Plainsroad Village

Plainsroad Village

Plainsroad Village was a small farming community located in central-southern Rislandia, well within the Rislandian border and not particularly close to either Rislandia City or the Wyranth Empire. Described as farm country and a place of plenty where crops grew with ease, the village was home to roughly 500 residents before its destruction. It was the childhood home of Zaira von Monocle and James Gentry—both of whom grew up as farmers there—and the site where Baron Theodore von Monocle was known to visit. The village was situated close to the infantry line between Loveridge and Greenhorne, placing it in a strategically significant corridor during the Great Continental War. Greenhorne lay just down the road from the village. Forests extended to the north of the village.

As James Gentry reflected in The Steam Knight: "I was just a nobody from Plainsroad Village."

Description

Plainsroad Village had a main street—referred to in The Fight for Rislandia as a road that bisected the buildings—bordered by a large field. The village featured a schoolhouse situated just beyond a creek, with a small student body of roughly a dozen students of all ages. It also had a market square, a town hall, a grange hall, a weekly market where farmers sold crops and goods, and the Plainsroad Inn. The village was quiet by nature, shutting down at night, and had none of the lavish decorations or art pieces found in places such as the royal palace. Girls and boys alike were expected to perform hard farm work, and children played in its fields. Zaira von Monocle's farm was situated on the outskirts of the village rather than within it, and the Gentry family farm was a neighboring property. The village also had barns similar to those found at other farms in the region, such as the one at Dr. Metzengerstein's farm.

The village maintained a women's choir, in which Zaira's mother participated. In The Blood of Giants, Zaira recalled: "my mother always told me I'd had a good voice, and I'd make a great addition to the women's choir in Plainsroad Village."

In For Steam and Country, Zaira recalled that her father, Baron Theodore von Monocle, had set his airship down in the large field by the village's main street many times: "This airship didn't set down in the large field by Plainsroad Village's main street as my father had done so many times before." She also noted, "I belong back in Plainsroad Village," reflecting her deep attachment to her hometown.

In The Fight for Rislandia, Zaira described the village as a place of abundance: "Plainsroad Village had been a place of plenty, where I was provided for, where crops grew with ease." Ethan von Lantern's warmth reminded Zaira of curling up next to the stove back home there.

In The Steam Knight, James noted that the hardness of city life was something he had not experienced in the countryside of Plainsroad Village: "This place created hardness in people I hadn't experienced in the countryside of Plainsroad Village."

Notable Residents

• Miss Penniesworth served as a schoolteacher in Plainsroad Village and was Zaira's teacher there.

History

Before the Invasion

The Wyranth Assault

In For Steam and Country, Plainsroad Village was attacked by a Wyranth legion equipped with mobile artillery. Wyranth artillery leveled nearly the whole town, and soldiers' conversation overheard by Zaira confirmed that little remained: "it sounded as if little remained at Plainsroad Village." The Gentry family farm had previously been attacked by Wyranth war machine contraptions, and Mr. Gentry and Mrs. Gentry were killed when their farm was burned and their house completely demolished. James later noted that home was no longer there.

Zaira reflected on her departure in The Fight for Rislandia: "I'd had no choice but to leave my Plainsroad Village because of a Wyranth attack." She further noted: "The buildings I'd grown up with were no longer there, not since the Wyranth ran their war machines through the tiny village."

The Grand Rislandian Army's first infantry division was deployed to the south of Plainsroad Village in response to the Wyranth advance. The Liliana's originally assigned mission was to assist the Grand Rislandian Army near the village; a Liliana crew scouting party was sent to the area to verify Wyranth troop estimates and discovered Toby there. Farmers in the region were noted to require aid following the attack.

An earlier earthquake had also struck the area, bringing Zaira to her knees, prior to the Wyranth assault.

Aftermath and Return in The Fight for Rislandia

Following the destruction, the main village was leveled, though several houses on the outskirts remained intact. The schoolhouse beyond the creek, the market square, the town hall, and the inn were all destroyed. The road that had bisected the buildings remained. One building of note still stood within or near the village proper: Zaira's house, though it had been ransacked. The Liliana landed on flat fields near the village during a subsequent mission.

In The Fight for Rislandia, Plainsroad Village and its surrounding area were identified as the vicinity of the origin of the Wyranth's current supply of the Giant's Blood Serum. The Wyranth had secured the first giant outside of Plainsroad Village, using the mine near the village—where Zaira had previously employed flanking tactics against a giant—as a serum production site. Ivan, the Iron Emperor appeared in the area during Zaira's excursion there. A journal containing airship designs was also found at the location during this mission. Ethan von Lantern nodded toward Zaira when mentioning the village, implying she already knew its significance.

Zaira had not returned to Plainsroad Village for months before this excursion. The area was considered a prior mission location by the crew, referencing the earlier discovery of a giant in the nearby mine.

Role in The Blood of Giants

In The Blood of Giants, Plainsroad Village was referenced repeatedly as Zaira's lost hometown. The village had been entirely razed by the time of the story's events: "The entire place was razed to the ground by a Wyranth attack earlier this year, leaving nothing to return to." Zaira reflected on the contrast between the village's simplicity and the grandeur she encountered elsewhere: "We had nothing like any of these pieces back in Plainsroad Village."

James noted that the village had experienced seismic activity, remarking, "Plainsroad Village isn't that close to Rislandia City or the Wyranth Empire, and it shook," raising the possibility that an evolved giant had been burrowed in the region. Zaira's memory of leaving Plainsroad Village was compared to the feeling of leaving Seeva's village, underscoring the emotional weight the destroyed settlement continued to carry for her.

Role in The Iron Wedding

In The Iron Wedding, Plainsroad Village continued to be referenced as Zaira's ruined former home. The whole town still lay in waste from the earlier Wyranth invasion, and no one had the resources to rebuild it. The village had been abandoned due to the war and remained one of the southern towns affected by the Wyranth advance.

During a journey in the region, a carriage passed by the village by late afternoon. The village's proximity to the infantry line between Greenhorne and Loveridge underscored its continued strategic relevance despite its ruined state.

Zaira's former home in the village had been broken into by Ivan, the Iron Emperor at some point prior to the events of the novel. Hidden within a concealed compartment in her former home, Zaira had previously found airship plans—a discovery she reflected upon during the story: "I wished we still had the plans to the ship I'd found in Plainsroad Village."

The village was also the site of Zaira's first experience of an earthquake, a memory she returned to after using the earth crystal: "My whole life changed the first time I'd felt an earthquake in Plainsroad Village."

Role in The Steam Knight

In The Steam Knight, Plainsroad Village featured prominently as James Gentry's hometown and point of personal reference. The village was confirmed to have been overrun and razed by Wyranth soldiers, with the schoolhouse burned to the ground, leaving only embers and wreckage. The market square where James's father had sold farm goods was also destroyed.

James and Ethan von Lantern stopped at Plainsroad Village on their way to Loveridge. Cid assigned James and Ethan to escort civilians to the village for farming, reflecting ongoing efforts to restore agricultural activity in the area. The Grand Rislandian Army was noted to be working to retake the land near Plainsroad Village, as stated directly: "we're having to retake the land down by Plainsroad Village." The Rislandian army had recently advanced on Greenhorne and cut off the Wyranth near the village.

James used the thinning of the forest as a navigational indicator, reasoning that he and his companions had to be closer to Plainsroad Village or Greenhorne as the trees became less dense. The forests to the north of the village, where James's father had taken him hunting as a boy, served as a remembered landmark.

James, traveling under the alias "Klaus", returned to the ruined settlement where his parents had died.

Zaira and Ethan von Lantern had also visited the village during the war, as referenced in The Steam Knight.

Current Status

Plainsroad Village was left largely abandoned and in ruins following the Wyranth invasion, with no resources available to rebuild it. The main village structures—including the schoolhouse, market square, town hall, and inn—were destroyed, with the schoolhouse reduced to embers and wreckage. Several houses on the outskirts remained standing, including Zaira's farmhouse, though it had been ransacked and broken into. The road bisecting the former village also remained. The surrounding farmland required significant aid to recover, and the area retained strategic importance due to the nearby mine used by the Wyranth for serum production and its position close to the infantry line between Greenhorne and Loveridge. Efforts by the Grand Rislandian Army to retake the surrounding land were ongoing, and civilians were being escorted to the area to resume farming.

In A History of Rislandia

According to A History of Rislandia, Plainsroad Village was founded in Year 142 by Wyn settlers, giving the settlement a documented origin that the novels do not address. The sourcebook places it in the Central Heartland of Rislandia and describes it as one of the humblest locations in the kingdom, used as a byword for rural simplicity.

The Von Monocle Grant and Early History

A History of Rislandia records that in Year 445, King Malaky XIV elevated Frederick von Monocle from minor noble to Baron von Monocle and granted him estates in Plainsroad Village. This event is documented separately on the Von Monocle Honor (Year 445) page and establishes the formal connection between the von Monocle family and the village as a matter of royal record rather than mere residence.

The sourcebook also notes that Baron Theodore von Monocle himself described Plainsroad Village as his home, and is quoted as having said, "Plainsroad Village would never have a disaster like this," in reference to the Portsgate Flood—a remark the sourcebook preserves as illustrative of the Baron's attachment to the village and his confidence in its safety, an confidence that proved tragically misplaced.

Zaira's Years Alone

According to A History of Rislandia, Zaira von Monocle lived in Plainsroad Village alone for two years after her mother died and her father disappeared. The sourcebook specifies this period of solitary residence explicitly, framing it as a notable biographical detail. The novel-based account on this page does not address this interval in detail.

Folklore

The sourcebook notes that the children's warning tale The Goblin in the Well was particularly popular in communities such as Plainsroad Village, citing the village by name as a representative example of the settlements where this folklore tradition was strongest.

The Wyranth Attack and Aftermath

A History of Rislandia dates the burning of the Gentry family farm and the deaths of James's parents to Year 16–17 of the current reckoning. The sourcebook records that most residents were killed or fled during the Wyranth invasion, and that locals subsequently avoided the area, saying it was cursed. It confirms that Zaira's house still stands, ransacked but intact, that the schoolhouse is a burned shell, and that the market square is overgrown with weeds.

The sourcebook also records that the Liliana's crew tracked a Wyranth supply caravan to an iron mine near the village, and that this mine was discovered to house a second evolved giant before being destroyed by Zaira's crew.

The Name "Plainsroad"

The sourcebook contains a separate entry for "Plainsroad" as the name given to the first refugee settlement camp near the Hill Folk village during the early exodus period, named after the old imperial road system the refugees remembered. A History of Rislandia does not explicitly connect this etymology to Plainsroad Village by name, but the shared name and the village's founding by Wyn settlers in Year 142 may suggest a cultural link. This connection is not stated in the sourcebook and should not be treated as confirmed.