Location

Peverin is the province in the mid-south of Elan. It shares borders with the provinces of Gauld to the north, Huxley to the east, and the Thorpe Territory to the west across the Girdle Mountains. Its southern border is shared with the country of Nepton. Peverin’s capital city is Greenborough in the southeast of the province. 

Environment

Peverin is made up mostly of grasslands, stretching from the foothills of the Girdle Mountains through to the marshes of Huxley. The native grasses are well suited to the environment and soil, which has proven difficult to cultivate crops in. 

Livelihood

With such expansive grasslands, Peverin has taken to ranching and animal husbandry. Horses, cattle, chicken, pigs, sheep, and goats are all widely raised. While each of these animals have varying needs, they all need land. As such, most of Peverin’s settlements are spread out. Town centers are few and far between. This can lead to a great deal of isolation. Neighbors can go weeks without seeing each other. For this reason, communities often rely on families and marriages to secure bonds. 

There is, however, an encroaching organization. As social progress marches onward, more corporate ranches, feedlots, and dairies are buying up land. This can lay ruin to families that can no longer compete. Farmlands that have been in families for generations are being bought up and converted. Whole communities have disappeared, falling to the ventures that take root. Many try to hold on, even as the offers for their land grow higher and higher. For most, though, there is little option but to take the money. As animal meat becomes cheaper due to these companies and their production lines, it is harder to turn a profit for those that keep to the old ways. It seems that the only options are to sell at the first fair offer rather than hang on and risk bankruptcy when selling prices get too low to cover costs.

This isn’t the only area that is pushing for progress. Butchers and tanners are becoming slaughterhouses and factories. Almost every level of animal husbandry is falling to industrialization. Most of these corporations favor the company-owned ranchers, dairies, and farms for their productivity, quantity, and reliability. Those who used to work in family or community farms now must find work in companies, in factories, in cities. It is true that these corporations produce more than more traditional methods could. Most of Elan now eats Peverin-produced meats. 

Still, some communities persist. They fight the corporations and dig their heels into their dirt, protesting the conditions of the feedlots and the new dairies. Even some workers for these corporations speak out about the horrors inside their jobs. Despite the complaints and the exposure, though, the legislature has remained mostly unmoved, but the workers and farmers have vowed that the fight is far from over.

Specialties

With so many animals raised, it is little wonder that Peverin is well known for its meats. They are also well known for their wool products. For a long time, Peverin has been known as the greatest producer of quality wool in Elan. Other animal byproducts are also touted, such as glue and leather. 

Key Cities

Greenborough is the capital city of Peverin. It has the second largest population of any city in Peverin. Where most of the province is concerned with the raising and slaughter of animals, Greenborough keeps itself separate from such affairs. There are no animal processing factories in the city limits. The products are, of course, still available, but the process itself is largely hidden. This has caused a great deal of conflict among laborers who see the elite as enjoying all the benefits of such operations without facing the stark realities of them. Greenborough has also recently opened a school, Hooper University, which specializes in law. Many were outraged at this opening as countless communities in Peverin go without proper education and schooling. This disconnect between classes is becoming more prevalent with each passing year.

In stark contrast to Greenborough, there is the city of Hide Hill. The most populated of the province, this city is a large stretch of slaughterhouses and processing plants. It first got its name from a tanning factory opened on top of one of the hills at the base of the mountains. Due to the nature of its industry, it also has the greatest railway traffic in the province. It was not created for such growth and production as it sees now. People are cramped within small apartments and factory housing, the companies have little care for where they send their garbage and byproducts, and outbreaks of illness are frequent. A recent bout of cholera hurt the population, but laborers were quickly replaced. The city has the grisly moniker of “the Meat Grinder” - both for its industry and how it treats those within the city limits.

Views from Others

The people of Peverin have in recent history earned a reputation for either being too in love with progress or not loving it enough. Those from other places in Elan see them either as far too eager for innovation or too much against it. As such they are often seen as fickle people and those who look too critically at gifts. Perhaps this comes from the large leaps that industry has taken in the province, and the lurching of the populace against such bounds. What is certain is that the people of Peverin have learned to be, above everything else, skeptical.