Trevaldi

Trevaldan culture blended noble pageantry with frontier pragmatism. Nobles clung to rituals of honor, bloodlines, and dueling as if their prestige were eternal. Festivals revolved around wine harvests and martial games, reinforcing both aristocratic dominance and community solidarity. Music and poetry thrived, often extolling noble deeds. Common folk, however, viewed nobility with ambivalence, respecting their pomp but valuing whichever lord kept food on the table. Trevaldans prized dueling as both entertainment and justice. A duel might be fought over insult, inheritance, or even seating arrangements at banquets. This obsession gave rise to renowned duelists who often sold their services abroad.

1194 PE (71 TC): Founded by Vittorio I Arconti, who unified valley fiefdoms after decades of infighting.

13th–14th centuries PE: Prosperity through wine and stone trade, occasional mercenary wars with neighbors.

1450 PE (327 TC): Rise of House Duresco, displacing the Arconti line after a violent succession crisis.

1500–1520 PE: Increasing pressure from Tatharia, both economic and diplomatic. Trevaldi struggled to maintain independence.

1525 PE (402 TC): Annexed by Tatharia after nobles fractured and King Aurelian II Duresco capitulated. Known as the “Silent Fall” because resistance never reached open war.

The dissolution of Trevaldi was swift. When the Empress of Tatharia declared herself sovereign of an Empire, Trevaldi’s ruling class splintered. Some nobles aligned themselves with her immediately, others resisted politically but not militarily. The absence of a unified defense sealed the kingdom’s fate. The High Court of Bellacarno was formally dissolved. The Empress rebranded the territory as Upper Lykara, erasing Trevaldi from maps. Nobles who submitted were absorbed into the Tatharian aristocracy, while others were dispossessed. The common people adapted quickly, valuing stability, but the memory of Trevaldi lingers in whispers, dueling songs, and in the oaths of displaced knights like Caliban. Trevaldi’s legacy today is one of beauty and shame: a kingdom famed for its wine and dueling culture, undone not by battle but by its own vanity and divisions.

At its height, Trevaldi numbered roughly 120,000 inhabitants. The vast majority were human peasants, while the nobility comprised less than 5% of the population yet held near-total authority. Non-humans were present but not recorded in official counts, as they were not considered part of the recognized population.

Trevaldi controlled the uplands between the Twin Rivers, a fertile valley ringed by low mountains. This region, often described as a natural amphitheater, was defined by the confluence of the Ardila and Laro Rivers. Its soils were exceptionally fertile, lending themselves to vineyards, olive groves, and wheat fields, while its rugged periphery provided quarries of marble and defensible passes. The kingdom was bounded to the north by forested highlands, to the south by jagged peaks that hindered invaders, and to the east and west by swift-flowing rivers that served as both barriers and lifelines. Such geography fostered prosperity but also cultivated an insular outlook, with Trevaldans prizing their self-sufficiency and seeing outsiders as rivals or curiosities rather than partners.

Trevaldi’s military system combined a traditional feudal levy with hired arms. Peasants owed service to their lords, and each noble was expected to raise a small retinue of armored men-at-arms. Yet, Trevaldi’s reputation rested on its professional duelists and sellswords, who often gave the army its cutting edge in both battlefield skirmishes and personal disputes. Nobles prided themselves on martial skill, and tournaments doubled as both training and public spectacle. The most visible elite formation was the Order of the Golden Circlet, a knightly brotherhood sworn to defend the king and preserve the dignity of the Trevaldan monarchy. Their gilded circlets, worn over helms or brows, symbolized eternal loyalty to the crown itself rather than to any single ruler. At court, they served as imposing reminders of royal authority, their presence reinforcing the monarchy’s supremacy. In wartime, the Order fielded a disciplined cavalry whose reputation for precision and steadfastness embodied the Trevaldan ideals of loyalty, sovereignty, and martial honor. Mercenaries from abroad, especially pikemen from the northern mountains and crossbowmen from coastal cities, were frequently contracted to supplement native forces. This blend of levies, professional duelists, and foreign specialists made the Trevaldan host colorful but inconsistent. Campaigns were often brief, marked by decisive engagements settled as much by the prowess of champions as by the weight of numbers.

Religiously pluralistic but shallow. Temples to Thalorium (knowledge), Alessandra (sun), and Rione (harvest) dotted the capital. Worship was often ceremonial, used for legitimacy, while private piety varied greatly.

Trevaldi’s laws were codified in the Codex Bellacarno, a dense legal charter that emphasized lineage, inheritance, and dueling rights above all.

Lineage and Legitimacy

Noble lineage was fiercely guarded. Illegitimate children could only be legitimized through direct royal decree, and such decrees were rare, usually requiring political necessity or royal favoritism. Family registers were maintained in Bellacarno’s cathedral, and falsifying one’s pedigree was considered both a crime and a sin, punishable by loss of property or exile.

Inheritance

Inheritance followed strict primogeniture. The eldest legitimate son inherited titles, lands, and obligations, while younger siblings were expected to enter the clergy, the military orders, or take lesser administrative roles. Daughters were typically married off to strengthen alliances, and dowries were often the cause of family feuds. Disputed inheritances could drag through the High Court for years unless resolved by duel.

Dueling Rights and Regulations

Dueling was not a privilege but an institution. Only nobles could legally initiate a duel, and all duels required formal witnesses, usually two peers of equal or greater standing. Specific weapons were mandated depending on the nature of the dispute: rapiers for insult, longswords for land, and occasionally pikes for treason. Rules dictated the terms of engagement, and breaking them could void the duel’s result. Victors were often declared legally in the right, and their triumph could alter inheritance lines or political control overnight.

Common Justice

Justice for commoners was harsh and swift. Petty theft could lead to mutilation, while banditry often ended at the gallows. Appeals were nearly impossible without noble patronage. Local lords held wide latitude to enforce order, often favoring their own retainers and punishing rivals disproportionately. Where nobles had duels, commoners faced corporal punishment, fines, or indentured servitude.

Noble Privilege

In practice, the Codex Bellacarno reinforced noble privilege. Trial by combat served both as public spectacle and as a governing mechanism, binding legal disputes to displays of martial valor. The law upheld the fiction that might and honor equaled justice, leaving commoners with little recourse beyond submission or rebellion.

Trevaldi lay on a major north-south trade artery, exporting wine, olive oil, and marble. The Twin Rivers enabled barge transport, though treacherous mountain roads limited large-scale caravan trade.

Education was restricted to the nobility and clergy. Noble youths studied rhetoric, swordplay, and law. Peasants were largely uneducated, save for basic religious schooling. Gnomes, however, maintained their own traditions of craftsmanship education.

Trevaldi maintained cobbled roads between major towns, aqueducts in Bellacarno, and a network of watchtowers along the rivers. Infrastructure outside noble holdings was often neglected, leading to uneven development.