White

White

White is the colour of extreme wealth, richness above imagination. The colour always was valued highly in the Eglonion society, but with the rise of the steam power, it got even more valueable. Because all the Coal burning boilers emitted so much smoke that the country is under a near permanent smog, covering most of the nation in a grey layer. It is less so in the countryside, where the wind sometimes sweeps the skies clean, and more in the cities where there are more smokestacks then pigeons. Therefore keeping one’s clothing clean and free of ash smudges is a big task, most people don’t have the funds or time to have any light coloured clothing washed twice a day to keep it clean.

Clothing

Only the really rich and nobles can afford to have white clothing, and most use it only for special occasions. A banquete or something, the gentleman might wear a white shirt, but he will wear an overcoat on his travels towards the banquette location, and only show his shirt inside. Others may only have a white neck tie, which they wear when the occasion allowes. Light bright clothing is worn more often then white, as a stand in, as they are basically as hard to keep clean.

The colour white is also used in insignias of the highest ranking military people. But they are generally the littlest patches.

Ivoryhall

But most famous is Ivoryhall, it was built in a time when the skies where still blue, and the sun reached the earth uninterrupted by ash laden clouds. In that time, castles where often plastered and painted in light colours, Ivoryhall was not unusual in the fact that the owning Baron chose to paint his keep white. Later it came too expensive for lower nobles as barons to keep up the colour of their estates, and from counts to dukes it moved to a thing only the king could afford. Ivoryhall is the last white castle in Eglen, it even is the last lightly coloured building in the nation. All other castles have turned grey-ish by the weathering, and all new buildings just show the colour of the rock and brick they were built with.

To keep Ivoryhall white, a fourty member team of cleaners and painters is working on it three hunderd sixty five days of the year. Constantly washing the walls, applying new plaster and paint where necessary to keep Ivoryhall white. And even with that crew, walls that are not directly viewable by the public, in back courtyards or staff passages are left to be greyish, and maybe only cleaned and repainted once every two years

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Weather

One might think that for sure snow is still white? And the first flakes that come down might appear so indeed, but they soon turn grey too. Even with the cold winters Eglen endures a pristine white snow cover is something reduced to the world of fairytales.

Larkin

An exception to all this is the Duchy Larkin, in the far north of Eglen, it lies on the other side of the <yet-to-be-named> mountain range, this mountain range prevents winds from blowing the ash clouds into the duchy. Also, the Duke of Larkin has outlawed steam boilers and the use of coal as a fuel, therefore there is no smog in Larkin. The skies are clear; the rain is fresh. The grass is bright green, and almost all houses are painted white with bright red roofs. The majority of the population lives in small villages and farms, and hardly travels to other parts of Eglen. Even though the economics of Larkin are good, they don’t import or export many goods from the rest of the country. Therefore, the train lines that crisscross the rest of Eglen have never crossed the mountains. To enter the duchy, one can only do so by carriage or by foot in four mountain passes.

Larkin is the largest duchy of Eglen, but 2/3rds is mountainous, and the population of the main valley is small. Therefore, the tax income the king receives from Larkin is among the lowest. The Dukes of Larkin have never had a big interest in politics and hardly left the duchy to go to the capital to do politics. The Council Era marked the longest stay of a Duke of Larkin in Ivoryhall, and even then the Duke was only present for the first year, and six years later to vote on the new king and the following coronation.

No King of Eglen has ever visited Larkin.