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The Duchy of Knight's Lake
Realm: Duchy, vassal-state to the Prince of Calantyr
Population: 400,000
Military: 3,000
Language: Common
Major Population Centers
Knight's Lake (town): 20,000Vergmond: About 10,000 permanent residents, with large seasonal influxes of loggers that more than double its size
Athyrian Motherkeep: Some 5,000 civilians in and around the keep, along with around 1,000 men-at-arms and a fluctuating population of several hundred paladins and knights
Overview
While the vast majority of Calantyr's citizens are rural farmers, the duchy of Knight's Lake has a reputation as particularly rustic. This may be due to the duchy's abundant natural resources--the land there is unusually fertile, the lake's fishing is abundant, and further inland are large forests. Since almost the entire population lives around the lake, transportation is cheap, and goods tend to be exported to the Coeur d'Ennui or V'Tavia rather than consumed in the region.Others point not so much to the region's natural features as to the prominent role played by the Athyrian Church, the duchy's largest landowner. In contrast with the rapacious landlords to be found in many parts of the Coeur, the servants of the White Rose levy minimal taxes and have no need to conscript the peasantry for military service. Poverty is relatively low and many families can afford to keep multiple branches together on the same plot of land rather than evicting younger children. Additionally, younger sons and unmarried daughters always have the option of Athyrian service.
The Athyrians have been involved in the duchy for centuries, since before the princes of V'Tavia annexed the region, and their presence inspired its current name. On the western shore of the lake is the Athyrian Motherkeep, an imposing fortress that serves as the order's headquarters in western Meditra. Hundreds of knights and paladins are based in and around the keep, as well as the order's men-at-arms, rendering banditry unheard of.
The other parts of the duchy are not quite so idyllic as the region directly under the Athyiran aegis, but still maintain some of the rustic peacefulness. Its eponymous capitol is located on the southern end of the lake, where it serves as an intermediary between the resource-rich northern parts of the duchy and the waterways leading to the Coeur d'Ennui and Three Rivers. The capitol is a largely quiet town, especially in contrast to Calantyr's bustling coastal cities; the town is dominated by its conservative merchants, who work to ensure stability and steady profits.
The other major community in the duchy is the town of Vergmond, on the lake's northern shore. The town is home to noted shipyards, thanks to its proximity to the hardwood forests upstream; loggers simply float their timber downstream to Vergmond's mills. The Duke of the Coeur and the Prince of V'Tavia both outfit much of their fleets in Vergmond. Vergmond has a rough-and-tumble reputation, with famous pub brawls between loggers and shipbuilders.
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