Tri-Hauwcerton
Tri-Hauwcerton is the youngest of the city-states that dominate The Four Part Land, created from the ruins of Hymerodraeth Heula. Tucked away in the northwest corner of the land, it sits at the opening to the largest valley within the mountains, and controls both the land in front and behind that great mouth. The lands closest to the city are covered in farms, producing the food that supports the city and all of those who live around it, while further back in the hills and valleys are the mining settlements, full-sized towns that exist simply to dig precious resources from the earth.
These metals, stones, and gems are the primary reason for the existence of the city, as it was founded as the first of the mining settlements, and spent many years slowly growing as more and more people came to try their hands at digging within the rock and soil. Originally descended from people of Bhreac Veryan, the populace soon became more diverse as fortune-seekers and others who sought opportunity came and settled. There was a period of explosive growth shortly before the end of Hymerodraeth Heula, as those who wished to flee from the fighting took themselves off to the hidden corner of the land, where terrain and travel combined to make Tri-Hauwcerton the least accessible of any of the large cities. Soon after the Veryan armies came home in tatters from their defeat at the hands of Niam Liad, Tri-Hauwcerton felt that it was better to control themselves, for the tithes they had paid weighed heavily on the people of that land. So determined, they built the great curtain wall that shuts the valley from mountain range to mountain range, and hunkered down behind that shield, letting the storm of Bhreac Veryan's wrath spend itself in futile anger upon the great slabs.
After Bhreac Veryan gave up the city of Tri-Hauwcerton for lost, it entered into a storm of economic competition with the new state, using control of the trading road to demand massive tariffs on any good that passed through the lands of the desert kingdom. This control was soon broken, as pioneers from Tri-Hauwcerton drove down through the desert to the south, taking a more direct route through Falna to Niam Liad, bypassing entirely the lands of Bhreac Veryan. The loss of revenue caused Bhreac Veryan, already weakened from the long war, to back off entirely and once more allow the unfettered access of Tri-Hauwcerton through Bhreac Veryan and along the main coastal road. Strengthened by this result, Tri-Hauwcerton turned themselves inward, ensuring that they would always be self-sufficient and able to withstand the ravages of any war.
A few times since the curtain wall was built, Bhreac Veryan has attempted to regain what was once theirs, but the strength of the curtain wall and the fury of the Tri-Hauwcerton infantry drove back all assaults, and Bhreac Veryan has accepted that Tri-Hauwcerton is beyond their grasp, although all these years later, they still steam about the loss. In the meantime, Tri-Hauwcerton has grown to become the best at metalworking, and have spent much of their time perfecting techniques of layering metal and stone together to create a material harder than either, materials that they sell to no one, but keep for themselves, always regulating the outflow of their technological achievement.