HERESY

The Church wants a King of Rogalia to make peace, it is true, but loss of lives and brotherhood of mankind is not the only reason for this desire.  The circumstances of Rogalia are a perfect breeding pit for heresy.

The constant state of war can grind down people’s mental endurance.  Living in a constant state of alarm, never knowing whether your family or friends are safe, and being forever at the mercy of the warlords who rule Rogalia causes some, whether through patriotism or a simple need for revenge, pushes some people toward Kuarl.  Kuarl offers the power to kill, and some people see killing as a way to end the killing, or even a way to become king.  Indeed, roving bands of Kuarlites operate more openly in Rogalia than nearly anywhere else, taking on armies and trying to pull converts from weakened military powers of Counts in precarious positions, sometimes using their overwhelming power to make their killing its own object lesson about the hopelessness of continual war.

Ambitious Lazarines find that Rogalia’s fields are positively full of dead soldiers, sometimes literally.  More than once a commander has set out to dig a trench for a mass grave and found the spot already the site of a grave from some past battle a generation or two before.  Lazarines mostly operate quietly from the shadows, but on occasion they have cause to commit to some open endeavor, and in those cases, Rogalia becomes a very dangerous place to have a necromancer for an enemy, if only because of the sheer number of dead soldiers at their disposal, not to mention that they may come somewhat better armed and armored than corpses from some backwater town’s cemetery.

While it is always difficult to tell for sure, it thought that Tarrantists may have a significant hold here, and the Church is very worried about the deity’s presence here.  Those whose ego knows no satisfaction, who recognize no authority above their own, who see others as pawns to do their bidding for the endless accumulation of power and prestige when the costs are borne by others make natural Tarrantists.  The fact that this perfectly describes the average Rogalian Count has not been lost on the Inquisition or the Cyanahim.  In the Rogalian nobility, ambition is the stuff of life.  If you do not have ambition – an ambitious goal, an ambitious attack plan, an ambitious design on how you will get enough food to make it through winter, you will be subjugated by someone more brazen.  Generations of escalation have resulted in a caste of nobility that see rules as illusions for those less clever, and that victory comes every time you see a place to break a rule that your enemy unwittingly follows.  This dangerous mindset is the perfect place for heresy to set in, and with the subtle hand of an artist, a well-placed Tarrantist can move the tide of the nation.

The woods witches, once called the Clever Folk in Rogalia, still show themselves now and again as well.  Though the attitude toward them has changed, a complex history of traditions dealing proper conduct when encountering an ancient bard or wiseman are still in the memory of the people,  Everyone knows that you always accept any gift given to you by them, and you must never be rude to them.  If they offer you a trade of some kind, you should take it.  Anyone who offers shelter or comfort to a clever one can expect their kindness repaid threefold, but anyone who spurns them earns a sevenfold vengeance.  In times past, these bards and poet priests would act as protectors of a community from wicked things, sometimes by appeasing the primal lords of the Faerie by knowing their strange customs, or in later years it is said they could drive off vampires, or even cure a vampire’s bite.  It is said they could enter the Fae by using giant stone henges found in the deep dark woods, and travel to any other henge in Rogalia in but a day, though perhaps more time would pass in betwixt for the traveler, or perhaps less.

While the traditional view of the Clever Folk is mostly benign, the modern Church points them out for what they are now known to be – Vecatra worshiping witches, and a blight on any community that tolerates them.  The tricks of the past were the collaboration with demons of the land, and wicked spirits that serve the Triumverate of the woods goddess.  Like all witches, no congress between they and the people of the Throne is permitted, as their influence is considered dangerous heresy.

TRADITIONS

Holidays often vary from County to County because of the unique rulerships of each Count.  Many Counts have holidays which venerate an ancestor such as the founder of their line, or to commemorate famous or important battles won or lost.  There are several holidays, however, that transcend County borders and are part of the Rogalian cultural identity.

Soldier’s Day

Soldier’s Day is a day of remembrance for those who have been killed in battle.  If the bodies were able to be returned home for burial, the family will visit the gravestone of the lost soldier.  Cemeteries are usually very full on this day, and the living gather to reminisce about old times and glorify the lives and sacrifices of the fallen.  If a soldier’s body was never recovered, or whether he actually died never proven, it is traditional on this day to ask a priest to light a candle for them, which they carefully take home and place upon the window ledge.  This is thought to help to guide them back home.  If the candle is still burning in the morning, it is thought to be an omen that they are still alive out there, somewhere.

Homecoming

During the first weeks of winter, Rogalians take a day to bring their families together, wherever they can be found if they are able.  Almost no peasant families transcend County lines, so this is usually feasible.  Merchants and other traveling professionals try to make a special effort to come home during this holiday so that they can be with their loved ones.  The feast marks the start of winter, and thus, the end of campaigning season.  Soldiers are almost always home by this time for the winter, since war cannot be waged for the rest of the year.  The gathering acts as a kind of headcount to see who has survived this campaign, and any family member that went off to war that does not make it home for Homecoming is assumed to have been killed in battle.

Those that do make it home are greeted with a huge party, as generally all of the village’s soldiers arrive home from the Count’s army on the same day, so the celebrations are often combined in the village square, and then break off into smaller familiar groups back at the individual homes.

Nightlord’s Feast

The Nightlord’s Feast is a popular holiday, especially with young people.  On this day, everyone in the village dons special costumes and clothing in order to appear like vampires.  People wear costumes to try to look like aristocrats, (though with far poorer material and mostly a caricature of it) and otherwise accessorize to try to represent what they believe the Noblemen of old appeared as and acted like.  Copious amounts of red wine are consumed on this day, and a great cask is opened in the middle of the village from which everyone is permitted to take as much as desired.

This evening, which takes place in mid-Autumn, corresponds to the anniversary of the death of the Red Queen, and is somewhat in reference to the great blood tithes that villages once had to perform to appease their vampire masters when the Noblemen would come around to collect.

Peace Day

Peace Day happens in the middle of summer, when the days are their hottest, and when armies in the middle of campaign.  On this day, a general truce is called for and almost always honored by all militaries everywhere in Rogalia.  The day originates with the story of St, Richard Heatherfield, called Richard the Trustworthy, who is legendarily said to have brokered a peace between four opposing armies in a single day.  Several versions of this story exist as Ballads, sometimes switching this Count for that one regarding exactly which armies were stopped, but all accounts agree that St. Richard made a truly moving and impressive speech that shamed all the lords present into peace.

Strange as it may sound, the Counts, even extremely militant Counts like Baines, follow the tradition and do not seek to engage enemy forces on this day.  Furthermore, anyone who has had a quarrel in the past year will give an earnest gift to their enemy on this day.  Between hard rivals, these gifts are an art form all their own of subtle backhanded jabs, such as a portrait of the recipient in an unflattering pose or with their nose a little too large, or perhaps a new sword, given that the giver had sundered their sword dramatically in the last defeat, and the gift can remind them of the occasion.  While it may seem strange to some, nobles who receive such gifts almost never take personal offense at them, even from a bitter enemy.  On the contrary, the effort gone into such a gift is a mark of respect for them as a foe.

As many gifts are genuine attempts to make an actual overture of peacefulness, or to court a new ally.  Among the smallfolk of Rogalia, who can be just as grudge-bearing as their nobles, an attempt is also made for less epic quarrels, such as who ruined who’s shoes last spring,  This day is seen as a way to end a feud honorably and without losing face, or even admitting that you were ever wrong.  The holiday demands that peace be made, so they don’t have to feel bullied or shamed into admitting they were wrong, but all the same, people can rejoin and move forward as friends.

Legends tell of scoundrel Counts or captains who have broken tradition and engaged in combat on this day, hoping to catch their enemy unawares.  Not only are their efforts said to have failed in disaster, but the survivors were haunted to the end of their days by the spirits of those they slew, their lives cursed forever.

Neck Coverings

Rogalian tradition has it that a vampire cannot drink your blood if you wear a scarf, collar, or choker around your throat.  Most people have no idea if this is true, but nevertheless Rogalian fashion has grown around the idea, and almost all Rogalians, regardless of class, wear some sort of neckerchief, tie, a high-collared coat or shirt, or perhaps a choker of lace or velvet, in the upper class.

TRADE

Rogalian trade is a risk-filled venture, but where there is risk, there is profit.  Thanks to the wars, the roads are difficult to travel, which means that outside goods are scarce, so those that can provide them may set their own prices.

Most of the merchants in Rogalia are not Rogalian.  Given that the roads are so difficult and fraught with peril from raiders, night malefic, or the greatest danger – armies in need of supplies who pay with their swords instead of coin – most merchant travel is done by ship.  Rogalia has a long coast and its capital city is a trade port, making ship travel a natural second option to the roads.  This, naturally, would induce the Counts to pursue naval action to perform trade operations, and certainly they do, but piracy, or rather naval warfare, is very common.  Strong naval powers like the Houses of Underwood, Telford, or Renett that can afford to guard their merchant vessels still can make a good profit, but for others they would have to rely on the resources of a rival.

Thus enter the Hestralian Trade Companies, most specifically the Rogalia Company, which act as neutral to the main conflicts amongst the Counts.  While piracy does still strike at these traders, it does so with far less frequency, as to attack the trade vessels could mean the loss of essential contracts and goods that can’t be found in one’s own County.  Acting as a united force, the Rogalia Company, which is actually a confederacy of private captains who agree to sail under the same flag and split the profits of their voyage with the company back in Hestralia, is able to punish Counts who act against them with trade embargos.  On occasion, Counts still do interfere with their merchant traffic, but this is usually for strategic reasons to deny supply to their enemy, and usually do so with a blockade rather than sinking the vessel.  The Rogalia Company assesses a fine for this behavior, common enough to be built right into their contracts, but the Counts sometimes deem the price well paid to finish a campaign with fewer losses.

Another novelty of recent years is trade from Njordr.  With its recent annex into the Throne after centuries of raiding and reaving, many of those that come viking to Rogalia have their longships laden with furs or metal ore rather than spears and warriors.  Some of them leave with more treasure than in the old days, but the sight of a longship running up the beach near a coastal settlement still terrifies quite a few people, and many still refuse to trade with them.  The Church, however, has made a special effort to recognize the efforts of these Njorse traders, granting them special subsidies to trade their Njorse goods in Rogalia, and offering to purchase any unsold goods at fair price after they try the main markets.

The great majority of import goods though, comes from neither Njordr, Hestralia or anywhere else on the mainland.

DUNLAND

Rogalian fields are an unreliable place to grow food.  Too often they are put to torch, or even poisoned as acts of war.  The peasants still plant, of course, for this is not always the case, but supplemental food is needed to feed the populace.  For this purpose, Dunland is kept as the great breadbasket of Rogalia. In a counter-intuitive move, House Renett took its own war for Rogalia out of Rogalia, conquering the neighboring Dunnick Isles instead.  Dunland is a lush, verdant and soil-rich country.

It is kept thoroughly subjugated by House Renett’s armies and navy, and in the meantime House Renett grows fat on its resources which include copious amounts of wheat and grains, as well as rich iron and silver mines.  The Dunnick people, like any other Rogalian peasants, for legally they are all Rogalians now, are not allowed to leave Dunland without permission, but Dunland ends up exporting plenty of Duns as well.

Dunnick people, red or auburn of hair, freckled of face, are common all over Rogalia, and even elsewhere in the Throne.  Duns are proud in spirit, and hate their conquerors, and while some of them foment rebellion, others just want to leave, and they can do so by swallowing that pride. The authorities in Renchester, the Renett stronghold in the isles, will agree to export Duns who wish to leave, across the treacherous Strait of Edges to the Rogalia mainland.  However, the cost for this is an enormous financial debt to House Renett, for which they must enter a debtors contract.  Dunnick in Rogalia and elsewhere, then, are most often indentured servants of House Renett, forced into positions of menial labor.

Dunnick workers form a kind of invisible lower class all over Rogalia, lower even than ordinary peasants.  They are seen in the back kitchens of inns and roadhouses, mucking out stables, lifting crates dockside for Stevedore guilds as ad hoc day laborers, as sex workers in brothels, and emptying fields in harvest time.  Technically many of them as a vassal of House Renett, though Rogalians don’t bother to think of them as enemy agents, if they bother to think of them at all.  Everyone knows the only loyalty to Renett they have is that if the payments stop, so too do their lives.  Others, however, are property of the local rulership.  Dunnick (or, technically, their debt contracts) are purchased by Counts in medium to large-sized groups to work their lands or do whatever chore the Count has in mind for them.

Few Duns ever pay off their debts, though some lucky ones do.  Most die in debt bondage or, just as often, escape to live a life elsewhere, or return to Dunland to fight for freedom with whatever resources they can bring back.

HOSPITALITY

Rogalians are not known for their hospitality to strangers.  As a general rule, despite whatever the Church may teach about brotherhood, there is just too many things that can go wrong, including accusations of treason for helping an enemy.  While an enemy count cannot hide an entire army in the closet of peasants, he could be sending a spy or an agent deep within enemy territory.

Among those they know, however, the story is entirely different.  Rogalian townspeople do not think of themselves as civilians, rather just members of the military in a support role rather than a combat one.  If some disaster, military or otherwise, befalls loyal members of their County, the entire township mobilizes into an auxiliary field hospital.  Rogalians from villages over can be counted on to drop everything and assist the wounded, or to carry people for miles on litters to safer areas.

MILITARY

Rogalian’s armies are usually specifically organized around their knights, which are responsible for levying, equipping and training their armies.  Since many knights have small fiefs without much industry, the Order makes an effort to produce or purchase as much arms and armor as it can to equip armies with, but ultimately, much like other parts of the Throne, armies usually fight unarmored and with poor equipment.  However, the efforts of the knight orders to produce equipment usually mean there is at least one or two units of heavy, fully equipped infantry forming the vanguard.  These troops, usually veterans, form the hard edge of the Rogalian sword, and fight using all the advantage that their heavy armor and weapons grant them.  Their fighting style, called Rogalian Sortie, involves muscling down their opponent with their plate-laden body or a smash from their heavy shield, executing grounded opponents, then moving forward with the line to the next foes.

Rogalian bowmen are also famous, often timing using the famous Rogalian longbow, which, far taller than a man and sometimes fired with the legs from one’s back, can launch arrows nearly twice as far as standard archers, shooting enormous, thick shafts the size of broomsticks.  Fighting between Rogalian armies often involves using infantry or cavalry to force enemy troops into vulnerable positions where the longbowmen can bleed them at ease.

MAGIC

Because of the constant strife, and the wish for Counts to get an edge on their opponents, the mage guilds get plenty of work in Rogalia.  The Magicians of Fire gain many contracts from the constant warfare, but other magicians find work as well.  Earth Mages can, for an incredible price, erect fortifications on short notice to defend against a siege that would otherwise destroy a capital and end a dynasty.  Water Mages, uncommon as their temples may be, can sometimes be called upon to correct a terrible growing season or to protect their people from disease, and air mages, if they can be found at all, can provide priceless intelligence, manipulation or assassination.

Some people even think that one or more of the guilds are playing the Counts as their own pawns, using Rogalia and its counts as pieces in their own conflict, even as the Counts believe they are doing the same.

RULING HOUSES AND NOBLE BLOOD

HOUSE ADDISON

Coat of Arms: A single blue chevron behind a gold hammer on a black field.
Maxim: Dread our Ire
Keep: Weight of Woe

At the end of the Age of Witchkings, Adam, The Great Hammer, founded an order of avenging knights to take back his lands from vampire lords. They eventually became known as the Sons of Adam, endeavoring to liberate mankind completely from the curse of vampirism. One of the first to overthrow the yoke of vampire oppression, Adam is hailed as a hero both within and beyond the Addison county, an inspiration to Rogalian people. House Addison, today, continues the tradition set by its founder and trains some of the greatest hunters and slayers in all of Rogalia. Even further, the county refuses to be ruled by a Count that has not personally slain a vampire and House Addison is forced to send those in line on hunting expeditions to earn their right to rule.

Sons of Adam

Valor: Streetwise

The Sons of Adam are renowned Vampire Hunters, following the tradition of Adam the Greathammer, first man to hold a County from the vampire counts.  Despite their famous use of heavy mauls in battle, the Knight Order’s true pride is their ability to find such elusive prey in the first place, sorting through rumor, gaining information, and ultimately uncovering the secret identity or hiding place of vampires and their spawn.

Adam’s Vigil

– First of the human strongholds since the late Age of Witchkings, though not the oldest.
– Maintains a core of vampire hunters called the Sons of Adam who specialize in crossbow use and special war hammers that feature a wooden spike.
– Placed upon a great and prominent bluff that has a commanding view of the valley around it.

The Order of St. Una

Patron Angel: Nuraniel
Patron Saint: Una the Redeemer
Una is said to have returned a vampire back into a mortal human man with the force of her faith and love. The vampire was her husband, Renard. He went hunting in the wilds and did not return for several days. He was sighted around town as a vampire, hunting the villagers he used to know. Una, his devoted wife, decided to go to him, in defiance of the admonishments of the villagers. She thought she could save him from himself, but the villagers thought she would simply be turned vampire herself, as she walked into the midnight darkness from the village. When she returned at dawn, it was arm and arm with Renard, her beloved, miraculously changed back into human form. She was declared a saint in Lion Age 73.

HOUSE ARCHIBALD

Coat of Arms: A raven blocking the sun with its wings on a white field.
Maxim: Touch The Sun
Keep: Authority of Tomes
House Archibald is premier in research of the undead and vampires and have a scholarly approach to dealing with their enemies, both living and dead. Founding the Parliament of Lords, Port Melandir is a tremendous gathering point where representatives from each county can assemble and discuss matters concerning all of Rogalia. An agreement signed around the founding of the throne, the Pactum Domini, stipulates that no act of aggression can be made with House Archibald as long as they continue to show hospitality to the Parliament. However, they may only possess a military that can maintain their modest borders and it may not leave their own county. Thus, much of the city’s focus is in the maintenance of their tremendous archives and libraries. Here, scholars, philosophers and scribes are all common ways of life where academia is routinely indulged. In the darker underbelly of Port Melandir and the House Archibald, as well, are strange and bizarre experiments that are illegal to most residents not privileged to be born with noble blood. The apex of which is a rumored vampire of ancient origins, carefully studied and locked up in the depths of the city.

Knights of the White Raven

Valor: Academics

The White Ravens are sometimes called the “Librarian Knights,” for their duty is the pursuit of knowledge, wherever it can be had.  They go into ancient tombs and take rubbings of old inscriptions, break into ancient libraries to find rare tomes and bring them back to the libraries of Port Melandir, as well as take it upon themselves to learn everything they can from books, tomes and scrolls in the endless collections of House Archibald.  Since House Archibald has no army by order of the Pactum Domini, the White Ravens are often lent on retainer to other Counts throughout Rogalia where they serve as seneschals and advisers to the Counts, offering to assist them with their vast expertise.

Port Melandir, The City of Scholars

– The largest city in Rogalia and home to Parliament, it is neutral ground for the warring Counts. It is the largest urban center in Rogalia, approximately ten times the population of the next largest town governed by a single Count.
– House Archibald’s love of learning and literacy makes Port Melandir’s libraries the largest repository of books and scrolls in the known world.
– Port Melandir has no military of its own, only a constabulary police force, and the borrowed might of every other Count’s navy and military, who can and do keep forces there year round.
– The Harbor district, the largest part of the city, can dock over 1000 ships on its enormous wing like docks. Each “feather” of the wings can dock about 10 mid sized ships.

The Benevolant Order of St. Sebastian

Patron Angel: Cyaniel
Patron Saint: Sebastian the Forger
St. Decimus found himself on the coast of the empire. He was bruised, disarmed, and very nearly captured. He had only just escaped from the prison of the warlord who ruled from the modest walled town of Port Melandir. Wounded, and fleeing carefully through the the town’s unfamiliar streets, he became lost in the twisting alleyways and cornered by soldiers. A nearby craftsman offered to hide him until the danger passed, seeing a man alone and in danger. When Sebastian the Forger asked after the man’s story, Decimus told him all he had done. Sebastian was not angry with him, as others had been. He saw the wisdom behind Decimus’ actions, and believed his story of divine guidance. He offered him a new blade, and new armor and tools, and sent him along his way once night had fallen. It was on that very night that Bronka, warlord of the west, was killed. Sebastian was declared a saint in Lion Age 304.

HOUSE ASCALON

Coat of Arms: A white crescent moon in a black starry field.
Maxim: Dread the Dark
Keep: Dusk Watch
Sometimes accused of vampirism, the populace of House Ascalon is shrouded in a narrow valley against the Highcrown mountains, and their lands receive only a few hours of sunlight each day because of the high cliff-sides surrounding it. They are known for their many successful night raids against invading military, and their nobility tends to be extremely fair-skinned.

Shadowvale, City of Lanterns

– Shadowvale was once used as a stronghold in the nights of the Age of Witchkings by the Vampire Count Karsus.

– The city, build upon the cliffside of the Highcrowns, is set above hundreds of caverns which twist through the mountainside.  Obviously not naturally occurring, no one knows who originally delved the tunnels.

– The city has system of pipes which draw natural gas from deep within the mountainside.  These power a huge array of gas lanterns throughout the city.  It is said that somewhere in the depths of the caverns is an ancient dwarven golem that keeps it running, though no one who has ventured into the darkest tunnels has returned sane.

Knights of the Lantern

Valor: Stealth
The Knights of House Ascalon are known for their terror tactics, and night raids, as well as capability for infiltration and assassination.

The Order of St. Balta

Patron Angel: Cyaniel
Patron Saint: Balta the Bold
Balta the Bold was a lady in waiting and the daughter of a knight. A sly gambit to take back the throne had corrupted the current head of House Ascalon to favor a subversive Vampire within the court. When collusion of the matter was revealed between several members, Balta led a small group of priests into the castle to kill them during the few hours of sunlight in the town. When the house guards saw the slaughter at dusk, they hung Balta and her collaborators for treason. Balta was lionized in Lion Age 442. The Order of St. Balta keeps true to her sentiments by policing internally all suspicious and subversive heresy in the city of Shadowvale, working with the town watch, but keeping vigilant to turn on any who become corrupt.

HOUSE AVERY

Coat of Arms: A set of white scales on a blue and black checker field.
Maxim:  Let Wisdom Reign
Keep: The Broadstone
City of Influence: Caranthe

House Avery is a house with a history as checkered as its coat of arms.  Historically the Lords of Avery have been great idealists, philosophers and scholars, and have attempted many ambitious plans, with only a few coming to their true potential.  Still, that is many more than those who did not try, and Caranthe boasts several wonders issued from them.  The House Avery has long been associated with law and order, and many of the philosophical basis for laws in other lands originated with the younger brothers or sisters of the ruling Lord Avery over the years, whose responsibility it is to design and implement laws, rules and plans.  While the maxim espousing the virtue of wisdom drives the Averies to scholarship and good judgement, its high handed ideals have been criticized as being impractical, and occasionally a backlash occurs in the Avery rulership wherein a strong bend toward cruel pragmatism takes over in the house.  This has occurred several times in the House’s history, with rulers that have taken the ideal of Let Wisdom Reign to task in fixing crumbling infrastructure, painfully increasing taxes and brutally attacking enemies or fair-weather friends who have been seen to abuse the friendship of the House of Avery.  These times are looked as dark times by more idealistic Lords Avery, but in true pursuit of wisdom, they acknowledge these periods rather than suppress them from their history, and the white scales on the checker field is an acknowledgement of this dual nature of their ancient line.

Caranthe

– Built upon a mountain peek in the Highcrown range, Caranthe is a natural fortress, requiring a long trek through mountain roads to get to.  This is a mixed blessing, as while it makes the town quite difficult to attack, it isolates it dangerously if supplies are cut off.

– The city boasts several engineering marvels, including an aerial carriage that can lift people and goods up and down the mountainside.  The device has to be worked by several oxen, though it was expertly designed so that the device can only be operated from within Caranthe to prevent it being used as a method of assault on the mountain fortress.

–  Caranthe is somewhat famous as a source of philosophical books and letters, thanks to the Monastery of St. Roger of Caranthe, which is supported almost entirely by the Avery family.

The Order of Solomon

Valor:  Heavy Weapons

The Order of Solomon began as a sworn order of judicial champions, sworn to perform ritual trials by combat to determine the worthiness of a legal cause.  The founder of the Order, Solomon himself, acted as the champion for Count Simon Avery, the founder of the Avery line in the early years of Rogalia’s independence in a matter of dispute with House Addison. Before any law was agreed on between the budding Counts, Simon Avery suggested varying series of equitable laws by treaty that the new Counts could live under, but Adam the Greathammer disagreed, having been busy installing his relatives and favorites in nearby fiefdoms, so matters had to fall to the trial laws of old tradition instead.

Since the forming of Parliament, some among the Order have sworn an oath to Parliament in general act as the judicial champion for any Highborn who wishes it, though they will never fight one another.  They are strongly tied to matters of legal arbitration, and are often deputized as magistrates empowered to administer law throughout the land.  So famous is their professional impartiality and skill that they are sometimes empowered to act in this capacity even in the lands of neighboring Counties.

The Order of St. Roger of Caranthe

Patron Angel: Cyaniel
Patron Saint: St. Roger of Caranthe

The monastery at Caranthe, built so high into the mountains, gives a commanding view of Rogalia, much farther than the actual County of Avery extends.  The monastery’s many balconies and patios are said to be an excellent place to contemplate the country, its purpose, and its fate.  Many here are the quiet brothers of the Cyanahim covenant, always writing and reading, and speaking only rarely, and many are monks or other lay people who come to the monastery for contemplation.  The monastery produces works of philosophical importance as a result of its contemplation, and makes arguments for policy throughout the Church and in more secular government.

St. Roger, for who the order is dedicated, was a dedicated monk of Cyaniel who wrote a series of harsh critiques of the ruling Avery lord and would continually have them delivered to the Count.  The Count, Martin Avery, originally attempted to have the man arrested for treason, but he could not find him to do so.  Month after month the letters came, becoming more desperate and insistent, and eventually copies of the letters leaked into the populace and became the spark for a revolt against the Count.  Finally, in the midst of a riot, the authorities captured Roger and executed him, though Count Martin later died of wounds incurred during the riot.  The next Count, Patrick Avery, who had read the letters and seen in them the wisdom of Roger’s criticisms, resolved to enact many of the changes he suggested, and offered to the Church to fund the construction of the monastery at Caranthe.  Roger was lionized in Lion Age 480.

HOUSE BAINES

Coat of Arms: A Crowned Skull on a black field.
Maxim: Deal in Iron
Keep:  Doom Iron
City of Influence:  Blackforge

House Baines has but one endeavor, and that is war. It is this single-mindedness that makes them so formidable. Known for its weaponsmiths, torturers and disregard for anything else, House Baines is as bleak and austere as the crowned skull on its banner. They are a house without mercy or joy, and signs of their sacrifices are seen in the settlements within its county. There, acres of forest have been cut down to make charcoal for smithing and abandoned mines litter the landscape. Though, this not all in vain. The host of Count Baines’ is the largest by far, and threatens the borders of all his neighbors. Only the threat of an allied defense keeps them in check from a full invasion.

Blackforge

– Blackforge boasts a smith district that is wider than many villages.  The entire city bends to support the smiths, the forges of which run day and night in shifts to fulfill the endless orders of the Count.  Because of their endless hunger for iron, trade often occurs in the form of iron ingots as a means of transaction.  A tradition of this has lead to Blackforge’s mint producing coins of iron or brass rather than the traditional metals.
– Baines County probably started out rich in timber, but it is hard to tell now.  Miles of clear-cut countryside surround Blackforge, forests of old stumps cut for charcoal line the ground while the horizon is only dotted by the derelict mouths of exhausted iron mines.  Even though its own resources have been so largely depleted, the citizens of Blackforge do not starve or want for commodities, able to turn the iron swords that they produce into a means to get any other commodity necessary from elsewhere in Rogalia by means of conquest.
– The city requires a second military district to house its soldiers and armies when they are not on campaign.  The Military Quarter of Blackforge is essentially like a giant barracks or base, only with services such as whorehouses and alehouses to keep the soldiers entertained when they are at home.  The buildings to house soldiers and their families are built high, as well as wide, often seven or eight story high in huge iron citadels, the sides braced for impact against siege equipment.  At the center of the district is the enormous iron castle, Doom Iron, which houses the noble House of Baines itself, as well as his elite champions, the Blackguard.

The Blackguard

Valor:  Blacksmithing

Clad in thick iron plates and often carrying giant shields, the Knights of the Blackguard are fearsome opponents, acting as pylons in the midst of the armies.  This Order is exclusively a military one, and all of its assignments are military operations for the glory and conquest of House Baines.

The existence of this Knight Order is integral to the success of the Baines military machine, but not in the obvious way.  It takes more than just metal to make an army – it also takes men willing to wield it and fight for the cause of another, and no matter what else, Baines County only has so many people in it.  Gaining entry into the Blackguard is a matter of military skill and personal ability, which means that any common soldier of exceptional skill may be granted title and nobility if they serve House Baines faithfully and well.  An opportunity to join the gentry by killing the old ones is the secret fantasy of many a Rogalian peasant, and so if peasants were to betray their lawful lord and travel to the County of another, it is quite likely to be for the Crowned Skull.  While generally wary of traitors as any noble would be, House Baines certainly does allow these renegades to join their forces, though often puts them into special regiments within their armies until they are trusted enough to join the regular forces of peasants born in Blackforge and the lands surrounding it.

The Order of St. Iron

Patron:  Mithriel

The man called Iron of Blackforge was an unnamed slave taken in the wars of conquest that happened before the Emperor arrived.  He was brought to what was then the small, forested village of Blackforge, an outpost which processed the iron from their one small mine and worshipped a cthonic local deity that was thought to live in the mines and caves.  The mine had nearly run dry, and only a few days after he had arrived and was put to work in the shafts, the mine was declared to be exhausted.  The miners and forgers blamed the new slave for this turn of bad luck, saying that because of his worship of the Prophet Benalus, the Mine God had abandoned them.  The man said that the bounty of the earth was God’s alone to give, and that if allowed to live and the men turned to worship Holy Benalus, he could find a new mine, and the town could continue to prosper.  Allowed to go into the woods to explore, the man prayed to God for guidance and that very day located seven new iron mines that no one in the area had ever heard of or discovered.  The men called him Iron, savior of Blackforge, and they all agreed to convert to the worship of Benalus.

The Fortress Monastery of St. Iron is built upon the site of the original empty mine in Blackforge, using its ancient tunnels, now reinforced with beautiful engraved stonework, as halls of worship and reflection.  The Order oversees the military issues of House Baines and augers fortuitous times of war and attack.  Historically most of the Counts have listened to the Order’s augeries about when to attack, but some critics amongst the army believe that the Order is simply there to trick the Count into attacking less frequently, to temper his endless appetite for war.

HOUSE BRADFORD

Coat of Arms: A white lion above a sword on a blue and white field.
Maxim: Forever the Keepers
Keep:  Canticle of Stone
City of Influence:  Bradford

Pious and devout, the House Bradford is known for their rigorous religious practices, taking the teachings of Benalus to their written word. Priests and paladins are held in extremely high regard as is any edict from the church or pontifex. So much so is their zeal, that many think House Bradford predictable and naïve, but they have proven to be extremely adept at political maneuvering and military campaigning. Due to their constant tithing as well, the church pays House Bradford many favors and rulings, allowing them resources and influence beyond that of many houses.
Bradford

– Bradford, rich in stone, is a walled city built upon a hill near the river crossing that gives it its name.  Its streets and alleys are all paved in stone, and its buildings are tall and strong.  A stone bridge extends from the town’s walls and over the river Mastow, where several stone embankments and gatehouses have been erected so that if necessary the bridge acts like a dam and can block all river traffic while archers or siege weapons fire from within the fortifications on vessels or armies below.
– Bradford has a love of festivals and parades, and at least one major town-wide holiday happens each month celebrating some aspect of Benalus’ life or other religious observances under the oversight and organization of the local Church at St. Luther.  Colored paper streamers and banners are strung up between buildings during parades, and the soldiers and knights walk to the applause and cheers of their people.
– The wealth of Bradford is due to a policy of frugality and temperance in its nobility.  The House of Bradford grows rich from river commerce and strictly puts that wealth back into its people and into the Church, maintaining a minimalist defensive military with strong fortification rather than powerful ability to project its force.  It is the belief of House Bradford that its responsibility is to God and to its peasantry to give them hope that Rogalia, their home, can be a wonderful place.  Critics in their neighboring counties often say that they are simply pandering for favor with the Church in hopes that the Pontifex will illegally crown their Count King of Rogalia, or support a bid to do so with Pontifical armies of Templar.

The Guardian Order of St. Luther

Valor:  Shields

While not actually a Holy Order under the control of Lethia, the Guardian Order of St. Luther is a church order in all but name.  The House of Bradford maintains their Order for the purposes of defending Bradford officially, but grants substantial control of them in all other respects to the Order of St. Luther and other Church officials whenever they are not otherwise engaged,  even giving members of St. Luther Abbey honorary commander’s ranks in the organization so that they can take control of them more easily when needed.

The Guardian Order make excellent bodyguards and stewards, acting as something of a majordomo and chief of security for whomever they are assigned to personally.

St. Luther’s Abbey

Patron Angel: Melandiel
Patron Saint: St. Luther the Mason

Luther of Broad Ford, long before the great house that would eventually come to bear the name of the region, was the stone mason who built the bridge over the river Mastow at the broad ford that travelers and herders had been using for generations.  Every year, the river would flood the ford and become unusable.  The timing was somewhat hard to predict, however, so often flocks of sheep and their shepherd would arrive at the crossing only to find it impassable, then local bandits would raid them, often killing the shepherds and rustling off the sheep to sell elsewhere.  Luther, under his own expense, hired men, as well as asked his several sons, to defend the herders while they detoured to the next crossing a few miles to the south, and protected them while they performed the long and treacherous operation of crossing at the narrow fords.  In the meantime, he quarried the stone for and built a wide permanent bridge across the broad ford, making sure that herders could cross all year long.  Luther of Broad Ford was lionized in Lion Age 237, and is the ancestor of Lucian Bradford, first of the noble line that rules there today.

The modern order of St. Luther’s Abbey oversees the area of Bradford and takes a hand in much of the local governance, advising House Bradford on various policies as well as guiding the flow of economics and trade.  Thanks to the House’s cooperation with the Church, they do use the benefit of their communications networks with other dioceses and coordination with other orders to their assistance in what ways they can.

HOUSE DRAKE

Coat of Arms:  Vermilion wheel of fire on a black field
Maxim:  Born of Fire
Keep:  Dragon’s Lair
City of Influence: Torchgutter

In all of Rogalia, the Drakes are the most renowned for their cruelty. Prisoners are rarely taken, rather men are left to rot in cages or on spikes, or gruesomely burned. An ancient house, the Drakes have existed before the rise of the Throne. In the Age of Witch Kings and before, they worshiped a Dragon God and ritually burned live people to appease Her. It is said that the purpose of their cruelty has always been to reawaken their Dragon God, and that the house still secretly worships Her. A relic to such brutality still exists in the Torchgutter today. At its very center, a giant brazier is kept burning with coals and wood where enemies and criminals are roasted alive for daring to cross the line of Drake.
Torchgutter

– Torchgutter’s most infamous landmark is the great brazier at the center of the town, called by locals the “Dragon’s Maw” or the “Dragon Pit.”  It takes thousands of pounds of wood to keep it burning day and night, as well as fire magic to conduct its heat.  It is said that nearly ten thousand enemy soldiers and criminals have been roasted over that pit, and a monument of pulverized bone and ash grows in slow testament to the lives lost there.  Apparently some dismal functionary within the Dragon’s Lair is in charge of tallying the exact weight of the ash and bone, and recording through the generations how many have been killed on that pyre.
– The Dragon’s Lair is actually a giant Dextera Inflamatio tower, for the House of Drake has long been associated with the Fire Wizards.  The ruling chamber and throne room of the House is near the apex of the tower, able to look out over the County and, it is said with hushed voices, to immolate any man who dares cross the long horizon of Drake County unbidden.  While not everyone believes such viscous claims, a careful use of mathematics and official maps will indicate that Drake County is precisely the size and shape of what can be seen from line of sight from the pinnacle of the Dragon’s Lair.
– Outside of its fearsome reputation, Torchgutter is actually quite wealthy.  The Count of House Drake is reputedly a powerful figure in the Guild of Fire Mages, the Dextera Inflamatio, and uses his position to hire out a corps of veteran war mages to supplement the forces of acceptable military candidates, thereby gaining wealth from his enemies as well as strategically altering some future battlefield in his favor by dint of selecting the victors in important battles across the Rogalian chessboard.  It uses this wealth on civic projects and has an excellent sewer system, so the city is largely free of disease, despite the high numbers of burned corpses that line the street and squares in iron gibbets.  Thanks to its draconian justice, crime is also quite low.  The citizens of Torchgutter and Drake County do not complain, whether because they need not or dare not.

The Dragonknights

Valor: Academics

Clad in black and red platemail that is designed to resemble the scaled and webbed claws and wings of dragons, the Dragonknights of House Drake act as an honor guard for the Count as well as elite agents.  Exceptionally well-educated, the Dragonknights are not the official thugs of House Drake but rather strategic thinkers who are trusted to enter a hostile situation and resolve it with both skill and knowledge.  They are trained academically to disassemble any situation and solve it procedurally, and many of the Knights, including most of its senior leadership are also fire mages as well, under the direct control (from a Magician Guild perspective) of the Count.  It is said also that they practice Secret Techniques that blend their heavy armor and sword with the power of that magic, enhancing them both.

The Order of St. George

Patron Angel: Sepharian
Patron Saint: St. George the Dragonslayer

It is said by some that the Drakes keep their land so clean of crime and discord because they wish to prevent the rot of Heresy, owing to the presence of the equally fearsome Inquisitorial Cathedral in Torchgutter.  In truth, the Order is there to watch the Drakes, and even the fearsome Count cannot banish them from their land without suffering crushing retaliation from the Church.  In the oldest legends of the region, the ancient dragon Atuhlashta ruled here and planted a brood beneath the earth, warming her clutch with a bonfire of ten thousand skulls and bones.  The people of the area had to feed the dragon two sheep every day, until that failed and the dragon then demanded children, chosen by priests that worshipped the dragon, and then the finally a princess was required.  The princess was being brought forth to the dragon for sacrifice, and a knight (as is told, though the story is older than the concepts of either Knights or Valor), called George was riding past.  The princess begged George to depart and leave her, but he vowed to remain and, fortifying himself with the sign of Benalus, fought the dragon in single combat and destroyed it, freeing the princess.  St. George was lionzed in Lion Age 43, though it is unknown if he was a real individual.

The Order of St. George are a group of expert single combat fighters who make it their mission to hunt down and kill exceptionally powerful monsters and heretics, and old legends about the ancient dragon remain to this day in association with the House of Drake, who the Order of St. George believes to be descended from the original dragon priests in the legend.

HOUSE FAULKNER

Coat of Arms: A gold falcon bearing its talons on a green field.
Maxim: Strike Deeply and They Shall Fall
Keep: Talonsreach
City of Influence: Rookhaven

Traditionally falling to the woman, the Countess Faulkner rules the House.  Rogalian Counties are sovereign powers, and so can pass any laws they wish, including the arrangement of their succession.  The Faulkners are famous for their use of spies, assassins and saboteurs, preferring information warfare to more traditional kinds of martial conflicts.  Their armies fight non-traditionally, using wilderness tactics to delay, harass, impede and otherwise prevent proper combat from occurring rather than defeating armies in the usual way.  Despite being the only House that has a traditionally female ruler, the Faulkner Countesses have earned a great deal of respect in Parliament and among other Counts as cunning, cruel, and dangerous adversaries.  Occasionally elsewhere in Rogalia another female will find herself as Countess because no male heir could be found, and these powerful women often find a kinship with the powerful Countesses of the House of Faulkner.

Besides their expert use of subterfuge and espionage, and their ability to influence events all over Rogalia instead of just with their neighboring enemies, the Faulkners have a political advantage that no other House does: alliance by marriage.  It is very uncommon for two Counts to wed because they are almost always both men, and female Countesses are so rare that the idea hasn’t been widely considered.  However, in the case of the Countesses of Faulkner, an alliance by marriage to another Count can mean that their Counties, especially if neighbors, are effectively joined into a single super County, and since the Laws of House Faulkner prescribe that a female heir has the right to inherit, that law applies to the new County as well, meaning that the Faulkners can keep the land after the fact, and slowly increase their land and power marriage after marriage through the generations.  In point of fact, their especially large County was once a collection of smaller counties, quietly combined over the generations by marriage to what it is today.

Rookhaven

– Rookhaven sits on a high craggy hill in the midst of the forested valley that is Faulkner County.  It has a commanding view of the rest of the valley, as well as the steep mountains that ring its perimeter.  The military of House Faulkner keeps only a small force in Rookhaven itself, instead positioning it throughout the dense forest of the valley below, as well as all throughout secret caves and crags all along the mountain range nearby, so that it can attack or skirmish anywhere within the area.  Trained falcons deliver messages back and forth through the area to keep their vigilance coordinated.

– The town is built upward on a long slope, with the Talonsreach fortress at the pinnacle.  The town is built in a sort of screw shape around the hill, with the general status and opulence of the populace increasing with altitude along the climb.

– Inside the crag itself there are a series of tunnels that connect certain areas of the town, originally made as secret routes for special operations, but once they were eventually discovered by the populace, were turned into general foot traffic short cuts through the town and now host several seedy bars and taverns along the dim dark of the “secret” routes.

– A giant aerie exists in the spires of Talonsreach, from which hundreds of falcons and ravens are bred and trained.  The falcons are used in war and trained for the Huntresses, while the ravens are taken to far off places of interest to be used by Faulkner spies sending intelligence back to the Talonsreach.  A small cloud of raptors and corvids perpetually surrounds the fortress, and the birds come to rest on many buildings throughout the town, perched like gargoyles on nearly every overhang.

The Order of the Hunt

Valor:  Temptation

While the Faulkners themselves pursue high politics and information warfare, the Huntresses and Hunters of the Faulkner’s Order protect the Faulkner lands from attack, as well as act as special agents far afield helping the Countess gather the information and destroy distant enemies.  This Order is one of the few Knight Orders that openly allows women to be inducted, and most of the members of the Order are indeed women, called Huntresses, while the men, no less respected, are called Hunters.  When referred to generally, members of the Order of the Hunt are called Huntresses.

Every Huntress trains and uses a falcon as a special sort of weapon, using it to mark the position of those they are tracking, or to attack their enemies directly.  In warfare, the Huntresses combine their mastery of the wilderness with their abilities of manipulation, expertly tricking enemy forces into long-prepared ambushes.

The Sisters of St. Bridget

Patron Angel: Lurian
Patron Saint: St. Bridget the Revelator

Long ago, before the time of Benalus and the Throne, there was a legend of a Faerie maiden in the wooded valley where Rookhaven was eventually built.  It is said that the Faerie maiden would lure travelers to her and use them carnally, and that none would return sane from the experience.  The men who did return, however, spoke of strange things they had learned, of events of the future, and other things, and much was made of these prophecies.

In the Lion Age, after the coming of the Emperor and the Pactum Domini, occasionally stories would still surface of people speaking prophesy and knowing all manner of things they should not.  In Lion Age 120, a girl from the then small village of Rookhaven said that she had seen the future and known truth, and that the truth was given to her in dreams by Benalus himself.  It is thought that all dreams are prophetic, especially those involving figures like Benalus or the angels, and her words were recorded every time she slept.  The girl, called Bridget of Rookhaven, would sometimes sleep in a remote place in the woods to help the dreams come.

Bridget was burned as a heretic after she was accused of getting her dreams from carnal visits with the Faerie maiden of the woods, in the areas’ old legend.  She was later lionized as a martyr after she appears in the dreams of several other sisters in the local abbey, and after her lionization, an order of nuns sprang up, each of them occasionally reporting dreams of the future from the spirit of St. Bridget.

HOUSE GALE

Coat of Arms: A winged leaning Scythe on a crimson field
Maxim: Untameable is the Wind
Keep: Stone Tempest
City of Influence: North Pass
House Gale is, relative to the others, a newer House in the Rogalian political scene.  Over time, numerous Houses fall and rise in and out of power and favor, and while Gale is an old name, it has not had a Count in many years.  Its return to prominence has come from a series of extremely adept social climbers, both men and women, and an aggressive social schedule.  House Gale has gone out of its way to be the center of a social scene that is useful and attractive enough that its value overshadows the mistrust and enmity that naturally occurs between the Houses of Rogalia.  It began with parties and gatherings in Port Melandir during Parliamentary sessions, as Port Melandir is something of a neutral ground.  These gatherings had strict rules of conduct, but afforded an opportunity for factions that would otherwise have no contact to be able to meet and exchange ideas and alliance, even friendship.  At some occasions early on, revealing one’s lineage and politics were against the rules, forcing even junior members of families which were old rivals to accidentally become acquainted and amiable.  While the Gales, once Counts and powerful, then lowly Barons in the shadow of another House, remained the center of a wheel of power and influence, they quickly catapulted into success and recognition, and had been granted a Countship within only a few years of these social engagements.  Things have only escalated since then.

No one knows whether it is the genius of the current House’s rulership, a secret arrangement with the Church, or even sorcery to blame for the Gale’s rapid social advancement, but they are certainly an up and coming power in Rogalian politics.  Being able to broker alliances and deals across many different political lines otherwise impassable has turned out to be a service that the Rogalian scene had no idea how badly it needed, or how much it would be worth to keep.  As long as that is true, House Gale will rise and rise, carried on the shoulders of all of the other Counts who value their abilities so much.

North Pass

– North Pass is the home to the Wind Singer’s Guild, a bard’s college of very high renown, and thus is also the location for the mid-winter concerts which are such an important social occasion.  Between the concerts in winter and the parties and gatherings that are held in the Spring and Summer, North Pass has a constant stream of visitors of noble birth, and is thought of in Rogalia as a party town – a place of excitement and enjoyment by some, a den of sin by others.

– The town itself is built upon the pass between the Highcrown range in the North and the Cragcleft range in the South both of which are the ranges which separate Rogalia from Gotha.  This, too, causes the town to be especially cosmopolitan with travelers not only from Rogalia and Gotha, but from anywhere in the Eastern empire that wishes to approach Rogalia from the North.  Furthermore, it gathers a great deal of wealth from the goods that flow through, both in tariff and trade.

– Due to its altitude and the powerful winds from which the House draws its name, North Pass can get very cold in much of the year, starting from early Autumn and into mid-Spring. However, House Gale takes care to keep the pass especially clear of snow and ice, using crushed mineral gravel to dissolve the snow and peasants with special hand plows to work the powder from the roads.  Inversely, the summers are thought to be some of the most pleasant anywhere in Rogalia, because of how the mountains change the weather from the sea, the town sits above the line of the normal gloomy and grey atmosphere that characterizes Rogalian weather generally.  The drastic change in climate seasonally results in a need for two very different sets of clothing.  This is perhaps the start of the attention to fashion and design that so characterizes the nobles of the House of Gale.

Most Honorable Order of The White Glove

Valor: Needlework

With its emphasis on society and power brokering, the Knights of House Gale are themselves specialists in this field.  Acting as long range diplomats and envoys, the White Gloves are the very soul of decorum and class, focusing on aesthetics and character in their engagements with other Households.  Less warlord and more hero, they do in fact still lead military campaigns on behalf of their House’s interests, but they do so with a regal air as it they were kings every one, and not knights.  While it is true that most knights are much more than military commands, instead the trusted agents of their Lord in fields both mighty and mean, the White Gloves make every effort to make their battlefields where they believe they can be most effective – the parlor, the ballroom, the bedroom.

The White Gloves are known for their extraordinary fashions and attention to class and style.  Unusually, their Order accepts and trains women, and the Dames of the White Glove are every bit the refined charmer and diplomats as the men are, with even more attention to fashion and style.  Knights of both sexes make it their business and a point of honor to start trends of design that catch on in the rest of Rogalia’s courts, and see tailoring as a perfect metaphor for the tapestry of social conquest that they are carefully weaving all through Rogalia.

The Poor Fellows

Patron Angel: Melandiel
Patron Saint: St. Claude d’Beaumont

The Poor Fellows are a sect of the Melandahim who take their Vow of Poverty extremely seriously, but moreover, do everything they can to abase themselves as a further expression of the spirit of their Vow.  Not satisfied with simply a lack of wealth, the Poor Fellows never wash or bathe, even trying to roll in oils or soot to make themselves even more filthy.  They also starve themselves to the point of near death before accepting food until they feel healthy again, then begin starvation again, as well as truly grim acts of flagellation and mortification in public places.  They do this in protest to the excesses of the nobles in North Pass and the attention to politics and socialization instead of the needs of their peasants and their poor.

The Poor Fellows are a new order, following the example of Claude d’Beaumont, a travelling Capaccian chevalier who had come to High Pass to meet the Rogalian nobility decades before.  He had arrived expecting to find what he had heard about Rogalian nobility – they were austere, powerful, wary and cunning, masters of war and politics, and as the eldest son of the Lord of Beaumont, heir to his lands in his Cappacionne home, he had thought to learn all of their ways before his father’s health failed and he was called to rule.  What he found was a land that suffered and bled for a gang of ruthless warlords who cared nothing for their peasants or for the Throne, or for the vision of a unified mankind, or any of the virtuous ideals that he held so strongly.  He was so disgusted with Rogalian politics and their treatment of their lands that diverted massive wealth from his home and began a mission of humanitarian aid, bringing in food and supplies from Cappacionne, Hestralia, and Gotha by convoy with money from his personal coffers, mostly rallied, organized and distributed from North Pass.  He impoverished himself helping the poor of another country, and died before he ever inherited the Lordship he was due back home, killed by a knight of House Baines for his role in military interference that his aid caused.  He was lionized in Lion Age 504.

HOUSE HEATHERFIELD

Coat of Arms: Heather flowers loosely gripped in a gauntlet on a deep purple field
Maxim: Virtue, Strength and Providence.
Keep: The Unguarded Castle
City of Influence:  Rodershire

House Heatherfield has no particular conventional advantage, no great resource to exploit, and while it has its armies, they are not known to be particularly elite or overwhelmingly powerful.  That said, House Heatherfield is an ancient House with a long history, that has survived trials, attacks, famines, and most any other disaster that could have befallen a Rogalian House; calamities that would have dragged lesser Houses down into the dust of history.  The Heatherfields call it providence – God providing for the virtuous, and indeed, many of their military successes seem to have come unexpectedly through no direct action by the Heatherfield forces, such as sudden fortuitous rainstorms flooding critical roads for the enemy, enemies suddenly being recalled due to unforeseen problems at home, and otherwise.  During a famine, right as the stores were near emptying, an unusually rich harvest occurred, and so on.

The Heatherfield, strong and austere in personality, have always said that God provides for those who are worthy, and continued their ancient ways.  Their reputation amongst the other Rogalian Houses is such that it is usually believed to be almost too much trouble to sortie against their House because of the frustrating and eventual defeats by circumstance that have been tallied over the ages.  Certainly the Heatherfields themselves do nothing to prevent such perspectives, though whether their success is due to true divine providence or some kind of trickery remains the subject of debate amongst their critics.

Rodershire

– Rodershire sits in the center of a long valley replete with waves of purple heather.  The valley has only one entrance and exit and so is fairly straightforward to defend from incursion.  While plentiful, the soil isn’t particularly fertile, but the ample space does make good grazing for herd animals, from which most of the region’s food is culled.

– A heather festival is performed in Rodershire once a year in Autumn, and large parades and demonstrations using the heather are performed.  Peasants and nobles alike weave the heather flowers together into huge ornamental displays, competing to see who can outdo one another with their expressions of lavender beauty.

– The valley also contains a series of menhirs erected in the Age of Heroes, and each one has strange writing that does not appear to be Rogalt or any of its parent forms.

The Upright Order of Knights Valiant

Valor:  Sincerity

The Knights Valiant are the champions of House Heatherfield, and maintain a rigorous military discipline.  Given their ample space for animals in their valley, they favor cavalry tactics and flanking maneuvers whenever possible, and train to take advantage of and create disarray in the enemy forces.  Given their military’s strange reputation for accidentally winning battles, the Knights Valiant take a very conservative and straightforward approach to battle that has strong attention to basics, ready to pounce if God should provide some circumstance to capitalize on.  Off the field, the Knights Valiant, when representing House Heatherfield to other Houses, take care to carefully maintain the reputation that the House has been blessed with that wards off so many unwanted attacks from enemies.

The Silent Sisterhood of St. Vanessa

Patron Angel:  Cyaniel
Patron Saint: St. Vanessa the Burdened

The Silent Sisterhood are a group of Cyanahim nuns who, taking an Oath of Silence, walk the lonely valley’s heather waves in silent prayer and reflection.  It is said that Vanessa was a widow and cursed by the Lord with seven terrible disasters as a kind of antemortum penance for a future sin, and that she was given terrible visions of a future harm.  She remained silent after her visions, only writing a series of manuscripts about the mysteries of fate that she was given to understand.  She always accepted her pre-emptive punishment as exactly right and necessary, and her humility in the face of Holy Judgment is an inspiration to the Sisterhood that now venerates her legacy.  She was lionized in Lion Age 311, and is thought of as the patron saint of terrible burdens.

The Sisterhood read the secret documents that Vanessa wrote, and once they do so, are sworn to never speak again or to ever communicate the contents.  The people of Rodershire provide food and supplies for the convent that they live in, seeing their terrible burden as a holy and necessary service that they provide for the community to continue living in the Lord’s favor.

HOUSE MAYNARD

Coat of Arms: Two silver cups pouring wine into a third golden cup on a red field.
Maxim: We Drink First
Keep: Castle Crimson
City of Influence: Seravia

House Maynard inherited the castle of Adrasteia, the Vampire Queen after the wars.  In that age, the Maynard were a house of rogue sorcerers that had escaped the power structure of other Witchkings such as Andrugahl, Sulterok or Danarius and had lent their assistance to Ordo Croix and others attempting to overthrow the powers of the Witchkings.  During the final assault on Crimson, St. Aren Kauspyre reluctantly accepted their assistance in return for a claim on the land there.  After the day was won, the Maynards said that they would remain in the castle to properly ensure it was cleansed of vampiric evil, though many suspected they simply wanted to loot the place of its Vampire artifacts.

Thus was House Maynard born, though they did not appear as a political power until many years later.  House Maynard is one of the few Counties at that time that did not appear for the signing of the Pactum Domini, and did not add their name to the document, though later they agreed verbally to be bound by the treaty during the first meeting of Parliament.

When asked today, the Maynards no longer practice any form of arcane sorcery.  When the Guilds grew into a power later in the Lion Age, House Maynard was naturally approached, as they were not the only remnant magicians left over in the new Throne, and the others were forming the formal structures that would become the Arcane Guilds.  When approached, however, they refused to join, and swore to not pass on any of the Arcane Power of the then aged masters who headed their House.  Periodically, the Guilds have launched investigations into whether they still practice sorcery unlicensed, as they are able to tell such things, but such investigations have never found them in breach.

The Maynard are considered to be very shrewd political minds, and no one to be trifled with.  Their lands are covered in swamps and gnarled old trees, half flooded and half rocky bluffs, suitable for a Vampire Queen and her court who have no traditional material needs such as food, but their land is considered almost too wild and undesirable to bother attacking by most rival Counts.  They manage a few small villages in the area, deep in the swamps and forests, and those villages eek by, while the main town surrounding Crimson, Seravia, is supplied by outside trade.

Seravia

– Seravia sits in the shadow of Castle Crimson’s massive spires and ancient ramparts, older still than any other standing structure in Rogalia, having been constructed on the backs (sometimes literally) of Spawn and by other vampiric means to complete a century’s work in only a few years.  The town itself, once little more than the pens that sustained the Noblemen in the castle, now house the vassals of House Maynard just the same.
– A high rate of literacy marks Seravia, and the Maynard insist that every peasant be taught to read and write by adulthood.  The Maynard pay for their peasants to be transported to outside communities to act as scribes and clerical assistance for local magistrates and churches.  Ordinarily this would seem strange, but the peasants they export having a strong academic background while also understanding traditional peasant work such as farming, mining, forestry and other skills makes them a unique asset in assisting smaller towns that could greatly benefit from advanced techniques.
– The dismal and dark skies that tend to loom over Maynard County are part of the curse the land seems to endure from long decades of Vampire rule.  The land seems to be under an eternal fog that only dissipates completely on the hottest days of the year, and sightings of strange fishmen, huge black crows the size of eagles, ghosts, and Spawn are had with some regularity.  The people of Seravia are unworried about this, as they have grown up amongst such sights, and as the beasts of the Night seem to rarely if ever attack Seravia directly, perhaps remembering some ancient Vampire treaty with the monsters, or perhaps frightened of some other force.

Ordo Chiroptera

Valor: Brawl

When the Maynard took over as the land’s new stewards, they found many advantages to the strange and fortified position of Castle Crimson.  Among these was the castle’s armory, which served to arm and armor both the Gentry’s Blood Knights and their elite human slaves who had been empowered by drinking vampire blood.  Ever pragmatic, the masters of House Maynard, having no such equipment of their own to arm the defenders of their new dynasty, simply took the exquisitely crafted armor for their own and began training their new forces.  The armor bore strange devices and was often built with designs suggesting bat wings and other features of the beasts, and quickly the fledgeling Knights of House Maynard became known for it, for the people still remembered well the armor worn by the Noblemen and their champions.  It struck fear into people’s hearts, and fear was thought to be a useful enough tool.  The finest of the armaments the masters took to ensorcelling with powerful magics, and the oldest weaponry and armor is still passed down today amongst the Order’s commanders.

The armor universally featured claws and barbs on the gauntlets that allowed the Vampires who used it to grab victims and slice throats with great ease, to better facilitate feeding upon blood on the battlefield.  The Ordo Chiroptera, while having no need of blood, still found the weaponry to be quite effective at killing enemies none the less, and so trains extensively in the use of these special weapons and other hand-to-hand techniques.

The Order of the Bloodless Saint

Patron Angel: Nuraniel
Patron Saint: Ornias the Bloodless

When the final assault on Crimson occurred, the Ordo Croix tapped one of its key resources, Ornias, a vampire who, after being approached by agents of the Ordo Croix, found Benalus and accepted his worship, vowing to help destroy the Red Queen.  Ornias claimed that he knew Benalus in life, but would speak no more of it to anyone.  Within the stronghold at Crimson, Ornias worked to undermine the power of the Aristocracy of the Night, and when the time came and St. Aren called upon him, the assault began, Queen Adrasteia being torn apart in a brutal battle with her own courtiers.  Once it was all over, Ornias swore to never again steal human blood, and to descend quietly into eternal slumber.  He was considered to be a member of Ordo Croix and was lionized, controversially, in Lion Age 476.

The Order of the Bloodless Saint maintains a small chapel in Seravia where a small group of quiet monks see to the maintenance of a simple shrine that commemorates the battle that freed Rogalia.  While most forget the assistance of Ornias and the human members of Ordo Croix that agreed to give up their Humanity to help stop the Red Queen, this small humble order maintains its account.  They slowly work through the long list of curses upon the land to remove its innumerable blights and make it useful and holy again, but with such a small presence, it is unknown if they will ever complete that great work.

HOUSE MERRIWEATHER

Coat of Arms: A pair of brown, tall oak trees on a narrow field.
Maxim: Stand tall
Keep: None
City of Influence: Arbory
The County of Merriweather is almost completely wooded with few main roads or trails traversing it. Poor in stone, House Merriweather has held the territory without a keep of any kind, preferring to use skirmish tactics and familiar ground to break troop morale. They are a smaller house with particularly undesirable territory to invade and thus get away with little trouble from neighboring counts. This has given Merriweather a poorly earned reputation as a peaceful county, in spite of the frequent dangers from the deep forest. Additonally, pagan worship becomes steadily more common in the more isolated villages where inquisitors and sane travellers dare not tread.

Arbory

– The largest town in Merriweather is the Arbory, a logging town at the bottom of a narrow ravine.  Arbory grew out of a logging effort of the great dark woods there, and still produces a lot of timber which is used by Merriweather and sold elsewhere.
– The timber itself, once felled from the great forests in the highlands, is put over the cliffs where a tributary of the Quich river called the Catarinde has carved out a ravine.  The logs float down the river, with a few small camps of foresters at likely jam spots to keep them moving forward, and head down to Arbory for milling.
– Loggers and other foresters have to come into Arbory to get supplies ocassionally, and the town has become sort of a giant stopover for many kinds of out of the way dealings.  Most people never go far into Merriweather itself, and few ever see the actual Lords, who reside in a series of fortresses in the high forests, but the Arbory is a place where one can find many kinds of people willing to do or already doing dirty work out on the fringe.

Order of the Iron Marten

Valor: Forestry

The Iron Martens are the Knights of Merriweather, and their duty is to keep the woods clear of enemy soldiers and other dangers so that the business of lumber can continue.  Each of them is expert at using the forest to their advantage, and makes it a point of Valor to know every tree in their woods.  They are said to be able to navigate it blind and in any weather, and to force enemy soldiers into positions of their choosing at will while in the safety of their great forests.

HOUSE RAMSEY

Coat of Arms: A black ram’s head in front of a pair of red crossed swords on a gray field.
Maxim:  Forward, Onward.
Keep: The Ram’s Crag
City of Influence: Rockshire

House Ramsey is known for their tenacity and bravery.  In several of the petty Rogalian wars that are ever present, Ramsey has evaded terrible military ends with sheer determination alone.  Their land sits near the Southern tip of Rogalia, near only the Rogalt Ocean and the Dunland archipelago, and have no direction to expand except outward and upward.  With their County up against the sea, the majority of their infrastructure has moved right up into the southern tip of the Cragclefts that end there, which happens to be extremely rich in iron.  For this reason, many have tried to take Ramsey before in order to gain its resources, but no one ever has.  The Counts of Ramsey punish any who dare with break-away cliffsides, thunderous mountainside charges and other unexpected tactics, able to use the mountains as their own weapon.

Some say that the House of Ramsey learned these techniques from the Dwarves, who made fast friends with the mountain folk due to their similar attitudes, and even taught the human lords the secrets of their steelsmithing, but this is more of a story of legend than history.  It is true, however, that Rockshire is home to a small community of Dwarves, and that they are treated with great honor by the ruling Lords and the rest of the people there.  It is unknown, at least to outsiders, whether those Dwarves had always lived in the Cragcleft or whether they had migrated there from farther North, perhaps in the Imperial Crown above Gotha, where other Dwarves are known to live.

Rockshire

– Rockshire is a high altitude mining town with very productive mines.  Several mechanical improvements have been made to the mines, including a mine car system and rails, as well as a series of belts that turn by crank to carry ore out of narrow shafts and into more open areas for further work.
– The town is known for its rare and expensive production of steel, a superior metal to iron that requires special techniques to create but is stronger and lighter than iron.  Very little of it is sold outside of the area, mostly given to equip the Ramsguard in their duties, or for specific mechanical systems that require the extra strength or lighter weight to be effective.
– The people of Rockshire have little in the way of arable land, but they have a very effective goat herding system that they use to stay fed, having mostly a diet of meat, as well as a few hardy vegetables like turnips and tubers.  The average Rockshire resident is large and hardy.

The Ramsguard

Valor: Mining

The Ramsguard oversee the mining operations, and are charged with slaying any sort of monster or wickedness in the mines, especially the old mine shafts that have been disused for a long time.  They also defend the town and its lands, and have built extensive stone fortifications within Ramsey County to give themselves endless fall-back points if enemies should attack the steep slopes to take their mines.  Each such fortification is designed to be destroyed and buried under tons of rock if the need arises, though despite that they are not known for fighting overly defensively.  The Ramsguard are actually quite aggressive fighters who use the mountainous terrain of their home in aggressive ways as well, trapping enemies in tactically awful positions, rolling boulders at enemies from higher aslope while specially trained horses or even mules carry knights in special stirrups down to finish off any who survived the rock slide.

Order of the Broken Heart

Patron Angel: Lurian
Patron Saint: Saint Agnes the Joyless

The Order of the Broken Heart is the heir to a tragic story of two young lovers from within Rockshire.  The man, Conner, was a peasant miner serving a term in a particularly costly military campaign, while his wife, Agnes, remained at home to tend to wounded soldiers who returned.  She received word from a supply runner that her husband had been grievously wounded and was being sent back, but that a rock slide had knocked him senseless and mutilated him.  Agnes wished to tend to him and nurse him to health, but because of the injuries her husband suffered, could never be sure if she had actually been able to tend to him as many times many soldiers came back with horrible mutilations and in deep comas.  Even after the war ended, she continued to work day and night in the hospital, sleeping there amongst the wounded and rising to immediately continue her work.  She died of age many years later, without ever taking another break, except for her essential needs.  She was lionized in Lion Age 332.

Today the Order of the Broken Heart venerates the extreme dedication and sacrifice of St. Agnes, and continues in her tireless example with a dedicated hospital staff.

HOUSE RENETT

Coat of Arms: A black fort on a green checker field
Maxim: Who Shall Conquer us?
Keep: The Black Keep
City of Influence: Ryker’s Gate

House Renett is the House that holds watch over the conquered lands of Dunland, and control over its imports of food and iron have made it extremely wealthy. Most of the potatoes, grains, and other foods that are traded between towns and not grown locally are exported from Renett lands by its trading companies, originally grown in the Dunnick isles. Its treatment of the Dunnick people have given it an infamous reputation, especially outside of Rogalia where its economic power can win it fewer friends.

Ryker’s Gate

– The twin city to Renchester in Dunland, Ryker’s Gate is the muster point for all of the iron, food, and other goods that House Renett can export from Dunland.  It acts like a giant warehouse and distribution center, and has a huge dockside district to process all of the wealth.  The dockworkers there belong to powerful Stevedore, Teamster and Merchant Guilds which have to wield huge power to manage the breadth of the Dunland account.  Almost everyone who lives in Ryker’s Gate is in some way employed to help process the goods, especially since they can all survive off of food and supplies pulled in from Dunland instead of producing it themselves.
– Many of the workers in Ryker’s Gate are Dunnick themselves, having been drafted into service to help with the trade.  Some suspect that with so many Duns inside the walls, handling the spoils of their raped homeland day after day, a revolt is eventual.
– Ryker’s Gate, named after Count Ryker Renett, the Count who conquered Dunland, built the town and its enormous fortifications with the first injections of wealth from Dunland before any of the other Counts knew what he was up to.  The masses of resources are a natural draw to enemy Counts, but the town’s defences make it much less tempting.  A sea chain in the harbor to stop unwanted traffic, thirty foot walls, ten feet thick surrounding the entire area, even with a set of imported cannons on the ramparts to destroy any enemy siege equipment or ships stuck in the harbor.  Furthermore, a failed attack on the town would certainly mean the end of any trade relationship with their House to purchase Dunland food for those Counties whose warfare make food too risky to intensely produce.
– The town has more through traffic than almost any other in Rogalia save North Pass or Port Melandir, but no one comes to Ryker’s Gate to have a good time.  Everyone coming and going is on important business, either in the pursuit of trade and commerce, or in trade negotiations with those who are.  The city itself is drab, has little entertainment save a few dockside brothels and taverns, and has a reputation for being a place of cut-throats and robbers – a reputation shared by House Renett itself.

The Seward Sword

Valor: Mercantilism

The Sewards are House Renett’s enforcers, mostly in a naval capacity, but also in the twin landed capitals of the House in Ryker’s Gate and Renchester.  The Sewards are responsible for maintaining the naval blockade between Dunland and Rogalia, enforcing the harsh laws that the House has imposed on Dunland and its people, and to ensure that no kind of insurrection happens in either location.

While being excellent seamen, they are also called upon to orchestrate much of the merchant matter that is the occupation of Dunland, and to manage its markets and economy.  Traditionally the Master of the Seward Sword is also the Viscount of Renchester, and acts as Lord Governor of the entire archipelago, as the entire matter is largely a military and security matter, though members of the House Renett proper do regularly perform inspections and give input on the governance of Dunland.  It is an enormous operation to extract the wealth of Dunland, move it from the islands to the mainland, and also to prevent attacks from rebellious highlanders and other insurrectionists.  Much of House Renett’s success and much of the total wealth of Rogalia is owed to the Knights of the Seward Sword.

The Order of the Night Wind

Patron Angel: Melandiel
Patron Saint: Patrick the Ferryman

The Order of the Night Wind is a secret order of mendicant priests who assist Dunnick people who wish to escape Dunland.  They operate a few small safehouses inside Ryker’s Gate and Renchester, and make it their mission to set up infrastructure such as sympathist smugglers among the Renett merchant fleet to help get Dunnick people free of House Renett’s control.  Naturally, House Renett is doing all they can to smother their operation and kill them as criminals, regardless of their clergy status, but so far they have proved elusive except in small cells.

HOUSE TELFORD

Coat of Arms: A gray pair of crossed morning stars on a white field.
Maxim: With Guile
Keep: Sunken Sorrow
City of Influence: Gildwater
Cunning and clever, House Telford prides itself on its intelligence in adversity. One of the richer houses, Telford knows how to exploit every advantage and play every angle. Even their keep, The Sunken Sorrow, is designed with break away levies that will drown any would be siege attempts under the might of their nearby river. Strong political players, they are feared for their ingenuity in spite of their smaller armies and reliance on trade over arms.

House Telford are considered to be masters of the political long game, a reputation that could only please them more if they had completed more of their devious master plans without anyone knowing about them at all.  It is suspected by their rivals that they have spies in every court, in the board of every trade guild, a loyal clergyman in every local order, and traitors in every army.  While this is no where near the reality, it isn’t as far from the truth as some may guess, either.  House Telford isn’t without limits, but it does everything it can to maximize its position with information and leverage.

House Telford is one of the few Rogalian Counties to truly embrace the merchant class and trade.  Analysing their historical expenses, they learned that their information network and manipulations were enough to derail most conflicts before they began or to take much of the bite out of an attacking force, and as such they found that it was more cost effective to hire mercenary forces for the short times when battle was unavoidable rather than paying the costs to field long-term standing armies.  Since their information allows them to predict when conflict is coming, they can arrange mercenary contracts with plenty of notice to meet the enemies.  In the meantime, all of their resources are bent toward commerce and espionage, maintaining connections with Hestralian trade guilds like the Rogalia Company.

Gildwater

– Gildwater straddles the intersection of the two major rivers in Rogalia, the Quitch and the Mastow.  This is an important strategic point in Rogalia at large, as House Telford has the power to regulate the majority of trade along either river.  This brings massive wealth to House Telford, which as towns go is quite a bit larger than most others in Rogalia, though nowhere near the size of a true city like Port Melandir.
– As affluent as the town is, it has trouble with crime.  While House Telford does employ a standard town guard and constables, the lack of a strong formal military presence and the presence of so many mercenaries tends to be a cause for internal nuisance fairly frequently.  Mercenaries never know when exactly more work is coming, and it is just frequent enough to warrant long-term stays within Gildwater, so many companies spend an inordinate amount of time frustrated, losing money, and looking for ways to relieve their impatience.  House Telford spends more on internal police and guards every year.
– Gildwater has been in use in one form or another for as long as Rogalia has been populated with human tribesmen, and perhaps before, if the ancient carved bones that have occasionally been found buried in the town’s soil are any indication.  Legends tell of ancient Rogalt and Gelti tribesmen warring with Orc in the area, though no one has seen an Orc this far from the mountains or this close to Gildwater in over a hundred years.

Knights of the Whisper

Valor: Finesse

House Telford doesn’t ordinarily employ standard military except in great emergency, and when they do they keep the numbers to the calculated minimal that ensures the result they want.  Instead, the Knights of House Telford, the Whisperers, are tasked with travelling all over Rogalia and even farther for their Lords to gather intelligence and perform espionage.  They are the true power of House Telford because they give the Count and his teams the information they need to make their plans and calculations, as well as create opportunities to pit Count against Count or be struck a killing blow by a well placed attack.

The Gilded Brotherhood

Patron Angel: Mithriel
Patron Saint: Calirad the Quiet

The Gilded Brotherhood is an order of pacifist Mithrihim priests who refuse all requests for armed combat or for Rites of Conquest.  They exist as a sort of protest movement for the various Rogalian wars, and maintain a stance of that all such battle would be decided.  They have been trying for decades to arrange a movement in Parliament that all war should be halted for the period of one year so that Rogalia can see what it would be like to be at peace, and realize they had nothing truly to fight over.  So far the movement has never carried.

It is said by some that House Telford uses the Gilded Brotherhood to get information from the rest of the Mithrihim Order, getting access to secret war plans elsewhere in Rogalia to their own benefit.

HOUSE TRE

Coat of Arms: Three Black Stakes on a white and grey checker field.
Maxim:  Make Them Fear Death
Keep: The Ribcage
City of Influence: Stonesborough
Formerly exiled Capacionne royalty, House Tre laid its claim on the ashes of countless vampires. Tre county was once considered unconquerable and forever cursed under the tyranny of vampire rule. However, when Lord Sebastian Tre arrived, he gained the support of the county and launched a bloody and underhanded campaign against the three vampiric counts that occupied the land. House Tre, today, pioneers its own school of thought on vampire slaying, foregoing or improving on more traditional methods as detailed by the Sacrosanctum, sometimes going so far as to develop clockwork and mechanical weapons to counter these monsters.
Stonesborough

– Unlike several other settlements in Rogalia such as Shadowvale or Castle Crimson, Stonesborough was once a powerful vampire castle, but Count Sebastian Tre decreed that no man should ever take up what a vampire has laid down, and ordered the castle demolished.  The stones from the castle were unmortared, blessed, and then recut to become Stonesborough, a huge town built from the ruins of the castle.
– Stonesborough is home to a powerful Mechanists Guild called the Grey Gear Company, and they have the full support of House Tre as well as their own healthy finances from their labors.  Importing experts and young talent from far away Cappacionne or Nidavell in Gotha, Stonesborough has some of the finest minds in the mechanics trade working on new devices.  If they can produce a device that will assist in slaying vampires or other minions, House Tre will purchase the blueprints and give its inventor a lifetime patronage to produce additional works.
– When the castle was demolished, a gruesome sight was discovered – the Vampires had apparently built the site on the ruins of an ancient dragon’s corpse, perhaps killed in the Age of Witchkings by the Vampires themselves after an attack by Quixalialtha’s brood, or perhaps from some even older age.  While much of the skeleton could be removed, the ribcage of the beast was too large to move by any known technique, and so had to be left there.  The bones now form the buttresses of the throne room of Count Tre, and the castle has taken on the Ribcage as its nickname.

The Hands of Pitiless Justice

Valor: Engineering

The Hands of Pitiless Justice, or the Hands of Justice for short, are the Hunter-Knights of House Tre.  Each one uses a customized set of equipment that is carefully calibrated and often hand designed by the knight for the task at hand.  The Knights work closely with the Grey Gear Company and use that Guild as something of a research and development arm of their Order.  They use crossbows, stake-firing rifles, climbing spikes, spring-loaded ratcheting shackles, grenades, and any other device they can produce in their quest to vanquish every vampire and creature of darkness from their lands and every other land.

If not for a strict code of ethics, many of their tools would have already been mass-produced for general military purpose, but their oaths forbid it until their primary mission of cleansing the world is complete.  Even so, most of the tools they have would be poorly suited to open battle, instead usually designed for more close-quarters encounters in urban or fortified environments.

Brothers of the Blessed Holly

Patron Angel: Nuraniel
Patron Saint: St. Sebastian Tre

It is rare that the Patron Saint of a priestly order is also so directly connected to the nobles whom they work closely with in the modern day, but it does happen.  After his death in Lion Age 42, Count Sebastian Tre was suggested for lionization immediately in Lethia, his story of a king in exile challenging evil ringing so well with Benalus’ own, as well as the great deeds he accomplished.  His lionization was accepted in Lion Age 55, and he became one of the earliest saints of Rogalia, though he was not a Rogalian in life.

The Brothers of the Blessed Holly are Sacrosanctum exorcists who work closely with The Hands of Justice and House Tre to produce every advantage they can for the war against vampires, a war that the three factions agree wholeheartedly is still going on today in earnest, only with the ancient aristocrats hiding in shadows instead of ruling in the open.

HOUSE STRONGBULL

Coat of Arms: A Pot Roast on a green backing
Maxim: Die Laughing
Keep: Giantstone
City of Influence: Farthington

The Strongbulls tend toward big men, big hearts, big voices and big appetites. They have a reputation of being dauntless, good-tempered and carefree. They rarely involve themselves in politics, which is a feat in itself in the Rogalian social climate, prefering instead to hunt the rocky forests of their land and win glory in tournaments and jousts, though they rarely host such events themselves. Strongbull women are just as large as the men, and jokes are made about the Strongbull coupling with giants to produce women of such bountiful portion.

Farthington

– Farthington has excellent pastures and is able to produce a large amount of meat for its citizens.  Unusual in the rest of Rogalia who mostly stick to wild game or else mutton and goat, Farthington pastures mighty aurochs steers.  The animals are very difficult to domesticate, so the farmers who do take tremendous risks when handling them or slaughtering them, but they make a huge amount of meat for those that are successful.  A long line of local Farthington wisdom tries to impart the secrets of working with the dangerous animals, but every year some ranch hands are still injured.
– Farthington’s folk aren’t generally as large and muscular as the Strongbulls themselves, but they are just as boisterous.  Farthington has festivals more often than any other Rogalian town save Bradford, though they argue that their own are more fun.  Drinking contests, feats of manly prowess such as log hurling or stone lifting, as well as dance contests at increasing levels of intoxication are common.  Famously, the festivals also include aurochs wrestling and riding, events seen as extremely dangerous by everyone, including the people of Farthington, who love it for that reason.
– Local legends do indeed suggest that giants once walked the lands that Farthington now occupies, back in the Age of Heroes when Njords would come reaving with giant companions, and even more recent tales from the Age of Witchkings suggest the ancient legends could be true.

The Most Enormous Order of Giants

Valor: Farming

The Strongbulls love to fight, but don’t ordinarily participate in campaigns of aggression.  One of the ways they have done this is by maintaining a giant army – in every sense of the word.  Firstly, the armies themselves benefit from the excellent farming and supply strategy that Farthington and its nobles have developed, and because of this can maintain huge amounts of troops supplied on cattle.  The armies actually drive aurochs cattle into the field with them to slaughter as needed, as sort of a mobile supply train that can defend itself with giant horns and an aggressive attitude.

Furthermore, the Most Enormous Order of Giants, the vested champions of House Strongbull, are selected only from the tallest and mightiest of Farthington’s stock, and men compete every year in strength competitions to be allowed to join.  The minor knight families of Strongbull County are all of brawny stock, bolstered by a lifetime of hardy eating and rigorous strength training.  The average knight of House Strongbull stands at least a head above even other noblemen, and two heads above peasants and other menials.  The heavy iron armor and aurochs horned helms they wear add to their apparent height another foot or more, making them truly imposing.

Brothers of the Stone Heart

Patron Angel: Mithriel
Patron Saint: Eric Stoneheart

The Brothers of the Stone Heart are an enigmatic order of Mithrihim warrior priests who have been had a Fortress Monastery in the area for as long as anyone can remember.  The Monastery itself is enormous, a huge stone enclave built upon a tall hill near Farthington.  The monks of the Fortress Monastery never come out except if the area is under attack, preferring to stay in their fastness in contemplation.  It is said if a warrior is to approach them, they will give them seven tests (or tasks, the stories differ) to prove their worthiness before God, and if the warrior were to pass, they would be taught a secret technique of war that the old monks guard.  No one in recent memory has passed their tests, but supposedly various Strongbull Counts and younger sons have accomplished them in the past, though they are forbidden to speak about what they were taught.

HOUSE VALERIAN

Coat of Arms: A Pair of crossed white lances over a crown on a purple field
Maxim: Naught but Glory
Keep:  Twin Colossus
City of Influence: Port Valeria

House Valerian is a House of consummate soldiers and generals.  Valerian nobles and their knights have been famous for centuries for their fighting prowess, and have settled several political disputes through legal Trial by Combat before Parliament.  They are thought to be haughty and arrogant, but the truth is that they are extremely disciplined, believing that a man’s personal martial prowess is both a duty and a responsibility before God.  Still, they have few friends because of their standoffish nature, but those who do make it through the cool personalities produced by their training find them to be the most reliable of allies.

House Valerian began as knights to a long dead house of Rogalian nobles called House Randal.  Sir Richter Valerian was an ordinary peasant who intervened to save the Count from a band of enemy soldiers clad in black, the traditional way for Rogalian knights or soldiers to hide the identity of their master, and with great skill at arms he killed all seven assailants.  The Count rewarded the man with knighthood then and there, and he became the Count’s most trusted champion, eventually becoming Master of their House Guard.  When Richter Valerian and his sons were away on campaign, the entire House of Randal suffered a terrible plague that killed indiscriminately throughout the land, including the entire line of House Randal.  Since Sir Richter had the loyalty of the armies and had recently been named Viscount, House Valerian succeeded House Randal.

Today the House of Valerian is thought of as straightforward and uncompromising, clinging to the martial cult that are its knights and lords, and staunchly campaigning throughout Rogalia to win lands for Count Valerian and his noble sons.

Port Valeria

– Port Valeria, renamed from Port Randchester, is a port city of middling importance.  It does not do a particularly vigorous amount of trade, and while many attempts to liven its economy have occurred over the years, trade remains somewhat limp.  Several trade guilds and individual merchants have attempted to revitalize it with various plans, but inevitably they have come into conflict with House Valerian for one reason or another, and have been cast out from the operation.
– Port Valeria has a larger than normal navy stationed at its docks, and part of the campaigns of House Valerian has been over the ocean, trying to seize control of the coasts.  Specially trained beachhead battalions have been formed to try to quickly and effectively gain a foothold after landing from sea vessel, and their methods have improved year after year.
– Some people think that the plague that spread over the town all those years ago somehow came from outside the city, as old legends say that the sea air has always kept the people of the town healthy and long-lived.  Some blame Lazarolth for sending plague spirits amongst the people, and warn that impure nobles invited the possession.

Order of the Roaring Sword

Valor: Arming Weapons

The Order of the Roaring Sword is certainly a knight order like those you would find elsewhere in the service of Rogalian Counts and other nobles, but it is also just as close to a martial cult of warrior priests who worship their swords as extensions of God’s will.  They hold that when invoking in Benalus’ name to guide them, the sword takes on the power and the righteousness of Benalus himself, and that they become merely a vessel for the will of the sword.  They train relentlessly with their weapons, never parting with them, even to bathe, and cleaning and polishing them in a daily ritual.  If a sword is broken, their code demands that they submit to a scourging by a priest until they lose consciousness, and only then may they have their sword repaired as they themselves recover.

Many think the Order of the Roaring Sword to be fanatics and want nothing to do with them, but one cannot argue that they are masterful swordsmen, and at the merest suggestion of something less, they are obligated to challenge the offending individual to a duel.

Order of the Black Gull

Patron Angel: Cyaniel
Patron Saint: St. Corva

The Order of the Black Gull is an order of Cyanahim priests who reside in Port Valeria and conduct various operations using the ships that move to and from the port there.  It is thought that the Black Gulls believe that House Valerian is not so straightforward and headstrong as it may seem, and that they may be involved in a number of unpleasant activities that are thought of as ungodly and unseemly.  Besides their normal duties, they are always careful to watch House Valerian closely, and to look carefully into the events of their history.

HOUSE UNDERWOOD

Coat of Arms:  Six black daggers, all pointed outward on a gold background.
Maxim: Victory, the Highest Law
Keep: Spinebreak
City of Influence: Cry Haven

Murderers and cut-throats, The Underwoods are a line of bandit lords that have come into noble power. Running Cry Haven like a den of thieves, they preside over several lesser criminal bosses and take a cut of everything that goes down there. Relatively lawless, their realm is flooded with smugglers and murderers. So much so, they cannot do business with the guild of merchants, thus making the town a surprising place of free trade. The Keep of Spinebreak overlooks a cliff of the same name where the previous noble line was cornered and eventually thrown off. It is now custom to execute prisoners by hurling them off the Spinbreak and the bones of hundreds litter the chasm floor.

Cry Haven

– Cry Haven is a large port town in the South of Rogalia.  It has a warehouse district on a lowland where the docks are laid at sea level, followed by a steep bluff that looks out over the harbor and its ocean.  On the bluff sit the houses of wealthy families, other lesser crime lords that have found Cry Haven to be a suitable place to set up their operations from.  Cry Haven lacks an established police force, so law enforcement such as it is, is handled by semi-organized gangs that are part of the power structure of the crime lords of the city.
– With such a lawless atmosphere, one would think that Cry Haven would be a terrible place where no ordinary business could ensue, but that would be a mistake.  In fact, the city has lively trade from all over Rogalia, Njordr, those Hestrali traders who do not wish to pay the fees to fly Rogalia company flags, and even the occasional Shariqyn traders, who get a fairer deal there than most anywhere else.  There are no guilds in Cry Haven, so a sort of free market takes over, and merchants have learned that paying racketeering fees to local gangs is actually starkly cheaper than paying guild dues and fees.  Unlicensed craftsmen who for whatever reason didn’t gain their training through ordinary apprenticeships also can ply their trade here, standing only on the quality of their work rather than the fixed costs of their guild association.
– Some trade companies set up in Cry Haven unofficially, having a sort of district office there to benefit from its relatively lower (if somewhat riskier) fees, and then move the goods elsewhere in Rogalia to sell in more formal markets.  House Underwood either doesn’t realize how much money it could make by taxing all this trade with tariffs, or realizes exactly how much they are making by doing just the opposite and attracting business from far and wide.

The Onyx Daggers

Valor:  Sincerity

The Onyx Daggers act as sort of a special police force for House Underwood when not on campaign.  Because their town is one giant thieves den, the powerful interests in their holdings are perhaps more likely than most to act in rebellion or sedition, or otherwise make power plays against them.  To counter this, an elite force of soldiers called the Onyx Daggers work their way through Cry Haven’s underbelly making sure they know exactly what is going on at all times, quietly observing from the shadows and making damn sure that they aren’t being lied to.  They are well supplied and well trained, and no one to trifle with.  They combine all the low cunning and ferocious mien of a desperate thug with the formal lifelong training and high-quality equipment of a nobleman.

Brothers of the Tawny Owl

Patron Angel: Melandiel
Patron Saint: Strix the Redeemed

Strix was Cry Haven gutter scum from the poorest neighborhoods of Cry Haven, and joined gangs to provide himself with protection.  Growing up in the gangs and alleys, he was forced to terrible deeds to survive, and inflicted pain and misery upon others.  After a tragedy involving his younger brother, he renounced his gang affiliations and refused to join any other gang.  His old gang tried to kill him for breaking ties, and rival gangs in the area thought to take the opportunity to kill off their old rival as well, but Strix proved too clever and too dangerous to catch or pin down, injuring anyone who came after him.

He did not have the means to travel so could not leave the town, instead sleeping in secret boltholes his long life of homelessness had taught him, but it could not last forever.  He stopped running and founded an orphanage for other children of the city who had been pushed into harsh circumstances, living openly and notoriously in the city, promising to defend to the death the children he protected.  Miraculously, no one dared attack Strix or his children, and the children grew up with him as a hero, calling themselves the Tawny Owls.  After Strix died of disease, his story made it to Port Melandir and he was lionized by the Cardinal of the Melandihim Order in Lion Age 510.

Today, the Brothers of the Tawny Owl are children of Cry Haven who have been inducted into the Priesthood, for whom living a life of poverty seems no sacrifice at all, and who still hardened by the harsh life of the city, tattooed in scarred from their various gang affiliations, guard children throughout the city.  No child who doesn’t wish to belong to a gang needs to if they claim the protection of the Owls, and young men and women who tire of the gang life often join the Order as Brothers and Sisters to help the children of the city escape that life to somewhere else.

COMMON NAMES