the Core; the walled, settled heartland
An Croílár
An Croílár is the fixed centre: walled towns, granaried granges, and roads built by people who meant to stay.
The settled heartland
There is a line in Tír na Scáth and everyone knows which side of it they were born on. Inside An Croílár, settlements have walls, granaries, a watch in shifts, and a chance. Outside, there are tuatha, and a tuath has a fence and a prayer. The settled folk call the others the exposed and mean it as a fact, not an insult; the exposed call the settled the penned and mean the same. Both are right. Both would change places in a heartbeat, and both pretend, loudly, that they would not. Each has the rot the other does not see in itself.
Walls, granaries, and watch
Inside the heartland, settlements keep walls, stores, and watches in shifts; Baile an Chlaí makes succession a concern for the whole realm.
The settled and the exposed
- The settled
- The settled call the outer túatha exposed; the exposed call the settled penned. Both names are facts, and both arrangements conceal political rot.
- The exposed
- The heartland’s shadow-steel authority and guarded roads make it the centre from which the nine exposed regions radiate.
In the wider world
The heartland’s shadow-steel authority and guarded roads make it the centre from which the nine exposed regions radiate.
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