With two kinds of Trollkin this will probably be helpful, then.


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At the end of the world, on the southern shore of the ice wastes, lies the great city of Trollhaven. It is the home and only city of the Trollkin, who have never in their long history been inclined to venture far for long nor seize more lands.

At the heart of the metropolis is the High Fane, carved from ice and snow. A vast complex specially designed for acoustics where the great woolly Trolls dwell. Tall as two humans, with thick coats and large tusks, the Trolls live in contemplation of The Resounding Cry; the last syllable of the song their deity, Mother, sang to bring the world into being. Visitors to Trollhaven can hear the echoing trollsong from the Fane at all hours, said to be strangely comforting. The Trolls lead the Trollkin - spiritual guides, temporal adminstrators, a council of elders to discern the future of their people.

The rest of the city is a hive of activity, where the Orc children of the Trolls live their lives in upkeep of the city. Sturdy and lightly furred, Orcs are infamous to outsiders as lacking imagination, blunt and open - but such outsiders have never seen them in their element. Orcs mostly adore engineering and the city is a testament to their cooperation, pragmatism, and regimented thought. Everything is functional almost to a fault, straight and angular, efficiently built with a particular aesthetic bent provided by their commitment to amplifying the Song through the stucture of the city itself. While Trolls give the big-picture orders and deal with external powers, the Orcs accept delegation for running infrastructure, construction, maintenance. They are also the frontline soldiers of Trollhaven when they are forced to violence, an unbreakable line of riflemen and pikes. Were it not for their lower numbers they would be the most formidable military force this side of Great House Lezek. As it is, the Orcs ensure Trollhaven is a valuable and prickly trade partner, mining worldseeds and ores from the land beyond the city, devising new mechanisms and chemicals.

The Goblins are the last of the Trollkin but by no means least. As small as Ratfolk, each Goblin is a single mind in six bodies. This makes them excellent sailors and airship crew, and while they support Orcs as part of the labour force at home and adding an extra creative spark to their works, for centuries Goblins were the only Trollkin to rove beyond their home. It is said no explorers have seen as much of the world as Goblins.

Trollhaven does not use money. The people work always for the good of the whole, under the guidance of the Trolls. Orc quartermasters staunchly manage the food and materials of their districts to ensure there is enough for everyone. This does make Trollkin culture quite rigid - noncomformity is punished harshly by exile, and many Trollkin can barely survive cut off from their community. Those who do are eccentrics found around the Known World in odd professions. Their most strict tenets are twofold; neither Orcs nor Goblins may sing, for that is a sacred act only for Trolls, and to manifest the power of a Magus is to demonstrate disconnection from Mother. Both are punished by exile.

A single ward of Trollhaven called Quarantine is given over to visitors to the city. Foreigners are not permitted to enter the rest of the city and barely tolerated where they are, but the Trolls decided this was necessary for diplomacy. Thus Quarantine is filled with embassies, mercantile company offices, and a small tourist industry run by those who felt out of place everywhere else.

Trollhaven sells metalwork, firearms, gunpowder, worldseeds, and fossils to the outside world. They import primary materials, especially wood, and meat. Trolls are obligate carnivores and not so ascetic they are averse to sampling morsels from distant lands. The city doesn’t require trade too desperately but following a series of resource wars instigated by outsiders (and one holy war instigated by the Trolls), it was decided commerce was the best way to keep the peace.

Trollkin loyalists who leave home are often scholars and archeaologists, such as Trolls looking for traces of Mother or Orcs seeking to learn from foreign architecture. Trollkin exiles are often eccentrics or Magi; Trolls who cannot hear the Cry over the magic roiling in their soul, Orcs who shamed themselves serving as mercenaries, one-Goblin acappella bands on the run.
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