Hethlend
Hethlend, the capital of Aldmere, is a walled city straddling the River Wenvorm on a great seven-arched stone bridge. It was abandoned for three years during the Gray Cough of the 160s. In 231 the old timber bridge collapsed in the spring flood, drowning three hundred people including the Lord Chancellor, and the stone bridge was finished in 244. The first Moot met here in 352, King Hethlarn I was stabbed on the Moot's floor in 996, and Hethlarn III was crowned here in 1121; the Chancery, run by Lord Chancellor Tuvith Ownirel, keeps the kingdom's books, and Sister Tunith keeps the Quiet Hearth's death-hearth, where refugees from Kaishon's purges and Castavar's inquisition come first. Anoga Wolf-Mother is said to have walked in with a wolf on a rope in 432 and left with a hundred wagons of grain, and ash from the Cinder Teeth fell this far north in 622. All the crown roads of the kingdom start here, and a swan on the Wenvorm with its neck turned toward the city is said to mean the king will hear bad news.
See also: The Seven-Arched Bridge, The Moot Hall, The Crownlands, River Wenvorm