Urcean frontier: Difference between revisions

Much of the Urcean "south" - the provinces between [[The Valley (Urcea)|the Valley]], a largely fertile and habitable area, and [[Gassavelia]], which is primarily jungle and tropical - was considered mostly uninhabitable or otherwise undesirable for most of Urcea's history. Foreign to the way of life of [[Levantia]]'s indigineous [[Gaelic people]] and difficult for incoming [[Latinic people|Latins]] during the [[Latin Heroic Age]] left a great majority of this land very sparsely populated, with small oasis and coastal cities and towns making up the majority of human settlement. During the [[Saint's War]], the House of Cónn [[History_of_Urcea_(1214-1402)#Great_Interregnum|constructed the castle of Ardricampus]] in the region atop an oasis, with the castle's isolated position and access to supplies making it extremely difficult to besiege due to supply problems that besieging armies would face. The castle, with its well developed oasis, would grow to become a city around which the modern province of [[Ardricampus]] is based. Ardricampus was one of the few major population centers in the region prior to the 19th century.

====Travel====

Prior to the advent of the railroad and industrial irrigation techniques, travel through the frontier was dangerous and relatively rare. The primary route was the ''Via Antonia'', a road constructed by the [[Great Levantia|Great Levantines]] and probably based on an earlier [[Gaelic people|Gaelic]] path. The ''Via Antonia'' began in the [[Sea of Canete]] port city of Meliferia in the southeastern portion of the modern province of [[The Cape (Urcean province)|the Cape]], and from there moved southeast into modern [[Southmarch]] and [[Callan]], gradually bending away from the Sea to more than 75 miles inland. At the northern border of modern [[Callan]] was the town of Colina, which by the medieval period was functionally the last major settlement along the ''Via'' until one reached the northeastern periphery of [[Greater Canaery]]. The hundreds of miles of road between Colina and Mauriele, the end point of the ''Via Antonia'' about 100 miles east of [[Cana]], were dry and ran through desert and rocky valleys and crags with no source of potable water. For centuries, there were rumors of an ancient Great Levantine well about midway through the journey. This rumor became known as the "Antonine Trap", as many desperate travelers on their last resort would often backtrack to try and find the legendary well; it was not uncommon to find corpses along the road digging in the sand. Historians are divided on the issue of the well behind the legend; it is moderately well attested to in the historical record, but ancient sources disagree on its location. The existence of such a well also poses several practical problems, including why a settlement never grew up around it, how such an often-used well would fall out of use and disappear, and the physical lack of evidence of an aquifer along the road. During the 12th century, following Urcea's [[History_of_Urcea_(1098-1214)#Southern_orientation|conquest of Callan]], a small port town called Sangran was built along the coast of Callan, and at some point between then and ca 1300 a spur of the ''Via Antonia'' connected Sangran to the rest of the road. After that point, many who could not afford the full voyage would book a cheaper passage from [[Cana]] to Sangran and complete the rest of the ''Via Antonia'' northward on foot.