- The Confederated States:
Monmurg
Wavestone
Toli
New Veluna
Westkeep
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New Veluna, also known as Little Veluna, despite its size and weakness is one of the oldest states currently a part of the Hold. Not as old as Berghof and of about the same age as Haranshire (New Veluna's neighbor), the territory had been settled long before the Sea Princes got there. The dusty, arid strip just north of the mountains, now next to Wavestone, had been claimed by several brutal warlords squabbling for viable land, water sources, and the right to sack caravans attempting to get to the trade rich Spendlowe Valley which cradled the hidden nation of Berghof. Through multiple attempts to take the lush Spendlowe Valley, the number of warlords diminished in the area, land, subjects, and soldiers being absorbed by the remaining leaders. Near the time the coastal pirates had become a confederated nation, only three warlords remained: Baron Maggis, Louis Dukaque, and Khan Ch'ch'chteng'grrrzet, a gnoll.
It is worthy of note here that the Dukaque line is prolific and in a relatively short span of time it is long and wide. There are many cousins and brothers and sisters, but to simplify, the patriarch who left Veluna a disgraced knight was Francis Dukaque. He survived the first attack on Berghof. After that, Francis would have nothing to do with Baron Maggis, but his son, Louis, joined Maggis in the second failed attempt. He outlived his father to see his own son thrust a dagger through his throat at dinner one evening. This son was named Phillipe.
Just prior to that event a messenger was received to the Dukaque court announcing the coming of a new government spawned from the sea. The Sea Princes had come. Louis turned the man away with a sneer and a wave of his hand, but his son, Phillipe, spoke with the messenger and believed the nature of the invasion would be unstoppable. Rather than lose power to the oncoming invaders, he promised capitulation, warned the gnoll Khan Ch'ch'chteng'grrrzet that he should relocate quickly, assassinated his father, and marched upon the crumbling keep of Baron Maggis. In this way a junior member of the Sea Princes was born, fully sponsored by the honorable Prince Brandt, his new neighbor.
Later Phillipe became fast friends with Cato, as Cato had promised an equal share of the Berghof lands between himself and Prince Kael for military support in attacking the secluded little nation. After Berghof had joined the confederacy, a power struggle (the kind every new nation requires to stay alive) ensued that defined states' rights. It is assumed that it was through the devices of Clemente Dukaque that Phillipe ingested poison and as new regent of New Veluna, Clemente and Prince Morgen of Berghof took on Cato and the Prince of Toli's growing power. It did not take long before Dukaque and Morgen were the bitterest of rivals.
Today Clemente Dukaque is aged, feeble, and senile, shouting nasty threats and opinions through the halls of the castle to nobody in particular while Maurice winces in disgust to hear it. Those close to the family expect Clemente to disappear soon. It is common and accepted in noble circles to say, "If you want to be rid of a Dukaque, you have to talk to his son."
The land of New Veluna is sparse and barren. The area is less rocky and sandy and the land is not as contoured as is Wavestone to the east. Here there is a good topsoil for growing crops and cotton and several varieties of hearty grain is grown in abundance for miles all around Mitrix, the capital of New Veluna. But the wind that forms the stone so dramatically in Wavestone does not let up here and this chokes the air with dust. The water table below the ground here is also quite close, so in many areas wells can be quite shallow, however, there is also an unusual amount of natural caverns spanning beneath the earth here. New Velunese have no adventurous spirit about these discoveries and close them up immediately when found. Several unfortunate things have happened over the years.
But of all of the states in the Hold this is an adventurer's paradise. There used to be many, many warlords and robber barons who came and went in this territory. Abandoned keeps, manors, and castles dot the land, each with its own tale to tell. Ghost towns, dilapidated temples, abandoned cottages, as previously mentioned, the vast network of caverns--the place is riddled with places to explore, and for the most part the Dukaques are more than happy to allow adventurers to come in and clean the area of potential nuisances. They usually don't ask them to come, but generally turn a blind eye to the profit opportunity in favor of not having to deal with the nasties themselves.
New Veluna currently is a heavily militarized state. Being so far away from real antagonists makes this odd, but the situation is that the slave population here is 10 to 1 that of citizens. Almost all of the citizens of New Veluna are required to keep the slaves in check such that being a New Velunese qualifies one automatically as being someone who primarily works with slaves. The nature of their land and trade resources requires this to make living here at all viable. It is known that before the land was settled it was more alive with its animal and plant life perfectly balanced, but with the human cultivation of the land it can no longer sustain itself and druids know that if humans left this territory it would turn into a great, dry, plain of dirt. Aside from their agricultural produce, New Veluna has nothing but the channel of trade intended for Berghof, and aside from the nearly empty marketplace in Mitrix, the Dukaques have all but given up on tapping this resource. This is truly the study of a dying state.
Part of this may be a dogged insistence that the Dukaques have to maintain their cultural identity. Velunese is spoken here (or at least common with a Velunese accent), the knightly court is upheld despite the heat and inconvenience of wearing clothing normally worn just south of the subarctic, and a knightly code is pretended regardless of the obvious betrayals, infidelities, and outrageous disrespect for human lives in the vast slaveholdings they require. Some historians have remarked that this pretense is something all of the other Princes have forfeited in order to survive and adapt and that this unwillingness to change is the factor that stands in the way of their success and is driving them into the dirt. Still Maurice says, as all his fathers before him, "Es la maniere de vivre des Velunes." and it goes on.
The people of New Veluna are hard workers despite the fact that none of them actually labor, but they must always be attentive and aware of the situation around them. It is an exhausting existence. Some have said that they are slaves to their slaves. Fewer and fewer of them each year have skills or trades because craftsmen cannot survive here as there is very little market for their work. The artisans have left. Those die hard supporters of the regime put in their time every day for dwindling returns. Even they are slowly starting to see that their work comes to no point.
The completely wild areas of New Veluna are few, but as the human population decreases nature is trying hard to take back the former strongholds, particularly to the north toward Hoolway province. In many areas livestock has been left behind and has gone wild so there are growing herds of wild cattle roaming the plains. In thickets near water holes wild pigs and fowl can usually be found. The more wild wildlife that remains are coyotes, hyenas have moved in to prey upon the cattle, and lions occasionally hunt the plains for wild cows and sometimes a slave. Ostriches can also be seen strutting across the horizon. Burrowing creatures, even of the giant variety, also like the soft soil of New Veluna and they include many kinds of reptiles and insects, prairie dogs, moles, and badgers. The flora of New Veluna is sparse usually consisting of thin prairie grasses, when allowed to grow, with more desert shrubs and pinyon pines growing along the base of the mountains. To the north one finds more sturdy woody shrubs and cottonwood trees.
Mitrix is a sad place. It is the seat of the Prince's family and is the largest town in New Veluna, but it is half empty. Abandoned homes and shops are interspersed throughout the community which serve as hideouts for thieves and derelicts. The military is good and efficient, but they have too much work, and while it would be easy to say that they are lazy and drunkards because they have fallen to apathy, they have not. Most of them see the decline of their town and view things in terms of the bigger picture. Sure, thieves and criminals hiding in Mitrix is bad, but it is more important that the slave population remain in control and producing for the only income the state has left. Time spent reprimanding thugs gets nothing, however, confiscating stolen merchandise from a bandit hideout can be worth it. It's all a matter of the take, in order to get them new boots or polish for their weapons. Taverns in Mitrix are solemn places for people to meet quietly and discuss the nothingness of their day and happier times. Some oldsters still remember when the earth produced twice as much as it does now, when the sun didn't seem as hot, when people wanted to come to Mitrix to taste real Velunese Fire Amber and talk of the holy might of old Veluna. Now it is all too obviously a sham.
Maurice Dukaque is the next in a long line of the-same-old-thing. He is of average height, dark hair, dark eyes, medium build, strong Velunese chin. He is, and always has been, primarily a statesman and secondarily a warrior. If he has to, and he has on about four occasions, he can put on his armor and lead his troops in any kind of military operation. Of course, he has better warriors at his side in an advisory role. To the people who he remains lord, he is a strong ruling Prince, but to most, including the other Princes on the council he is just generally unlikable. He lacks character. He tells jokes that aren't funny and only demonstrate his own weakness in character. He misses the finer points of every discussion and must have everything explained to him in council. He is never forceful, but makes obvious attempts at manipulation which shows his lack of integrity. It is funny to imagine that this uncharismatic leader is actually extremely important to the policies of the Hold and its general welfare. Regardless of its decline, his state still has the second best standing military in terms of skill, size, and morale. New Veluna protects the pass to and from Berghof which the Princes have come to realize is the actual stronghold of their nation. If Berghof falls first, Dukaque has the attack sealed at the pass. If the rest of the Hold falls, the Princes can regroup in Berghof while Dukaque holds the pass. This is why it pains Tarrick so to see Prince Morgen of Berghof and Dukaque such bitter enemies over an event that should have been forgotten long ago. His strongest allies in the council are Cato and Kael, but when all is said and done Dukaque is entirely self serving and seeks any opportunity to gain the upper hand. Like all of his relations from Francis, the banished knight, to himself, Dukaque has been a name synonymous with deceit. The animal ascribed to him in art is the pig.
Loriann is Dukaque's wife and is from the homeland like many of the former wives. Her family is the SansPite from northern Veluna and despite the great distance the families are quite loyal to one another. She is important because of all of the Dukaque wives that have come before, she is the most interested in her husband's affairs and sees the difficulties he experiences as a leader of a failing province. She sees the way the soldiers look up to him and hears the way the people of Mitrix speak of him and she knows in their loyalty he has a resource more priceless than gold. And she sees how strong he is at home and how he undergoes some sort of personal decreptitude of character in Monmurg at the Council. In her years with him she has noticed how he sizes up all of the other Princes, how he always talks about the others in grander terms...he is essentially too busy trying to be better than the other Princes to pay attention to his own state. And some of them know it. Loriann has made it her personal mission to get Maurice to focus on being a good leader to his people and to make his state a better place. She is looking to have a proxy go to Council in his stead as Prince Gurzi does. She is going to help him make New Veluna into a better place. She's going to convince him to be the first Dukaque who doesn't kill his father. And then she is going to tell him that he should be proud of what he has done. It has also been noted that she is the first Dukaque wife who wears a dagger on her belt.
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