Falkeame

Falkeame is a designated Watch compound located within the Kingdom of Creed. The personal domain of Reyjad Solgal (JayRed1) was under the jurisdiction of Bel Amir, former leader of the Watch. Falkeame is the primary headquarters for the Watch, an organization dedicated to evicting squatters, demolishing ruins, and improving infrastructure across the lands it operates in. Located in north-west Nieden, it lies on the bank of a valley between the former Escharian duchies of Escania and Varmerion. The facility itself consists of a main castle complex outfitted with defensive capabilities, as well as a storage and meeting room. Within the grounds lie stables, blacksmiths, and barracks, with plans to upgrade with a forge and dedicated armoury. Apart from being a hub for Watch activity, Falkeame is used as a direct launching and defensive point for the Watch during squatter wars.

History
Before being repurposed as a Watch facility, Falkeame's previous history was a near mystery. Formerly known as Falkenhayn and Ekona respectively, the area lay partially in ruin with an exposed series of underground passageways and corridors. Not much is known about Falkeame's time as Falkenhayn, but a few details about the history of Ekona are available. The castle itself remained mostly intact, but the grounds and surrounding walls required serious work. For an unknown period of time, Falkenhayn remained unclaimed and exposed to the wilderness. However, with the founding of the Watch, a dedicated facility was needed. The leader of the Watch, Bel Amir, tasked a Watch member, Reyjad Solgal, with reclaiming Falkenhayn and retrofitting it for the Watch's use. Alongside this, Solgal was granted the title of Watch General and personal ownership of the claim. From there, the reconstruction of Falkenhayn began.

Before Reyjad began to reclaim the area, a name change was agreed upon. Both Bel Amir and Reyjad came to the consensus that Falkenhayn should be renamed to Falkeame, partly because of linguistic issues. Utilising Watch resources, Reyjad almost single-handedly rebuilt much of Falkeame. After the stables and blacksmith were patched up, the barracks building was built. From there, the interior of the castle was redesigned. A new meeting hall for the Watch was installed, the storage room was refitted, and a ground-level balcony was made more accessible. Reyjad was also designated a personal quarter within the castle, and then work began on landscaping the courtyard areas. The lower courtyard had a firing range and a rally area added during gentrification. The upper courtyard had a large fountain and an outdoor area installed, but the fountain would later cause leakages into the ground level of the castle. The environment throughout the grounds was also juiced up with plants.

Falkeame Membership
As a part of the Watch, Falkeame requires special permission to be accessed. The main requirement is that only Watch members can enter, with little exceptions. To be trusted in the claim, one of two things must occur. Either a squatter war is being prepared/declared, in which participating Watch members are granted access to the claim; or specific Watch members are performing roles such as resource restocking. Membership is limited to Reyjad and Falkeame's first immigrant and former owner, BaconBowl2035.

During a squatter campaign, Watch members are allowed access to all areas of the main castle except for the storage room and personal quarters. They are primarily stationed in the barracks and courtyard areas for rallies. Within the barracks is accommodation for up to a dozen soldiers, with a storage, sleeping and PVP area. Watch members can be granted access to Falkeame's stables to use the horses during war.

There is also a clause that allows military personnel to be stationed in Falkeame. For example, the Varmerion regiment of the Escharian Army was based in Falkeame before its disbandment.

Griefing of Falkeame
During early redevelopment, Falkeame faced a series of griefing attacks which ranged in severity. Because funding for Falkeame was still being organised, the claim boundaries hadn't fully expanded to beyond the walls, which enabled griefers to attack. Early assaults were mostly trespassing and attacks over the walls, but this was quickly remedied by terraforming the area outside the walls, making unauthorised access more difficult. Another, more targeted attack, was against the main entrance to Falkeame. Once more, funding was to blame for claims not covering the entrance fully, which enabled the damage. This caused a series of repeated offences against the main staircase and entrance, in which they'd need to be replaced each time. The legacy of the griefs can still be seen today, as the front entrance of Falkeame was partly remodelled to conceal the damage. After a set of signs warning against griefs was destroyed during another attack, the Watch took a stance and managed to locate the name of the griefer. With the exposure of the griefer, further attacks against Falkeame were halted.

Road Griefs
Similarly to the griefing of Falkeame, the main road leading to it faced many of the same issues. A series of attacks against the road disrupted infrastructure and forced the Watch to subsidise resources from Falkeame to fix it. After a short investigation, it was discovered that a griefer had been repeatedly using an abandoned house built into the underside of the hill on which the road ran on top of as an entrance to the redstone under it, which had steadily been stolen. After repairing the road, the house was demolished and disguised to hide its entrance. The Watch now uses this area as a maintenance entrance.

Brothar Incident
On August 5th 2022, a sudden development involving squatters occurred just outside of Falkeame. Rather suddenly, a huge new squatter town named Brothar had been created just outside of Falkeame. Owned by Bertilowitz, a squatter who was already on the Watch radar, plans were immediately formulated to launch an attack from Falkeame to destroy the settlement. This came rather contrary to Watch protocol, as usually a period of negotiation would occur beforehand. However, since Bertilowitz had been a burden to the Watch before, and with rampant Watch member support, the decision to open a war campaign began.

As resources and equipment began being directed towards Falkeame for the upcoming war, the Watch attempted to establish communication with Brothar and Bertilowitz. It was discovered that Brothar had no interest in joining Escharia at the time, instead favouring independence with the adoption of its own flag, which flew from atop a tower and banners from walls. This defiance only invigorated Watch members to begin the campaign. But just as Watch members were gearing themselves up and organising battlegroups, a diplomatic breakthrough was made with Bertilowitz. With the threat of war quite literally at his doorstep, Bertilowitz agreed to disband the claim and was offered citizenship in Escharia. Watch members who aided in the destruction of Brothar were paid a portion of the claim's resources. Meanwhile, a portion of its resources were stored in Falkeame. Due to its size, Brothar remained mostly intact until the formation of the Kingdom of Creed. In total, the incident lasted around two weeks.