Viscount of the March

Ruler: Viscount Luther Derwent   Capital: Gorsend   Population: 90,000   Standing Army: 3,500   The most populous of Furyondy’s provinces, the March is a breadbasket for the rest of the kingdom. Its fields are lush and the land is productive. Traditionally, the March’s merchants have been the trading experts of Furyondy. People here know and trust the value of what they are buying. This reflects the preoccupation of the ruling house. Luther is a grim faced and unsmiling man with a very sharp mind. He has made his fortune through trade, and the Derwent family, together with a handful of other powerful, intermarried, families, own most of the land and wealth here. Luther is a pragmatist, a tight fisted man who is very adept at staving off Belvor’s demands for more money. Privately, he feels that if Iuz goes to war it will be a protracted affair and the Crystal River forms a more defensible southern retreat than the Flare Line. Luther truly believes that pumping all of Furyondy’s resources into the Flare Line defenses is a strategic blunder. Luther’s second wife, the nervous and much younger Alistacea, is not someone to oppose her husband, although his twin sons Petronian and Timarn tend to favor the King. Luther is not well liked by other nobles, but he is respected for his skill and coolness in argument. He loathes Baron Kalinstren and considers that a “foreigner” should not have been given the Crystalreach to rule. Luther’s representative at Noble Council is the scribe Telemmand, and expert procrastinator who refuses to make and decisions until he has discussed matters fully with his dour, pragmatic, liege.