Loch Morin

A child city to Yogmar, Loch Morin is the fishing capital of Fynn. It shares its name with the Loch Morin lake to the east. The port town grew into a layered city of wooden piers because of a giant wall limiting the outward growth, forcing the citizens to build the city upward. The land part of the city is built on a frozen swamp. As a result, the ground was too unstable to allow for upward growth, leaving single houses scattered on the outside of the giant wharf complex of the rest of the city.

The mountains north of Loch Morin are volcanically active and has a high population of mountain giants. As a result, Loch Morin takes in some half-giants that seek asylum from their exclusive and sometimes savage brethren. Due to the volcanic activity, the land around Loch Morin like is fertile and is responsible for feeding much of the northern Lunar Reaches region.

History
Loch Morin was founded by a group of Yogmar settlers funded by nobles from Yogmar. Both thought it would make an excellent fishing village. The settlers quickly discovered the hostility of the region. Aside from aggressive wildlife and threats of ogre or giant attacks, storms often brewed in this region that would destroy the docks, sink ships and pull helpless sailors to sea.

Despite this, the settlement managed to entrench itself and claw a living out of the harsh climate. Fishermen were making quick fortunes by catching fish and crustaceans. Some of this money went back to the nobles in Yogmar.

Over some years, Loch Morin began to earn a reputation, and as a result, something like a gold rush occurred. Town prospered for a few years until a huge storm destroyed many homes and boats in the town. Instead of picking up and leaving, they turned to Yogmar for aid.The nobles of Yogmar responded by investing in a wall around the fishing village, to protect them against both animal and weather threats. Stone was mined from the nearby mountains around Loch Morin and transported to the settlement as the wall was built.

It took a grueling 8 years, but the wall was completed and did its job very well. This is often considered Loch Morin’s golden age. The city became very rich and attracted a lot of fishermen, merchants and even tourists. As the town grew, it found the wall impeding its growth outward. The town began to build out into the docks, becoming a whole part of the city that seems to be built on stilts. Eventually it built out the dock houses all the way to the ocean side of the wall. As a result, the town began to build upwards, appearing as though houses on stilts are being stacked on top of each other.

Due to shoddy craftsmanship, a column of houses would occasionally fall into the sea, killing people on the lowest part of the wharf. This establishes the first floor of the wharf as the slums. The town was able to rebuild sturdier structures, but the town began to decline. The high fishing Culture in the town gave rise to a deflation in fish prices. This lead to a depression period where unemployment began to rise within the city. Today, the golden age of Loch Morin seems like a distant dream. Some older fishermen rave about the golden age and long to return to those days.