Declaration of Myndaredia

Flowery diplomatic language is used but the core points are below.   The previous king of Altudaredia died of natural causes, not poison.   The late king's psychologically abused widow is backing up the notion that we should be in charge of the realm, and we are definitely not coercing her.   Most of the late kings lieutenants are serving us now. The others left peacefully, they definitely were not murdered, and their corpses definitely weren't sold to the Barony of Eternity.   We are staying in the neutral in the Fumayan-Swynfaredian War because we love peace and NOT because we are hedging our bets.   We wish for peace with our fellow Border Barons, but we will ruthlessly crush any outside force that interferes with us. We are not definitely not bluffing. Rumors that our army is small and underequipped are lies!

Mostyn and Talaith are desperate to shore up their credentials as legitimate rulers of Mynydaredia.   The Kingdom of Fumaya and the Kingdom of Swynfaredia. Swynfaredia is stronger overall, but Fumaya has more influence over the neighboring Border Barons that Mostyn and Talaith must work with. That means that the sorcerous couple has to stay off the naughty list of both King Henryk of Fumaya and Queen Gwendolyn of Swynfaredia.   The other Border Barons and Baronesses may or may not be able to topple the fledgling nation of Mynydaredia by themselves but they can certainly make life difficult for them. They have to be placated too.

Admittedly it can be confusing that I have three simiarly named realms of Swynfaredia, Uwcharedia and Alturedia.   The land of Swynfaredia is a large and powerful nation with a sorcery based aristocracy. Petty Kingdom of Altudaredia is a very small and isolated mountain realm originally founded by Swynfaredia expat sorcerers who lost the First Swynfaredian Civil War. It was and is a thorn in Swynfaredian pride but it was too far away and isolated for Swynfaredia to do anything about it, at least not at a reasonable cost.   Uwcharedia is a more recent realm. It's not made of Swynfaredian rebels, it's a Swynfaredian puppet state where influentialSwynfaredian Dragonbloods try to provide a cushy position for some of their Squib relations while also serving as a springboard for further expanding their influence in the Border Baronies Region.   The sorcerer Mostyn and the sorceress Talaith were both born to Squib parents in the Swynfaredian puppet realm of Uwcharedia. Mostyn and Talaith married. They did like each other but this was mostly for political reasons. They were hoping if they could produce a couple heirs with sorcery they could establish a recognized Bloodline or Minor House to gain enough prestige to eventually take over Uwrcharedia or as the rulers of one of the Border Baronies Uwcharedia was eying a conquest of.   But Uwcharedia was toppled by a coalition of Borderlanders and Fumayans. Mostyn and Talaith were partially implicated in it's fall. The couple fled to the petty kingdom of Altudaredia. Things were okay until the ruler of Alturedia decided he wanted to make a move on Talaith. Talaith played along long enough to trick him ingesting poison. Then Mostyn and Talaith took over.   But taking over a Border Barony and holding onto a Border Barony are two very different things. The region is infamous for their frequency of coups.