| The Lordship of Dark Waters
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Duchy: Mists
Barony: Foxfire Cradle
Leaders: Vacant
Population: ???
Known For: ???
Major Towns and Cities: ???
Characters of Dark Waters: Here
Description: Among the smallest of the lordships of Mists, Dark Waters in Foxfire Cradle barony is dominated by the great lake of the same name sprawling across its territory from west to east. Cradled within the folded hills of the Mistian Highlands, the sparsely populated moors and marshy, rolling plains are renowned for their breathtaking vistas and the difficulty traveling except by flat-bottomed barges.
Best known for the impressive depth of the Dark Waters and the pearls produced from its depths, the interior lordship is almost entirely rural and dotted by small settlements along the lakeshore, the numerous rivers and many lakes in the countryside. From its rolling hills fall the lordships of the the coast in the north and the great fens south of the hills.
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| History
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The history of the lordship is inextricably entangled around that of the black lake at its heart. Great interest from the arcane community arose from the black pearls harvested out of its shallows, for these much coveted components possess excellent capabilities for all spellcasters regardless of their magical sphere. As settlers moved in from Eleki Beach and Enchanted Coral, they brought with them skills for swimming, sailing, and cultivation of shellfish which in time formed the backbone of the local economy and Dark Waters' very identity. These quiet people have a great love for the waterways surrounding them and they never wholly abandoned their coastal origins, continuing to build up a thriving tradition of water elementalism.
Responsibility for Dark Waters has shifted back and forth through several families over the five centuries since the empire's independence, very often guided by tension or the influence of local magical orders or trade. Pearls are the lifeblood for a region with few other natural resources to trade with neighbors, and merchant-mages have a surprising degree of authority in the area. More than one ruling family joined the aristocracy through its trade connections. Shrewd appraisal skills together with a spirit for haggling helped to assure Dark Waters' independence from its much larger neighbors as much as they do bartering a fair price for commodities.
Some harbor great suspicions that the great lake hosts very dangerous beasts or mythical creatures under its surface. Certainly there have been very strange incidents in the past, including wholesale disappearances of entire communities, and the Lords or Ladies themselves. Nevertheless, it is a danger which has not deterred the residents, and the unsolved mysteries continue to attract mages in search of answers.
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| Politics
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On the surface Dark Waters is spared the wrangling of the larger lordships by dint of its central placement and considerable isolation, as well as small population centers. Even the capital, Esain, has less than 1,000 people, and it dwarfs all the other communities put together. Nonetheless, the high membership in arcane orders is among the greatest in the barony and this contributes to a well-informed population with interest in at least certain aspects of local and regional developments. Mages are rarely shy about sharing their opinions, and especially so among their peers.
Though there have been several ruling families of the lordship since its foundation, they all share a surprisingly short period of authority. To date, not one Lord or Lady Dark Waters has perished from old age; those who do not die in magical accidents, an appallingly common situation even in Mists, or from a variety of other calamities such as illness or battle, perish in the great lake itself where their manor sits. At least nine Lords or Ladies have suffered this fate under strange circumstances, even despite security precautions taken to guard their wellbeing. Investigations have failed to turn up any given cause although the incidents do often occur on heavily misty or foggy evenings, giving rise to early belief they died in accidents. Even the former Ammon family seemed to eventually fall prey to the to the rumors, first with the death of the Dowager Lord and Lady, and finally with the silent disappearance of their only heir, Rhydian, not long after his own ascension to the lordship.
Recently in August of 507 A.G., Duke Mists announced the ascension of the Vargas family to the lordship under the leadership of the former Magistrate, Mira Soleil, for her service to the ducal throne. In a surprising announcement, he has bestowed full inheritance rights upon her twin children, Donnegan and Aganine, along with an assurance that the newly-mantled Lady Dark Waters may one day resume her duties of Magistrate office should her children come of age for ascension to the throne.
Since the disappearance of Lady Vargas in early 508 A.G., the land has been temporarily administered by a distant cousin of Duke Raziel, Aiden Fausthand.
Aiden Fausthand vanished at some point either during, or shortly after the schism.
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| Succession of Lords
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Content to follow.
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| Geography
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Shrouded in the Breath of Imperius rolling off of the high western peaks of the island, the landlocked territory is nevertheless characterized and sculpted by water beyond the massive lake. The Sabronache River forms the western boundary as it flows from the Mistian Highlands to the Sea of Veils, and hundreds of streams and creeks settle into the damp lowlands, forming ponds and hectares of brackish swamps.
Very little of Dark Waters is forested, but instead covered in moor grasses and heath especially in the west. The lordship does not receive heavy precipitation; in the rainshadow of the Highlands and Sorcery's Crest, the western slopes are not heavily vegetated and bald stony peaks provide an impressive view.
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| Economy
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Perhaps unusual for a non-coastal lordship, majority of the residents eke out their living either directly from the water or on homesteads elevated above the moors predominating the landscape. Far more people earn their living from fishing or eel-trapping in the Mistian Sea or its many tributaries than through farming or any other economic activity. Dry land is always at a premium except along the eastern borders with Eleki Beach where drainage is good enough to allow for some grazing of sheep and particular strains of cattle from Guardians and Green Fields, but the expense due to mutations from the Breath of Imperius makes this unsustainable except for the wealthiest merchants and pearl divers. An industry of cutting and harvesting peat out of the swamps has built up over many years, a skill adopted throughout Foxfire Cradle and Shadrach's Folly, and peat blocks form a major source of heating where magical braziers and charms are too costly or impractical.
(Information from before the schism, updated info coming soon.)
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| Culture
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The people from the lordship are quite gregarious and offer considerate hospitality for those in need of food and shelter. The difficulties in transportation and temperamental weather over the lake can stymie easy travel, and they never hesitate to offer what they can to visitors. Transportation through Dark Waters was often done by manned ferry. More popular are the scudding barges poled through shallower areas and the marshes, bypassing any natural hazards of following shifting trails through changing marshlands.
This was all before the schism. Now, the lordship is all but abandoned and few know what future holds for the land or the people who once lived within it's borders.
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| Bestiary
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Content to follow.
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