Lower Orchard is one of the four countries on the continent of the Coil, dedicated to the Major Arcana god A shudder, through midnight.
Settled in the North-Western region of the Coil, Lower Orchard is a country known for it’s sleepy hamlets, gruff (yet warmhearted) people, and it’s largely un-sullied natural bounties. Here is a country primarily consisting of farmers, miners, and woodsmen— all of whom deeply care for and cherish their independence.
Existence in Lower Orchard is slower, perhaps simpler— even in the cities, as few as they are, this way of life is easy to see. Rich and poor alike, people of all kinds and devotions find themselves mingling in the comfort of Lower Orchard’s welcoming pace. Its halls may be lined with stable, sturdy iron instead of glittering gold but for many, that’s what makes it home.
Much of Lower Orchard is made up of self-sufficient communities that value and relish in their independence. Still, they all pay fealty to the ruling authority of the Afterdusk Court and the Queen of Dusk at its head.
The Queen of Dusk is a monarch that is well matched to the lands she rules over, often lost to the wilds and gone for weeks at a time. The Afterdusk Court is much the same— appearing in the Shaded Tabernacle every time it comes to session, with only month’s notice beforehand of it’s occurrence.
But, when she returns and holds the Afterdusk Court in session, the loyal people of Lower Orchard make their way to her to listen and to petition for aid in leaner moments, mediation between neighbors, and guidance when their paths seem shrouded in mist— all of which she provides with a wisdom so potent it borders on foresight. And after a session has ended the Afterdusk Court returns to dusk again, scattering into the hinterlands of Lower Orchard until it is needed once more.