Relevar
A small inland principality that makes the measuring instruments no larger realm can do without.
A small country with a large standard
Relevar occupies the narrow inland meeting of three powers. Its capital Garnetrun cuts garnets for measuring heat; the stones darken by repeatable amounts when a working is charged. Local courts insist that a king's warmth and a laborer's warmth register identically. That assertion has prevented annexation more effectively than the principality's walls.
The counterfeit spring
Prince Cael Orven inherited a workshop throne and an embarrassing discovery: his grandfather certified a batch of flawed measures used in the Concord of Eight Hearths. The old stones undercount the heat taken from the north. Replacing them would bankrupt buyers who acted in good faith as well as the original thieves. The prince has invited an independent lampwright to repeat the experiments in public. Someone has already bought every suitable lamp in the city.
The Pells are instrument makers without noble rank.
Cael inherited a country small enough to cross in a long day and a standard used across a continent.
An inland workshop city whose scales are trusted more than its prince.
House Orven holds the principality only while the Weight Court certifies its instruments.
Southern farmers who won a republic and inherited a failing source of warmth.
An eastern river confederacy held together by pilots, signal towers and a disputed promise of rescue.