Not a Grape Development
An announcement was spread across the Vixhall region that the Grand Duchess Milena Cadieux would be supporting the developments that the other notable regional rulers along the Schoenn River had set in motion. Legislation was immediately passed within the Cadieux lands to criminalise the blocking of trade within the Schoenn river. The ongoing trend is dubbed the 'D-Black Warding Decrees'. Furthermore, House Cadieux subjects all goods coming into the region to mandatory checks for the Blight. The Grand Duchess also orders the burning of vineyards of anyone who was in Sendras for the war effort as a preemptive measure to prevent her provinces from falling to the same fate as Shattel, with the understanding however that the owners of said vineyards would be adequately compensated. This proves to be an incredibly unpopular decision. Many Knights had their livelihoods burned before their very eyes in what was essentially a pre-emptive measure against a situation that was not actually confirmed to 1) already be in the Cadieux provinces and 2) wasn't yet known to affect grapes and other fruits. Only root vegetables thus far. Whatsmore, the sheer amount of vineyards needing to be compensated was far too great for House Cadieux, who was only able to dispense 1/10th of the value of the crops destroyed. Needless to say, Milena Cadieux was not the topic of pleasant conversation. Cadieux soldiers were sent to patrol the vineyards of those not having anything to do with the Sendras war, performing rigorous checks on the crops to ensure the blight was not present. This would occur into the foreseeable future.
"A Census Taker Once Tried To Test Me.."
Meanwhile in Solleria, the Duke Lithuandir Telarel oversees a broad census taking operation personally within his Duchy of Solmarse but with only the province of Solmarse itself to begin with as a sort of litmus test to discover its effectiveness. The Duke keeps a close eye on funding, distributing monies as necessary in order to see the census through successfully. Curiously, the Duke announces that it isn't legally required to participate in the census if one did not wish to, which naturally was going to skew the numbers significantly. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the citizens of Solmarse do actually participate in the census, giving a population number for that province of about 26,000 people. Its estimated that the population grew about 3,000 more in the last few months and that the racial, religious and cultural identity primarily weighs in the majority with Ailor/Altalar, mixed-religious with no specific religion being denoted as particularly more worshiped than the other, which turns out to be the same with Culture. This is normal given the region's melting pot of cultures, but one could assume that given the vast majority of people resident there are Ithanian Ailor/Altalar, the religious and cultural customs would most likely be of their respective traditional values. The Telarel House also pumps a weekly stipend to various members of their Court to travel to both the Solstithar Freeports and Ossulvalon to gauge the overall impression House Telarel has on the common folk there. When the reports return, it's very touch and go. Most don't particularly care for the House or any ruler really, whilst a small portion did speak praise for the coliseum event the month or so prior. Overall, opinion was very neutral.
Shallow Reasoning
Very little happens in Vyzals lands this week as Cro-Maarx puts out an immediate recall of his troops from the Baldmark region. What's more, the Island that was the subject to a Petrou bombardment last month is given a full survey in order to both assess the overall damage caused and any potential loss of life. The damage was miniscule and only terrain based. No structures were destroyed and there was no apparent loss of life. What's more, Cro-Maarx assures his people against any threats from Petrou -- remarking that the only reason that Petrou attacked was because he felt there was a threat to the region. This was not received well though, as many saw the attack as far more than a mere threat and began openly calling Cro-Maarx a coward for not taking decisive action against someone who clearly wished to subjugate Cro-Maarx territory under Etosian rule.
The Athos Blockade
South in Hellatia, Grand Duke Abelhard Petrou rallies a modicum number of ships, four in total to blockade his own province of Athos. This does nothing as no conflict comes to the region. They are joined by a handful, 5, warships from House Falkenreich but again, nothing out of the ordinary occurs just yet. In lieu of the blight, Petrou also passed legislation banning the importation of goods from Peirgarten, Falkenreich and Slumberwood regions into Hellatia.
Fashion Fighting
Fashion! Fashion was the centerpoint of every conversation back in the province of Maarle. In the month prior, a notable fashion trading bubble had burst and many flocked to the region to carve themselves out a piece of the proverbial pie as rival trading companies set up shop to monopolise on the downfall of their old competitor. Seeing opportunity, Grand Duchess Milena Cadieux alongside her kinsman Duke Fabien Cadieux traveled to Maarle to spread peacock feather and silken fashion styles, seeking one of the companies to promote the design in the region. This design was obviously reminiscent of the same fashion that was taking the Vixhall lands by storm, however there was a minor adjustment to it that allowed for tiny clear quartz stones to be sewn into the fabric; causing the fabric to reflect light somewhat. The Cadieux entourage had a significant rival though. Arriving near the same day and decked from head to toe in Anglian fashion, Duchess Natharia Mac Conall and her tailoring assistants Sophie Simos and Heide Luces make a lavish entrance to the fashion market. Natharia herself was adorned in a long, red Anglian dress while the others wore traditional Anglian dresses, long and broad, with jewelry and accessories to match. They brought with them wardrobes chock full of Anglian designs, for both men and women. There was no question, the fashion companies /needed/ these designs and paid House Mac Conall handsomely (2 Wealth tokens) for them. This also caused Anglian culture to rise again in Maarle for a time, which worried many converted Imperial cultured individuals.
The Storm Approaches
With one of the largest Houses now taking precautions, other regions begin copying the Lord Chancellor Madelyne de Azcoissia and begin implementing similar bans on goods from affected provinces also. The likes of Dugalis, Villaroi, Coutanz, Pineroi, Sforana and the two Genevaudian Dukes, Bade and Zerrick, also closed their borders to produce from infected regions. This has the effect of crippling the Peirgarten income from produce, nearly halfing their overall wealth in a month flat. The effects of this would not be seen right away, but spending would have to be monitored going forward to ensure that the House didn't fall into poverty. Duchess Amelina Peirgarten does her best to alleviate some of the financial hardship that her farmers are going through by pumping more funding into the farmers who had an egregious amount of damage done to their harvest, which helps keep spirits high and faith in the Duchess stable.
Elsewhere, the Agricultural Committee led by Haeddi van Hal heads back to Shattel to further investigate the effects of the blight that was rampaging through the Lorhauser Duchy. With Haeddi, Amelina Peirgarten, Loriella Hall'aveia and Caricia Vasaretto perform mass checks on farm produce all over Shattel, walking the length of the vast fields and inspecting ten samples per kilometer for blight. If, and when blight was found, the entire field was burned. With how rapidly the blight had spread around Shattel thus far, this had the result of decreasing crop yield for root vegetables for that year by roughly 80%. The mage Nora Mornala attempted to use her abilities to try purifying the blight to investigate whether it was magical in nature, to no avail. Her abilities appear to have no effect on the crop whatsoever.
Further South, Grand Duke Abelhard Petrou opens the Citadel of Proagogi to the likes of Cro-Maarx, Nallia Qulo'ena, Atum and Barbossa to investigate possible solutions to the blight. Upon arriving in Athos, they notice the significant soldier presence, a huge number for the purpose of guarding the citadel numbering in the multiple thousands. Vyzal himself is kept under permanent surveillance there and the group is told that they have exactly until four in the afternoon to finish their research and so, off they went about it. Nothing new was really found. Just tossing scholars at the problem without investigating sources didn't seem to be working well, but Atum and Barbossa did confirm that yes, it was alchemically created but there was also a void magic element to whatever concoction caused the infection, so traditional means of solving the problem short of complete destruction of the crop would not work, and thus it would be wise for the group to travel to Hadar to investigate the island the infected crops were taken from. At four, the group leave and hop aboard a boat to head North. However, a couple of miles out into sea, the ship is surrounded by Falkenreich warships and is boarded. Outnumbered, the group surrender to House Falkenreich though only Cro-Maarx is captured, the rest are allowed to go on their merry way. For now, House Falkenreich holds Cro-Maarx as hostage for Cro-Maarx's involvement in the New Regalian/Baldmark conflict. The Imperial Regent soon hears wind of this capture and sends an Imperial Guard chaperone to watch over Cro-Maarx which allows him to return to the city, but under permanent guard. Until there could be some agreement over ransom between Falkenreich and Cro-Maarx, the Guard would remain.
In Tirgunn, Duke Florian Peirgarten arrives alongside Mila Braunbecker and Ludwig Schusselfeld to speak with the likes of the Darkwald Council on behalf of the Shattel Agricultural Comittee. There, Florian informs the council that the infection is most likely Hadarian/Sendrassian in nature and urges the Darkwald Council to begin researching what they can on it in order to combat its spread. Florian offers the services of Mila and Ludwig, both Darkwalds themselves, to begin looking into the crops. The Darkwald Council agrees to give them free reign of the fields to prove this theory. Before Florian departs and the two Darkwalds get to work, the Duke recommends burning the infected fields as a precaution, banning imports from infected regions, closing the borders and heavily washing farming supplies which the council agrees to. Mila and Ludwig discover some infected fields and immediately put them to the torch but not before claiming some samples for inspection and research.
Upon his mount, Florian rides to the nearby coastal province of Gorzon to ban ship-bound exports from the region to prevent spread overseas and again, recommends closing the borders, banning exports, washing supplies and burning affected fields. Florian encourages the governing body of the region to share these methods with neighbouring regions to halt the blight from spreading any further, which they agree to do. At this point it was obvious that for the time being, lockdown was the most ideal solution.
Lastly, Duke Cillian Mac Conall travels to the province of Salzenwald on behalf of the Shattel Agricultural Committee to act as an advisor to the ruler there on how to handle the blight infection. Firstly, the Duke recommends that farmers take ten samples per field and burn the entire field if any of the samples show signs of blight on the inside. He has his assistants show the Duke's men on how the sampling should occur, which helps a great deal. Cillian then ventures around the border settlements in the province, determining that the blight was travelling cross border primarily through trade but that there was also a chance that there was someone, or some group purposefully bringing the blight into neighbouring provinces for whatever reason, as multiple witnesses state they saw black marketiers selling self described 'Blight Potatoes' to gangs in the area, though most thought this absurdly untrue and just a grifting scheme. After all, why would anyone want to do that? And, who would be stupid enough to?
Upon final review, the Shattel Agricultural Committee was able to establish the following from their various checks:
An announcement was spread across the Vixhall region that the Grand Duchess Milena Cadieux would be supporting the developments that the other notable regional rulers along the Schoenn River had set in motion. Legislation was immediately passed within the Cadieux lands to criminalise the blocking of trade within the Schoenn river. The ongoing trend is dubbed the 'D-Black Warding Decrees'. Furthermore, House Cadieux subjects all goods coming into the region to mandatory checks for the Blight. The Grand Duchess also orders the burning of vineyards of anyone who was in Sendras for the war effort as a preemptive measure to prevent her provinces from falling to the same fate as Shattel, with the understanding however that the owners of said vineyards would be adequately compensated. This proves to be an incredibly unpopular decision. Many Knights had their livelihoods burned before their very eyes in what was essentially a pre-emptive measure against a situation that was not actually confirmed to 1) already be in the Cadieux provinces and 2) wasn't yet known to affect grapes and other fruits. Only root vegetables thus far. Whatsmore, the sheer amount of vineyards needing to be compensated was far too great for House Cadieux, who was only able to dispense 1/10th of the value of the crops destroyed. Needless to say, Milena Cadieux was not the topic of pleasant conversation. Cadieux soldiers were sent to patrol the vineyards of those not having anything to do with the Sendras war, performing rigorous checks on the crops to ensure the blight was not present. This would occur into the foreseeable future.
"A Census Taker Once Tried To Test Me.."
Meanwhile in Solleria, the Duke Lithuandir Telarel oversees a broad census taking operation personally within his Duchy of Solmarse but with only the province of Solmarse itself to begin with as a sort of litmus test to discover its effectiveness. The Duke keeps a close eye on funding, distributing monies as necessary in order to see the census through successfully. Curiously, the Duke announces that it isn't legally required to participate in the census if one did not wish to, which naturally was going to skew the numbers significantly. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the citizens of Solmarse do actually participate in the census, giving a population number for that province of about 26,000 people. Its estimated that the population grew about 3,000 more in the last few months and that the racial, religious and cultural identity primarily weighs in the majority with Ailor/Altalar, mixed-religious with no specific religion being denoted as particularly more worshiped than the other, which turns out to be the same with Culture. This is normal given the region's melting pot of cultures, but one could assume that given the vast majority of people resident there are Ithanian Ailor/Altalar, the religious and cultural customs would most likely be of their respective traditional values. The Telarel House also pumps a weekly stipend to various members of their Court to travel to both the Solstithar Freeports and Ossulvalon to gauge the overall impression House Telarel has on the common folk there. When the reports return, it's very touch and go. Most don't particularly care for the House or any ruler really, whilst a small portion did speak praise for the coliseum event the month or so prior. Overall, opinion was very neutral.
Shallow Reasoning
Very little happens in Vyzals lands this week as Cro-Maarx puts out an immediate recall of his troops from the Baldmark region. What's more, the Island that was the subject to a Petrou bombardment last month is given a full survey in order to both assess the overall damage caused and any potential loss of life. The damage was miniscule and only terrain based. No structures were destroyed and there was no apparent loss of life. What's more, Cro-Maarx assures his people against any threats from Petrou -- remarking that the only reason that Petrou attacked was because he felt there was a threat to the region. This was not received well though, as many saw the attack as far more than a mere threat and began openly calling Cro-Maarx a coward for not taking decisive action against someone who clearly wished to subjugate Cro-Maarx territory under Etosian rule.
The Athos Blockade
South in Hellatia, Grand Duke Abelhard Petrou rallies a modicum number of ships, four in total to blockade his own province of Athos. This does nothing as no conflict comes to the region. They are joined by a handful, 5, warships from House Falkenreich but again, nothing out of the ordinary occurs just yet. In lieu of the blight, Petrou also passed legislation banning the importation of goods from Peirgarten, Falkenreich and Slumberwood regions into Hellatia.
Fashion Fighting
Fashion! Fashion was the centerpoint of every conversation back in the province of Maarle. In the month prior, a notable fashion trading bubble had burst and many flocked to the region to carve themselves out a piece of the proverbial pie as rival trading companies set up shop to monopolise on the downfall of their old competitor. Seeing opportunity, Grand Duchess Milena Cadieux alongside her kinsman Duke Fabien Cadieux traveled to Maarle to spread peacock feather and silken fashion styles, seeking one of the companies to promote the design in the region. This design was obviously reminiscent of the same fashion that was taking the Vixhall lands by storm, however there was a minor adjustment to it that allowed for tiny clear quartz stones to be sewn into the fabric; causing the fabric to reflect light somewhat. The Cadieux entourage had a significant rival though. Arriving near the same day and decked from head to toe in Anglian fashion, Duchess Natharia Mac Conall and her tailoring assistants Sophie Simos and Heide Luces make a lavish entrance to the fashion market. Natharia herself was adorned in a long, red Anglian dress while the others wore traditional Anglian dresses, long and broad, with jewelry and accessories to match. They brought with them wardrobes chock full of Anglian designs, for both men and women. There was no question, the fashion companies /needed/ these designs and paid House Mac Conall handsomely (2 Wealth tokens) for them. This also caused Anglian culture to rise again in Maarle for a time, which worried many converted Imperial cultured individuals.
The Storm Approaches
With one of the largest Houses now taking precautions, other regions begin copying the Lord Chancellor Madelyne de Azcoissia and begin implementing similar bans on goods from affected provinces also. The likes of Dugalis, Villaroi, Coutanz, Pineroi, Sforana and the two Genevaudian Dukes, Bade and Zerrick, also closed their borders to produce from infected regions. This has the effect of crippling the Peirgarten income from produce, nearly halfing their overall wealth in a month flat. The effects of this would not be seen right away, but spending would have to be monitored going forward to ensure that the House didn't fall into poverty. Duchess Amelina Peirgarten does her best to alleviate some of the financial hardship that her farmers are going through by pumping more funding into the farmers who had an egregious amount of damage done to their harvest, which helps keep spirits high and faith in the Duchess stable.
Elsewhere, the Agricultural Committee led by Haeddi van Hal heads back to Shattel to further investigate the effects of the blight that was rampaging through the Lorhauser Duchy. With Haeddi, Amelina Peirgarten, Loriella Hall'aveia and Caricia Vasaretto perform mass checks on farm produce all over Shattel, walking the length of the vast fields and inspecting ten samples per kilometer for blight. If, and when blight was found, the entire field was burned. With how rapidly the blight had spread around Shattel thus far, this had the result of decreasing crop yield for root vegetables for that year by roughly 80%. The mage Nora Mornala attempted to use her abilities to try purifying the blight to investigate whether it was magical in nature, to no avail. Her abilities appear to have no effect on the crop whatsoever.
Further South, Grand Duke Abelhard Petrou opens the Citadel of Proagogi to the likes of Cro-Maarx, Nallia Qulo'ena, Atum and Barbossa to investigate possible solutions to the blight. Upon arriving in Athos, they notice the significant soldier presence, a huge number for the purpose of guarding the citadel numbering in the multiple thousands. Vyzal himself is kept under permanent surveillance there and the group is told that they have exactly until four in the afternoon to finish their research and so, off they went about it. Nothing new was really found. Just tossing scholars at the problem without investigating sources didn't seem to be working well, but Atum and Barbossa did confirm that yes, it was alchemically created but there was also a void magic element to whatever concoction caused the infection, so traditional means of solving the problem short of complete destruction of the crop would not work, and thus it would be wise for the group to travel to Hadar to investigate the island the infected crops were taken from. At four, the group leave and hop aboard a boat to head North. However, a couple of miles out into sea, the ship is surrounded by Falkenreich warships and is boarded. Outnumbered, the group surrender to House Falkenreich though only Cro-Maarx is captured, the rest are allowed to go on their merry way. For now, House Falkenreich holds Cro-Maarx as hostage for Cro-Maarx's involvement in the New Regalian/Baldmark conflict. The Imperial Regent soon hears wind of this capture and sends an Imperial Guard chaperone to watch over Cro-Maarx which allows him to return to the city, but under permanent guard. Until there could be some agreement over ransom between Falkenreich and Cro-Maarx, the Guard would remain.
In Tirgunn, Duke Florian Peirgarten arrives alongside Mila Braunbecker and Ludwig Schusselfeld to speak with the likes of the Darkwald Council on behalf of the Shattel Agricultural Comittee. There, Florian informs the council that the infection is most likely Hadarian/Sendrassian in nature and urges the Darkwald Council to begin researching what they can on it in order to combat its spread. Florian offers the services of Mila and Ludwig, both Darkwalds themselves, to begin looking into the crops. The Darkwald Council agrees to give them free reign of the fields to prove this theory. Before Florian departs and the two Darkwalds get to work, the Duke recommends burning the infected fields as a precaution, banning imports from infected regions, closing the borders and heavily washing farming supplies which the council agrees to. Mila and Ludwig discover some infected fields and immediately put them to the torch but not before claiming some samples for inspection and research.
Upon his mount, Florian rides to the nearby coastal province of Gorzon to ban ship-bound exports from the region to prevent spread overseas and again, recommends closing the borders, banning exports, washing supplies and burning affected fields. Florian encourages the governing body of the region to share these methods with neighbouring regions to halt the blight from spreading any further, which they agree to do. At this point it was obvious that for the time being, lockdown was the most ideal solution.
Lastly, Duke Cillian Mac Conall travels to the province of Salzenwald on behalf of the Shattel Agricultural Committee to act as an advisor to the ruler there on how to handle the blight infection. Firstly, the Duke recommends that farmers take ten samples per field and burn the entire field if any of the samples show signs of blight on the inside. He has his assistants show the Duke's men on how the sampling should occur, which helps a great deal. Cillian then ventures around the border settlements in the province, determining that the blight was travelling cross border primarily through trade but that there was also a chance that there was someone, or some group purposefully bringing the blight into neighbouring provinces for whatever reason, as multiple witnesses state they saw black marketiers selling self described 'Blight Potatoes' to gangs in the area, though most thought this absurdly untrue and just a grifting scheme. After all, why would anyone want to do that? And, who would be stupid enough to?
Upon final review, the Shattel Agricultural Committee was able to establish the following from their various checks:
- Burning crop fields does slow the spread of the blight.
- Closing the borders affects income of the Noble Houses, but slows the spread of the blight.
- Stopping imports slows the effect of the blight, but severely impacts infected regions populations and liege lords in terms of finance.
- The Blight is not of natural origin.
- The Blight had spread to the following provinces: Maraisburcke, Boss-Herze, Milosso, Medberge, Drachenwald, Jimenista, Rio Grande, Bispingen. From this, it was obvious that aside from spreading from nearby fields, random instances of the blight was starting to pop up over the archipelago, likely from trade before the lockdown occurred.
- It was also incredibly possible that criminal elements could now also purposefully spread the blight for their own nefarious intentions.
