--- Residents of the province of Rundehaugen awoke to lively streets full of teenagers up to their twenties, all led into procession by the Duchess Tuija Viduggla herself. Velheim teenagers, some even from the neighbouring provinces of Sjoanvegen and Halseberg attended, ripe to begin their Rite of Lensa, a right of Connection that some Old Gods worshipers go through between the ages of fifteen and twenty to showcase their devotion to their patron God Lensa. All of this was funded by Tuija, and supported by Ardige and Leidolf Viduggla, who spent their initial days across various hamlets in the province reminding those going through the Rite what would be expected of them. The Duchess declared her intention to follow through with the Rite of Lensa alongside the others despite having already declared Bev as her Patron God, which was more than acceptable and was seen as a symbolic gesture of the Duchess’ adherence and support of the Old Gods faith. The group corralled into the province's predominant city where the administrative ruler led the Duchess and company to a large open area that had a flurry of burned down houses, rubble and debris from the burning of the North some years ago. Armed with carts full of tools, plant seedlings and bulbs of Friblomsts and Modrik’s Root, saplings of Juniper trees and Lensanna trees, Tuija oversaw the Velheim youth in clearing the land of wreckage, a plan laid forth atop an oak table that had been brought out special for the occasion which detailed plans to turn the entire site into a large public garden. For those unfit for manual labour, Tuija also provided a public forum, sponsoring small performances throughout the week for the retelling of Velheim stories, fables and folklore for the elderly and lonely. By the end of the week, almost all of those that had engaged with Tuija, along with the Duchess herself, completed their Rite and Tuija was universally thanked throughout the region for her magnanimity and service to the Old Gods faith. While religiosity activities were ongoing in Rundehaugen, a troupe of warriors led by Aesgeir and Frejnir Viduggla, alongside the Url Quin, Tawnia, Ingemar and Cyrillian made haste to the province of Halseberg with an official seal from the House Viduggla notifying the local rulers that the troupe had come to dispatch the Trugg of Ogres that had made the mountains and nearby valley their home. Aegeir and Frejnir opted not to linger too long, using the morning light to begin tracking the ogres from their last sighted location atop the ridge just North of the town. This is where the Url in the group came in incredibly handy. The scent of the beasts lingered, and Quin and Ingemar were able to track the creatures to a cave within the valley itself. Aesgeir ordered Cyrillian to enter the cave and lure the ogres out, which he begrudgingly did, leading all seven of them inside into a fight out in the open. Despite putting up a fight, and leaving Tawnia with a broken left arm from a fortunate club strike, all seven were killed and their heads taken as both trophies and as proof of their victory. Upon returning to the town, Aesgeir was rewarded, not with gold, but with the Towns only real treasure -- A map. A map rumored to lead to a treasure worth their victory. Lastly, announcements came from the Viduggla province of Lundenes, where a notable Velheim Lord was declared to be in dire need of medical attention after having taken a significant, life threatening wound from a hunt in Zastorrik. A call was made to the most skilled medical practitioners across the Archipelago to assist in order to prevent his death and a possible succession crisis between his three sons: Arvid who was occult inclined, Dag who was rumored to have ties to the criminal underbelly of the archipelago and Egil, a Scholar who was a frequent visitor of the Citadel of Proagogi. If the Lord was to die, one could in theory support one of these local rulers to administration for a ‘boon’ of sorts [!] --- In the Highlands, letters arrived at the courts of both the Duke Don Koloch and Duke Lochallen inviting them both to a large, Highland gathering in the province of Wickthur under an oath of protection provided by House Mac Conall which both Dukes accept. The intent of the gathering was evidently to begin quelling the fires that had been stoked from the attacks on both sides. Natharia Mac Conall independently travelled then to the Duchies of the other two Highland Dukes of Mairduid-Clannadh and Rom-Carramac to the diplomatic talks as neutral parties with an interest in the stability of the region, of which both accept. Rather than the initial plan of Cillian Mac Conall travelling to the Dukes Don Koloch and Lochallen, which he had planned to do but remembered the morning of that he’d invited them to Wickthur, silly Duke, he instead makes his way to Wickthur to engage in the peace talks. Duke Alastair Mac Conall broached the Mac Conall feudal council for advice on the current situation -- the response being verbatim “You are not a large fish in a small pond. Flapping your tailfin around as careless as you have will end up with you striking bigger fish if you aren't careful.” Straight after this, Alastair travels to Dundarne with a small personal army on standby whilst placing Gwendolyn Black in charge of the ragtag Mac Conall fleet which had not been fully rallied. This.. of course made peace talks rigid given the fact that while Mac Conall invited these Dukes to peace talks, it seemed one half of the family was gearing up for conflict regardless. Nevertheless, servants at the peace summit noted the lavishness of it all, all four Dukes entering a room together with no guards, no servants, nothing, but exiting with a mutual agreement of non-aggression and two pieces of parchment each. This put an end to the conflict -- for now. Interestingly enough, the Duke Don Koloch’s departure from his lands roused some interest from some lesser notable criminal groups in the area. As the Duke had taken a sizeable retinue with him from the province of Loch Dunhan, a few warehouses that had been stockpiled with weapons were now at the mercy of criminal enterprise which left a gap for a possible heist for said gangs and any who wished to assist for a cut of the profits [!] --- Out at sea, the Vyzal trade ships that were set to rendezvous at the Telarel port in Solmarse were making haste. The seas while calm had an eeriness about it, likely due to the pirate attacks that had occurred nearby the months prior. Their anxiety about the venture proved well placed, as around one of the smaller Islands a small flotilla of ships beelined for the five trade ships. This was not usual for merchant vessels, thus the ships dropped full sail and began to flee with the flotilla hot on their tail. Unfortunately for Vyzel and Telarel, two of the five ships are caught up upon and boarded, the captains brutalised, arms and legs removed and left to bleed to death and the crew cut apart -- all of which of course were just couriers, not slavers. Merchants trying to earn a livelihood for their families, massacred. Some of the slaves are then captured and brought upon these ships and start off elsewhere off into the horizon. By the time Vyzel’s support came, the pirates had already vanished and Cro-Maarx’s captain Rond’e Gamal was only able to deliver the remaining three ships to port in Solmarse. --- Rumvalia was far from silent either. Over the last month, Duke Merdoc Slumberwood had effectively permitted the younger Anian nobility to engage in an Anti-New Regalian campaign, removing New Regalian cultural influences from the Slumberwood lands. At least that was what it originally was. Though this was not without consequence. The Slumberwood lands were conservative themselves, and while the malleable younger nobility were all for protecting their own culture, the older more experienced nobles were not. Blocking trade from the North was seriously affecting business and taxation income, and many of the noble families were already starting to discuss bringing the situation to the Slumberwood Feudal Council for discussion but sadly no action was taken in time. Murdoc announces the new ‘Sedition Acts’ which outright bans /all/ New Regalian entry into Rumvalia, cutting trade to their immediate Northern neighbours completely. What's more, new Regalian publications were also banned, though the most concerning and disastrous effect came with the Slumberwood Duke beginning an attack on the clergy. The last major significant legislative measure Merdoc put in motion was the complete deportation of clergy members with New Regalian ties, which proved incredibly difficult for the church in the region as many of the curates had graduated from Allamariën-Hauptseminar in Calemberg and, as there was no set list of graduates, any curate could be imposed as being New Regalian and forced from their respective communities. Adding insult to injury, the acts permit the local lords to seize the property of the clergy suspected of having ties with Calemberg to ‘cover the cost’ of investigations. The end result proved catastrophic. With the younger Anian Nobility pepped up with support from Murdoc, along with the promise of wealth for each New Regalian Clergyman removed, the younger nobility stormed various churches and cathedrals, their guards ransacking the buildings for anything of value before tossing the clergy out into the streets, dragged onto carts and removed from the region, and that was in the best of cases. In Allachia, one curate refused to comply with the local lord’s request and was beaten in front of the cathedral, right in front of the townlands populace, and finally juxtifixed to death to send a message to the New Regalians to the North. While many were all for the protection of Anian ideals, the region was vehemently conservative based, and this treatment of the clergy, New Regalian or not, would not be tolerated in any capacity. The hardline conservative nobility in Slumberwood’s lands immediately denounced the actions of Merdoc and took action, some housing the clergy within their estates while others rallied levies to begin marching on the provinces where the violence was the most profound. It seemed like Slumberwoods provinces were split down the middle with the likes of Ust-Esverh, Mazh-Zyaka, Rumvalia, Virgoviste and Bulvakia denouncing the sacrilegious acts whilst Allachia, Dordovia, Rhodoka and Morvinda backed Murdoc all the way. Merdoc rewards the younger nobles supporting his acts with economic governmental posts, giving these nobles economic control of the region, angering the vast majority of his population further. To add insult to injury, Merdoc gathers his feudal council and demands for military aid explaining that Keens proclamation was a promise of mass killing of Anians, backed by a meeting in the capital at the Beerhall of all New Regalian Noble Houses relating to such and further proven as a legitimate act of war by an attempted assassination attempt on Murdoc himself. The Feudal Council accuses Murdoc of condemning their nation to anarchy for his recent actions and promises no troops as they had no casus belli against the Dukes to the North and no offensive casus belli against Keen. Instead, Murdocs supporters provided all the spare troops they had, which rallied on the border of Dordovia waiting for Cro-Maarx support, Osira Braewanyir as head tactician and Morgaine Slumberwood as a Commander. Cro-Maarx within his own lands attempts to sway his Feudal council to provide defensive support to Slumberwood as per their defensive pact on the foot of Keen’s threats, which were not accepted. After all, Keen had been arrested in the capital for his words and released soon after for posing no real truth to his words. What's more, until Keen actually rallied his armies to march south, there was no defensive casus belli. Instead, Cro-Maarx took a ragtag group of personal levies and three warships to Dordovia to meet with Murdoc’s troops, having his captain Muzhu shell the coastline villages of Molveria and leading the combined Slumberwood and Vyzal army, which was less than average in size into the Duke’s lands to the North. This was unexpected and completely without provocation. By the time the Duke could react, Slumberwood and Vyzal had captured Lugenweitz’ provinces of Elbenwitz and Molveria before being pushed back by the rousing defensive army in Overlungwitz. With no true Casus Belli from either of these entities against Lungenweitz, they gained universal grievances across the Regalian Archipelago, leaving their lands open for a reclamation invasion on behalf of the Duke Lugenweitz. The clergy being housed in the Slumberwood provinces called for aid from other Conservative Unionists to condemn Slumberwood with a march directly upon the Government building in Rumvalia to compel the Duke Slumberwood to repent his ways. It was theorised that the more Unionist clerics amongst them, the more powerful the sentiment and more support against the Slumberwood actions could be roused along the way [!] --- In lighter news, House Delmotte plans and hosts another festival in the provincial capital of Veerpoorte for the Unionist Holiday of May Day, which was a celebration dedicated to requesting the blessing of the Unionist Spirit over the region's crops for that year. Large bonfires are danced around, feasts of all sorts of traditional foods and games are held throughout the day and night of which the Duke personally attends alongside his kinswoman Marie-Paule Delmotte and her Palest, Howland of the Black Crow. This makes the people of the province happy, and of course, happy people meant malleable people. While this goes on, reports stream in from the province of Maarle that a notable fashion trading company bubble had finally burst after months upon months of pressure from surrounding merchants driving inflation on their imports from abroad, leaving a gap for would be fashion tradesmen or fashion inclined individuals to become icons for the trading companies rivals in pushing their own clothing and accessories -- with a promise of a sizeable commission of wealth as recompense [!] Furthermore, correspondence is returned to the Duke of De Paaj relaying an acceptance of courtship with his daughter and an invitation for the Duke, his daughter and the rest of the de Paaj family to accompany Markus and company in Veerpoort for the festivities, though none arrived. As it would turn out, the Duke and his daughter alongside the female cousin of the Duke of Driepunte met Markus on his return to Markus’ capital, angered by his odious behavior and false words sent to both women. They shoved the letters into Howland’s hands, who then passed them onto Markus as both women stormed out of the Delmotte estate with their fathers in tow. The letters detailed Markus’ affections to each woman in specific, but invited both to the Duke’s ‘get-way pleasure estate’ in Maarle, at the same time on the same date. This sours relations for a time with both Dukes and naturally, the acceptance for courtship is for now, rejected. --- Back up North, with no architects forthcoming, Duchess Kaya Sorenvik invests her own personal time in preparing suitable blueprints for the model Velheim Housing she had been stalwartly pressing for over the past month. Paid for fully by the Northern Development Fund, a final plan was formed which allowed for medium sized velheim cottages to be built at a fraction of the cost and labour that had previously been established, but with the downside that the homes would only last about 80 years without significant repairs overtime due to the harshness of the Northern climate. The buildings were primarily to be built with stone and mortar with wattle roofs to prevent the entry of rain whilst also insulating heat. Whether the plans to start mass producing the housing was now up to the Duchess. Elsewhere, in the Northernmost province of Hastedrepland, the Sorenvik families pressed their funding into the creation of a Skagger lodge outside of the largest urban center of the region which, given the remoteness of the provinces, wasn’t incredibly large. A townland at best with roughly a couple hundred people living there. The plans for the lodge made it clear that this particular lodge followed the patron gods of Kaya herself, with plenty of Union of Air iconography such as tapestries celebrating freedom and combat, alongside stone pillars with carvings and etchings upon their length romanticizing change and traditional ceremonies side by side. --- With Reinards recent departure from the Chancellery seat it was time for the Grand Duke to dispense with the stresses of Empirewide Governance and instead press his efforts into appeasing his people in his own provinces. The primary measure Augustin signed into legislation after returning to Barlowe was the complete regional criminalisation of any form of blocking trade within the Schoenn river, the major river within the archipelago used by the Empires merchant class for trading purposes. The other families along the Schoenn river follow suit, with Strathenham, Werringham and the Calderliga Union outlawing it similarly, which brings about praise for the Grand Duke amongst the Merchant class moderately, though some of his local lords believed that the Reinard ought to press the motion to the Noble Assembly to make it completely outlawed on an Empire wide level, citing House Black’s actions months prior which caused economic instability across the entire Archipelago. ((Additional orders from Reinard bounced as he no longer is Lord Chancellor)) --- Back in the South, Grand Duchess Milena Cadieux alongside Fabien Cadieux arranges for a meeting of her own Feudal Council in Vixhall on foot of the growing tension between the New Regalian Houses, notably Keen, and Slumberwood. Whilst not particularly affecting her own lands, she explains that House Keen’s speech in Lutol poses significant detriment to the liberal houses, with hers explicitly mentioned in that very speech and thus queries about the readiness of a military defence if it were necessary. The Feudal Council’s response was a simple one, using the rhetoric that the Slumberwood situation alongside Keen’s own alienation of the Dukes around him meant that it was unlikely Keen would even have the opportunity to send an army to attack the Cadieux lands with so much tension surrounding the Ostfriedland and Calem regions and to relax and settle for the time being. She was also advised against acting on ‘Idiotie conservatrice’ and to instead think not about a political action as a water droplet hitting the surface of a pond, but rather the ripples that that droplet might send out. Nevertheless, they advise that the Cadieux military, though small in stature in terms of a standing army, could rally quickly enough on the principle of Princois Duresse to prevent a large scale occupation of provinces all in one go. After their meeting with the Council, both Cadieux begin a provincial tour of the Cadieux lands in order to meet and greet with the various regional overlords inquiring into the state of their lands and what sort of local development would be well received. Very few had complaints, after all the Cadieux lands had plenty of parties and soirées over the last few months, so morale for the Nobility was high. Most worries came from issues abroad within the archipelago and with the Empire's borders. Firstly, the blight. Most winemaking families were nervous about the possibility of a spread of this unknown disease which could effectively destroy their family business. Secondly, the Iron Duke’s army, which was ramping up in terms of armaments and rousing of their numbers. No one wanted to war with the Iron Duke, so a request was made to Milena directly to foresee the safety of their cultural provinces. As Milena and Fabien returned to their capital, the local nobility were left intrigued with what developments would come from her trip, as well as to where the Grand Duchess had gotten her dress. Having worn a fine silk dress with gold threading harmonized with galena dusted over the dark blues and greens of the dress accentuated with pearl threaded peacock feathered accessories, Milena had absolutely left an impression on the younger fashionable members of her local peerage. Soon enough, Vixhall was booming again with blue and green silk dresses and peacock accessories and it became evident that other Ithanian provinces were following suit. Later that week the Duchess Villeroi and Coutanz were spotted wearing similar clothing, as well as the local rulers of the Reinard provinces of Divais, the Werringham province of Dracke and the de Piedmont province of Boissse-Alais. ---
