The Favored:

The Favored are the shepherds of Everwealth—or so they claim. Kings, dukes, merchants, and magnates, these are the people who shape the kingdom’s policies, guard its coffers, and command its armies. Yet their gilded halls often mask rusted morals. Powerful individuals like King Duncan Valmore, "The Ram’s Head," are revered and reviled in equal measure. A ruler of unshakable authority, his policies have stabilized the kingdom's borders, but whispers of secret tribunals and the suspicious deaths of dissenting nobles trail him like the scent of a slaughtered stag. Siobhan Traynor, the Timber Queen of Catcher’s Rest, holds the lifeblood of Everwealth’s wood trade in her iron grip. To her supporters, she is a beacon of commerce; to her critics, a tyrant who bleeds her workers dry to gild her coffers. The Favored rise not always by birth but often by shrewd cunning, ruthless ambition, or sheer luck. Their positions place them at the helm of the world, but they walk a blade's edge, with one misstep threatening to spill their riches and lives alike.