Ehrenfest (Duchy)

**Ehrenfest** (エーレンフェスト, *Eerenfesuto*) is a duchy on the eastern border of Yurgenschmidt. It is currently governed by Sylvester, the Seventh Aub Ehrenfest. The capital of the territory is the city of Ehrenfest.

# Overview

    The Duchy is bordered by the following territories:

* The Duchy of Ahrensbach to the south
* The Duchy of Klassenberg to the north
* The Duchy of Frenbeltag to the southwest
* The Duchy of Zausengas to the northwest
* An unnamed other nation to the east/northeast

The Duchy of Ehrenfest is currently ranked eigth among the duchies of Yurgenschmidt. This is due both to remaining neutral in the civil war and to the trends recently introduced. While it has not historically been an economically powerful region, the emergence of printing and plant paper technology, as well as several new fashion trends, are poised to make Ehrenfest a sought-after trading partner in the coming years.

The Duchy's colour is ocher (dark yellow), and the symbol of the archducal family is the lion. The archduke is represented by a three-headed lion.

# Geography

Ehrenfest stretches far enough north to south that there is a noticeable difference in climate between the tips of the Duchy. The northernmost province of Haldenzel has significantly harsher winters, in which even the fastest flowing rivers freeze over. In the southern provinces, at least some of the rivers remain unfrozen throughout most of the winter. Apart from the generally already warmer climate, the southernmost province of Griebel is further heated by the presence of the active volcano Mount Lohenberg.

The Duchy is surrounded by a barrier upheld by a magical construct called the Foundation Magic, which needs regular mana supplied by the Archduke and his family. This barrier is purely magical and invisible to the naked eye. It does not prevent animals or feybeasts from crossing the border, but it blocks spells and other magical effects. It enables the Aub to sense when anyone above a certain mana capacity comparable to a noble crosses over. It is unclear whether this sensing ability extends to feybeasts as well.

## Rare and Unique Flora and Fauna

Ehrenfest is the only duchy in Yurgenschmidt where trombe is known to grow. This is also the reason why Ehrenfest is one of the few duchies allowed to teach their knights the spell to create black weapons.

It is also home to the very rare Blenrus feytree, which grows solely in its northern-most province of Haldenzel.

# People and Leadership

*See Characters Tab.*

The current archduke is Sylvester, the Seventh Aub Ehrenfest. He is married to Florencia, his first wife, and is engaged with Brunhilde, who will become his second wife. The line of succession includes six archduke candidates:

* Wilfried, the Archduke's oldest son.
* Rozemyne, the Archduke's adoptive daughter and the current High Bishop.
* Charlotte, the Archduke's second daughter.
* Melchior, the Archduke's youngest son (not yet baptized).
* Ferdinand, the Archduke's half-brother and the current High Priest.
* Bonifatius, the previous archduke's brother and the former Knight's Order Commander.

Other significant figures include Karstedt, the current Knight's Order Commander, and his wife Elvira, who manages Ehrenfest's printing industry, and despite who, what the name might suggest, is the actual leader of the Florencia faction, the strongest female faction in Ehrenfest. Although no longer formally an Ehrenfest noble, Hirschur is the Duchy's dormitory supervisor at the Royal Academy and is a researcher renowned throughout Yurgenschmidt.

# Political Factions

## Leisegang Faction

One of the oldest factions currently active in Ehrenfest, the Leisegang faction includes many of the Duchy's most powerful families. Its base of influence is concentrated in the provinces, such as Groschel, Leisegang, and Haldenzel, rather than in the City of Ehrenfest.

There is some overlap between Leisegang nobles and the allied Florencia faction. This is in part because "Leisegang" can describe a noble's bloodline and ancestry, not just their political views. For example, Elvira — the leader of the Florencia faction — is technically considered a Leisegang noble, since she was born in Haldenzel. However, the two factions' political agendas diverge in several key areas.

Key political tenets of the Leisegang faction include:

* Strong support for Rozemyne as the next Aub, since she is believed to have Leisegang ancestry.
* Strong opposition to any of Veronica's children as the next Aub, Wilfried in particular, since he was personally raised by her.
* Strong opposition to Ahrensbach and the former Veronica faction.
* Moderate support for Sylvester as the Aub.

## Veronica Faction

The faction originated from the Ahrensbach archduke candidate Gabriele, who forced her own marriage into Ehrenfest. She tried to have her retainers marry archnobles in Ehrenfest to expand her influence, but this couldn't work, as most archnobles were related by blood to the Liesegang faction, who were hostile towards Gabriele for causing the daughter of the previous Count Leisegang to be demoted. Therefore, she had her retainers marry mednobles with higher mana capacities, and they became the core members of her political faction. When Veronica grew up, she took over her mother's faction and expanded their influence from there, thus the faction took her name.

### Under Veronica

Just a few years ago, the Veronica faction was the dominant force in Ehrenfest politics. Veronica was the mother of the Archduke and had control over the education of Wilfried, who was publicly known to be the next archduke.

Her influence was even strong enough to lock out the province of Haldenzel from getting any small chalices for Spring Prayer, nearly bringing it to ruin. She also harassed and ostracized nobles she disliked, fueling deep grudges against her in the Leisegang faction that still persist today, despite her removal from power.

The Veronica nobles supported Sylvester as Archduke, since he was Veronica's chosen heir. They were adamantly against Ferdinand, his half-brother.

Key political tenets of the Veronica faction include:

* Strong support for Sylvester as Aub and Wilfried as his heir.
* Strong opposition to Ferdinand.
* Strong opposition to the Leisegang faction.
* General support for closer political ties with Ahrensbach.
* General opposition to those out of favor with Veronica, including Elvira and Florencia.

### Under Georgine

After Veronica was imprisoned and sent to the Ivory Tower, her former supporters pulled their support from Sylvester and became dissatisfied with the archducal family, instead turning to his older sister Georgine. They are now called the "former Veronica faction" or, less commonly, the "Georgine faction."

Key political tenets:

* Strong support for both Georgine and Ahrensbach.
* Strong opposition to Sylvester and the current archducal family.
* Strong opposition to Rozemyne, who is rumored to be a commoner and compicit in Bezewanst's death.
* Strong opposition to the Leisegang and Florencia factions.
* Previously, strong support for Wilfried, who was raised by Veronica to be the next Aub. However, Wilfried's show of loyalty to Sylvester and opposition to their faction have caused this view to decrease.

### End of the faction

After several severe crimes and cases of treason from the former Veronica faction, Sylvester enacted a purge, effectively ending the entire faction in the winter, while Rozemyne was at the Royal Academy for her third term. Thanks to Rozemyne's influence, Sylvester was unusually lenient in the meted out punishments by noble standards, with only the worst of the criminals being executed and the traditional punishment by association for ciminals' family members being omitted. Still with the extensive sabotage campaigns committed by the faction, even of the nobles who were not given the death sentence, many ended up with long prison sentences, forced labour or stiff fines.

The pre-baptism children, who lost their parents, were sent to the temple orphanage.
The already baptized children had to either give their name to a member of the archducal family of their choice, in order to escape punishment.

## Florencia Faction

Elvira formed this political group as a counter-faction when the Veronica faction was at the height of its power. It was comprised mainly of nobles who were subjected to harassment by Veronica and her allies.

When Florencia married into Ehrenfest and was also targeted by her mother-in-law Veronica for abuse, Elvira welcomed her into the faction with open arms. Because of her higher rank, the faction took her name instead, although Elvira remained the leader.

Although the Florencia faction overlaps a good deal with the Leisegang faction and the two are on fairly good terms, they have some key differences in their political ideologies. Most critically, the Florencia faction supports Wilfried as the next Aub, while the Leisegang faction supports Rozemyne, who does not come from Veronica's bloodline.

Key political tenets include:

* Strong support for Sylvester as the Aub.
* Strong support for Wilfried as the next Aub.
* Strong opposition to the former Veronica faction.
* Strong opposition to Ahrensbach and Georgine.

## Neutral

Not every family will chose to fully join a faction.

Due to how easy it is for archnobles to crush lower status nobles, most laynoble and mednoble families wish to avoid the risk of fully joining any faction and thus become a target for opposing factions. Such families generally form only light attachment with one faction, while trying not to become too hostile to others. They tend to drift closer to the currently most powerful faction, but take care not to get too close, since the power balance could change any time.

This requires a careful balancing act, since not being cooperative enough with the leading faction might be conceived as hostility, especially with particularly entitled individuals like Lady Veronica, but at the same time doing too much will turn the other factions against your family to the point where you have no other choice than to join the faction you leaned toward for protection.

# Provinces

The Duchy of Ehrenfest consists of 28 provinces plus the Central District:

# Trivia

* Because the lion is the symbol of the archducal family, only relatives of the archduke are allowed to use a winged lion as their Highbeast and only the Aub may use a three-headed, winged lion.
* Ehrenfest was known for producing many eccentric but talented individuals, who will go out of their way to pursue their own personal interests. For example:
	+ Rozemyne, who is obsessed with books.
	+ Justus, who is obsessed with information gathering.
	+ Sylvester, who is fascinated with new things and experiences.
	+ Hirschur and Ferdinand, who are obsessed with magical research.
	+ Angelica, who is obsessed with strength.
	+ Hartmut, who is obsessed with Rozemyne's sainthood.
* During the Civil War, Ehrenfest was sandwiched between duchies that supported the first/forth prince (Zausengas and Frenbeltag) and duchies that supported the third/fifth prince (Klassenberg and Ahrensbach). Since the Aub back then was ill and bedridden, no important political decisions could be made. When Sylvester succeeded as Aub Ehrenfest, he was torn between Veronica (who supported Ahrensbach) and Florencia (who was from Frenbeltag) and was thus unable to take a side. In the end, the Civil War ended with Ehrenfest staying neutral throughout.
* Currently, there are around 800 registered nobles in Ehrenfest, about 300 of which live in the Noble's Quarter. The ratio between archnobles : mednobles : laynobles is roughly 1 : 4 : 3.
* Despite being similar in name, Hirschur is not related to the Hirsch province.

# References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 4. The Miracle of Haldenzel
2. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 5. Chapter 7: The Wedding on the Border
3. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 7. Chapter 7: The Ternisbefallen Inquiry
4. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 2 Volume 4. Prologue
5. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 3 Volume 3. Chapter 11: Selling the Materials
6. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 1 Volume 1. Chapter 7: Paper: Unobtainable
7. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Fanbook. Q&A With Miya Kazuki