House Eidis

The last time Houses Shazin and Felim led their soldiers to storm the city, the viscount knew what was good for him and donated a great sum of money and food to them. Given his rather good reputation, they spared him and his dominion. He had developed quite well during the next two years, a rare breed of good noble in Winston. He didn't have a good relationship with the queen, so he's allied with a bunch of nobles and gained quite a bit of influence.

## Dawok

Dawok was rather prosperous and populous, with an estimated population of 30 thousand. Shops and businesses lined both sides of the main street, complete with large signs to attract customers.

Since, the second prince set Windbury as the kingdom's capital, the trade routes to it were cut as soon as the civil war began. Additionally, the livestock reared near the capital made it stink of manure. The prince couldn't stand it, so he outlawed the rearing of any livestock near the city. With the ban in place, no one dared to get involved in the business but, the last couple of years without the second prince's meddling, along with the stability of the neighboring regions, saw a resurgence in the trade. Even with the nobles duking it out amongst themselves frequently, the province still frequently saw traders from the four central duchies.

It was too late to restart the livestock in the city itself, the high entrance fees saw to that. The Queen's tax collectors cut such a huge slice off the merchants' profits, that it was hardly worth it for them. Viscount Eidis, as he had done with Lorist's invasion, had seen an opportunity. He rushed to develop a livestock market and industry in his dominion and its prosperity has not waned since. Even though the livestock industry there was not that big, their market still wanted for furs and beast tendons. Such items were valued rather highly by the armies, they bought them in absurd numbers, which was why they had so many shops just to sell those two items.

Dawok's improving economy also attracted the envious glares and greedy eyes of many nobles, many of whom had already gotten into fights and skirmishes with the viscount many times. The viscount was forced to ally with many other nobles, whose interests aligned with the survival of Dawok, to protect his own. The success of his town was also one of the reasons for his fall-out with the queen. Once she became aware of his success, she sent a tax collector over with a demand for 70% of the town's profits. A demand the viscount naturally refused. Even though his dominion's prosperity allowed him to profit a little, most of the money he earned was invested back into its defense. The money went in a huge circle and had yet to achieve anything productive. And that's not considering the time and effort he had to put in to train the men that man the defenses.

Viscount Eidis would have thrived had they been in a time of peace and stability given his keen eye for business and benevolent attitude towards his subjects. Unfortunately, this was not a time of peace and not an era of stability. His prosperity served only to attract hungry wolves like moths to the fire, only these moths could bite against the fire and the wolves could do more than howl at the moon.

Dawok was originally just 100 meters away from the viscount's castle but given the rapid expansion of the town and increase in population over the years, Dawok had already connected with the castle. A wall had already had to be erected between the two. It had four firing posts like blockhouses around it. The design allowed the garrison to react equally quickly and effectively whether it was the castle or the town being attacked.

## Background

Eidis's castle had a century of history behind it. According to the viscount, his grandfather was granted the title for his military achievements and took root as one of the nobles of Winston. The castle was constructed by his grandfather, whose portrait still hung within, alongside one of his father.

Both his father and grandfather were well-known gold-ranked knights; however, he was only a two-star silver rank without any hope of breaking through to the gold rank. His father's fame was especially prevalent in Winston, but he had perished in the empire's last invasion of the Union. It was a matter from 30 years ago and the viscount had been only 16 when he became the house's head.

Eidis had a wife, two sons and seven-year-old daughter. His two sons were 24 and 21 respectively. The elder was a three-star-silver-ranked knight and the younger a one-star silver rank. All the viscount's hope of the house having another gold-ranked knight layed firmly in his two sons.

## Allies

The viscount's allies are those whose territories neighbored his. Baron Klaus's dominion was a livestock breeding-ground, Baron Wade's was farmland while Viscount Zindler's produced mainly feed. All three of the nobles dealt in activities related to the thriving industry in Dawok, which made it easy for them to ally, they had numerous mutual interests, after all.