Blackford

Located several dozen kilometers to the north, downstream along the Simanda River, from Afyon. It is considered the furthest outlier of the Afyon "urban area", as the valley bottom between Blackford and the city is littered with many farmsteads and semi-permanent camps. It is notable as being a place where many gravel bars and rocky substrate make for a very shallow crossing of the river. As such, while the main Trunk Road veers to the south to pass through Afyon, the fords cut off this great loop of the road, and so many caravans and travelers used it as a more direct route across the Veldt region. Even so, a significant village grew up around the fords and the bluffs above the river, based more on commercial trading instead of cultural factors or agriculture.