Why names that start with "D" are politically charged in Swynfaredia
The original House Fremiss, once the largest and preumptively the strongest noble house in Swynfaredia has long since split into three smaller houses House Fremiss-Angharad, House Fremiss-Bryallan, and House Fremiss-Caedwin. These three breakaway groups were led by Lord Angharad, Lady Bryallan, and Lady Caedwin respectively. Note that each split was over a century apart. Among the vulgar crowd, the three houses are nicknamed "Fremiss-A", "Fremiss-B", and "Fremiss-C" in casual parlance and it has not escaped notice that House Fremiss fractured in alphabetical order. The three Fremiss houses do not agree on much, but all three Fremiss houses have stopped naming sons or daughters with names that start with "D", fearing another house split diluting their power yet again. Once the other houses caught wind of this naming convention, a few of their rivals have taken to naming more sons and daughters with D-names in order to throw shade on them."If the three Fremiss houses put aside their differences and truly unified, they could easily seize the crown that they feel they are owed. But it would be easier to convince Khemra, the Lady of Light, to make the sun rise in the west and set in the east than it would be to convince the disparate Fremiss to work together. Yet they collectively agree to make war on the letter 'D'."
History
The Kingdom of Swynfaredia was founded when four dragons Fremiss the Vibrant, Gorisonad the Wise, Kovenoth the Builder, and Numaness the Mysticworked together to elevate their many half-dragon children into the ruling class of small emerging human nation. Unsurprisingly the four ruling houses were named after the four founding dragons: House Fremiss House Gorisonad House Kovenoth, and House Numaness.
The members of House Fremiss were more fertile, than the other three. Fremiss had roughly double the number of true born heirs as the next largest house and well over triple the number of bastards. Due to some early political setbacks, they never managed to hold significantly more land than the other three houses so they ended up having lots of lords and ladies with fancy titles and grand lineage but no land to go along with their supposed status.
During each of the three Swynfaredian civil wars, some of the fiercest fighting was between Fremiss siblings and cousins and the three splinter houses are the direct result of civil war factions coalescing around a charismatic lord or lady that happened to be on the winning side at the end of the most recent civil war leading to the victorious king or queen to formally recognize the new house as a reward for their loyalty.
The coincidence that this happened in alphabetical order did not go unnoticed resulting in many superstition prone Swynfaredians to assuming there is a causal or fate based link tied to this, prompting the Fremiss houses to independently decide to stop naming their children D-names.
by me with Midjourney
As politics in Swynfaredia gradually became more cutthroat, House Fremiss became infamous for fratricide as the house members squabbled over what land and titles as well as for more personal petty reasons. The other houses did not hesitate to exploit these divisions using them as springboards for their own schemes.
Execution
Frieze of a Medieval Wedding by Thomas Stothard
Participants
D-names are only charged among Swyfnaredia's ruling class. This has not permeated into the commoners, at least not yet.
Some speculate that an unclaimed Fremiss bastard
sorcerer or sorcress with a D-name will rise from obscurity and manage to shake the foundations of the Fremiss houses at some point in the future.
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What an awesome superstition this is very funny and cool.