[hider=Corvinus Carling][center][img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/8952/f/2011/086/a/0/a083b8e9f86b0cfa178ec3f18ab88811-d3clg7b.jpg[/img]

[color=fff200]"I had to pay 13 different tolls to get here, this is unacceptable."[/color][/center]

[b]Name:[/b] Corvinus Meyrovic-Carling of Montisle

[b]Age:[/b] 39

[b]Rank:[/b] Noble

[b]Title:[/b] Count of Montisle

[b]Features:[/b] The raven haired count is not one to overly expose his wealth but despite the lack of heavy gold chains and rings, things such as how straight he walks or sharply he talks without taking any interruption shows that he is a man of power. His hands however show that this power he doesn't hold from his military might as they lack any callous and his skin is too pale to show he'd spend much time outside, instead a tiny black spot on his tongue would show his habit of licking his quill before writing. Otherwise, his comfortable clothes along with the bit of fat he carries around shows he enjoys his life of luxury though he's classy enough to smell of his native county's lavender.

[b]Strengths:[/b]
-Coins: He's a magician with money, seemingly being able to spawn gold from thin air through taxation, business or loans, likewise when the time comes to pay taxes he is somehow as poor as a potato farmer.

-Mercantile connections: Business is blind to race and nationality, family business allowed Corvinus to make many acquaintances through the years. People who know people in high places in the courts of the world.

-Popular with the commoners: The man doesn't hesitate to go out to town for a good evening playing cards or having fun with high class prostitutes. Likewise his anti-tax and anti-special noble privilege stance echo well with the lower rungs of society. Icing on the cake is probably the folk tales about how in Montisle, when the count hears of a farmer who lost everything to a fire he used his own money to relief him. This and other tales probably did spread due to the coins he gives bards to tell people of these little 'facts' though.

[b]Weaknesses:[/b]
-Feudal duties: As in anything relating to war. Corvinus is a poor fighter and his genius doesn't extend to warfare.

-Known Womanizer: Corvinus had to slip away from a couple of duel for sleeping with the wives of a couple of people at court and likewise he simply cannot resist a pretty lady seducing him. Many of his advisers keep telling him that one day this would be his fall but still, he keeps going, the fool genuinely not just lusting after women but falling in love with every single one of them.

-Noble enemies: Corvinus doesn't hesitate to loudly criticize the nobility of the kingdom and advocate for things that would be ruinous for most of them, needless to say this made him extremely unpopular.

[b]Bio:[/b]
Corvinus didn't really think he'd become Count considering he had 2 other older male siblings and so was contempt to do what a landless Carling did best and just enjoy life, spending time with friends who were there only for his money going around the taverns of Corbie and falling in love every other week. As usual for a member of his family who didn't stand to inherit anything though, at the age of 18, Corvinus was given a tidy sum of money and sent out in the world to either make his fortune or fail miserably, his father didn't care.

Corvinus decided to just 'wing it' and go with it, having no real plan and making it up as he went. Through shrewd deals and a little bit of luck, he ended up in Foronia with a successful business, taking a wife who like him had a love for life and was equally shrewd. On the altar he really did mean that she was the only one for him and that he'd renounce all of his womanizing ways to become monogamous, but this didn't last and eventually his wife kept finding him in more and more affairs. It didn't end their relationship though, they both realized that their little trade empire depended on their mutual networks so breaking the marriage would break everything else. Plus, even if she didn't like it, his wife was understanding and they both moved on, remaining married but both having lives of their own on the side, being rather friendly about it even to this day.

Things changed however when Corvinus's father finally found him and recalled him back to the County immediately for his elder brothers had died, the first committing suicide due to their father's almost obsessive and intrusive grooming of his heir and the second getting killed in one of dozen duel he so loved to fight. Corvinus thus took his business and his wife back home. He didn't especially enjoy the idea of rulership, but this meant something amazing: Lower Taxes.

Until he was 30, he was the default heir of the County and amused himself to make quite a scene with his Foronian wife, having even gotten an accent from them. His children didn't even speak the local language at first! His father died unsure his legacy was secured, but Corvinus managed to keep things under control by simply making himself as invisible as possible. He quite simply didn't even tax his people and this alone made him the best ruler to have ever ruled the county while also cementing its position as a wealth center in the realm. No matter how well situated and developed the Crownlands were, no one liked to pay taxes.

When the king died, some went to him as a possible ruler. He wasn't really interested and that caused a huge rift between him, the rest of his family, his children and his wife who all pushed for him to jump at the chance. Corvinus didn't outright refuse, waiting to see how the situation developed to make sure the next person to climb to the throne wouldn't just seize his wealth because why not, but he found the idea of a queen ok for him and when called to serve on the council, he answered. He didn't like the idea of working, something he never really did in his life if you ask him, but he understood it was important not to let the future Queen be surrounded only by stuffy aristocrats who'd fill her head with the idea that peasants and merchants were lemons to squeeze for gold.[/hider]


[hider=County of Montisle][b]Province Name: [/b] County of Montisle

[b]Province Ruler:[/b] Count Corvinus Meyrovic-Carling of Montisle

[b]Position:[/b] North West along the coast.

[b]Notable Attributes:[/b] 
-Where Gold Sleeps: The crownlands might be the main economic motor of the realm, sure, but Montisle has no taxes and as such, it is where the gold ends. The county generates practically nothing but still leeches off high class merchants and low class mercenaries for prosperity.

-Gateway to Foronia: By ship or by land, the County is close to the messy northern kingdom and the simple lack of tariffs made it the natural entry point of goods and people to Viexmeur and other realms. It is thus a cosmopolitan place despite its smallish size.

-Mercenary HQ: A notable thing of Corbie, the main city of the county, is how armed everyone seem. At every corner of the street, armed men, every tavern brawl threatening to devolve in outright urban warfare. The first Count of Montisle decided to sell his sword and that of his men to bring some wealth to the miserable locality and this became a tradition, most major mercenary companies at least retaining some presence in the city to secure contracts with people who don't know better than to go to the big 'Mercenary city' of the land to employ some.

-Almost an island: Most of the county is either a marsh or quicksand that's flooded with the tides. It is completely worthless for agriculture and Corbie itself is only linked by land to the rest of the realm only at certain times during the day.

[b]Description:[/b]
Montisle was literally just a mountain on an island when it was given to Carling, youngest son of Meyrovic. (Except it was more of a hill and not entirely an island). The prince was a warrior of renown and a great tactician so it is likely his father gave him such a pathetic inheritance to keep him from trying to subjugate his older brothers in open warfare. Carling was unsatisfied and extremely poor as this county had but a hundred houses, his retinue was more numerous than the people there. He thus decided to take his men and whomever would join him to fight for his older brothers for coin as they had indeed gone into a civil war without him. 

Year after year, Carling and eventually his decedents only came back to Montisle just to winter and spend their hard earned money before going back to fight. Indeed the first son was expected to train to take command of the soldiery while the second son trained to administer the fortune of the family and make it grow. This made the Montisles rich through the years, at one point the little brother in charge of the coffers even tried to usurp the title of count but he forgot that the man in charge of the men had the killing power.

Still, the order was changed when Corvinus's great grand uncle, a man who simply LIKED the camaraderie of MEN so much he didn't conceive an heir even after going in his 40s and dying on the battlefield, leaving the merchant brother in charge without any sibling the soldiers preferred more. At this point the mercenary company was made a secondary operation as the counts focused on their trading business with quite some success.

All of this contributed to make Montisle little more than Corbie, the main city of the County. It is reputed to be an infamous mercenary den where even looking at someone wrong will get you killed, but it is 'not so bad' in the words of the inhabitants. Oh of course they will agree that an armed society is a polite society and the bar maids of Corbie don't take shit from heavily armed mercenaries so they sure as hell don't take any from milk drinkers from the Crownlands but on the surface at least there is 'professional courtesy' between people who will not risk cheating or insulting others when bar brawls often end in city wide combat with the guards, armed like professional knights, charge down the main roads to mow down anyone who's causing trouble. Plus, you never know who you might insult as lowly mercenaries and powerful merchants who may be their next boss walk the same streets. 

And you don't ask about that either, many merchants enjoy their privacy both in their lives and business very much and of course, it was only a matter of time until the 'hands off' approach of the Merchant Counts brought illegal activities to the county as well and thus, Corbie is also an entry point for all kind of illegal things to the Realm.[/hider]