he County of Rowan-Oak covers a fairly wide swath of territory, and contains within its borders about a dozen Enchanted sites known to the Seelie Court. Half of these are tiny hearths or glens hardly worth mention, and are in the keeping of commoners, although the count claims fealty from their inhabitants in return for letting them manage their own affairs. Provided the sites are protected from Banality, His Excellency is content to leave them to their keepers, rarely drawing their Glamour to his own hearth save in the direst of need.

Although the division of freeholds between commoners and nobles was once rather sharply divided, the accession of a satyr count to the rulership of the region has perhaps begun to blur these lines. Three freeholds are ruled by sidhe, three by titled commoners, one by untitled commoners, and one traditionally noble holding awaits a new lord.

The most formidable freehold is the least accessible, save by trod. Set in the Dreaming interior of Buffalo Mountain, Ben Bison Brugh houses the court of Count Almond. The Brugh contains a splendid great hall, a noteable library, and suptuous baths in the ancient fashion, fed by natural hot springs, as well as numerous other workshops, parlors, armories, living quarters, a formal salle (or school of arms) and the provincial commandery of the Order of Foresters. The Count has his private chambers in an adjoining grotto. where he can escape at times from the demands of office.

From the north face of the Brugh, tits trod winds through the fields and forest to Fiddler's Green. A glade rather than an actual freehold, the Green lies within the demesne of Ben Bison, although it was recently bestowed as fief upon Dame Calliope Chelios, continuing its long tradition of satyr custody. The Lady Calliope graciously permits the occasional noble fete here, but is less than happy that young bloods of the county resort to the green when illicit duels of honor are fought.

The ruling seat of the Barony of Fair Oaks is Pine Lodge, a homey tavern housed on a quiet back-road where the boggan Lord Mayor and proprietor, Elmer Brickie, offers food, drink, and a place to stay for a reasonable price. The lodge is the freehold most frequently used to house visitors to the county, as it is spacious and pleasant, well staffed, and convenient to most other locations, sitting as it does along the cross-county Lonesome Pine Trod.

Winterlong Manor is the freehold of Dame Lillian ap Liam, formerly scribe to Countess Rosamund's household. A sprawling farm house on the edge of Floyd town, near the center of the county, it houses Winterlong Academy, a boarding school where young kithain can be given the focussed attention they require. Until quite recently, it was known as Fair Oaks Manor, until its ruler, Lady Quave, was brutally slain by her redcap guards. Students allege that her restless shade wanders its halls by night, to prey upon childlings foolish enough to stray from their beds.

Farther north, the freehold of Caer Ondomorna is located in the Near Dreaming adjacent to the Old Theater Building at Blackstone University. While it is by no means the grandest freehold in the county, it was the one most convenient for the former countess' use, and hence she prefered to reside there. Since her abdication, it has been without a true lord, although the fae of Blackstone see that it is kept up until a new baron or baronnes is found to suit it.

Perhaps the most striking of the noble freeholds is Tyr-o-Yr Glas on the outskirts of Roanoke. With the aid of her squire, Dame Angarhad of House Eiluned oversees the Glass House -- to mortal sight a ramshackle Victorian greenhouse adored with art-glass panes in an overgrown garden, but to enchanted eyes a wonderland of stained glass and exotic plants. Originally created by nocker artisans, its capture by the nobility during the Accordance War is still a sore subject today.

The freehold of Tinker's Dam is an exception to many rules. Housing extensive refineries and mills in which the raw stuff of the region's bounty is crafted into finished goods, the freehold pays a tithe of goods and services to be excused from the Count's jurisdiction. It's mortal disguise as a junkyard and abandoned factory dissuade mortal attention.

Long derelict, the Barony of Baywood has recently been reclaimed, its Balefire rekindled, and its territory returned to sidhe rule. Baron Dar'Nall ap Gwydion and Baroness Celeste ap Eiluned hold title here, undertaking the task of securing the region against the incursions of nightmare chimera from the Dreaming, and restoring Glamour to their fief. Reaving is taken very seriously by Rowan-Oak fae, and the Fall of Baywood is a commonly heard tale. The barony faded after this heinous crime, and the region is only now reclaimed by nobles pledged to Reverie and inspiration, its mortals too banal to support a faerie population on their creativity alone. Reavers throughout the County face the stiffest penalties which the Escheat and the High King's law allows.

Turn back to the Geography page, read on regarding the Nobility of the county or return to the County Information page.