As compiled by Spymaster Ralnor
Per your majesty's request, and with the skilled assistance of Chancellor Artemia and other loyal servants of the crown. Please take these assessments with a grain of salt. Some of this is based on fact, and some of this is guesswork and supposition. Dragonbloods are notorious for putting up false fronts, so it is possible that I and others have been fed false information. I swear that this information is accurate to the best of my ability.
Old Swynfaredia region
In general, the dragonbloods in the Old Swynfaredia Region are chicken hawks. They support the war against Fumaya but they want other people to do the actual fighting.
The Duchess of Greater Numaness is the Queen of Swynfaredia. It is beyond the scope of this document to speculate on the queen's goals and tactics.
The Duke of Greater Gorisonad is one of the oldest living dukes in Swynfaredia. He is slowing down in his old age. He is passively trying to direct events from a distance by providing support to the other Gorisonad leaders.
His goal seems to be the mainstream Gorisonad one. Credit Gorisonad for all Swynfaredian military victories and blame Numaness for all Swynfaredian military failures.
House Gareth was established as sidekick house to House Numaness long ago and this doesn't look like it's changing anytime soon. The Duchess of Gareth is one of the Queen's most fervent supporters and they have a strong military. The Duchess is dangerous opponent and she doesn't have any obvious vulnerabilities to exploit.
Her daughters and heirs are very important commanders on the front lines. If she were captured, we could gain a lot of leverage, but that would be a huge coup for our side, but easier said than done. They are clever and strong and they may prefer death or being captured.
The realm ceded territory to rivals after the various Swynfaredian Civil Wars. The Duchess of Greater Kovenoth seems to be playing the role of loyal vassal to the Queen in the hopes of winning back some of the lands and prestige Kovenoth lost in yesteryear.
(Fremiss-A)
The Duchy of Greater Fremiss has lost territory to both Gareth and Numaness in the wake of the splintering of the original House Fremiss. This is now the smallest duchy in Old Swynfaredia.
The Duke of Greater Fremiss has a committed a fair few troops to the frontlines. What he hopes to get out of this is anyone's guess.
The Swynfaredian Grey forest is the smallest broad region of Swynfaredia, with only two duchies. The realm is sparsely populated and is more wild than most of the rest of Swynfaredia. It makes up a disproportionately high percentage of the realms of reagents production and that is their main contribution to the war effort.
The
Duchess of Caedwin and the
the Amethyst Duchess get along surprisingly well for Swynfaredian neighbors. They are connected by political marriages and apparently, mutual respect. They routinely back each other up politically.
Both have expressed no interest in becoming an archduchess. They believe the Swynfaredian Grey Forest is too small to warrant being an archduchy. Some proponents have tried to court their favor suggesting that they join the Archduchy of Old Swynfaredia to make sure that the Queen's Archduchy is the largest archduchy by far. They hope this will sweeten the deal and convince the queen to accept archduchies. Both the Duchess of Caedwin and the Amethyst Duchess say this is akin to paying the queen with her own gold and is a fool's idea.
(Fremiss-C)
The Duchess of Caedwyn (and pretty much all
House Fremiss-Caedwin) have a political goal of establishing more rights and privileges for kobolds in Swynfaredia. She believes they will be useful to Swynfaredia in many regards. They have lots of sorcerers, are good workers, and could give Swynfaredia a strong leg up in the threats and opportunities from
Scarnoctis. The duchess wants to make some kobolds into Swynfaredian citizens and maintain friendly trading relations with nomadic kobold tribes in West Colassia that are not prone to joining Swynfaredia outright.
Other dragonbloods have suggested using kobold soldiers in the conquest of Fumaya but the Duchess is opposed to this. She believes that Swynfaredian commanders will send kobolds into the high casualty roles due to racism. She also believes that Fumayan soldiers will show no quarter to kobold soldiers due to racism. Then the Swynfaredians will lose any chance of meaningful kobold allies forever.
Her plan seems to be to demonstrate of kobolds' value as laborers. With the war on, and so many soldiers on extended campaign, there is a labor shortage in farms and elsewhere. Her suggestion is to use kobolds to make up the labor deficits. She has very few dragonbloods willing to take up her offer.
She also believes that goblin slavery should be abolished (and the goblins themselves should be killed). She advocates replacing human and goblin miners with paid kobold miners. Which is not a half-bad idea in my opinion. If I wasn't afraid doing so would alienate Meckelorn, I would say
Fumaya should consider this.
The Duchess of Caedwyn is blessed with multiple spare sorcerous heirs, both children and nieces and nephews. A lot of them are Fang Warriors but they have ambitions to carve out land out of Fumaya. The Duchess tacitly approves this, but she is not actively involved in the war effort. A lot of the duchesses men-at-arms are at the front, so at the moment a lot of the her realms defense rests on the scaly shoulders of supposedly friendly kobolds.
(Numaness)
The Amethyst Duchess seems to have been quietly hoarding reagents and potion for a very long time. She intends to leverage this wealth into getting other dragonbloods into her debt. She is supporting the queen's military ambitions but is a little cautious, not wanting to bleed her soldiers and sorcerers dry in the effort.
Old Talama Region
The Old Talama Region has more internal divisions than most of Swynfaredia. I believe we can exploit this lack of unity, but I am not optimistic enough to believe we can liberate the region and return it to
House Deorac and some Deorac lords dream over their cups of ale.
Many of the peasants here still consider themselves Talaman, but I highly doubt that many are willing to risk their lives to overthrow their dragonblood lords.
(Gorisonad)
The Duchess of Dwyns arguably has the most stable duchy in the Old Talama region and is a bulwark of Gorisonad power.
The
Count of Apples and
Red Countess are not exactly the most loyal vassals, but they represent two of the least influential counties in Swynfaredia, so they can't really challenge their lord
The Duchess of Dwyns was humiliated when Kormatin and company killed
Lord Rhydian in her backyard, and she lost a lot of men in the failed campaign to retake Uwcharedia. The duchess' loss of status and manpower is not yet enough to give her less loyal vassals an opening to make trouble....at least not yet
On the plus side for us, since the Rhydian incident, the Duchess has been so focused on internal security that she was only able to contribute a relatively small number of soldiers to the front lines, commanded by her son and heir Lord Derwyn. It would be a difficult feat, but I have suggested to
Sir Casmir to make capturing or killing Lord Derwyn a high priority.
Note, the Duchess has two spare heirs, but her the next in line are not as formidable as Lord Derwyn.
(Numaness)
Peredur is an anomaly in that it geographically
should include
Blue River City, but Blue River City is part of the Queen of Swynfaredia's demesne.
Anyone else in her situation might be plotting against the queen, but the Duchess of Peredur extremely loyal despite or maybe because of her poor treatment. Her plan seems to be to be to help the queen conquer Fumaya to the best of her ability and receive Blue River City as a reward. As the original capital of Talama, this would give her a strong position to make a claim for an achduchess title.
She is not off to a great start, as the caravan successfully attacked by
Noggra the tengku and company was ostensibly guarded by the duchesses men. Based on reports from my spies, the Duchess threw an unladylike tantrum. She is now supervising her soldiers on the frontlines personally.
(Fremiss-B)
The Duchy of Sion is ruled by Fremiss-B but he has vassals of Numaness and Gareth that are super loyal to him.
The Duke of Sion nominally backed the Gorisonad coalition to try to get leverage on his less than loyal vassals, but with the recent setbacks of House Gorisonad he has backed away from the Gorisonads.
He seems be trying to hedge his bets with Gorisonad and Numaness. His goal, as far as I can tell, is to lose as little men as possible in the Fumaya War, but without actively looking like he is opposed to the war. I have advised Sir Casmir that the Duke's retainers are likely to be very conservative and defensive on the battlefield.
(Kovenoth)
The Duke of Crescent Rock has access to a lot of mineral wealth but his vassals from a wide variety of houses at odds with each other and he's not very good at commanding his vassals. His vassals aren't openly rebelllious but when they comply with his orders they are always a few day late and a few coppers short.
At this point, I don't know what the Duke's plans and goals for the Sywnfaredia-Fumaya war are. House Gorisonad is trying to court him into their coalition, but this plan seems to have stalled since his vassal
Count Rohdri ap Gruffyl has openly sided with the Numaness coalition.
Southeast Region of Swynfaredia
Unfortunately, my spy network is not very strong here, as the farther one gets from Fumaya, the fewer eyes and ears I have.
Most of the dragonbloods that are opposed to the invasion of Fumaya are in the southeast region of Swynfaredia. Many prefer mercantile expansion over military expansion. More importantly, if Swynfaredia and Uskala ever go to war, this region will be the main battleground and many dragonbloods that a war with Fumaya, even if successful, would be an open invitation for King Drosst to attack.
(Gorisonad)
The Duke of Andras has a relatively stable duchy, but his vassal the
Count of Manasch wields a lot of leverage. It is difficult for the duke to take a major action that the House Manasch doesn't approve.
Right now, they seem to be working together but who is actually in charge is a matter of debate. The Duke's plan is to keep as many soldiers away from the Fumayan front lines as possible while providing logistical support to both the Queen and House Gorsionad so they don't get mad at him for his lack of military participation.
I have yet to confirm this, but it is rumored that he is plotting to become an archduke with Manasch backing, and if he achieves this, he will reward Manasch with a duchy.
(Numaness)
The Duke of Dragon's Mooring seems to interested in becoming an Archduke. His realm is more stable than most of the Southeast and he controls Swynfardia's main port city. That said, he also wants to hedge his bets against Uskala, so he is reluctant to take too heavy losses in the war against Fumaya.
The Duchess of Volodor is one of the most high ranking dragonbloods openly stating opposition to the attempted conquest of Fumaya. Her plan seems to be to work with
House Cefnor to make Swynfaredia into a mercantile power by become prodigious ship builders.
She is claiming that her resources are tied up in ships and since you can't
sail to Fumaya, she can't really send soldiers to answer the Queen's call. How long she can pull this stalling tactic off is anyone's guess.
(Numaness)
The Duchess of Nerseo is the queen's least loyal vassal who bears the Numaness name. Mainly because she is very concerned about Uskala but also because she believes Numaness needs to adopt a hardline approach against adopting too mongrel blood into their ranks.
She has some troops stationed near the Duchy of Wiern, but they have thus far been part of the reserves.
(Fremiss-A)
The Duchess of Lone Hill has made it clear that she thinks she would make a good Archduchess. She believes participating in the conquest of Fumaya will help her in this ambition, and she is trying to keep on the good side of both House Gorisonad and House Numaness. She seems to have the diplomatic prowess to pull off this feat. On paper, she is with House Gorisonad, but she seems to be on relatively good terms with
Queen Gwendolyn.
I believe she is Fumaya's strongest threat in Southeast, and I unfortunately don't see an obvious opening to attack her power base. We might be able to get Fremiss-B and Fremiss-C against her but that seems like a long shot.
(Fremiss-B)
The Duchy of Bryallan is the political and spiritual heart of
House Fremiss-Bryallan. Fremiss-B doesn't have a particular grouse with Fumaya, but they are proud of their warrior tradition and they yearn for a chance to show off their prowess in a straight forward battle.
At the very least, they fight with honor, but this is little comfort and their soldiers are better trained and equipped than the Swynfaredian norm.
The Duke of Bryallan is part of the Numaness coalition and he often butts head with his one Gorisonad vassal, and would love too replace the Gorisonad vassal with a vassal of almost any other house and the Gorisonads know this. This is the Duke of Bryallan's greatest vulnerability.
And he has expressed in becooming an archduke.
(Numaness)
The Duke of Trysor is stuck with one of the least unified duchies in Swynfaredia. As far as I can tell, he wants to serve the queen well in the war with Fumaya and gain political support from her to house clean his less loyal vassals away.
He also has expressed interest in being an archduke.
(Gorisonad)
The duchess of Tirmyn is probably the most timid of the major Gorisonad figures. She is saddled with vassals who are not always obedient and her goal seems to be to be keep her head low and conserve her resources as best she can during the war with Fumaya, providing the bare minimum support to the Gorisonad coalition and the queen in order to get by.
(Gorisonad)
The Duchess of Gwynllan is nominally apart of the Greater Gorisonad coalition, but she is a paper dragon in this regard.
A lot of Gorisonads have to deal with Numaness-friendly vassals causing them problems. The Duchess of Gwynllan has to deal with Fremiss vassals that don't like to take orders from Gorisonads OR Numaness.
As a result of hamstringing, we haven't seen any soldiers from this duchy anywhere near the frontlines of the war so far. They are an important supplier of foodstuffs to the other Swynfaredians. The political infighting in the Duchy of Gwynllan has thus far
not interrupted food deliveries.
The Duchy of Caregdya is the center point for the Fremiss on Fremiss conflict. The Duchess of Caregdya seems to be against the invasion of Fumaya. Presumably because she has enough problems in her own duchy to keep her occupied without getting involved in foreign wars. She hasn't openly defied the queen though, so she has sent troops.
As far as I can tell, her goal in the Fumayan war is to force her Fremiss rivals into taking heavy losses against Fumaya. Her Fremiss rivals know this. Troops from this duchy haven't entered the main fighting yet, but when they do, it should relatively easy to capitalize on their lack of unity.
(Kovenoth)
Initially, the Duchess of Arfordir seemed opposed to the invasion of Fumaya, but she has since changed her tune. She is probably the politically strongest Kovenoth ruler in Swynfaredia with no major problems other than dealing with more random monster or fae attacks. If anything this makes her more dangerous as her soldiers have more combat experience.
This is a supposition, but I believe she now believes that supporting the war is the best way to help her and
House Kovenoth.
It is widely rumored that she is auditioning for the role of Archduchess.
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