller building adjacent to it

II       Great Hospital and Temple of Everlasting Hope

III      Poor house 

IV      Drovers Lodge - Inn & Beast Market Tavern

V       Merry Maid - Inn also serves as the towns only licensed brothel

VI     West gate Inn 

VII    Travelers rest Inn and temple of the stars

Named locations

Temple of the fruitful coin 

a large and impressive two stories half timbered building which serves as both a temple to the coin lord and as the towns market hall. The Market hall is also the site of the towns bank and money changer important as local ordinances prohibit the use of non local trade coins in transactions within the town. The exchange rate is typically ten foreign coins for nine local, similar ordinances also prohibit the use of non Cosdolan copper, silver and gold coins but this ordinance is largely ignored as the bank cannot deal with large quantities of high value coins. The transaction limit being about a thousand silvers or one hundred and fifty gold.

The Lion Inn

a large   inn mostly used by merchants since it is expensive to any who are not adherents of the cult of the coin lord who get a discount. It is however quite the safest and most reputable inn in the town and as such is often used for business meetings.

The Great hospital 

another large and impressive building or rather complex of buildings which according to the cult of everlasting hope predates the founding of the town, thought none of the present structures do. The majority of the several buildings on the site are used to accommodate and treat the sick and the injured  with the temple itself being rather small and some what over whelmed by these other buildings. The hospital is notable in that it has on its staff some of the most powerful priests the cult in the area and it is capable of carrying out many fairly miraculous treatments as a result. These treatments are charge for according to the priests assessment of the sufferers ability to pay and whilst they are never withheld the cult does peruse those who would try to avoid fair payment.

Poor house 

The Poor house is the two central buildings

 a smaller complex of buildings across the way form the hospital is run as a joint venture by the church of life's fire and the temple of everlasting hope.. it features an orphanage a home for the aged and infirm as well as being a place where the charity of the two faiths is based and even the destitute can get a bat. It does provide some short term accommodation to the really destitute of working age but not for long as they are generally directed towards paid work as soon as possible. Indeed the poor house operates as something of a labour exchange for unskilled work of all kinds.

The Drovers lodge

a  sizable inn owned by the cult of the coin lord, hard by the beast market which specializes in cheep basic accommodation and is heavily used by the men who herd animals too and form the market. Most of the inns rooms are small and all are at least doubles along with a communal dormitory which can accommodate around twelve in very cosy circumstances to put it mildly The Inns common  room is small perhaps too small and the food is not all that good and most of the residents go next door to the Beast market Tavern

Beast Market Tavern 
also owned  by the cult of the coin lord and right by the beast market


The Merry Maid

West Gate Inn

Travelers lodge

an inn owned and run by the temple of the wayfarer to provide rooms for the dedicated traveler, any adherent of the faith may stay over here for a two weeks rest and recuperation entirely for free thought a donation form the more wealthy in encouraged its not mandatory any more than it is at the temple of the wayfarer at the Falax bridge. Other travelers are generally directed else where but if the inn is quiet as it is on occasion they will accept paying customers and at rates which are lower than those in most of the local inns. Something which annoys the Cult of the Coin lord which runs most of the considerably.

Temple of the stars
a small compound containing an open lot with several trees in it and a landscaped bank the current resident priests house and a small enclosed chapel

Town Districts  

 

The New Town  

Built originally outside the town walls  as a foul borough, where all the smelly or dirty industries of the town where restricted to, tanners dye works and the like, and accessible through a narrow gate  it was brought into the town proper when the counts grandfather decided to extend the wall to encompass it. It is still the site of these industries and has a separate sewer and drain system from the main town, in order to prevent the effluent form them contaminating the towns drinking water. The  area between the road and the new wall left as open for expansion during the enclosure contains the town slum, shambles, and most of the housing in the rest of the new town is of the poorer sort and many of the apparently larger houses originally built for the owners of the foul industries are now converted into clusters of smaller apartments or let long term by the room. Even so most of the inhabitants here have work and tend to look down on the inhabitants of the shambles.

The Shambles  

Typical Building elevation in the Shambles

A mess off huts shacks and lean-to’s inhabited by the towns poorest of the poor and accessible only form a maze of narrow alleys. It lies in the south west corner of the new town behind the slightly larger and more substantial dwellings which line the roads to the north and the east. Though even these almost universally converted to poky little apartments or let as individual rooms are not much better. The town watch does not enter the shambles so it offers safe haven to any petty thief or beggar who can make it there if perused given that both activities are .banned by town ordinances and will earn a flogging or worse if caught. From time to time there are rumors that there is a thieves or more usually a beggars guild operating out of the shambles but there organizations are generally considered to by apocryphal by the more cynical locals or don’t last all that long. Certainly not long enough to affect the rest of the town or become a problem the Count would have to deal with. 

The Old town 

Typical Old town building elevation

This is the majority of the town and certainly the part where the better or more wealthy live and practice their trades. Even so it is divided at least informally by the locals into several districts