Only news of the Regalian Archipelago this week, as tensions are still high, though an actual conflict seemed to be lacking. Kehlen was the first to continue fortifications of his homelands to guard against foreign intervention or invasion which would never come. Eventually, Kehlen sends the pillaged gold taken from Winslough sent there by Dei Termini from Peirgarten lands back to the family Peirgarten, which brings an end to the curious journey of these bales of gold. It does however also present another curious situation: The land from which the gold was taken was de facto du Pont land, and made de jure du Pont land days after the gold was taken, since the pillaging occured in Lorhauser which presently remained within du Pont lands. A force of Claudio, Carwell and Artiemus troops is sent to Narlas for reconstruction efforts, but the borderguard rebuffs their attempts to enter. These troops could pose a serious risk to the weakened defences of House Black, and having any troops on their lands is deemed a problem, as long as permission was not forthcoming from their ruler. House Black does however grant permission to house Celyreos to send weapon shipments through Trieg, but this presents a little problem. House Celyreos apparently did not look at a map correctly, deeming trieg a “Long way around”. In fact Trieg was in the opposite direction of Pétange, the homeland of house Rosendahl, which was entirely enveloped by House Ravenstad. As such, House Celyreos had no other option than to ship the weapons over the water, and when encountering the blockade in the Brissiaud strait, their ships were stopped by the Ravenstad blockade (which had not yet been given the command to cease their barricade), who summarily confiscated all weapons on the Celyreos ship that was destined for Rosendahl ports. House Harhold and House Ortonnaise both attempted to woo various courts in relation to the pressure between the Empire and Ithania. On one end, Harhold attempted to woo the Kade House of Trade to increase the bread pricing on Ithania to punish them for harsh language against Harhold and the Empire, while Ortonnaise attempted to woo the Sovereign of Ithania to re-establish a home guard force, which was a really obvious smoke screen for a call to increased military independence from the Empire. Both offers were equally rejected with the notion that Empire politics are simpler than singular actions with plural framnifications. Harhold was made aware that a bread price increase would result in Ithanian simply paying less taxes to be able to sustain themselves which would eventually lead to a deficit in income from Ithania. Ortonnaise was made aware that any provocation to Regalia could seriously result in the Emperor taking his army and invading Ithania proper to dethrone the Sovereign and install martial law. Both situations proposed the fragile situation that both Regalia and Ithania had effectively trapped each other in a gilded cage, and that the only deadlock break relied on the Emperor deciding he’d had enough and annexing Ithania properly into state controlled lands, which both sides tried to prevent due to the logistical nightmare, as well as the potential power loss on the part of the Ithanians who absolutely stood no chance in a military encounter. Finally, various threatening army movements were made in and around Drixagh. While originally Haagenvig and Sorenvik tried their best to masquerade their ship and troop movements, it was hard to hide over 50,000 troops moving through the Throatcap Walds, even while forested, without anyone noticing, on account of there now being twice as many troops in these areas than there were actually people living inside them. Similarly, Sorenvik attempts to hide their ships around Norrlän were somewhat naive, as Norrlän itself was essentially a tree-less cove-less rock in the middle of a major trade zone where any ship was as obvious as a wine stain on a white dress. The movements were obvious: Troops dancing on and around the Howlester borders in Drixagh, formally proclaimed as military exercises and diplomatic missions to improve relations, though many would be left scratching their heads wondering why one would need so many troops to achieve this. The locals in Billunderborg instead had a different interpretation, seeing it as a show of strength of the new Great Three (albeit only two participated), sending a strong message that Howlester was not welcome in Drixagh and that the locals would bite back against any attempt to expand their sphere of influence. It raised a greater sentiment in general across Drixagh. Was there still a place for foreigners in Drixagh? Billunderborg was the most obvious Barony in control of foreigners on the landmass of Drixagh, but in small local regions, many pro-Krupp and foreign immigrant barons remained as a remnant of the previous faux-rebellion and attempts to displace the Velheimers with Regalian nobles. Recent recoveries in population and influxes of Nordskag peasants displaced from the Hvitskag pillage lands had bolstered the national identity of the Velheimers in Drixagh, giving rise to the idea that Drixagh belonged to the Velheimers, not the Regalians and Highlanders. Curiously enough, a voice entirely unexpected supported this notion, but for a very different reason. From the Archduchy of Calemberg, the Archduke proclaimed his intention to support a severance between the lands and to raise a common goal to build a wall, named after the late father of the Archduke, lord Hadrian, to be proclaimed Hadrian’s wall to defend the south from the wild Drixagh north, and to delineate a proper and more permanent line between what was Regalian, and what was Velheimer. Time would tell how this situation would be used by the nobility in their own schemes, or whether it would strand as merely a lofty goal.
