Historical Holdings of the Duchy of Thaud

All information here taken to be accurate in the year 1264.

## **The Bishopric of Kestrich:**

Kestrich is in a warm, peaceful, and flat part of Thaud, and the people there live long and prosperous lives in their many villages, towns, and cities. Its borders notably include, Kestrichburg, and a chunk of the Tieferwald, a large forest that stretches across a the Thaudic interior. While the area under control of the Bishop of Kestrich is small, the Bishopric has traditionally enjoyed peaceful relations and plentiful trade with its neighboring baronies.

Kestrichburg is a productive and wealthy walled city, known for producing sugar from sugar beets and beautiful red dyes which are used by clergy in the surrounding areas in their red cloth. The complicated alchemies used in the extraction processes has also attracted, if the rumors are true, a fair few underground mages.

More importantly, the city is the seat of the throne of the Bishop of Kestrich, a wise and noble person whose twenty-three-year-long reign has upheld the status of Kestrich as one of the wealthiest regions of the empire. The skyline of close-packed wattle-and-daub houses is dominated by the Cathedral of St. Otto of Kestrich. The massive gothic cathedral, finished only sixteen years ago stands as a reminder of the power and wealth of the Bishopric.

St. Otto, who is now a half a millennia past, continues to provide inspiration and, as many true believers attest, miraculous healing to the pilgrims who pass through the city on their way to follow the Path of St. Salome, the first martyred apostle. The most well-known part of his hagiography is the story of St. Otto and the wolf. In this story, St. Otto was praying alone in the wilderness when a wild dog stumbled upon his camp. The dog was salivating in hunger, ready to devour the helpless monk. St. Otto, instead of running away or attacking, prayed for the dog to find forgiveness and mercy in his heart. The dog, instead of killing and eating Otto, instead, became peaceful, and stayed with the monk in his retreat, defending him against wolves and wild beasts.

Thus, the symbol of the town is a dog standing proud, representing the noble hound of St. Otto, and the Bishop’s role as the loyal protector of his flock.

## **Lanternenstadt**

Laternenstadt is a medium-sized town which is the seat of the Waldgraviate of Laternenstadt (a waldgraviate is at the same hierarchical "tier" as a county but is specifically difficult to use wilderness land--in the case of Laternenstadt, it's a particularly nasty forested swamp). Consequently, [the father of Dietrik and Marcus von Laternenstadt] was a Waldgraf. Laternenstadt is so named because seeing "lanterns" bobbing gently through the swamp at night is not an uncommon occurrence. Local wisdom says to pay these err-lights no heed--and to always avert one's gaze, and to never speak of them or especially near them, and to close one's windows at night so you never see them--and so offers no explanation for the phenomenon. Laternenstadt was originally an exonym: the people of the waldgraviate would not have chosen to identify themselves in reference to the err-lights.

As a waldgraviate, Laternenstadt is not independent in and of itself--rather, it is a part of the larger Duchy of Laagland. Laagland--literally, "low country"--is a low-lying duchy of medium size. To the north, where the terrain is higher, it is a breadbasket, with fertile soil and a handful of major rivers that flow through it. To the south of Laagland, all the rivers fan out and pool and fester. It is here that the Waldgraviate of Laternenstadt lies close to the southern edge of the Duchy of Laagland, where there is little food or industry to be had and certainly little of value to export. The town [of Lanternenstadt]--there is only one true town in the Waldgraviate--is situated on a rare few square mile of ground high enough to be dry year-round, and is surrounded on all sides by lakes and wetlands whose borders and depths shift and change with the seasons and the moods of the Earth. There is a saying about Laternenstadt: "One road in, a different road out"--the idea being that if you stay even a few days, the road you came in on will be flooded when you try to leave.

There's another saying about Laternenstadt; a simple piece of advice often given to travelers: "Don't ask about the lights."

## **Sholzbeck**

The margravate of Szólzbeck (plur: Szólzbecker) lies in the far north of Thaudh, the Margravate gets its name from the Hinter-Thaudic word *Szólz* meaning Salt and the general Thaudic word beck meaning river or about a river.

The Region has one coast lying right next to the border into the steppe lands and it's interior is primarily composed of rolling foothills in a temperate rain forest, winding up to a rainy subalpine region in the far east. The Region is known for its timber, salt, and precious metals like iron, tin, silver, and antimony, as well as its amber, furs, game, fish, radishes and clay. It is also known for its manufactured goods like jewellery, cup ware and cutlery, candles, fur embroidered finery, smoked meats (Kólbasza,) and fish, radish soup (*barszt*), dumplings (*birog/szpatzi*), stew (*galaszi*), furniture and armaments.

Heinryk's family hails from the harbor city of Rygańsk (plur: Ryganner). Rygańsk begins at the mouth of the river Rygańas which's name comes from an old High Thaudhic word Rynganes, meaning winding, circled, or ringed. This comes from the rivers irregular and erratic meandering through the foothills of Szólzbeck which meets at the subalpine to form one of the many arms of North Thaudhic river basin.

The Coat of Arms of Rygańsk is a Burning red deer standing at the mouth of a river, with the lunarchist star burning bright between the red deer's antlers. Behind the deer stands a tall evergreen tree with a Zweihander resting at their base. The Szólzbecker Coat of Arms is a Bear wrestling a Griffin and between them a river flowing. Szólzbeck experiences a temperate climate with substantial winters due to the annual rainfall of the region being quite high. Szólzbeckers are known to be quite aloof to outsiders but have a very rich culture of friendship and hospitality once they've taken the time to get to know someone. They're a defiant, and hard-nosed group who's loyalties are firstly to the margrave and second to Lunarchy.

There are seven major county-ranked holdings in the margraviate which are each ruled by a Hintermann. This is a hereditary noble title which entitles you to elect the next margrave from among your peers after the previous dies. This structure was put into place because there is constant skirmishing and raiding that takes place on the border, and without the election system, the Margraviate be constantly on the brink of political disorder. It ensures that each Hintermann is brought into the governing system and that each abides by the orders of the Margrave.