Twist of Fate

Twist of Fate was a small desert town in Southeastern Plagos. It was a rural town facing the Sandman Lake.

Early History
An explorer named Noel Thistle was finding a home to settle when he discovered an unknown land. It was a savannah with a desert not far from the site. After a day of walking, he stumbled upon a village populated by mysterious men. The village is made out of sandstone with giant metal men patrolling the vicinity. The brown-skinned men did not seem to be alarmed by the presence of Noel and so are the metal soldiers. Night after night, monsters would attack the village slowly but surely killing off the brown-skinned men which he called Testificates.

Over time, as the population declined, new metal soldiers were not being able to be built, which just encouraged the monsters to attack with greater ferocity. Noel tried his best defending against the monsters by moving the villagers into select houses and walling off the rest. For a time, this strategy worked, but the lack of new metal soldiers to aid him meant that it is a losing battle. Until only one testificate remained. This testificate was permanently sealed off in one of the houses to be kept safe until a suitable partner be found for him in order to repopulate the village.

Noel founded a town called Last Train To London, in homage for the last remaining testificate sealed in one of the houses named London.

Hostile Neighbors
Some time after the founding of Last Train to London, a mysterious party attacked the town. Noel was not able to defend his town and many crops and animals have been destroyed. It was later discovered that this mysterious party came from the fearsome town of Coeur d'Alene, renowned for their extremely dangerous raiders. This prompted Noel to seek protection from a powerful nation. He sought to ally himself with the Yimmu-Audal, a wealthy nation in Alteniquia. Their then Emperor, Blue_Marble agreed and the town was incorporated into the nation. It is unknown whether this move is enough to keep the raiders from attacking the town but they did not raided since.

Downfall and Rebirth
A few years later, the town's treasury mysteriously disappeared. It is estimated that Noel had saved up to eight thousand coins during this incident and it is unknown how much of the raiders influenced this disappearance but Noel had to gather resources fast or the town will crumble due to its maintenance. Years later, the treasury disappeared again, this time, twelve thousand coins mysteriously disappeared from the treasury which forced Noel to disband the town.

After saving enough coins, he founded the town of Sledgehammer on the remains of the old town. This time, he made sure to have to have an emergency cache of gold not to be minted into coins. This gold is safely locked away in a secret location within the town. Noel would only mint enough coins to maintain the town for a few days before minting again. He also began extensively exploring to increase his secret cache in cases of emergency.

Twist of Fate
The transition from Last Train to London to Sledgehammer was not fully discussed with the Emperor of Yimmu-Audal so it was unclear whether the town is still part of it until the town was officially labeled as a Yimmu-Audal Farlands Protectorate on by Y-A leadership. Nominally, the town had not participated in its affairs with Escharia, but offered passage through its lands but it is unlikely that the town would be admitted back. The distance from Urnu-Arrak and its relative seclusion made the Nether Highway the only viable option for travel.

Noel also cooperated with the Mosulia Bank which guaranteed some of Noel's money and by extension, the town's money. This, paired with the construction of the High Garden prompted Noel to change the name of the town from Sledgehammer to Twist of Fate.

Twist of Fate eventually became abandoned later September or Early November, and the administration directly fell under Dalatra Mosulia, and even integrated fully into the Ardat Mosul Caliphate, and eventually Yimmu-Audal. Though, this was a rather strange transfer of power, as Dalatra does not know of this acquisition, and the town remains abandoned to this day, but remains under her rule directly.

Geography
Twist of Fate is located in the foot of Sandman hill which posed problems especially on windy days. Sandstorms would cover the town and everything in it posing serious health risks for the local fauna. The town is also situated in Sandman Lake, a small Lake in southeastern Plagos which has limited outlets into the sea. Plans have been made to excavate and improve the rivers north of the city in order to allow boats to easily access the town.

A nearby savannah provided the town with food and construction materials and Noel have imported foreign animals and trees from his explorations around the continent. The Northern Dry hills gave the town a barrier from northern hostile elements, while its location within the Sandman lake forced southern hostile elements to walk through the desert.

Demographics
Currently, there are only one resident in the town -- Noel Thistle. Thistle tried to invite foreign testificates to populate the town, but it was a challenge to transport them. It was all in vain, however, when London and his then partner, was found dead inside their home. It was unclear as to the nature of the death of the couple, but the tragedy left Thistle as the sole resident of the town. Others have tried to settle, but Thistle's distrust of strangers kept them from pursuing further.

Religion
The town has official religion, but Thistle's faith involve around the worship of cats. Cats have been known to repel demon-birds which plagued the town every night, sometimes severely wounding Thistle. This prompted him to build a dedicated temple for the feline creatures on top of Sandman hill called the High Garden.

Townscape
The town's only notable feature was the High Garden built by Thistle. It was built as a dedicated place for the cats that Thistle worship, but under the garden, lies some bizarre levels. One of the underground levels contain five pens of five different animals, bred and killed specifically for that purpose, and the floor underneath is a potato and a beet farm.

Thistle reclaimed the shore and built a small lighthouse to guide sailors in the Sandman Lake, but realistically, the lighthouse is largely pointless, leading to some former testificates to accuse Thistle of embezzlement and corruption. The shore was reclaimed but further renovation and expansion of the city was halted after Thistle mysteriously disappeared after contracting a disease.

Economy
Situated on a desert, the town's only viable resource are minerals found in the nearby ravine. Thistle led an expedition into the ravine and found an abandoned mineshaft of unknown origins. The testificates claimed that the mineshaft was there even before they settled in the area. Thistle explored the ravine collecting gold which he sold to sustain the town.

Soon, Thistle looked into agriculture, stating a small wheat farm and chicken coop. He was able to bake cakes and pies which he also sold, but these foodstuffs are a more lucrative market so Thistle was forced to mining again. He explored the surrounding areas finding more abandoned mineshafts which he had already explored. But he did not sell all of the gold, he stored them in a secure location as insurance for sudden economic difficulties.

Thistle created a personal account in the Mosulia Bank. He deposited some of his wealth on this account and planned to use the account as another way to sustain the town.

Government
Thistle is the self proclaimed mayor of the town. Even before the death of the testificates, he had been directing them to move to secure houses and he attempted to wall off sections of the town but to no avail. Afterwards, his government, consisting only of himself, strived hard to renovate the city, but his disappearance nipped this plan.