Setting Information
| Travel back in time to a farm in Wessex, in September in the Year of Our Lord 934. | |
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The farm of Ædingstowe (“Meeting Place of the People of Ædward”) is a fairly prosperous affair. It is the gathering spot for folk moots and weapontakes for the local hundred. |
Drawing from the Regia website |
| Near to hand is London Way, one of the king's highways. To the southeast is the estate of Whitchurch (Hwitcyrcan), owned by the monks in Winchester. It features a church made from the chalk and flint of the nearby hills. To the southwest is Andover (Andeferas), a settlement of perhaps 100 souls. | |
Photograph © 1997, 2004 Chris Boyce |
Flowing away to the south is the Test (Terstan). Here and there the hills rise a few hundred feet above the rolling countryside of heath and meadow. Crops can fare poorly here in the thin, dry, chalky soil, but pasture is plentiful. Sheep are plentiful, and horses grow strong. Red deer and hares are both creatures of some sport; likewise the boar, though more dangerous. Wolves and foxes remain a nuisance. |
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Photograph © 1997, 2004 Chris Boyce |
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| A day or more’s ride to the south lies the great burh of Winchester (Witanceaster). With a population of nearly 4,000, it is the closest thing the kingdom has to a capital city. There are no less than six moneyers minting coins for the king here. Furthermore, the see ranks third in importance after Canterbury and York. A New Mynster has been completed, and contains the graves of Kings Edward the Elder and Alfred the Great which lie near the great alter. By the path between the New Mynster and the Old Mynster lies the grave of St. Swithin, who it is said made his disapproval quite clear when they tried to move his bones to an indoor shrine. Also here is the small shrine of St. Birinus. | |
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| Many fields have been stripped of their grain, and now the apple and pear trees are giving up their fruit. In a few weeks more, the workers will reap a bloodier harvest as animals are slaughtered in preparation of the cold winter. | |
Climate |
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| The weather is a little warmer than it will be 1000 years hence. | |
Important People |
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| Aðelstan Cyning has ruled since 924. He is a just ruler, a strong protector and conqueror, generous with wealth and praise, and a friend to the Church and to scholars. To be sure, there are some grumbles in Wessex, for he was raised in Mercia; others point to the untimely death of his brother who would have contended for the throne. If there is anything that concerns the populace in general, however, it is that he has taken no bride nor claimed an heir. | |
| The last biscop of Winchester, Byrnstan, died at the Feast on All Saints. The new biscop, Ælfheah, appears to favor the church reforms taking hold on the Continent. | |
| Ælfwold is the Ealdorman for central Wessex, and is senior among the Ealdorman of the realm. | |
The State of England |
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| While some Wessex nobles have never been happy that a man raised in Mercia is their king, none dare question his right to rule. He as rewarded loyalty well, and punished disloyalty from the meanest thegn to his very bloodkin. | |
