D'hara has a culture, though its not rife with less important things (You're wearing white after the second to last friday after the harvest but before the full moon? Scandalous!)
D'harans are very fond of politicking, and have wonderfully embraced the republican form of government. A good deal of this goes on in the background. However, for all the love of republicanism, there is a group in the realm that maintains status quo, and you either go with what they say or you get out.
Militarily, D'harans are miserable. They are much more comfortable sitting at home and trading, counting their gold, or starving to death, as the seasons progress. However, when they do march, they take ANY victory they can get and run with it, and the shouts of triumph can be heard from all over. It doesn't matter if their army attacked a single noble, or a pair, and beat them up, it is a major victory.
Dukes are very territorial, and jealously lord over their domains, and the mere thought of one of their regions changing to another Duchy is unbearable.
Rather accurate, though hey, standing up to Luria Nova despite our miserable army is enough to bloat our egos.
And yea, ducal territory changes have always been a very thorny issue in D'Haran politics. Dukes have always been jealous, in a way, and the Dragon Monarchs had put in a tradition of setting their duchies' extent in stone. There is still a great feeling that the ruler can decide what regions belong to which duchies. Still, Nebel joined my duchy of Paisly, which was an unprecedented move and created no fuss. Duke Rurik might not be pleased, though (he is not very vocal), and many might expect it to be a temporary thing (I don't know myself).
We've embraced the republic, but we still consider Cenarious Stormrage to be D'Hara's Dragon King even today. And we retain much of our monarchist culture: elections are rare (quarterly), and electoral campaigns against incumbents are also rather rare or otherwise rather low profile, only a handful have a right to actual vote (lords), etc. I think the sole possible exception might be the general title.
Ummm... D'Hara is a monarchy.
We have a "republican form of governance".
The House of Lords is quite powerful, though, and I believe this predates the republic considerably (though not as formally and perhaps with a different name and more elastic admissibility). It's not codified in any laws, but leaders that make the mistake of ignoring the House of Lord get serious reprimand for it. The House of Lords expects to know everything the ruler does beforehand, or at least before any deals are signed.
