Interesting that a region defected from Sirion at the start of all of this, does anybody think more defections are in order? Also, as somebody who had a different family from long ago, but is generally fairly new... why hasn't there been a secession of a duchy in Sirion? I would imagine in such a big realm it would be bound to happen eventually, especially at times like this when Sirion would be unable to quell the new realm effectively.
You're unlikely to see more defections. It's also going to get much much harder to get into Sirion once they lose Oligarch. Avamar and Trinbar are ridiculously defensible. The outer-lying cities were always incredibly vulnerable. The only real way to defend them was what happend back in the day with the Fontan-Sirion-OR alliance.
Actually that also makes you more likely to betray your own realm to keep your city. Because you probably think you've earned it. That is why most realms don't appoint their less trusted dukes into outer cities where it is easier to defect. Giselle, Duchess of Krimml, was probably a mistake on their part. Her family has a long history with that but sometimes you forget.
Long history huh? So there was Serko in Topenah(?) on FEI, and then Gregor with Fontan and the Confederacy which was a civil war. That's twice in over 12 years.
Because they have this thing called Perdan on the other side of the continent wanting to wipe them out.
Also, have you even seen their list of dukes? All insanely loyal to Sirion. Unless Perdan fragments, Sirion won't fragment. The only reason Krimml defected was because well the duchess there was the infamous Relak family. I wouldn't be surprised if the duchess changes her side again when things start favouring Sirion.
Giselle had her reasons for going to Westmoor with the Duchy. The city was already at >50% taken over by Fallangard, and as has been put into the newspaper she despises the Fallangardians for their treachery of Caligus, so she did the next best thing she went to a realm she would be welcomed in without even announcing it first.
If Caligus doesn't see that Fallangard is coming for them if it takes a northern city they're blind. But I don't think they're blind I think they're helpless.
They usually make their dukes serve in a military for a long time. When you fight for one realm for a long time, you will care more for that realm because you have invested significant hours into that realm. You don't see many people destroying their own achievements.
If I might interject, the reason is because the list of candidates who have been in the realm for so long is extensive. They have deep deep ties to the realm, and the way Dukes are selected generally means things are stable (They're voted on by the realm council as a whole, Giselle played both factions to get elected). Then in the way the realm is run the Dukes have a significant say in how things go forward. This means there is little incentive to leave as you have significant power in a large realm. Now Giselle's Duchy was always sort of a backwater, it didn't produce much gold, was heavily indebted to the realm for its defense and food, mostly because of the significant militia presence, which didn't mean a damn when the military went kaput, and so left helpless she took her Duchy and said no thanks to being the Duchess who couldn't defend her Duchy because her realm didn't do a thing for it.
Don't you all wonder why Aedenah stepped down so quickly as general after the defeat in Krimml too?
