Kingdom of Aiwood

Aiwood is both the name of the country and of its ruling dynasty. The kingdom lies in the western part of the continent and is reckoned mid-sized — neither a great power nor a small state. After the era of a former tyrant king, power here is deliberately decentralised and the nobility wields great influence: even the present king cannot punish his own kin without the nobles' consent.

The current monarch is a mild, tolerant ruler reputed as a 'benevolent king' in contrast to the former tyrant. He has three sons: crown prince Richard, second prince Andrew (who is to give up royal status and become a duke, granted the Sabnock Plains as his domain) and third prince Rodele, whose mother is a side-consort from the imperial house of Gaiselle. State affairs are run by a chancellor of House Crocus, and the knight order is commanded by Marquis Cattleya.

The nobility is ranked by title — from dukes and marquises down to counts, margraves and viscounts — and many houses bear flower names (Rosemary, Cattleya, Crocus, Lavender): by tradition, the first king's gardening queen gave her favourite vassals flower nicknames. To the east runs the border with the Gaiselle Empire, to the north lie the lands of barbarian tribes; near the capital lies a demon realm, the Sabnock Plains, which the kingdom seeks to develop.

The hierarchy of titles: duke → marquis → margrave → count → viscount → baron, plus the office-bound honorary viscount. The kingdom's foremost house is the Crocus dukes, whose head serves as chancellor; after them come the marquises Rosemary (chief of the court magicians) and Cattleya (commander of the knight order).

The eastern border with the empire is guarded by Margrave Lavender — a hereditary foe of Gaiselle. Other houses include the counts Walnut and Valery, and the minor honorary-viscount house Eberun, Rest's birth house. Rest himself, for slaying Sabnock, founds House Clover and is raised to viscount and then count — deliberately taking a flower name in keeping with local tradition.

East of Aiwood, across a wide border river, lies the Gaiselle Empire — officially a century-old ally: the two have traded for over a hundred years and together repelled the northern savages. The empire once dreamed of conquering the continent, but a century ago switched to a cooperative course; its current emperor is a moderate mediator.

Yet the emperor is terminally ill, heirs are dying suspiciously, and a war-hawk faction led by a youngest prince is rising, eager to strike Aiwood first. The empire secretly backed Aiger's rebellion, sending soldiers disguised as mercenaries, and later moved troops openly across the border — its power exceeds Aiwood's, and a breakthrough threatens to reach the very capital.