Slightly smaller WIP. Myremarke is pronounced "mire-mark".

[hider=Talvyrn]
Name: Talvyrn Amberclad, Heir to and Master Minister of the Grand Duchy of Myremarke
Age: 29
Height: 5'10"
Description: 
A serious looking man with sharp green eyes that light with determination and an even sharper gaze fueled by ambition. He has a resting dour look on his face making him look annoyed or disapproving in most cases. He is skinny and lean, a result of living in the Mire as children rarely fatten up, yet a life time of avid hunting through the forests and bogs has made him strong and athletics, letting him move across knee deep water without slowing and pulling back the heaviest warbows Myremarke can make.

Face Claim:
(WIP)

[b]Family Crest:[/b] A two-pronged spear flanked by an arrow on each side set on a field of green

[b]Qualities:[/b]
- Exceptional archer and hunter, and physically fit as is to be expected of a Myremarke noble
- Appointed Master Minister by his father (effectively the minister of the interior and coin master) and has proven himself more than capable of the role
- Posesses incredible vision and can spot moving objects in the distance
- Known for his focus and determination, a stubborn, single-minded pursuit of a task
- Independant and used to working alone or with very limited outside assistance

[b]Additional Notes:[/b]
Typically Myremarke dukes are seen as lazy, apathetic or otherwise very content to just stay in their lane to the point its sometimes a joke by the other kings and nobles. Talvyrn is probably the first Amberclad in at least two centuries to buck the trend and show this kind of drive and ambition to the point some say his father's current illness is actually due to him poisoning him and his late older brother (who died as a child) was killed by Talvyrn to ensure he would be heir. Talvyrn as of right now is content to let those rumors continue mostly to spread his name.
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[hider=Myremarke]
[h3][b]Grand Duchy of Myremarke (the Mire)[/b][/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Left most coast on the main continent, under the mountain

[b]Description:[/b]
Myremarke is not blessed and counts itself among the poorest of the kingdoms in Dawnhilt, too poor to even be considered kings. It is only through the trade of amber that its ruling family, House Amberclad, sustains itself and its position. Half of the land is taken up the by Fenglan Wetlands, a foggy mess of mud and bog, and the other is taken up by the Valewald Forest, a dark and untamed woodland, with only a sliver of the Karinkar Mountains to carve rock and mine coal from. Only brute determination and clever construction of man made islands and crannogs help keep the realm afloat.

Living up to its name, the Mire is a place where few would willing go without cause yet its people remain, stubbornly holding on to what little they have, determined to make something of it. The Valewald isn't a majestic forest and the Fenglan Wetlands are nearly impossible to traverse in some places but with some clever engineering, the roughest of roads have linked the scattered fortified villages with the largest towns in Myremarke who themselves are seen as some of the smallest on the continent. Due to its foul landscape and fouler reputation, it has become a hotspot for bandits and criminals, fleeing justice by hiding out in the deep woods and swamps, coming out only to prey on the locales.

[b]Culture:[/b]

The people of Myremarke are a dour and rugged bunch, widely believed to be hostile to outsiders. This is only partially true as suspicion is more common than outright hostility, mostly as a result of bandits who live in the most remote parts of the Mire. To live in Myremarke is to live a harsher existence than those in the more "civilized" and gentler kingdoms. People sew swamp grain in murky flooded fields, hunt for frogs and boars with spear and bow, harvest peat and bog iron from the wetlands and chop gnarled trees from the forest. For this, Myremarke is seen as being "less civilized", more backwards or even more barbaric than the rest of Dawnhilt with its people living in crude huts and trudging through muddy paths everyday. Yet in this, they take a degree of pride, boast (mostly to themselves) about how they live in a place where most would either give up or die, that their struggle makes them stronger rather than going soft. 

Their homeland has also made Myremarke famous for its hunters, trackers and survivalists, naturally trained by virtue of growing up in the Mire. There is also a long tradition of archery where every man, woman and child is expected to be proficient with a bow by law as some of the trees in the Valewald make for excellent bows. Even nobles aren't exempt from this law leading the armies of Myremarke to have very little knightly noble horsemen and many more longbowmen and noble archers to pepper the enemy. The Mirefolk are also more egalitarian than some of their "civilized" neighbors where the same effort and grim determination is expect of men and women out of necessity; there simply too much work and too little time or people to care about who is doing the labor as long as it is done.

[b]Economy:[/b]

There is little land that can be cultivated in Myremarke, that few patches that can are often logged with water forcing farmers to grow swamp grain or tangled with roots of trees, forcing them to scatter the seeds of root vegetables in the hopes they will find enough dirt to grow. There are no major ports in Myremarke simply because there isn't enough things of value to trade. Timber from the Valewald is too knotted and gnarled to be used by most carpenters, no one wants to buy swamp peat or bog iron when they have actual coal and iron ore to use instead, the meat from hunted animals is too gamey for outsiders and their furs while warm and waterproof aren't the refined, soft manes favored by others, and there's barely any surplus food to trade away most years. Instead there is only two things of value to that keep Myremarke on the map: Salt and Amber.

While Myremarke is hardly the only place to produce salt, no one else has put so much effort into making so much. Evaporated sea salt takes time and mined out blocks of salt can be expensive but Mirefolk have their own ways of teasing great quantities of salt from the salt marshes kept secret only by the fact few care to travel so deep into the Mire to learn how. Ultimately, once the salt is on the table only the most refined (and snobbish) diner can taste the difference between salt and mire salt. Amber on the other hand is more unique to the land and while some others have trees that can produce amber, Myremarke and House Amberclad has forests of amber. Since the earliest records, use of amber as jewelry or religious items has been common in various parts of the continent. Even today with apothecaries and Wynterwood gems open to sale, Dawnhilt's taste for the warm honeyed amber of Myremarke has never gone away.

Although a largely domestic market, Myremarke's cobblers and shoemakers have created the "Mire Boot" that goes up to the shins and is made of specially treated leather, flax and herbs that makes them warm and more important completely water-proof, a necessity in such a swampy land.

[b]Places:[/b]

[indent][b]Lendric:[/b]
The largest proper city and capital of Myremarke, named after the castle it is built around that was in turn named after the Amberclad king who waste the only time Myremarke was ever considered rich and poured its wealth into its construction. It is the only place where one can see much of any kind of wealth and even then its dwarfed by the capitals of its neighbors. Its streets are chaotic and messy, quickly going from stone to dirt to watery marsh all in the same step. It has no walls, instead having an expensive system of canals and waterways that can quickly flood the surrounding already difficult terrain into a truly hellish slog through waist high swamp all while a hundred strategically placed archery towers rain down arrows from above.

[b]Boatmurder:[/b]
The closest Myremarke has to a proper port, earning its name from the wreckage of ships ruined by the jagged rocks of the Dragon Cliff, their drift wood used to make new building or as firewood. It is home to many fishermen who sail out to catch fish, crabs, snails, clams and oysters as well as the base of the House Amberclad navy, a small force consisting mostly of ships bought from Alcyone. Has a number of geothermal vents and geysers nearby as well as regularly attracting the attention of Marsh Elephants for unknown reasons. Several "wars" have been fought against the elephants after they threaten local farming efforts and outlying buildings. Their hides are used to make Mire Boots.[/indent]

[b]Further Information:[/b]
Myremarke has long been the redheaded stepchild of Dawnhilt, being lead by a series of middling and uninspiring dukes in the best of times. Yet with the death of the king, some speak of the ambition of the heir, seeking to elevate the land (or himself) into prestige and power.
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