Imperialis

^{“By steeled Sword, iron resolve, and alchemical fire, the corrupt, the heretic, and traitor alike are cleansed of their sin of existance. So has it been for the past millennia, and so shall it be unto the end of time.” —} _{Grand Duchess Ronne}

Resource Wealth: Ⓖ Ⓖ Ⓖ Ⓖ	NPC Power: ⚔️ ⚔️ ⚔️ ⚔️ ⚔️	Naval Power: ⚓

The Duchy of Guastalla was one of the largest provinces in the Old Continent, nearly all its land is densely forested, leaving it largely untouched by mortal hand. Barring the occasional ruin or heavily fortified population, most of the Wilds were left to Beastmen, Bandits, Greenskins, and other terrible creatures that haunted its misty depths. It’s only in the south, where the treeline of the Duchy breaks to the fertile Sansretour and the land is tamed, that civilisation can be claimed to rule. Here many towns, villages, and farms dot the rolling foothills leading to the Temes Hills in the south, the largest of which is Tynne, known as one of the richest towns in the Duchy.
Gaspard de Valencourt, from Castle Gaustella, ruled the majority of the province. The duchy was divided into a patchwork of fiefs, which were parcelled out to lesser members of the family and favoured supporters. These titles were always granted as lifetime holdings, rather than hereditary positions. This meant they returned to the Duke's gift on the holder’s death.
This allowed the Duke to maintain tight control over his family, though earning himself little loyalty. There were only two permanent fiefs left in Guastalla: the County of Château-Maudit and the Barony of Sanglant-Mont. The rest were disbanded over two centuries ago during what is known as the Burning Pyre Front. The duchy lacked the rich mineral deposits of other, wealthier provinces, a source of much irritation to the Duke. Trade was the biggest source of income, but the Guastallans had little control over Sansretour merchants. The talk of court was that he was beholden to his common-born tenants, lacking the strength to bring them to heel.
Another notable settlement where the Duke had no control was the fortified town of Creuxmort, which lay just to the south of Sansretour. It was home to the Duchy’s greatest concentration of Dwarfs, and was where the Dwarf masons who constructed, and still maintain, Sansretour's sewers resided. They avoided Sansretour itself, disliking the ‘manling stench and their shoddy work’, and had rebuilt what was once a small village of the Empire in stone.
The handful of Humans and et'Vixe who resided in Creuxmort then did so at the sufferance of renowned stonemason Gudruk Stoneheart. He was in charge of the town, no matter which of the Duke's ineffectual relatives were granted nominal control over the area for that generation.

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The Fall of Valencourt

As the Valencourt family's grip on power began to weaken, the Ronne family, led by the shrewd and ambitious Eloise de Ronne, saw an opportunity to seize control. Eloise, a widow with a keen mind for business, had long been dissatisfied with her family's subordinate position within the Duchy. Using her sharp wit and strategic acumen, she orchestrated a series of financial maneuvers that saw the Ronne family rise to prominence in the Northern Banks, a key economic hub of the region.
Sansretour, with its fertile lands and bustling trade routes, served as the perfect backdrop for Eloise's economic conquest, as she leveraged the region's resources to secure the loyalty of influential merchants and bankers, slowly eroding the Valencourt family's control over the region's finances.
As the Ronne family's influence grew, they began to exert pressure on the Valencourt family, using their newfound economic power to manipulate markets and sow discord among the noble houses. Château-Maudit, a once-glorious county now relegated to a mere pawn in the power struggle, became a focal point for the Ronne family's ambitions. Through clever investments and strategic alliances, Eloise ensured that the county's resources were directed towards furthering the Ronne family's interests, solidifying their grip on the region.
The Valencourt family used the Barony of Sanglant-Mont, a harsh and ominous region renowned for its hazardous terrain and vicious residents, as a bastion in an attempt to hold onto their declining influence. But Eloise would not be defeated. Using a combination of shrewd diplomacy and brutal methods, she gradually but surely drove the Valencourt family from power, establishing the Ronne family as the new ruling family of the area.
In 84 AC, Seedtime, amidst this power struggle, Morgan Ronne was born, destined to carry on her mother's legacy and continue the Ronne family's quest for dominance in the ever-changing landscape of the Old Continent.

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Towards the Frontier

Morgan Ronne grew up amid the turbulent power struggles of the Old Continent, having been born into a world of intrigue and ambition. She was raised to be a strong leader from an early age by her mother, Eloise de Ronne, who instilled in her daughter the same guile and tenacity that had brought the Ronne family prosperity. Morgan studied history, economics, and diplomacy under Eloise's guidance. She also taught her the arts of war and government. She showed herself to be a keen learner, soaking up information and counsel from the advisers and scholars that frequently visited her mother's court.
As Morgan grew older, she found herself pulled more and more to spirituality and religious issues. The teachings of a strong religious cult that upheld the dignity of the human spirit and the superiority of humanity had a profound impact on her. Morgan, taken aback by their zeal and conviction, adopted a strong religiosity and saw herself as a defender of humanity's divine destiny. She saw the new Sansretour to be a sacred mission to carry out the divine purpose and elevate her people, rather than merely a territory to be conquered.

A Picture dedicated to the memory of Sansretour.

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by ilyakurchatov on DeviantArt

Valianais - The language of Love
^{"Grace and elegance. Southerners hold a soft cadence which is romantically likened to a symphony, enchanting listeners. Where as in the North, Valianais has a harsher tonality. Wherever one went, it was valued for its ability to express the deepest of sentiments. and those who speak it are seen as bearers of a timeless tradition of romance and courtship."}

Gaspard de Valencourt, 5 AC. Credit: Fahrender Ritter

Grand Duchess Morganne, 102 AC. Credit: Jeleynai