Realm · Caelvenne

Caelvenne

The Most Serene Principality of Caelvenne has the least land of the seven great powers and the most money: the islands of the Surmave delta, the southern and eastern lakeshore, and a thin strip of vineyards and villa country, with about three million people. It grew out of the Marrowmere League, whose cities fought each other over lake tolls from 255 until 294, when the Peace of the Nine made Fezaud diol Valcroix prince and gave the state its name. The Conclave of Nine Houses, the banking and merchant families who choose the prince, has ruled ever since. Prince Lourien diol Valcroix has held the seat since 1132, and the House of Farisel holds the debts of much of the continent. The gold leusore, first minted in 421, is the coin every realm measures against, and Caelvenne lives by banking, glass, perfume, dyed silk, wine, art, jewelry, printing and clockwork while it imports most of its food from Aldmere under the Grain Compact of 511. Its own army is only 12,000, including the 1,500 enameled heavy horse of the Lilies, but it commands the lake with a galley navy, links its shores with the mirror towers built since 788, and buys the rest: Tharaxi spears under the Iron Contract of 1131, which lapses in 1147, and Castavar's friendship under the Gilded Pact of 1135.