DMF | Barons of the March
Culture
Clothing
The Barons of the March, if they have served as officers in the Army, will default to wearing military dress on formal occasions, with plenty of red brocade, shiny brass buckles, epaulettes, a bandoleer, as many medals as they own, and sturdy leather boots. They will also bear a sword at their hip, of course. Both men and women alike will default to this style if they have served as officers.
If they haven’t served in the Army, the Barons will wear riding breeches and a frock coat, to give the impression they could ride off for a hunt at a moment’s notice. (Some take this to an extreme by carrying a riding crop or hunting knife at their hip.) This will be covered by a sweeping fur cloak, pinned by a fancy brooch. Both men and women may wear this attire, though some women will eschew the practical look in favour of a floor-length, elaborately embroidered dress.
Cuisine
The traditional foods of The March are rich, red, and meaty. Goose-tongue, blood sausage, black pudding, pigeon pie, partridge, veal, meatcake, hog roast, ox-brain… No part of the animal is wasted after a successful hunt. The national drinks are strong dark beer and brandy.
The staple crops of The March are barley, cabbage and rye.
History
The March was once its own mismatched territory of minor fiefdoms, constantly war-torn by enemies on all sides. In the face of constant attack from both the Kingdom on one side and the Ashmedean Empire on the other, it eventually unified under King Edalbehr the Lopsided, a one-legged King who nevertheless fought ably on horseback and managed to push back the most serious Ashmedean invasion despite odds of ten to one.
King Edalbehr was killed by a stray arrow in his final victorious battle against the last dregs of the invading army. A rapid succession of weak sons proved unable to bear his legacy, especially when the Ashmedeans finished a war with the Aateshi in the south and began marching a new, even larger army north to finish the process of conquering The March.
Rather than face inevitable conquest, the final King of The March, King Yulian the Wise, instead willingly stepped down from the throne and brought The March into the fold of the Kingdom. It is a specific point of pride among the Barons that the March, alone among all the Regions, was never conquered, and instead joined the Kingdom of its own free will.
The question of why The March was more willing to submit to theKingdom than to the Ashmedean Empire has a simple answer - religion and culture. The Kingdom shared the March’s faith in the Ninth God, and their traditions and laws were less alien to the Barons than the ossified codes of the Ashmedean , putrefied after a thousand years of tradition.
Military
Each Baron has command of a small unit of disciplined soldiers, operating from their fortress. This means that the March has a small but formidable standing army, composed of well-trained infantry and cavalry.
In times of emergency, they can also raise large numbers of levies from the peasants to complement this core well-disciplined force. Thanks to The March's history of wars, most peasants have a longbow or a rusty halberd at home, and Barons will often arrange for sergeants to travel the local countryside, spending a few days at each village to train peasants in the very basics of warfare. This means that the March’s levies are much more likely to show some discipline in warfare than the peasant levies of other Regions.
In addition, The March has a strong chivalric culture, with many second or third sons of Barons becoming knights and competing in tournaments. These knights will also ride to their liege-lord’s banner in the event of war, bolstering a Baron’s forces still further.
Agriculture & Industry
Agriculture
Industries
