Duchy of the Westmarch

Kept impoverished by constant internal conflict, the people of the Westmarches are mostly simple folk, and their nobility (both Foerdewaith and Loreclannic) are considered a bit on the boorish and backwater side by the high society of the grand duke’s court. Culturally, Westmarchers are more passionately mercurial than the average Reman; their traditional local foods are creamier, richer, and larger of portions than typical for the rest of Reme.

The Westmarches were first settled by Hyperboreans and conquered by the Remish urban Loreclans during the generations of expansion of the city of Reme (then Remenos). The geography of the Westmarches is in several places ill-suited to large populations, being often poor or rocky of soil and prone to unpredictable flooding nearly everywhere else. For this reason, when the Hyperboreans began to withdraw from the Reme region, the Westmarches fell deeper into disorganized squabbling than did most other settled areas in Reme. The oldest, most powerful Loreclannic and Hyperborean families in the Westmarches began during this era as bandit lords, and a long tradition of competitive raiding between these communities sprang up.

Though eastern Westmarch lands never descended entirely back to wilderness, as did parts of the Duchy of the Northmarches, the authority of the Reman grand duke remained ever tenuous among the Westmarch families, and the assembly of a ducal “nation” of Loreclans never managed to take hold in the Westmarches as well as it did under the dukes of the Duchy of the Northmarches and the Waymarch. For this reason, the Westmarch nobility has a status of “count,” not often seen in other Rhemish territory, to designate Loreclannic or Foerdewaith leaders who hold the allegiance of settlements and cities in a layer of Rhemish feudalism below the duke. In consequence, the feudal hierarchy is more layered, and the duke less powerful, than in other dukedoms of Reme where Loreclannic barons are directly loyal to the duke, with only an informal layer of mediating pashtars in between.

For many generations, the best solution Reme’s leaders could muster was to appoint dukes or duchesses of the Westmarches since there was no single, dominant Loreclan to step into that role as a single ducal “family.” The appointed dukes were relatively powerless mediators, whose primary role was to maintain order in the west at all costs, and to do so without uniting the local Loreclannic baronies against them. Some of these appointees — the ones relying most heavily on pashtars and the least heavily on troops — were more successful than others, but over time the traditions surrounding the maintenance of the duke’s palace and other positions of authority in Eckland crept slowly in favor of the Brodchek family, until they were able to influence ducal policy in Brodchek favor, much to the distress of the Harrings, Fenrith-Draguls, and especially the Merciers.

Eventually, without the awareness of the grand duke or his appointed figurehead, the duke, the Westmarches ran almost entirely at Brodchek whims, almost as if the Brodchek family were an underground criminal organization. The Harrings and Merciers petitioned the duke to repair matters, only to find that he had little authority to do so, while the grand duke, due to misinformation from Brodchek-tampered sources, accused both the Harring and Mercier families of inventing slights out of bitterness over their long rivalry. At that point, the Harrings and Merciers, with their allied Loreclans and feudal infantry, temporarily put aside their own differences and lay siege to the Brodchek family fortress. The Brodchek heir, Lady Fiah, was slain soon thereafter by Count Mercier’s own brother in a short but bloody Brodchek sortie she led out among the Mercier and Harring forces.

Though that particular conflict was forcibly ended by the grand duke’s own soldiery after a mere few weeks, peace in the Westmarches has been a rare and fleeting thing ever since. Alliances, power balances, and motivations have shifted to and fro, with the Harrings switching loyalties now and again or waging side conflicts with the Fenrith-Draguls, but at the core of it all, the Merciers and Brodcheks have been constantly at one another’s throats since Lady Fiah’s death more than 20 years ago.

Finally, less than four years ago, the duke of the Westmarches was murdered in his bed. The Brodcheks blamed the Merciers and Fenrith-Draguls for the murder, the Harrings and Merciers both blamed the Brodcheks, and the Fenrith-Draguls blamed the Harrings. Law enforcement fell into chaos, and Grand Duke Iltobarus was forced to take a direct hand in restoring order.

Changing the old laws that hampered the power of the Westmark dukes and duchesses, a finally fed-up Iltobarus appointed one of his trusted generals, one Wylan Rogers, as duke, and granted him nearly total autonomy to bring the Westmarches to heel by any means necessary. A charmingly rustic sort of man with a booming voice and a deceptively quick blade, Wylan is popular with the pashtars, the Loreclans, and much of the Foerdewaith nobility as a fair choice of leader to unite the duchy. Duke Wylan has managed to manipulate, intimidate, and otherwise browbeat the various warring factions into settling down, at least for the time being. He did track down the old duke’s killer, but the woman turned out to be a hired assassin and escaped custody before her employer was ever revealed. All of the warring families continue to suspect one another in the assassination, though Duke Wylan has intimated that he believes the assassin to have been hired by a foreign power in order to destabilize the region. It is unknown whether this is his sincere suspicion or a ruse to discourage further infighting.

Whatever the case, Duke Wylan and Grand Duke Iltobarus have convinced Lusea Mercier, the Mercier count’s eldest daughter, to wed young Relm Brodchek, the current Brodchek earl’s heir and Lady Fiah’s nephew. Relm and Lusea are both attractive, healthy, intelligent youths, and seem dedicated to bringing their families together in peace, but their marriage has been off to a rocky start since Lusea gave birth a mere eight months after the wedding, and some are now saying she was far too eager to wed a boy she barely knew, from a family she was raised to despise. A herald of the Mercier house apparently fled under suspicion of scandal not long before the marriage as well. Though known for his naive idealism, Relm Brodchek does seem to suspect that Lusea’s child isn’t his, and many begin to worry that this peace-bringing marriage may in the end inspire the opposite.

As for the Harrings and Fenrith-Draguls, both have always prided themselves on greater subtlety than the Merciers and Brodcheks, so while they all say publicly that they support the new duke’s peace efforts, no one knows for certain what Count Harring or Countess Fenrith may be plotting behind the scenes.

Duke Wylan has, however, drastically rearranged the governance of the Westmarches in the name of fairness and balance between the families, and has temporarily outlawed the maintenance of a standing militia outside his own command, save for small forces of household or town guards, and these only with case-by-case permission. In this regard, Wylan Rogers’ peace in the Westmarches is different from any ever tried before, because his first step was to persuade the four families’ military commanders and win the hearts of their soldiers. Having inspired the common-born soldiery with impassioned-yet-folksy oratory about the joy and prosperity of peacetime, Duke Wylan has cut off the prime troublemakers from the majority of their power to keep fighting.

All suspect that the four families (and perhaps other, lesser nobles in the duchy) secretly retain more loyal troops than they are legally allowed, and no one believes that decades of war can be brushed aside with one simple wedding. But Duke Wylan is wildly popular with the common people, and as long as he also wields all of the duchy’s major military might, it seems likely that the long war may be over. Of course, if Wylan Rogers remains unable to discover who hired the last duke’s assassin, he may not be able to keep the ducal seat long enough to seal a lasting peace in the Westmarches. The former duke’s murderer must be found before a new assassin is sent for Duke Wylan.
 

Westmarches are, in general, not very interested in religion. They worship any gods that seem appropriate, without much thought given to theology or scripture. That said, the most popular deities in the duchy are Freya, Mithras, and Solanus, and all three are used as excuses for grand festivals, dances, feasts, and frivolity, whenever anyone can drum up any rationale for celebrating. The Loreclans, for their part, worship Solanus, Dame Torren, and Halatra. Priests in the Westmarches are usually imported from elsewhere in Reme, and Westmarch churches and temples are almost always underfunded, save during festival time.

Notable exceptions to this trend include all who make their living from the sea along the southern coast. Here, worship is taken very seriously, especially worship of “the Sea God” (known elsewhere as Quell, though few in the Westmarches speak his name aloud out of respect). The most popular temple in the Westmarches is the Sea Temple in Martyn’s Nest, and the head priest there is sometimes consulted by Westmarch rulers.

Another exception to typical Westmarch secularism is the cult of St. Sophia, a rural phenomenon in the Caer Dire and Dunavenwood regions, sprung up around a grisly old tale that some claim was the original foundation of the yet-ongoing feud between the Harrings and the Fenrith-Draguls. The cult centers upon reverence for an ancient oak tree believed to be, in some way, the reincarnation of the brutally murdered Sophia Westmarche Dunaven, the last lady to marry into the now-defunct Dunaven noble family. Practice seems to mostly center around defense of the tree itself.

A recent schism in the cult has formed two branches: one is led by Jon Oakborn, sheriff of the Wood Wards, and the other by Sara of Westmarche, prophetess of the Riders of Westmarche. Westmarche claims direct descent from St. Sophia herself, though this should be impossible. The Harring family (who contain the remnants of the old Westmarche family and have inherited the old Westmarche holdings) have yet to comment on Sara’s claims, but the Fenrith-Draguls, who long ago captured the loyalty of most of the old Dunaven Loreclans together with their direct landholdings, have officially decried her as a charlatan. Worship of St. Sophia is expressly forbidden on Fenrith-Dragul lands.
 

With peace established by Duke Rogers, trade is finally returning to the Duchy of Westmarch. The port of Martyn’s Nest sees seaborne traffic from around the Crescent Sea, most of which comes for the pearls obtained in the nearby coastal waters and for the emeralds mined from the Green Mountains and cut by the gemcutters guild based in the port. Cattle ranching can be found in the southern and western portions of the duchy, with sparser Loreclan herds occupying the rest of the duchy, with sparser Loreclan herds occupying the rest of the duchy.

Internal strife has held back the commerce of much of the Westmarches, which tends toward a barter economy among the commoners and a fixation among the nobility with siege weaponry and countermeasures.

The exception to this, and the source of most of the duchy’s revenue, is the Westmarch coastline — especially Martyn’s Nest. Enriched by sea trade of many varieties, including goods from the growing Tycho Free States, and being also Reme’s second-largest port city, Martyn’s Nest is a wealthy and stylish city largely untouched by the duchy’s decades of civil war. Martyn’s Nest market district is also known far and wide for its wondrous gemcutters guildhall, considered among the greatest architectural works of the Crescent Sea.

Other major revenue sources in the Westmarches come from livestock in the west, out beyond most of the fighting, and the emerald mines in the Green Mountains. Duke Wylan is working hard to restore the prosperity of the Duke’s Market in Eckland, and merchants and farmers in the region have reported increasing profits each year since his appointment. The duke’s third daughter, Emna, is known to be fond of numbers and of analytical projection, and has been serving as Duke Wylan’s chief financial adviser, to apparently excellent effect thus far.
 

Duke Rogers is making every effort to obtain and hold full control of the levers of power within Westmarch. He has appointed trusted friends and advisors to all of the positions of authority within the duchy, and so far, the vast majority of them appear competent and trustworthy. But he has a long way to go before he can claim to have excised all the decay and corruption that has taken deep root from decades of internal strife.

Wylan Rogers was an admiral in the Rhemish navy before a sea hag’s curse (the precise nature of which he does not disclose) forced him to change careers to the army some years before his appointment as duke of the Westmarches. Fortunately for himself and his family, he has exceled at both military and civilian leadership on land, nearly as well as he did at sea. He served in the Westmarches as a general of cavalry, which put him into contact with the Westmarch Loreclans, and befriended a number of the region’s most influential pashtars. These connections have stood him in good stead now that he is the duke, since a number of Loreclans originally loyal to the region’s various counts have transferred their loyalty to him personally in his capacity as duke. No doubt this is due to his popularity among the pashtars, but it is also the more traditional Rhemish structure of government, and tradition is always a strong factor in decisions made by the Loreclans. His wife and eight daughters report that while he still speaks wistfully of his years upon the waves, he seems happier with his current position and spends a great deal of time with his family — another characteristic that weighs in his favor among the Loreclans.

Wylan Rogers is the first duke of the Westmarches in several centuries to have total feudal power in the region, with little check on his authority barring decrees from the grand duke himself. Traditionally, the duke of the Westmarches has not been an inherited position, as part of the constant dance to keep any one Westmarch family from gaining enough power to start trouble with the others. However, given Duke Wylan’s unusual level of authority, some have postulated that if he succeeds at keeping the peace in the Westmarches, perhaps his family will be gifted the ducal seat in perpetuity as a reward. Should this happen, he will be succeeded by his eldest daughter Vyla, who currently serves as her father’s chief tactical advisor and is making quite a name for herself throughout the Westmarches. Her military style is clever and inventive, and she takes great care to avoid loss of life in all conflicts, wherever possible. The duke saw to it that his children’s education included pashtar tutors, and Vyla’s use of light cavalry certainly shows the influence of Loreclannic battle-theory in addition to the more traditional Foerdewaith use of infantry and heavy cavalry. She has even experimented with mixed units in the same manner as the Waymarch cavalry operate.
 

Despite their internal squabbling (or perhaps because of it), Westmarchers traditionally take great pride in being part of the Grand Duchy of Reme. Most call themselves Rhemish before Westmarcher, and consider their culture and traditions to be “true Rhemish heritage.” As such, Westmarch forces can always be counted on for Reme’s defense, and more so than ever now that Wylan Rogers has claimed all of the Westmarches’ armies for himself and enjoys the friendship he does with Grand Duke Iltobarus. In general, the Westmarches’ loyalties are Reme’s loyalties, and all Westmarch diplomacy takes place through or under the direction of the grand duke.

That said, rumor has been circling of late of a young girl living as a ward under the protection of the countess of Aciier out in the outer marches between the Green Mountains and the Westwood who looks very much like the supposedly-childless former grand duke and duchess. Though the few remnants of the Decian family (the former line of the grand dukes) lost their claim to the grand ducal line long ago, it is said that emissaries from their ancestral lands in the north have been seen snooping about the western Westmarches, perhaps seeking the truth of these rumors. For her part, Aciier’s countess claims absolute loyalty to Iltobarus and the new Calvian grand ducal line, and as Aciier has traditionally refused to involve itself in typical Westmarch squabbles, the Aciier family is in high favor with Duke Wylan. Only time will tell if treachery or revolution might be brewing in the Westmarch countryside.
 

The duchy’s land military, directly controlled by the duke, primarily serves as a peacekeeping force. It is used to guard the countryside against bandits and monsters, as well as to minimize opportunities for feuding Loreclannic families to pick fresh fights with one another. That being said, the households of Loreclannic barons are permitted small personal guards for their own security, and a few towns without ducal barracks are permitted to organize semi-professional guard militias. Ducal barracks dot the outer Westmarch borders and are common in all major Westmarch cities as well as most larger towns. These enable the duke’s own forces to keep most of the region safe for travel and trade.

More popular in the Westmarches than the army, at least in the south, is the Rhemish navy, which is made up disproportionately of Westmarch-born sailors. The Westmarch coast is very well defended by the Rhemish armada, and many a Westmark aristocrat has served for a time as a naval officer during younger years.
 

Many internal and external threats to Westmarch exist. Duke Rogers is still in the process of consolidating power and pacifying the Loreclannic barons of the duchy, and any number of events could derail his efforts or even recommence the civil wars that have been the rule here for generations. Many dangers exist in the Green Mountains, Westwood, and the Endless Hills. And the eaves of the Green Realm are not far away, along with the shadow of Hollow Mountain, around which it is said a cult with unknown intentions has grown.

The most obvious ongoing threat to the Westmarches is the internal feuding among its powerful families. While all the family heads currently claim that their differences are settled and that they are dedicated to peace, no one believes — even if the leaders are sincere — that every member of every family is of the same mind. Young hotheads seeking excitement or bitter old veterans with a grudge might yet find excuses to renew the violence.

Between the Brodcheks and Merciers, even if young Relm and Lusea are devoted to their alliance and able to resolve their marital issues privately, it is said that the older soldiers in both families are likely to dismiss the young couple’s dedication to peace should the Brodcheks uncover any sort of hard evidence that Lusea was already pregnant when she married Relm. As for the Harrings and Fenrith-Draguls, the new schism in the cult of St. Sophia could potentially be spun into a renewal of the two families’ ancient property disputes, depending on how the Harring count ultimately chooses to respond to the claims of Sara of Westmarche.

The Westmarches do face other threats, however, both internal and external, including the usual coastal pirates, wilderness bandits, and occasional monstrous incursions. No one yet knows, either, who paid for the assassination of the last duke, and no one knows whether Duke Wylan or his family might be in danger still. If the perpetrator was a foreigner, as the duke claims to believe, what foreign body is seeking to destabilize western Reme and why? Castorhage is the prime suspect, but the details remain unclear even if this should turn out to be true. Castorhagi officials deny all such allegations as absurd, of course. The assassin in question is being tracked by an elite team of the grand duke’s own choosing, it is said, but her identity has not been made public, and if her employer should find a way to silence her before she is recaptured, it may prove difficult to ever discover said employer’s motives.

It should also be noted that the Green Mountains have been found to contain some of the realm’s least-guarded entrances to the continent-spanning Under Realms. Should the denizens of the Under Realms ever feel the time is right to emerge in force against the nation of Reme, it is not believed that quiet Quail Valley or the inhabitants of the surrounding mountains are likely to be able to prevent the drow or other creatures of the Under Realms from gaining a strong foothold there and using the Green Mountains as their base of operations for a larger campaign. Preventing such an incursion is a more important priority for the Westmarches than any may yet realize