Mittendale was a small pilgrim village in the Tharmounts.

History

The humans and other settled races of Rogg-Vaasa occasionally sent pilgrims up the long path through Mittendale Pass into the Tharmounts to visit the wise and knowledgeable frost giants of Kalder Ein, seeking training, magic items, or knowledge. Eventually, they decided to built a settlement near the giants - though not too near, giving them proper deference - as a waystop for pilgrims, for the devout to live in the peaceful Tharmounts, and for those merely seeking the peace or harsh wilderness of the high mountains.

Mittendale fulfilled these roles through its existence. In 1'346, it played a role in the rise of the White Flame: orcs from the Black-Bone tribe occupied the village and used it as headquarters in their campaign against Kalder Ein and the white dragon Zaragora. Many settlers were executed or imprisoned. After the occupation, the settlers slowly rebuilt their village.

The village survived through the rise and fall of human civilizations and orcish empires in the plains.

In 100 OW, during the fighting between dark elven drow and the Ochebanian conquerors, Mittendale was sacked and destroyed by a drow unit.

Layout

Mittendale was located within a short day's march from Kalder Ein, and at a similar distance from the Mittendale Pass entrance into the Tharmouts. It was in the Kaldervale, which started at Mittendale Pass and, without significant intersections, ended in the central Tharmount Dauder Tomb.

During the founding of the city, a group of frost giants helped the settlers make their small hill at the bottom of a cliff into a village. They notably used their great crafts, strength and magic to dig a hall with several annex rooms out of the stone, and build a magnificent temple-like facade on the outside. The humans never dared use it as a temple, however (building a small igloo to auril near the cliff), instead using the place as a meeting place on bad days, as a storage place, or to recollect.

They also built a straight cobblestone road heading across the top of the hill, from the town hall to the perimeter. It was lined with stone pillars representing the history of the Kalder Ein giants and the pilgrims. Around this, the humans built huts, usually out of stone and the rare wood around. The village evolved in concentric circles out from a hemispherical cobblestone plaza in front of the temple all the way to the perimeter.

Some centuries later, a palisade was added to protect the village from bad weather and monsters. With time, it was increasingly expanded, ending in a stone fundament with wooden battlements above able to resist small-scale sieges. During the orcish occupation, it was put to use resisting an attack by some frost giants.