Twoggle
The port and city of Twoggle, located in the Modani governorate of Lywind is the administrative seat of the Bailiwick of West Lyhiggle. Situated on the eastern edge of the Lyhiggle Plain, at the end of a long tidal inlet and river estuary facing onto the Gulf of Khaz, Twoggle is chiefly notable for its excellent crab fisheries which have been created over the centuries by carving rock basins into the granite shore. The rock basins are typically a toorriq in length, two riqs in width and another toorrig in depth. Built at just before the high-tide mark, these basins serve as tidal pools where sea-water enters by means of a narrow carved inlet and is retained by crude sluice gates constructed at the mouth. The delicious flavour of Twoggle crabs reputedly. comes from the ancient custom of disposing of the corpses of executed criminals, suicides, witches, and heretics into the crabbing basins, a custom which has been supplemented by deceased community servants and Froyalaners in modern times.
The mode of architecture in Twoggle centres around building upon raised platforms of rammed earth above a central storage chamber and refuge. Buildings tend to be circular, formed of mud brick walls one riq thick lined with wattle and daub as protection against the elements, although a finish of lime cement mixed with pigs blood is increasingly used. More prosperous properties, typically those of citizens, as well as those denizens with profitable connections to the crab fisheries, tend to focus upon a central stone blockhouse, also circular, built around a tower with an internal diameter of two toorriqs within a wall one toorriq thick, which still stands to a height of over four riqs. The interior of these blockhouse towers will contain a water tank, a larder and pantry as well as a kitchen capacious enough for bread ovens and a roasting split. Dining rooms and domestic quarters are usually located on the upper stories of these buildings. All residential properties in the traditional style are built around the presumption of ownership by family and kinship groups. Typically the immediate nuclear family of the patriarch of the residence will occupy the central tower or the upper storey of a building. Cousins, nephews, dependants, and other such are typically accounted as little better than loyal subjects, and live on the lower floors or in outhouses and lean-tos along with the servants and the livestock. Roofs are typically slanting, and are covered by corrugated iron or lead sheet tiling. On account of the ferocious winds rising off the Gulf of Khaz and blowing in across the steppe all residences, along with the various districts, and the city itself, are either partially or fully enclosed by tall mud brick and adobe walls which serve as windbreaks. A multiplicity of walls entails multiple gates and this is especially true in this city whose name of "Twoggle" is said to derive from the word for "city of many gates" in the long vanished Lywind language[1].
The Imperial presence in the city is minimal, with occasional visits from coastal patrol boats and tax collectors being the most commonest reminder to the city's inhabitants that they remain the Kaiser's loving subjects. There is a post office whose postmaster is responsible maintaining and monitoring the port's connection to the Benacian Data Network.
The Prince of Modan is represented in the city by a regiment of cudgellers, notionally 1,200 in number, belonging to the Public Order Force. Their barracks is a modern edifice built in the Imperial Revival style and modelled, as all such buildings are, after Raynor's Keep. The barracks is also shared with a detachment of engineers and surveyors from the State Guard of Modan.
Local government is carried on by a municipal corporation, comprised of the Aldermen of West Lyhiggle and representatives of the various guilds active in the city. Each year the "worshipful corporation" elects two syndics[2] and a bailiff[3] with the succinct remit to ensure that the city's roads, sewers, and walls, are kept in good repair, the law is maintained, and that the rites of the Cedrist religion are observed.
In the 1664 election for the Modan State Assembly the city duly "enthroned" Hennessy Thrumper, a candidate from the Coalition 1660 bloc, as Assemblyman.
Roads from Twoggle lead eastwards to Oggle and Lyhigh and westwards, across the Lyhiggle Plains, towards the city of Tok-Tok. Galarmjabat and Tak-Tak are also reachable via the Tok-Tok road. A railway station consisting of four platforms, two aligned north-south and two east-west, was built during the 1650s and the renovation of the regional railway networks. Nee, Lyhigh, Drakorda, Eriksburg, Modan Hamlet, and Musica are all accessible from Twoggle via the reconstructed Southern Brookshire Railways. The punctuality of services can be considered at best to be variable. Ferry services from Twoggle are operated by the natives, so caution is advisable. Ferries sail twice weekly to Z & Azarea, Zy-Rodun, and the Skyla Isles. Anyone wishing to travel to Jadid Khaz Modan should first board the service to Zy-Rodun and expect a long wait at the other end. Chartering a vessel is possible, but negotiating with locals can be frustrating and time consuming without an old Lywind hand to act as intermediary and facilitator.
