Crownlands of Gaurheim
A western woodland crown whose warmth is being mortgaged to keep its neighbors alive.
The living rent
The western forests catch the mild sea wind before it reaches the frozen interior. Gaurheim can harvest timber without borrowing summer, a privilege its monarchs once called proof of divine favor. In 661, Queen Ysabet Vey opened the crown's warmwood groves to refugees and discovered that the exported living roots also carried away heat. The compact now sells warmth as if it were timber.
A crown under the bark
Lichencourt collects duties; Cedarterrace builds the vessels; Ochererbourne keeps the warning lamps. Their three guilds may refuse a royal levy together. Ysabet's heir wants to cancel the export contracts before the last old trees die. The shipwrights ask who will feed their children if the contracts end. The queen has begun visiting the groves without her ceremonial axe.
A western shore settlement painting warnings that captains can read through snow.
Shipwright terraces built from warmwood that must never be allowed to root.
Ysabet opened the warmwood groves during the refugee winter of 661 and has spent twenty-three years defending the consequences.
The western crown began as a compact between forest wardens and three coastal guilds.
The cedar capital where every royal decree is read beneath a living tree.
Southern farmers who won a republic and inherited a failing source of warmth.