Arpel

The upper Usira valley was always the centre of population for the Pel in Miredor from the times of their earliest settlements. In -617 their assembly voted to move their capital from Trenth in the upper reaches of the valley to a new site where the river widened into a small lake which they named Arpel. There was a small Elven harbour (Lond Hithir) on the site which the Pel had long been using and which they incorporated into their city design.

Work on the Old Crescent ('Cala Sura') area took three years. In this period the Pel reconstructed the old harbour and its protective wall and built the Citadel ('Nagomo'). About a century later city authorities moved the northeastern wall, expanded the Citadel and constructed the Borough of the Gate ('Wila-ya-Malango'). The River Port ('Matu Bandari') grew up outside the city, between the southern walls and the Usira and was enclosed in -440. When the great stone bridge at the eastern end of Arpel was completed in -399, the Pel erected a stone rampart around the fields between the river crossing and the city's northern walls. This area became known as New Limits ('Pia Mapacavi').

A town and two imposing citadels lie south and east of Arpel, across the quarter a mile wide Usira. Called Young-axe ('Shocacanga'), the town is named after the twelve-sided bastion that commands the hill less than a mile away. This low limestone fortress dates from the time of the Great Darkness. It was constructed by the half-Pel warlord Ecli Swin around the sacred Bottomless Well. A mineral-rich pool, the well feeds an inaccessible stream that feeds into the Usira. Castle Young-Axe now serves as the ceremonial centre of the Society of Derei.

Derei himself lives a little over a mile to the west. His stronghold Umem Cicwa, which translates as Lightning Head, stands on the cliffs where the Usira broadens into a lake. Two beacon towers, illuminate the waters below and act as a guide to navigation in the notoriously foggy valley. A third light sits near the entrance to the harbour called 'Ena Bandaro' or Fog-port. Its quays and breakwaters are somewhat rude versions of the earlier Elven constructions. Instead the Pel concentrated their labours on the great Ship-womb ('Melivi Tumbo'). Nearly 2000' across the Ship-womb can house up to 60 vessels and was constructed at a time when river piracy was a very real threat to trade. It is a crescent-shaped granite ship shed the adjoining the 160' spire named 'Ena Manaca' or Fog-hold.

Over 40,000 people call Arpel home and it is the largest city in the Dominions. The Pel assembly, the Chamber of Boughs ('Cumba-ya-Tawima') meets here in four sessions of sixteen days each year. They gather to pass laws and pass judgments, resolutions which are inevitably influenced by Derei but are also subject to the approval of Arthrazoc. The clan delegates meet in the round assembly hall known as 'Mawena Cumba' or Speakers' Chamber. The great flag (and war banner) of the Pel flies over the Chamber when it is in session. It is dominated by the eight-petal Flower of Unity which symbolises the now sundered federation of the four Pel clans (blue petals) and the four Drel clans (yellow petals).