Year 1462, January to June
The first two trials in the reign of King Edward had been completed, much to the content of the realm, even if less to the content of His Majesty even though he was not willing to admit it for the sake of appearance, the judges appointed was His Grace, Mathias Steelbeard. Lord Louis Orleans, Lord Luke Somme-Chevalier, Lord ClaudeSomme-Chevalier D'Manche and Lord Sumner. The first trial had been that of Duke Magnas who had been accused by the realm due to his actions at the wedding between his daughter and the second son of Duke Michael. The wedding which was expected to have secured the two houses together in the civil war had done anything but that, during the trial it had come out that not only did Duke Magnas attempt to capture him, some claim to kill him as well, but had also attempted to poison him.
In the end, the verdict was read out by Lord Louis Orléans, the verdict being the execution of Duke Magnus, the loss of his duchy title as well as a total payment of 2000 sovereigns to be paid to the King and Duke Michael with half of it going to each.
The next trial and the one which would prove to be the most difficult was that of Duke Michael, it was to be decided if he was in fact a traitor to the realm as he was accused of, or if he was innocent of the accusations. The debate quickly heated up as the questions were asked and it didn’t take long before clear loyalties showed in the judges. Lord Sumner even announced that he would share the punishment which had been placed Duke Michael, to the great annoyance and anger of the King, even make Edward stand up and speak during the trial.
As the trial went on the judges were unable to come to a clear agreement, while it did become clear that Duke Michael would not be punished for High Treason, the majority of the judges did however agree that he should be punished for minor crimes, if for nothing else than to satisfy the king and the realm, together with sending a message that rebellion was not tolerated.
His Majesty signing the order of execution for Duke Magnas
As such in the end a verdict was read out by the judges that the Duke was to join the church which he did as well as pay 2000 sovereigns to the King as compensation.
(+ 10 influence to His Grace, Mathias Steelbeard. Lord Louis Orleans, Lord Luke Somme-Chevalier, Lord ClaudeSomme-Chevalier D'Manche and Lord Sumner. Duke Magnus is stripped of his duchy, forced to pay 2000 Sovereigns as well as executed, Duke Michael joins the church and forced to pay 2000 Sovereigns to His Majesty the King)
Back at court, the mood is much lighter with great evenings, balls, feasts and dancing to keep the courtiers active. And no one was more active than the two ladies in the court, Amalia and Annette, much to the pleasure of the young noble men to look at and much less to the pleasure of the Kings advisers to have to pick between. One of the large issues where some prearranged deal that the King apparently, or at least be claimed to have made to the Count of Carillion before the rebellion, whereas it might be wiser now to break that word and marry the daughter of the new Duke of Edelwick.
Rumours however quickly started to spread among the court that one of the women had already begun sleeping with the King, naturally both of them denied it and so did the King, but it lit the imagination of many in the court and quickly became a known topic during dinners. Perhaps under these circumstances it wasn’t that strange that when His Grace, Loudamere, The new Duke of the Shield arrived in the capital there wasn’t much notice taken of him. Both the families of Amalia and Annette had arrived in hopes of swaying the advisers and power men in Calne to their side of the issue.
The lack of notice that Loudamere however received from either of them not to mention many others proved to be an error in hindsight. As all advisers as well as the King was busy dealing with this issue and others of the realm, it left them all with little time to the lower nobility which was something that Loudamere would capitalize on. He started spending many hours of the day in conversation, playing sports or cards together with lower nobility to form connections, and more importantly it was something that he managed to do extremely well.
It wasn’t until months after his arrival that it became clear to the two families how much power that Loudamere had been able to gather, with Loudamere also starting to gather influence in the higher up nobility it was obvious that he could be of vital importance to secure the marriage with the King.
(+10 influence to His Grace, Loudamere, Duke of the Shields)
As the months went by, the Duchess of Cowen becoming heavier and heavier with child, clearly showing the gift from above in her belly, much to the joy of her husband, as the year went on and the month reached the middle of May, the Duchess finally went into labor. Duke Alistair had made sure there would be plenty of midwives to help, even physicians should they come in need. As the hours went on, it became clear that it wasn’t going to be easy, after 28 hours the Duchess was still in labor, the head physician started making plans to cut open her belly to be able to get the child out, but that would most likely leave the Duchess dead.
However as another three hours passed, the Duchess finally gave birth to a healthy son, but leaving her in a bad state of health to say the least. She soon became ill and has seen been sick but as of late she started to recover and it won’t take long before she is healthy once again.
The Duke of Cowen, as a gift to his wife bought her a Trivian Horse, to congratulate on her the birth of their son, and her survival. The horse, bought up from Lazuli, one belonging to the first generation of the breeding of count Claude. The Duchess being so happy about the gift, thanking her husband, and Alistair being so taken by the horse and its grace, decides to start breeding horses himself.
However, unlike Count Claude in the south, Duke Alistair decided not to breed the Trivian Horse, despite his wife’s happiness for it. Instead he decided to breed the Aruthian war horse, together with the Pivar breed, the Pivar breed being used by lightly armoured cavalry, usually for scouting to secure the region before the main army advances.
The Cowen breed of warhorses
With the decision in the two different breeds of horses, which have been selected for the stables. Many close to the new Duke wondered if the selected breed had anything to do with personal desires, such as the birth of a strong son.
(+70 income to Cowen, -800 to the treasury of Cowen, stables created, the birth of a son to the Duke of Cowen)
In the western part of Pilarch, Luke Somme-Chevalier, the newly appointed count of the region decides to build a large lumber mill to increase the production of and export of lumber. In the city of Pilarch, it is shown that while it being a simple project, it is one that has great support, to such a degree that even forms a merchant’s guild within the province. As such as the lumber mill picks up in production, the guild decides to store half of the production in their stock to be able to sell them later on to different lords needing it.
At the same time, the count orders the construction of fabric mills, the local gentry unlike in Artageth happily accepts the grant from the count to build the mills. It however doesn’t take long before problems start to arise as it becomes clear that it would not be the counts themselves who would profit from these mills. When the mills where constructed, the count, who rightly owned them handed them over to local merchants who would be better at managing them than the gentry. When the gentry found out it turned them from supportive to outraged, as they had not been paid for the construction of the mill, but actually paid for their land without their knowledge to simply be bargained off to lesser men. The gentry set their own men to hunt down the merchants, chaos quickly set in for everyone who lived nearby.
Soldiers loyal to the Gentry, killing the local mill owners
The gentry would simply not accept what they felt was a betrayal of their trust and as such there was shown no mercy, for while they couldn’t get to the count, they could to the common merchants, in the end many of the merchant families had either been captured or killed by the local gentry and they had torn down the majority of the mills. Some of the mills still stood under the counts, those merchants that accepted the purchase of their mills by the local gentry stayed alive, but now had lost most of their fortunes and as such many began to go hungry to bed.
(+500 income to Pilarch, -2500 to the treasury)
The Starborns decide to trade goods with the Islanders across the sea, from the Grimlock Isles come ships filled with mostly iron, nicely fulfilling Daggerfalls need for it. The ships from Daggerfall however carry more common items, common in the realm, though very much needed in the Shield, clothes, tools, dyes and food all being on big demand on the Isles. Altogether this has greatly increased the income in both areas, the traders also making a small fortune for themselves. Of course the newly built harbors in Zaan and Grimlock had also greatly helped with this, the increased capacity for ships and great managing of the port had helped.
(+400 income to the County of Daggerfall and Duke Loudamere of the Shield)
With the iron steadily flowing from the Grimlock Isles to Daggerfall, Lord Sumner decided quickly to put it to good use. The stewards invested in the expansion of smelters and forges around Swordstone, Buntry and Holme. Luckily for Lord Sumner the stewards had found mostly competent smiths, leading to quick production and product output as well as these smiths finally getting back to their jobs again, after the lack of iron in Daggerfall having made a lot of them previously jobless. Even though most of the smiths were feeling once again confident there had been a big fire in one of the forges in Buntry, leading to the death of a few commoners and leaving half the forge in ruins.
(+300 to income to Daggerfall, -700 to the treasury)
The Count of Artageth orders the construction of a new port in his province, however already at the beginning it turns out to be a bad investment. At first he orders the wood needed for the port, as well as the labor which is needed to build it, but as they show up, it becomes clear that while he had the wood, and the workers, none of them actually managed to achieve anything. The workers being so happy to finally be rid of their wives, spend the better time of their stay in a whorehouse, and if not there, then out getting drunk.
The count was furious, to say the least, he ordered all of them fired and punished for breaking the contract which was between the count and workers. Eventually an agreement was reached where the workers would pay back the money they had already gotten, as they did they were then allowed to leave the county, and they did. However some jesters say that laughter could be heard all the way out of Artageth, this in part because that when the count realized that he had gotten his money back, he also found out that the workers had gathered up quite a large bill in the city, which now was unpaid. The count had to make a choice and decided to let them starve, while this might have been the best wish for the treasury, it was not with the whores.
As such the whores began to work overtime, to say the least, which left the city in a, well not pleasant environment. The whores began to work more openly, also in the middle of the day, in dire need to gather money, as such they slept with clients they wouldn’t otherwise sleep with, and for a lower payment than otherwise. Leading to much larger sexual activity in the region, one of the biggest problems however came when some whores, perhaps more dire for money than others, starting sleeping with young men of lower than acceptable age in the rest of the kingdom.
One of the bigger problems however arose when the local gentry members, especially their sons started to be targeted, as often happens with young boys, wanting to relief stress, but more importantly than that, being pressured by their peers. As such it many of their fathers demanded that the count put an end to it, demanding a ban and punishment against the whores, after the whores themselves started coming to the nobles, demanding money for the young lords offspring.
As the count banned it, which probably the wisest move perhaps not in the short term but diffidently in the long one. A few nobles still had to pay for the bastard offspring of their children, but at least a stop had been put to it. At the end of the year, a few whores had indeed died, but the main death was among infants, many whom where just left in the street to die after their birth.
The Count, quickly wishing to move on to a more happy subject, announces that he will expand the textile of the region and as such build new textile mills which runs with the rivers. Over the course of the next few months, a few are set up, the issue is that many of the areas which are needed for the construction of the mills are owned by the local gentry. While some are happy to help, some of the local gentry are not happy with the count after the incident with the whores and as such they simply refuse to build the mills on their land, even though the count was willing to pay for it. As such at the end of the first half of the year, it had improved by a slight bit, but nowhere near of which the count had hoped it would do.
(+150 income to the county of Artageth, -800 to the treasury)
After the besieging of Temeria by the armies of the Comte of Lydes and the Count of Carillion the land had been trampled and ruined nearly everywhere, worst of all were the main roads leading to the other provinces and Vizyma and Blackstone. This led to Baron Simon of Blackstone, as regent of Temeria, to decide paving the roads was in order. Though at first it was a struggle finding the proper workforce to do this, as most of the locals had worked overtime on farming, as some of their lands had been razed by the siegers. Though slowly but surely enough commoners were gathered to do the task. It had taken them a while to pave most of the roads, though there is still roads lacking pavement the parts they had done looked incredible.
Another point the Baron had come to was to increase the income in the region. After lots of debating with the locals they had mentioned the untouched plains bordering Eisenwier, these lands hadn't been touched for decades, even though these plains had always been rather fertile. The Baron decided to gather some lords who might be interested to buy these lands for some possible farming possibities. One of the lords was very interested, far outbidding the other lords, he was one of the more wealthy lords in Temeria and already had small farming communities planted everywhere.
As it happens to be this lord also was the one who mentioned to the Baron to have these lands sold in the first place, it mattered not however, as the taxes he promised to pay just wouldn't be able to be rejected.
Disaster however struck in the later months as one of the shafts in the gold mine in Temeria collapsed, burying many alive.
(+450 income, -1400 to the Treasury, +3 to infrastructure, -1200 to Treasury of Temeria -500 income to Temeria)
Count Louis of Carillion orders the construction of a new building in the middle of his city, the building is a grand structure, and yet simple in design, many wonder what the design is for and it doesn’t take long before it is announced to be a bank, it being based largely off the Rivaran Banking system, which used double-entry bookkeeping and had as of late come in a dire situation. Another grant of 1500 sovereigns where granted to the bank, and while it officially was headed by a local family, it was in reality run by the Count. In the opening months, as expected by a bank, it doesn’t turn a large profit, instead mainly borrowing out the money which had been granted by the count, the income however started to come in during the later months as the interests start being paid by the people borrowing.
Carillion is however a limited market andthe count does however have a plan to overcome this issue with, to do this he expands the bank to the nearby region, what he however didn’t expect was the unwillingness of the local rulers and mayors to allow such a thing. With them worried that the Count of Carillion would hold economic power over them and their province and thus hold the real power in the city. As such many of the banks were ordered to be closed by the local mayors, much to the dismay of the count, as his banks where closed down he ended up spending a great deal of money setting it up for nothing and as such while the bank turned out to be a success, the banking in the nearby regions turned into a failure.
(+600 income to Carillion, -3000 to the treasury)
As the Comte of Lydes left, travelling to Calne first to court the new King, and afterwards onwards towards Cowen to visit his daughter and son in law, he left the reigns of Lydes in the hands of his son, the Vicomte. The Vicomte set about collecting the taxes needed for the coming months, and as he did he also started spending them.
Capitalizing on the events happening in the Trivian states, and the desperate need for money and soldiers to fight the Emperor, which they need if they ever hope not to pay the Emperor. As such the Vicomte went to work to secure the funds which they needed to hire an army and fight back, in return he was able to gather wealthy trade routes and trade arrangements with many of city states. The Vicomte was even able to gain the sole trade rights to Mivian from multiple of the states.
With the trade rights now secured, the Vicomte set to improve the port of Lydes to accommodate for the new ships which soon be arriving to the port. At the end of the first few months it became clear that Lydes had vastly improved its wealth, largely at the cost of others such as Hemritch which was now no longer the main trading point into Mivian for the Trivian city states.
Many now began to see Lydes as the trading capital of the North, outdone by none but the Capital. Together with the increased wealth, the population also followed which caused a large migration to be seen arriving in Lydes to conduct trade, mainly traders who previously was in the region of Hemritch who now lost many contracts.
New quarters in the city of Lydes
To help protect the new wealth in Lydes, the Vicomte also ordered the expansion of the army, partly due to the deaths during the ambushes at Castle Blackstone, and partly simply to ensure that the new people and wealth was safely stored and out of reach of thieves.
(+3000 trade income to Lydes, -3500 to the treasury, -trade to all in Hemritch, increased pop growth to Lydes as well as migration, +100 infantry, 30 new knights, 50 archers, and 3 cannons)
As a grand party was underway in the duchy of Edelwick, it started to get out of control by the third day as more and more of the participants feasted away. With Count Claude showing off his new horses in a race to spread the names of his horse around and show their powers to the nobles. The Duke of Edelwick himself had a ship built for the occasion, a grand and glorious ship to show off his wealth, and perhaps to cover up the failure of the previous year.
As such when the Duke set out with his family, with a large group of nobles and the whole city watching it left everyone with a feeling of grandeur. However as the day went on, the members on the boat, as well as the crew and the helmsman became to get more and more drunk, so when nightfall went on there was not a single sober person left. As they headed back to harbor, the helmsman set them off course and as such they instead headed to a nearby cliffside, known for its dangerous rocks. As they went closer and closer, they eventually hit one of them, making the ship take in water unknown to many of the guests. But as they started to realize what was happening, the guests panicked and tried to flee all to go into the cold water below, back on land people heard the screams, but all thought that the party was just in full swing, it wasn’t until the morning after that it became clear what had happened.
Two weeks after the funeral of the Duke and his family, count Claude was summoned to Calne by the king, there he was proclaimed the new Duke of Edelwick as well as Lord of Edelwick itself.
(Count Claude is the new Duke of Edelwick, +30 influence, previous Ducal family is dead)
One thousands foot knights and two hundred mounted knights where inaugurated in the county of Hemritch, while the Duke had arms and armour for some, it didn’t mean that he had for all, not to mention the long training that would be needed as well as the upkeep for it. The ceremony in Maylfwick Ridge was however a grand thing with great splendor despite the small wealth of the duchy.
To help pay for some of the expenses, as well as with their new knightly titles, the newly knighted young men were given land in the county of Hemritch. It greatly helped to secure that more would be able to pay for their own arms and armor, as well as ensuring their loyalties towards Hemritch in the case of battle. It did however also mean that due to the laws, the Duke was no longer able to tax said regions and as such loss a relatively large source of income from the lands.
Ser Leighton leaving his wife behind
Many however moved out with Harrison towards the rebels in the north.
(+700 infantry and 150 cavalry this turn, +300 infantry and 50 cavalry next turn, -200 tax income to the county of Hemritch)
Even though tensions were rising in the duchy of Hemritch, Prince Louis of Mont Blanc had decided to visit the Count of Pilarch, Luke Somme-Chevalier. However, much to the dislike of the locals, he had taken a Kekist monk with him along for the trip. Whilst traveling toward Pilarch most people didn't pay the monk too much mind, probably trying to ignore him or elsewise being too busy. The Prince managed to get to the newfound count in good health, however Count Luke was quite confused at the sight of the monk but just like most people he tried ignoring him and the Prince and Count conversed without a bother, talking about the state of the realm, the rebellions and the count's new position within this realm. The Prince was offered to spend a few days in Pilarch to regain energy for the long trip back home and decided it was for the best he would. This however turned out bad, the monk, in the time the Prince had spent in Pilarch had managed to start a small cult in Pilarch, very much to the dislike of most of the other commoners and the gentry of Pilarch, it was however not until the group had killed a family whom they thought unworthy. They set their house afire, leading to the flame burning down several buildings as well as crops. This led to the gentry leading a small group of knights to stop this nonsense, leading to the death of the Kekist monk and his followers.
Back in Mont Blanc after nearly another six months of building the cannon foundry in Fleurs it had finally been finished, a lot of things had gone wrong during the building of it, delaying it time after time after time, leading to countless people being sacked as well, and even after all that the foundry still has few problems, the biggest problem being the inexperienced workforce. The first cannon that had been made was more a piece of art than a functional cannon, leaving it useless and even more workers sacked. The wish is for more cannons to be produced in the future of course, so there is still a big search for the right people for the job.
(+200 income to Mont Blanc, -900 treasury)
In Caillaux the situation became more and more dire, as the forces of Hayden moved ever close it became clear that the Bishops time was up and that his hold on power in the region was crumbling at a rapid rate. Many of the minor priests around the communities, previously loyal to the Bishop had now switched sides to Hayden and written to the Patriarch already declaring that Hayden was the rightful count and that the Bishop had ruined the ways of the church.
As Hayden ever moved closer to Bishops city then the city itself turned into a bigger and bigger panic and as such thieving became rampant. As the siege began it only became worse, many people were afraid and demanded that the Bishop surrender himself and stop the suffering his has caused, the Bishop himself however decided to burn them as heretics. Perhaps then it wasn’t so unexpected that something eventually would happen to end the starvation in the city. On the morning of May the fifth a group of ten clergy members and fifty infantry men gained access to the church in which was the Bishop was located, they officially forced the guards of the Bishop to surrender, but in reality the guards where as sick of the Bishop as the rest and as such surrendered without issue when they were ordered. When they gained access to the Bishop himself it didn’t take long before they plunged their blades through his chest and thus ending his reign. At the same time, the gates where being battered down by Hayden whose men then rushed in while killing the defenders.
As the news of the death of the Bishop was announced the defenders surrendered and Hayden took the city.
As Hayden was declared the Count of Caillaux, people prayed that their troubles would finally come to an end and for a short while they did. It didn’t take long before the Duke of Hemritch had sent an army led by his son and heir up north to deal with the so called rebellion, either by sheer folly or to assert their domination over the land the young general continued. Hayden himself now being seen as a hero by the local people for ending the prosecution of the Bishop and bringing peace, had no desire to let their new beloved count simply be pray for a Duke who did nothing to help them in their time of need, and as such Hayden was able to call on a larger army than before, and even equip them due to the help he received during the rebellion as well as the garrisons of the Bishop.
When the two armies finally met, they both offered their terms, Hayden wanting the Duke of acknowledge him as the Count of Caillaux as well as grant a pardon to every person in the county. The young Harrison however had other ideas, if he accepted these terms he knew that he would be weakening the power of the Duke, for if it could be dictated to him who shall own land in his father’s duchy then he had no power to decide anything.
In the end no terms could be reached between the two parties and as such battle formations where made. Harrison being ever the idealist had given the order that they would fight in the chivalric code and act accordingly, many knew that once a battle had started it would be simple chaos, he had also ordered that the noblemen would be captured and spared, while he might wish to fight like in the tales of old then his officers would likely not. Hayden on the other side however knew that he was not dealing with knights, but largely peasants some who had become quite hardened by the last year of constant fighting.
As the signal for battle was given the two armies charged for one another, it was utter carnage and chaos, with both Harrison and Hayden losing control of their armies, the only thing saving the two sides from cutting down their own men was the crest which they carried on their chest. Eventually both Harrison and Hayden joined the fray to try and regain control of the battlefield. Some might call it faith where as others might call it luck that the two eventually met on the battlefield, as they both realized it quickly became clear that Harrison hoped to prove himself, having shown great progress earlier in the month against his trainers.
The fighting went back and forth and both of them fourth bravely, however in the end the Hayden was able to hit Harrison just below the eye on his right cheek, leaving a large scar and permanent mark. As Harrison stumbled backwards from the blow and Hayden also disengaged it became clear as both generals looked around the battlefield that neither of them would claim victory that day.
The death of Ser Leighton
Instead both retreated their forces, leaving a battlefield that had gained both very little but cost a lot of lives.
(-600 infantry men, -100 cavalry, -4 cannons to Harrisons army, -1300 levies. Caillaux is now ruled by Hayden, stats will be readjusted to take everything in to account in the county)
With the stripping of the Duchy, the count of Ravens hall has to pay the fine which has been issued to him by the court. As such to be able to afford it they stop hiring any new soldiers, after a few months the payment arrived in Calne, and the debt was paid.
Furthermore the new count also decided to increase the textile production in the county and as such ordered many new mills. Luckily for the new count, and regent, the order quickly turns successful and many mills are built in the county, even at a lower price than otherwise expected for such a large order and it’s a great boom for the economy, despite this many are still advising the count to lower his expenditures as they are costing him a large fortune.
(+500 income to Ravens Hall, -1500 to the treasury)
The Bishop of Mellions continues to write to the cardinals during the coming months, assuring them that he would do everything that is in his powers to help them against the Emperor. Many of the Cardinals doubted him and even laughed or wish he would go away, not all where enemies of the Emperor and where quite happy with his invasion of Trivia, they saw it as an opportunity, one which they didn’t simply want to pass.
The Patriarch however was thrilled by the promise, and despite the Bishop not promising it, or most likely being able to deliver it, expected that aid from the Kingdom of Mivian against the Emperor would soon arrive.
Response being written to the Bishop of Mellions
As such the Bishop set to work in Calne, gathering the support of the local gentry and nobility to make sure that he would be able to live up to the expectations that the patriarch now held.
The Bishop spend large amounts of time preaching both in the churches, and in private to nobles to convince them to help him in his cause. At the end of the months, he had been able to gather a great amount of support amongst the people, as well as some within the nobility, however many still wondered if this was the right cause to take, most of all within the nobility, where several of them had good trade connections in the Empire, the common people on the other hand was outraged by the actions of the Emperor.
As he returned to the previous Duchy of Ravens Hall, he spoke with many nobles back on the way to Mellions, attempting to establish himself as the new power in the region now that the previous Duke was no more. His attempts was met with varied success but he was able to gain headway none the less, largely due to his actions in the capital earlier in the year, as such he was able to set himself up as a large political power in the region, both temporal as well as spiritual.
(+20 influence to the Bishop of Mellions)
The Count of Aksarben began the year with announcing that the University of the Aksarben would be constructed, for this project he hired architects from the Empire to draw it for him as well as started gathering the materials. However when the architects showed up and the building began, the engineers quickly became concerned that as they built, the site which had been cleared would not be able to support such a massive building as this would become.
They had to act if they ever wished to build a university here, they then began to level the earth and strengthening the ground, using many of their resources in the process to make sure that it was done correctly, making it a very expensive affair to secure this. As the months passed it became clear that no real work would be made on the university itself, instead the foundations stood ready after the six months, and a lot of expenses.
The counts other project went much better, having ordered the expansion of the port, to fulfill this the count had many new storehouses opened up to allow more merchants to use the city as a trading as well as storage hub. The overall trade in the port increased to a large degree, this was largely due to many merchants buying storage space to be able to trade in Lydes. As Lydes itself was not yet ready to support the massive amount of new trade that the city now held, others needed to take off some of the load and as such Aksarben profited greatly from it.
(+400 income to Aksarben, -3300 to the treasury)
Several blacksmith shops are opened up in the county of Calderian during the year, many of them are high making armours from Trivia, having come to Calderia due to the war raging in the North. Many of them where highly skilled and some of the best in the known world for making stylish armor, while granted that it wasn’t all that useful on the battlefield, it was a proud piece of art of any jouster that would take part in any tourney.
As such when many of the shops where built and ready to be put into work, they were already occupied, that did however create a problem for the local blacksmiths as they were soon outdone by the much more qualified Trivian smiths leaving them with a problem.
Some of those blacksmiths tried to change their trade and as such went into jewelry making, however it was not something that was cheap to attempt, leaving many of them broke. Those that however did manage to survive the change needed a new market, one that was not easily found among the commoners. They prepared for over a month, their craft and their skill, making many jewels in the process for them to show off at the coming wedding.
It had been announced that the heir to Calderia himself was to be married to Colette, the daughter of the newly appointed Duke of Edelwick, the wedding was to be a grand affair, bringing many nobles, as well as possible patrons to support the new jewel makers, it was a chance which they would not pass up to profit from. As the wedding came about, many nobles had turned up, both from the Duchy of Edelwick and from the Duchy of Calderia.
The jewelers had given many trinkets away to wealthy nobles, and notably to the bride to show off to the entire gentry for the wedding. After the two Dukes, the jewelers had also had great interest in showing off to the Count of Lower Plait, having a gold mine many wanted his support as it could be more constantly assured. However as the bride walked down the church, much to the jewelers dismay, it wasn’t the trinkets which was spoken about, but rather her own beauty.
While this marriage would secure the alliance between the two duchies as well as the two houses, many wondered about the idea and legality of the marriage, some of Calderia’s advisors even saying they would need the Patriarch to make a dispensation for the marriage to be allowed. Edmund, the young husband to be, had recently made himself known to the Kingdom not only as the heir to Calderia but also as the man who captured the Duke of Temeria after the betrayal of Duke Blackgate. The bride, Colette, was however not without a reputation herself, Duke Claude’s parties being a known thing, as well as multiple of his children. Colette however was more known than many of the others, perhaps due to the favor she carried with her father. Colette being known as a great party goer, like the rest of her family, she however didn’t only go to parties as she like many other nobles also went to tourneys, to watch the knights’ joust, often together with her friends sending the knights kisses from afar. As often happened with Claude, a party was held afterwards, with the knights and young ladies alike not to mention a whole palace of other people, this did however have consequences as the young Colette and it was widely doubted that she was still a virgin by the time of her marriage. This was perhaps all the more reason that the new Duke of Edelwick wished to marry her off, to both secure his position as well as the reputation and integrity of his family and their titles.
The wedding went on and while drinks where at large and free, many decided to hold back due to the closeness of the river Plait and the fate of the late Duke of Edelwick, as such it was a rather sober party despite what had been expected. None the less it had been a beautiful wedding and the Duchy of Calderia finally had a new member to its family.
(+300 income to the Duke of Calderia, -1400 to the treasury. Edmund Steelbeard has been married to Colette)
As the wedding in Calderia ends, the count of Lower Plait travels east towards the Aruthian Empire. There he hopes to conduct diplomacy as well as securing trade deals between himself and the Empire, together with him he had his oldest son Corentin. As they travelled they were able to meet many small local towns until they eventually came further and met with the Duke of Gold’s Field, and as desired they began to discuss trade, however on Duke Louis mind was something much else than trade, something which he saw as far more important which was the rising tensions between the two realms. Duke Louis wanted a way to ease them and return back to a more cordial state which existed before the war, the issue was however that both knew that neither of them could make sure that it would happen simply by them talking.
As such they estranged gifts with one another and agreed to meet at a later point to discuss this issue. However as the Bishop of Mellions was busy in Calne to make sure that the local people rose up against the Imperials it only made Duke Louis all the more worried, and as such he invited Count David back quickly. As such when they met at again, Duke Louis proposed that if Count David acted in the interest of peace and prosperity between the two realms, then Count David would also receive an annual pension of 800 sovereigns.
(-700 to the treasury of Lower Plait, a choice for the count)
Next set of orders are due the 9th.
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