Kingdom of Graycastle

**Graycastle Kingdom** (灰堡 *huibao*) is one of the four human countries on the mainland. It is also the largest kingdom among the four. Its earlier banner has a tower and a pike expressed in it. By the end of story, flags detailed by a tower and a rifle seemed to substitute it. The colors of those were red, black and white.

## Background

400 years ago, the Four Kingdoms didn't exist. There were only exiled criminals and scattered villages. After the loss of the Second Battle of Divine Will, humans retreated to this barren land. Hundred of years later the first cities appeared from villages and were united under the banner of four newly established kingdoms.

The kingdom consists of five Regions: Central Region , Northern Region, Eastern Region, Southern Region, and Western Region.

## Chronology

### Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince

Under the pretense of choosing suitable heir false Wimbledon III announced **Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince.** According to this, every potential inheritor would be given territory to rule for five years. After five years the most prominent candidate would inherit the crown and would be declared next King or Queen of the Graycastle. The territories were distributed as follows:

* Gerald Wimbledon, Coldwind Ridge of Northern Region.
* Timothy Wimbledon, Valencia City of Eastern Region.
* Garcia Wimbledon, Port of Clearwater of Southern Region.
* Roland Wimbledon, Border Town of Western Region.
* Tilly Wimbledon, Silver City of Central Region.

The reason behind the Decree was to turn royal candidates against each other and unleash an internecine war to weaken the kingdom before it could be absorbed by Church.

The first action was taken by Garcia five years before the Decree, when she started to build the Blacksail Fleet in secret. After her arrival at the Port of Clearwater, she ordered her spy to assassinate Roland.

Meanwhile, Timothy sent his man to instigate Gerald in convincing the king to cancel the Decree and declare him the heir. After several months Gerald returned to the capital and was captured by Timothy's knights. Timothy hastily accused him of Wimbledon III's assassination and hanged. This event became the spark that flamed the war between Garcia, Timothy and Roland and devastated all regions, except the Western.

### War for the Crown

After the coronation Timothy announced the end of the Decree and ordered all royal siblings to go back to King's City. None of them obeyed: Garcia ignored the letter, Roland noted he wasn't able to leave Border Town during Months of Demons because he was busy protecting the town, Tilly disappeared without a trace. He was dissatisfied with this and pondered to write letter to Duke of Southern Region, but got the news of fall of Eagle City by Garcia and her coronation as Queen of Clearwater.

Timothy gathered combined forces of his guards, King's City knightage and Eastern Region's Duke Frances Chlett, consisting of 6000 men in total, 1000 of whom were trained knights. After one and half months he reached Eagle City. Garcia didn't bother to defend the vulnerable city from the beginning, under her orders all ditches were flooded with oil and castle's riches were taken out beforehand. When infantry under Frances's command entered the gates, the oil was ignited and staged a strong fire which engulfed the entire city. Meanwhile, knights led by Timothy rushed to chase her, but were killed by drug-crazed warriors of the Sand Nation. Timothy had to retreat to the north with his remaining 300 men.

When news of Battle of Eagle City reached Duke Ryan, he wanted to take this chance and decided to establish his own kingdom consisting of the Western and Northern Regions after capturing Border Town. However, he had to flee under bombardment of new kind of weapon — 12-pound field artillery. On his way back to Longsong Stronghold he was ambushed and killed.

## Locations

### Northern Region

#### Cities:

* City of Evernight
* Coldwind Ridge
* Deepvalley Town
* Palisade City
* Wuthering Castle

### Western Region

#### Cities:

* City of Neverwinter (Formerly Border Town and Longsong Stronghold)
* Willow Town

### Cities:

* Seawind Region
* Steep Cliff City
* Valencia City
* Deity of Gods (crashed into sea near seawindshire, forming a new territory)

### Cities:

* Eagle City
* Fallen Dragon Ridge
* Port of Clearwater

### Southernmost Region

#### **Cities:**

* Ironsand City
* Festivity (newly built city)

### Central Region

Cities:

* City of Dawn (formerly King's City)
* Silver City
* Redwater City

### Cities:

* Taquila (No population, military stronghold)

## Economy

Since its inception it has an economy revolved around military power, so much so that it is recognized by the other kingdoms as the one with the most military power. This is represented by its national flag which shows a castle and a spike (or rifle later on) and by the fact that the church easily invaded the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart but left Grayscastle for last to weaken its military power with the Successor Decree by the ''King''.

It often exported food from the Kingdom of Dawn and when Roland Wimbledon became its king became extremely dependant on the industry developed in the City of Neverwinter which sold Steam Engines, Steam-powered boats, Chaos Drinks, Perfumes, Soap and other industrial by-products. Also, following Neverwinter's example it monopolized the sale of the people's crops by buying all of it from the farmers and selling back to the people after processing. The farmers were obligated to sell a percentage of it to Graycastle's City Hall and could keep the rest or sell it to the City Hall, but being prohibited to selling to others. The food prices were often fixed and sold according to weight.

As all other kingdoms it used the royals currency system, but later adopted paper notes as its only accepted form of currency in an attempt to avoid the depletion of gold from the treasury and to increase tax revenue. This new currency was named Yuan and had nearly impossible to fake bills.

## Politics

### Wimbledon Royal Family

Wimbledon Family is a ruling dynasty of the kingdom which reigns since its establishment. The first ancestor was Monde Wimbledon, the first king was Taraq Wimbledon. Unlike Kingdom of Dawn it doesn't rely on limited number of high noble families, preferring wide number of high nobles at their services. Though usually the heir is first son, he could be overtaken by the other contender for the throne. Previous king Wimbledon III took the throne that way by killing his brother.

Known kings:

1. Taraq Wimbledon - the first king
2. Unknown second king, Wimbledon III's father
3. Wimbledon III (Ayling) - the third king
4. Roland Wimbledon - the fourth king

Initial Royal Family in the beginning of the series includes:

* Wimbledon III, the deceased King
* The unnamed Queen, deceased five years before the Crown Prince Decree.
* Gerald Wimbledon, First Prince
* Timothy Wimbledon, Second Prince
* Garcia Wimbledon, First Princess
* Roland Wimbledon, Third Prince
* Tilly Wimbledon, Second Princess

Others

* Schelo, Illegitimate son of Gerald Wimbledon & his lover Olivia

## Graycastle Military

The forces of Graycastle were originally split and fragmented, divided among the nobility who mostly only sought to satisfy their own self interests. Although the King typically had his elite knightage along with mercenaries and peasant levies under his command, he usually had to rely on powerful nobles to supplement his forces with their own knights, mercenaries and peasant levies.​​​​​​

During the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince and the War for the Crown, the Kingdom of Graycastle experienced a civil war with its armies being split into three major factions. These major factions being:

* Timothy's Army - consisting of the Central Region, Eastern Region and Northern Region.
* Garcia's Army - consisting of the Southern Region and the Sand Nation.
* First Army - consisting of the Western Region

Following the coronation of Roland Wimbledon and the Reunification of Graycastle, Graycastle's military consist of:

1. The First Army , under the command of Iron Axe (Standing Army)
2. The Second Army (similar to a National Guard, they are reserve units for the First Army and an extension of Law Enforcement for crisis too extreme for the Police to handle alone, such as Noble or Sand Clan rebellions)
3. The Advisory Board, lead by Edith Kant (tactical, strategic, and logistic advisers to the First Army)
4. Intelligence Bureau (Spy network led by Nightingale)
5. The Witch Coalition, under personal command of King Roland Wimbledon (comprised of the Witch Union, Sleeping Spell, and the Taquila Witches)
6. The Aerial Knights, under the command of Princess Tilly .

## Foreign Relations

### Church

* Initially an enemy of all four Kingdoms, the Church was reorganized into an arm of the Kingdom of Graycastle after the First Army and "Pope" Isabella saved it from the Kingdom of Dawn's army.

### Kingdom of Dawn

* Following the dethroning of the Kingdom of Dawn's young King, the Kingdom of Dawn can be seen as an unofficial territory of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

### Kingdom of Wolfheart

* Following the mass evacuations of the Kingdom of Wolfheart, wherein the people of Wolfheart fled to the Kingdom of Graycastle and assimilated as Graycastle citizens, the Kingdom of Wolfheart is no more.

### Kingdom of Everwinter

* Following the flight of Kingdom of Everwinter's treacherous nobility to the Demon's God's Divine Construct, the Kingdom of Everwinter is no more.

## Gallery

* Manhua

The Royal Castle at the King's City of the Kingdom of Graycastle.
## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1446
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 85
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 11
4. ↑ Chapter 54
5. ↑ Chapters 45-46
6. ↑ Chapter 72
7. ↑ Chapter 110-112
8. ↑ Chapter 114-118
9. ↑ Chapter 529
10. ↑ Chapter 126
11. ↑ Chapter 373
12. ↑ Chapter 1254-1255
13. ↑ Chapter 523