Land in Reimar is owned and administered by the nobility. The most important landowners are Reimar’s dukes, who are each responsible for one of Reimar’s provinces. Most dukes own a great deal of land directly in the province that they are steward of, but not always. Strictly speaking, there are no variations in Reimaran law between provinces. However, there are certain traditions that a duke might choose to enforce that a monarch will usually overlook unless it is a gross breach of law and propriety.
Felde Province
Capital: Ilmarch
Ruling family: du Greco
Most of the land in Felde is owned by the du Greco’s or their vassals. It’s capital is Ilmarch, which is also the capital of the kingdom as a whole. Initially Felde made most of it’s money off of mining, but as relations with Iln degraded over territory disputes, raiding became a serious impediment to continued operations. After Reimar was founded as a kingdom, relations with Iln soured further as Iln feared it’s suddenly more threatening neighbor.
In more recent times Felde has made it’s money off of trade and fishing, with minor interests in agriculture and mining. As much as the du Greco’s have profited immensely from leasing land, they have also invested that money time and time again back into the province.
Calinia Province
Capital: Evenith
Ruling family: du Covas
Unlike Gavar, Calinia remains rich in mineral wealth, especially silver and some precious gems (most notably garnets, of which the du Covas family holds a large rare blue garnet in their possession). The du Covas family has also grown immensely rich from establishing some of the first consistent river ferry services for transferring ore to Ilmarch for processing.
Fide Province
Capital: Monai
Ruling family: du Tealdan
Fide is a small province that has rarely seen much wealth or power, relying instead on sheep husbandry and good management to ensure that the province retains any wealth at all. It is with this background that the du Tealdans have have earned the reputation of being reliable rulers and scrupulous managers of finance. Even today, with a du Tealdan on the throne of the kingdom, Fide is one of the least important provinces of Reimar.
Fide has long relied on Monai’s mineral wealth and that of the mountains in general, and although the older veins and shafts have long been dug dry, there always remains new prospects. The mountains have not given up even a small portion of their wealth, but costs to exploit these lodes have risen prohibitively over the last few decades.
Gerva Province
Capital: Valencia
Ruling family: du Tilmost
Gerva boasts large agricultural tracts as well as a sizeable population and well entrencehed guilds. Valencia is the old capital of Reimar, and has kept most of it’s production and financial capabilities form that time. Rare cooperative efforts between Reimar and Shar to improve trade through the Casten and deal with the unreliable terrain have repeatedly failed, the winds sweeping down from Kirn over the majority of eastern Gerva delivering heavy rains in summer and sometimes freak snowstorms in winter.
Sapara Province
Capital: Fortenara
Ruling family: du Firenze
The farming heartland of modern Reimar, the north of Sapara features rich soil that will host a variety of crops, further enhanced by the temperate weather. The south sees a warmer, drier climate, but not as hot or dry as Espinoza.
Guerda Province
Capital: Southmere Town
Ruling family: du Singara
The du Singara’s were landowners under the du Tilmosts’ when the former city-states were brought into Reimar proper. The du Singara’s were chosen for their traditions of military service and loyalty to the throne. Although seen as outsiders by some older Guerdan nobles, none dare openly go against thm, who have taken care to cultivate strong ties to the Reimaran throne and the local guilds both.
Espinoza Province
Capital: Surmarch
Ruling family: du Lucan
The du Lucan family, like the du Singara’s, were initially appointed from much less ranking positions to be the ducal rulers of their respective provinces. Where the du Singara’s have made political ties and informants their means to ensure loyalty from the older nobles in Guerda, the du Lucan’s have tried to deal fairly and equitably with everyone. Although they have retained a reputation for honest dealings and a largely proud demeanour, they do still suffer some trouble with holdout nobles who dislike the “new” Reimaran dukes. That said, lost tax revenue is usually the worst there is.
Gavar Province
Capital: Ponsurno
Ruling family: du Arista
The du Arista’s were a moderately powerful family in Ponsurno when king Sendoa du Messina the Third incorporated the territory into Reimar. The du Arista’s were part of a viscious power struggle to see Reimar as the victor in a proxy struggle between Reimar, Shar, and Arn. Reimar and their supporters won out, and the du Arista’s were granted rule of the province. Unfortunately, this has earned them an undeserved reputation of being treasonous among some Reimaran nobles, despite the du Arista’s seeing Reimar as the de factor cultural influence of Gavar inevitably leading to Reimar’s dominion over the territory.
Gavar had initially made a fortune off of their many gold mines, but most of those mines have long since closed for hundreds of years. Today, Ponsurno makles it’s wealth off of trade between Grazia, Nodrem, Shardustur, and Reimar. Although the pass to Ponsurno is well-maintained, some years do see freak blizzards sweep down the mountains and bury everything in snow.
San Seras
Capital: San Seras City
Ruling family: du Donati
The du Donati family has been influential in San Seras for hundreds of years, adn they were the ruling power when Sendoa du Messina essentially delivered them the ultimatum of incorporating or being conquered. The du Donati’s bent the knee to avoid bloodshed (and keep their position), and as such are sometimes seen less than favourably by both their own fellow San Seran nobles and Reimaran nobility overall. Nontheless, the du Donati’s have ruled their land well, keeping San Seras vigilant against Archipelagan raids.
Sovereign Crown Lands
Crown land is ruled directly by the reigning monarch of Reimar, usually to ensure proper administration of a territory that is neither owned by a duke or ducal vassal or an area that is in such dispute that it cannot be reasonably administered by anyone else.
The Gold Road:
Officially King Eneco the Second Highway. While not a road of actual gold, this wide and well maintained highway leads all the way from the Helion to Ilmarch, passing close to Surmarch, Fortenara, and Valencia on the way. A vast amount of merchants from many worlds walk this road in their droves; some seeking Reimaran or Iberan markets for their goods, some looking to arrange passage for goods to the west, and some to purchase Reimaran valuables. The gold road sees regular patrols form the second regiment of the royal guard, and brigands are nigh unheard of despite the massive opportunities for theft.
The Helion:
A massive freestanding structure built by an unknown people, there is only one known Helion on Iber and as such is referred to in the singular. Others exist on various different worlds, some worlds playing host to multiple Helions. Each is nigh identical. The Iberan Helion is currently claimed by Reimar, and the vast amount of trade that comes through it has made an already wealthy nation fabulously rich. The Helion has seen a steady buildup of various structures (mostly customs and excise buildings, inns, pubs, and warehouses) catering to merchants and travelers, and there is effectively a small unnamed town around it. Some important members of the Reimaran Merchants and Lenders guild have pressed for there to be an official guildhouse next to the Helion, but successive Reimaran monarchs and dukes have stood against the idea, not eager to see an independent town spring up on crown lands and potentially take some business away from nearby cities.
The Helion’s operation is utterly beyond understanding by any mages that have inspected it to date. Expeditions sponsored by the Old Arn Empire, surveyors hired by the former city states of the region, and experts from Reimar’s Luminary Academy have offered a variety of theories over the centuries, but there has been nothing conclusive. There appears to be no join or seam in the entire structure, and there is no obvious means of interacting with it. Rumours of mystical devices that can be used to set a Helion to a specific destination have popped up before, but they remain only rumours. A Helion requires either a trained sorcerer to set it to a specific destination, or a warlock. Significant trial and error is required to work out even a single destination, although it has been noted that warlocks seem to have an easier time of both working this out as well as activating the device.
The Pale Palace:
The Royal palace of Reimar in Ilmarch is a series of mainly limestone buildings, but most monarchs add at least one other structure during their reign. As such the palace has grown into a large sprawl of different buildings, towers, gates, arches, interspersed with courtyards, monuments, and statues. The original royal palace in Valencia was on land owned by the du Tilmost family, and after a series of spats and disagreements in the royal council in C.E. 840, attempted to charge Queen Hirune du Messina rent. Outraged, Queen Hirune declared that the royal palace would be moved to Ilmarch, Valencia’s long-time rival. Buying a huge plot of land off of Duke Ernesto du Greco the second, Queen Hirune began building a massive palace befitting the Reimaran monarchy. Even today, the royal palace sits on sovereign crown land that is owned by the ruling family of the day.
Miscellaneous Places of Note:
A few places in Reimar spark interest despite not fitting under any existing category.
The Cathedral of Illumination:
A popular site for pilgrims, some even coming from other worlds, The Cathedral of Illumination was funded by Queen Hirune du Messina after she moved the Reimaran capital (and the royal palace) to Ilmarch, largely as an effort to truly remake Ilmarch into a full capital. A large limestone building with golden bas-reliefs, the cathedral is well guarded despite the likelihood of theft of the bas-reliefs being extremely low (few fences would be willing to melt down the religious iconography, and the penalty imposed on any thief would be considerable).
Emrist Forest:
Emrist forest is inhabited by a powerful and unruly spirit that does not appreciate mortal visitors. The entity usually appears as a thirty meter tall vaguely humanoid figure with odd blue marking and striations on it’s body. No facial expressions or features have ever been observed. Without intervention by a magician who knows the appropriate sacrifices, no one moving near the forest is likely to survive. The spirit throws rocks at anyone that comes too near, and there have been reported incidences of the spirit throwing entire trees at anyone attempting to interfere with the forest from a distance. In C.E. 481 an effort was made by the local population to set fire to the forest to drive the spirit away, which resulted in the entity hurling massive boulders onto the villagers and their houses, apparently with startling accuracy. No further attempts to get rid of Emrist forest have ever been made.