Hengfors (city)

This article is about a city in the North. For the region it's located in, see Hengfors (region). For the federation bearing its name, see Hengfors League.

Hengfors was, throughout its history, an independent city-state, the seat of the powerful Thyssen family when they held East March, and the historical capital of at least two kingdoms. Currently, it is the capital of Hengfors League, a federation of various duchies and petty kingdoms of the north. Along with the area adjacent to it, also called Hengfors, the city is a cultural and economical center of the region.

History[]

Early settlement[]

According to the legends, Hengfors was originally a Skelliger trading factory established near a former Dauk burgwall.^[1]

Long ago Hengfors was one of the several petty states of the divided north. It was eventually annexed by Caingorn and, later, by Kovir and Poviss. The House of Troyden established the city as the capital of East March, which was later given to Guido Thyssen by Gerard, the last male heir in the Troyden family.

In the 1220s, Audoen separated Hengfors from Kovir during the Secession of Poviss and formed his miniature kingdom here, which included Arcsea. After it too collapsed, Hengfors was, for some time, independent from Caingorn^[2] but was eventually joined to it again after King Niedamir formed his League.

Geography[]

Hengfors is situated in Hengfors region at the lower Braa,^[1][3] encircling a waterfall that used to be an obstacle in river transport before the city's construction.^[1]

Architecture and urban design[]

Hengfors is roughly divided between 4 main quarters—The Royal Quarter, The Merchants' Quarter, The Port Quarter, and Little Aedirn—and a number of smaller outskirts. It's surrounded by canals that allow sailing up and down the Braa without crossing the waterfall in the city's core. Strong walls surround the canals,^[4] as the city was fortified to protect the March and Kovir from a possible southern invasion,^[1] and the garrison fills a sizable space east to the Royal Quarter.^[4]

Since the city became the capital of East March, most of the buildings inside the representative quarters has been built out of brick and stone, as numerous fires used to ravage the city's centre before.^[1]

Notable people[]

Notable places[]

Notes[]

• In the first released version of The Witcher Role-Playing Game the League was called "Hengefor's League", thus suggesting that the city could be named after an individual known as Hengefor. While it was originally stated as a misspelling and corrected in the updated version, the mistake was repeated in the expansions released later. Ultimately the mistake gave birth to Hengefor, a legendary and most likely fraudulent figure described in The Witcher Thursdays.

References[]