The Freehold of Gilded Thorns
From Changeling Venue
Contents |
The Courts of the Tees Valley
Winter - The Onyx Court
The Onyx Court hides under layers of deception like a seed under snow-covered ground, hardening themselves on a diet of midwinter sorrow.
- The Sage - Lord of Winter
- Charlotte Anansi
- Fredderick Quicksilver
- Carcer Smith
Spring - The Emerald Court
The Emerald Court rejects the pain and sorrow of their time in Arcadia, drawing power from desire and joie de vivre.
- Marker The King of Spring
Summer - The Crimson Court
The Crimson Court draws power from the anger they bear toward their captors, gathering strength to fight against anyone who would enslave them again.
Autumn - The Ashen Court
The Ashen Court finds its strength in fae magic, drawing the Glamour they need for their sorcery from the fears of mortals.
- Emma Cornelian
Courtless - The Colourless Court
Those who choose to go their own path are sometimes said to belong to the Colorless Court, outsiders in a dangerous world.
Rumour Mill
Please feel free to add you own.
- The Tees Valley is cursed Changelings dissapear there and are never seen again.
News
April 08
Family Perish in Restaurant Blaze!
A young couple and their seven year old daughter died last night when the Golden Panda restaurant went up in flames.
The fire started in the kitchens in the early hours and spread to the rest of the building in a matter of minutes, the family had only moved into the two bedroom flat above the property the day before and no one was aware of their presence until after the fire had been extinguished.
Fire investigators are still sifting through the wreckage but a preliminary report states that the fire is being considered suspicious.
Police seek missing girl
Amy Richardson didn’t make it home from school this Friday, the fifteen year old girl was apparently going to hang out with friends in Thornaby but never arrived.
Police and her family are very concerned and ask anyone who may have seen her to come forward.
She is described as 5’9 with long dark hair and green eyes and was last seen wearing her school uniform and carrying a bright yellow Reebok backpack.
More finds at Anglo-Saxon cemetery excavation
Last year a freelance archaeologist uncovered what is thought to be the only known Anglo-Saxon royal burial site in the north of England in a field near Redcar. Spectacular gold jewellery, weapons and clothing were found at the 109-grave cemetery, believed to date from the middle of the 7th century.
Now a second excavation east of the previous dig has revealed another possibly earlier burial.
‘We are very excited’ Revealed Professor Jeremy Adams the spokeman of the archeological crew undertaking the excavation. ‘Our initial finds in the area suggest that this part of the burial site is significantly older perhaps even dating back to the 4th century.
Along with several cremation sites with grave goods indicating a far earlier period to the previous site we have uncovered what we believe to be a stone grave cover which would be unique in the UK.’
March 08
Builders Yard Plundered
All work has stopped at Yates and sons the local builders of Stockton arrived at work Monday morning to find most of their tools and equipment missing.
‘The lock had been drilled on the gates and when we opened up the whole place had been ransacked.’ Richard Yates told our reporter ‘We called the police immediately but something like this is probably to order, the stuff is likely the other side of the country by now.’
The police declined to comment stating that the investigation was still in progress.
Man on Fire a Hoax?
Local police and fire brigade officials are baffled after several reports of a man running down the Coast Road in Redcar late Saturday night apparently on fire.
‘I was out walking my dog when he ran past me his hair was just a mass of flames but he was laughing’ Peter Hughes of Cedar Grove told our reporter.
The Emergency services received several reports from alarmed passers by along the Coast road reporting a man on fire running down the road waving his arms and laughing loudly.
‘We believe this may have been some sort of prank’ Police spokesman Charles Johnson announced in a press release this morning. ‘Obviously such stunts are extremely dangerous and we will be investigating this thoroughly.’
To review the past news visit the Teeside News Archive
Prominent Locations
The Gatehouse Inn
This rather rundown public house in Redcar is the last remaining functional gateway into the Fort it was once owned by the freehold but now its run by a brewery.
The Fort
Supposedly created by Old Thom himself this large hollow has been inhabited by generations of changelings over the years.
Originally named the Fortress of the Gilded Thorns over the years the name has been shortened to just 'The Fort' and most changelings are unaware of its original name or the long history of the place.
In its heyday the fort was a glittering construction of white stone set in a large clearing in the hedge. partially underground the fortress is built in napoleonic style with a high rampart wall with steep cuttings in tha hillside and cannon ports covering all approaches to the structure.
These days the fort is a tumbledown ruin, most of the gates are destroyed and the defenses are all but gone. the quarters that once housed dozens of changelings are empty and silent and the hedge threatens to swallow it forever.
The Hedge
The hedge in the tees valley is a scarred and dangeous place to visit, burns are still visible in some areas and the aroma of smoke is never far away. There are many legends of strange places lost among the thorns, places where the hedge sprouts thorns longer than a mans arm and strange hedgebeasts lurk in the shadows.
The Present
Teeside has been through some troubled times in the recent past, the former Lord of Summer turned bridge burner and took half his court with him into madness. in the years that followed many changelings either fled or lost their lives in the bitter fighting but now for the first time in many years the area appears to be at peace.
The few members of the freehold remaining have begun to pick up the pieces and the hedge is slowly healing the damage, now is a time of healing and renewal in the tees valley as new changelings begin to make their way out from among the thorns and move into the area seeking new oppertunities from afar.
History
The Tees Valley has been occupied since the dawn of history, from the archeological finds of ancient man to the celtic, saxon and viking place names scattered throughout the area the signs of its early history are easy to find. The town that would come to be known as Hartlepool sprang up around a monestary around 640AD with billingham being settled by saxons in 650. The Vikings raiding and settling of the tees valley formed many of the communities that exist today although the fighting was often brutal. Thornaby is said to have come into existence about 800AD when the land was given by Halfdene, King of the Danes, to Thormod, one of his noblemen.
In 1069 Sweyn the king of denmark pillaged York killing its entire garrison of 3000 men and in retribution every house and dwelling in the viking held territory was destroyed. Thornaby was even mentioned in the doomsday book as the Thurnaby waaste and it remained relatively undeveloped until the early 1800s. Before the arrival of the legendary ‘Old Thom’ around 1558 there is no record of changelings in the area although they almost certainly existed.
Old Thom’s Court
According to the story old thom came from the thorns dressed in hedgespun robes of gold and carrying a sword of bronze that sang when it cut. Thom founded the first freehold in the area and ruled as the lord of the spring in the town of stockton each summer for almost ninety years of peace and prosperity without appearing to age a day until his eighty ninth year when he was found dead with his own sword thrust through his chest. Some say old Thoms death cursed the court for before the year was out every remaining changeling vanished without a trace.
The industrial revolution transformed Teeside with coal mining, logging, and salt becoming demand industries. In 1828 a group of Quaker businessmen, headed by Joseph Pease the Darlington industrialist bought the tiny hamlet of Middlesborough seeing the possibilities of a port for the export of North East coal. Four initial streets, leading into the Market Square, were duly laid out and the growing community was facilitated by an 1830 extension of the new Stockton and Darlington railway and the deep berths in the river made it an ideal port for exporting the local timber and coal.
The Purge
By 1820s changelings had returned to the area in some numbers and a well established freehold was beginning to thrive. In 1828 all contact with the changelings of the tees valley was lost and none of them were ever seen again.
The same purge occurred again years later in 1918 when a young changeling returned from visiting the south found the freehold a burned wreck with no sign of the former inhabitants.
Things had begun to slow down when ironstone was discovered in the Eston Hills in 1850 by Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan of Worcester. Together they started a small iron-foundry and rolling mill at Middlesbrough and by 1856 pig iron had become a major industry. Bolckow became mayor in 1853 and Middlesbrough's first Member of Parliament.
The Tees valley bloomed into a industrial centre of vast potential; great steelworks, chemical plants, shipbuilding and offshore fabrication yards that followed the original Middlesbrough ironworks as heavy industry became the regions main employer. With the declaration of the First World War, a high demand for explosives led to a massive expansion of Billingham. In 1917, Billingham was chosen to be the site of a new chemical works supplying Ammonia for the war. However, the plant was not completed until after the war had ended. The Brunner Mond Company took over the site, and converted it to manufacture fertilisers. In December 1926, Brunner Mond merged with three other chemical companies to form ICI, who took control of the plant. ICI began to be produce Plastics and the site soon expanded attracting pharmaceutical and chemical works even a small nuclear power plant.
The Burning Brigade
In 1990 Ember Jack emerged from the hedge bleeding and scarred, the Elemental changeling became a regular at court and in time became the lord of Summer. Jack never spoke much of his time in arcadia but whatever happened there had him obsessed with preventing any possible recapture. At first he just focused on training and running endless attack drills but soon he began attack the hedge itself destroying trods and burning hollows.
In 2003 Jack refused to hand over power to the autumn court and by the time winter rolled around he showed no sign of releasing his grip.
The rebellion when it came started in his own court and spread like wildfire. Fighting was short but brutal and Ember Jack was forced to flee with his few remaining followers.
In the aftermath the courts attempted to recover, Jack and his band had decimated the changeling community and the damage to the hedge from their purges made the slow trickle of escaping changelings dry up almost entirely. Five years have passed and the damage to the hedge has slowly healed. changelings have begun to emerge once again and there are even rumours that a goblin market has returned to its place among the thorns. It’s a time of renewal in middlesbrough, a time for new changelings to make their mark.
Changeling Venue Information
To contact the Middlesbrough Lost VST, please email Middlesbrough Lost VST Ian Philo
To contact the Middlesbrough Lost VC, please email Middlesbrough Lost VC Debbie Shaw
The Changeling Forum for this domain is can be found Here
