Great Pits of Ennerlund
Overview
The Great Pits of Ennerlund are located in Ennerlund in the League territory of Holberg. Custodianship of the Great Pits granted an Imperial title; a seat on the Imperial Bourse; and a seasonal bounty of valuable mithril.
The Resource
The Great Pits of Ennerlund were rightly famous for the impressive application of ingenious League engineering. Dug dangerously close to the bounds of the Morass the mithril mine was kept dry by mechanised pumps. The pits were lost when Holberg was overrun and the mine - and its bounty of mithril - served the Druj instead. When the Empire began its triumphant liberation of Holberg, the barbarian orcs destroyed the pumps and collapsed the pits during the Winter Solstice 378YE. This act of vandalism was slightly overshadowed by the atrocity that accompanied it - when the pits were finally liberated, it became clear that the Druj had herded hundreds of enslaved miners into the tunnels and collapsed the tunnels on top of them.
Extensive work was required to restore the pits to working order - not only clearing the collapsed tunnels (and extracting the bodies of the dead) but also replacing the pumps without which the lower levels have already been submerged. The Imperial Senate passed a motion to repair the Pits but did not fund it; instead Bridget Eastville of the Marches, the Senator for Mitwold provided the 250 Thrones required to complete the project. Rumours at the time suggested this money came as part of a loan from the Marches, one that the Senate was later called upon to repay.
Work restoring the Great Pits began in late Spring 379YE ... and almost immediately halted. The Druj destruction of the Great Pits had been a calculated act, and one with a tragic and horrific consequence. Following dozens of reports of the unquiet dead haunting the pits, the Dawnish priest Ozren de Orzel of Dawn was dispatched by the Imperial Synod to exorcise the cleansing of the haunting spirits from the mines as work could not continue until the ghosts were laid to rest.
With the ghosts dealt with, estimation by the civil service is that the Great Pits will begin producing their first Imperial mithril shortly after the Summer solstice 380YE, and the first mithril will be received by the seat at the Autumn Equinox 380YE.
Prior to the invasion of the Druj, the Seat was Imperial. There is some agitation in the League to have the seat allocated as a National Bourse Seat - but at the same time, critics who want to see it remain Imperial point to the extensive role played by non-League forces in recapturing and reclaiming the mine. As of the beginning of the Winter Solstice 379YE, the mine has not yet been the subject of a motion of allocation, and until it is (and until it is producing mithril again), no Seat can be elected either way.