The Kingdom of Leon

History
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Briskos
When Briskos came to occupy Leon (then Leocus) as it then was his immediate priority was seizing Orion. When that failed, he set about strengthening his control of the important coastal cities. The coastal road was extended north all the way to Glande and south to Greganne. Loyal dukes were installed to rule these cities. A deal was struck with the elves of Khanhosen to provided boats and naval support.

The First Elf War
The new kingdom attempted to expand its influence in the south, coming into conflict with the elves of Usherway. They demanded an equivalent to The Agreement but the Leonese government saw no reason for this. Matters came to a head when the leaders arranged to meet and the King of Leon was confronted with the Queen of Usherway.

The fact that Alran monarchies were passed to the eldest sister and then the eldest daughter of any of the sisters had never been known to Leonese as they had only ever spoken with Khanhosen where the monarch was far less important and hadn't even really been identified.

As a result, the king felt snubbed when he was greeted by a female leader and insisted only on speaking to to the male members of her entourage. The queen insisted that she was stronger than him and a better fighter, which he saw as the ultimate insult.

Exactly which one challenged the other to single combat to settle the issue depends on who you ask but in any account both had willingly accepted that the winner would control the Rimoumere and the surrounding lands all the way to the sea. Now this wasn't exactly chivilrous behaviour but the king was taking the view that chivalry was something for humans, he was worse for drink, and - in the Leonese telling - the Queen of Usherway was using magical powers to control him.

Within a minute he was on the floor, decapitated. His son was informed that the queen had used magic to cause the death and so not just broke the deal but suspended The Agreement lead a campaign into Usherway to avenge his father. The campaign was ambushed and he was killed.

When the news made it back to Leon, his son took the throne, at the age of 2, but was too young to rule so his brother served as regent - and promptly had the son killed.

In the meantime the elves had besieged Greganne and with no resupply ships arriving (thanks to the breaking of The Agreement) the population killed the duke and his family (with the soul exception of his sister who was living in Adwinglore) and surrendered to the elves. Meanwhile, seizing the opportunity, The Sephy staged revolts in Pathunca and Glande and while the former had been put down, the later had declared independence.

Dukedoms
There are 4 dukedoms in the north and 7 in the south which combine with The Dukedom of The Black Mountains to make 12.

The North remains much more culturally similar to Leon before Aruseus's invasion and the subsequent rule of Briskos. While the dukedoms must continue to exist the boundaries may be changed by the king. For instance repeated pestering and barely concealed threats have led to Levalon being in the duchy of Cherlmobe as opposed to the duchy of Levalon.
 * 1) Pathunca
 * 2) Glande
 * 3) Contrefortes
 * 4) The Taunlams Coast
 * 5) The Black Mountains
 * 6) Cherlmobe
 * 7) Adwinglore
 * 8) Dragwaveed-Tourvalt
 * 9) Levalon (notably no longer actually containing Levalon)
 * 10) Charvillers
 * 11) Champille
 * 12) Chateaumon

Further on a few occasions the king has granted a change of name to one of the duchies. This is how Dragwaveed-Tourvalt got it's name and how Chateaumon was changed from Glene.

Notable Settlements

 * Adwinglore-Khanhosen - Adwinglore is Leon's capital city, built proudly upon a tor overlooking the sea. It is the largest city at 62,637 people, though 24% of them are Khanhosen.
 * Champille - Leon's second largest city, consisting of 25,054 souls, as well as its second most important trading port and most bountiful fishing port, Champille is situated at the mouth of the le Belmont river running through Leon's most prosporous farmland. It has been a important human settlement since before Aruseus and was first recorded by the elves. It was originally called Colwy then Calwe, Chalwe, and Chample before taking it's current name.
 * Cherlmombe - A city of 20,043 residents, Cherlmombe was founded as a trading settlement where the Petaneau River forks, giving it protection to the north, west, and south, something even more important given the number of people travelling by land over the Achthal Road which crosses the northern branch of the river at the fork. It's communication links were further improved by The Central Road and the construction of the Notmedana Canal. It's central location and good communication links lead to it becoming a cultural hub and a place where the nobility would gather to meet. It has become something of a second capital. Its name has been the subject of a running challenge where it would be modified and people could tell who was in the know and who wasn't by whether or not they knew the new version. 3 such versions have been well documented, Cherle, Cherlemon and the current Cherlmonbe.
 * Pathunca - the largest city in the north of Leon with 16,034 souls. It is an important administrative hub and has not insubstantial trade ties with links to Athelron, North Achthal, Narlwage, Zuvinara, and Scurwage and a mid sized fishing fleet. It was first recorded by the elves as Porthca and has also been called Pathca.
 * Carvillers - very much like Champille, a port city with at the mouth of the Clamart river conected to good farmland with trade links and a fishing fleet. However it is rather less prosperous as it is further from Illia than Champille and from Athelron than Adwinglore. Fishing is also worse here as it is more exposed to cold ocean currents from Scurwage. This leads it to only have 13,628 residents - still a considerable ammount. When it was first recored by the elves it was called Carvery, changing shortly after Aruseus's death to Charvers and then to it's current name.
 * Glande - the northern most city in Leon consisting of 10,221 residents, founded at the mouth of the Vitrognan river and close to the Achthalian border. While something of a backwater, it survives based upon it's rather reasonable fishing, trade links with the north coast of Euphoria, as an administrative centre and thanks to connections to the ore mines in The Black Mountains. It is thanks to those mines that Glande has actually strengthened its economy in recent years. It was originally recorded in elven times as Glandy.
 * Greganne - the southern most town in Leon with 7,665 residents situated at the mouth of the Rimoumere River. It was much larger in pre-Arusian times and may have originally had as many as 10,000 residents and is dotted with examples of pre-Leonese architecture. The town has since been in a period of prolonged decline with no connection to the Notmedana Canal and subsequently lacking a road link to Tourvalt, Drwagwaveed, and Achthal. In an ultimate blow the capital of the dukedom was moved to Chateaumon, a far smaller town. The town was first recorded by the elves as Glery. In Arusian times it became Gleny and then shortly after the death of Briskos Grene. More recently it became Gregne and then Greganne.
 * Tourvalt - originally founded as a supply depot and worker housing for the Notmedana Canal, Tourvalt has grown into the most significant market for bulk goods and a base for Leon's merchant families and shipping lines.
 * Chateaumon - is a highly defensible castle and surrounding walled town, which exists almost entirely to support the castle. The castle was founded as a temporary defence the year after the first elven war and would expand to be the third biggest such fortification in Leon after those in Adwinglore and Cherlemombe.

Communications

 * Notmedana Canal - Constructed between 325 and 327, this links the Petaneau, Clamart and Belmont rivers.
 * The Elven Road and Coastal Road - the Elven Road was a trading route built from Khanhosen via the human settlements of Charvillers and Champille to Usherway. It is paved, well maintained, wide, sheltered, and embued with protective magic. Briskos extended the Adwinglore to Champille part south to Greganne and north to Puthunca and Glande forming the Coastal Road which is also paved and well maintained but lacks the protective magic of the elven parts.
 * Achthal Road - constructed shortly after Briskos's death to provide a direct road link to Achthal, this road travels up river via Carclonge, Cherlemombe, and Dragwaveed. This part is of similar quality to the Coastal Road. It then enters the mountains where it becomes narrow although still very safe all the way to the Scroy valley.
 * The Central Road -

Social Structure
Anyone from Leon is born as either a noble (someone who can prove that all of their ancestors for 5 generations were of noble blood) or pesants (anyone else) and it is almost legaly impossible to switch between the two.

The king is the ultimate owner of everything in Leon and he then grants land to dukes and marquesses (the key diffrence between the two is that a duke can only be decended from one of Briskos's original 12 apointed dukes and must be given one of the original 12 dukedoms to rule, where as a marquess is given such a status as a reward for his actions for the king rather then because the king needs to apoint someone). land owning nobles not dirrectly loyal to the king are collectively called lords while ones that do not own lands are know as Lions.