New campaign area: Duchy Belswick

I'm starting a new campaign of 5th edition D&D and I want to go full on medieval in it. The first thing to do is throw together a map of the play area. I've used my Carcassonne hack of Coins & Scrolls fast mapping method. The settlements shown on the map are small towns of 2000 and up; there are many smaller villages. Same for back roads, dirt tracks etc.

The basic board is the same as in the explainer post, except this time I use the complete board and make some different choices. It's turning out to be a good inspiration tool in addition to generating a map. As I go around the map and find odd consequences of the design rules, I find myself thinking up backstory to explain them in-game.

Duchy of Belswick and its neighbours

DUCHY BELSWICK

The Duchy of Belswick in the Kingdom of Pembroke borders on the semi-French Kingdom of Arrayne. The pride of the province is the city of Domesbury with its 30.000 souls. Domesbury is the ancestral seat of Bertram Duke Belswick and lies in a belt of secure, rich baronies that generate most of the Duchy's wealth. A half day from Domesbury is Port Trellis on the Inner Sea, a big trading port and remembering its glory days as part of the Ingol Trading League. Duke Belswick also holds title to Baronies Wigmore (through marriage) and Sennecey (as a gift from the Crown). Both are administered by Stewards from his house.

RELATIONS

Neighboring provinces in Pembroke are Lorrisey (a smaller inland County) and Thynne (with relations between the two dukes as frosty as the Wild Mountains in between them). Young King Cerdic the Meek rules Pembroke with a light touch from the faraway capitol Egremont. He spends more time in the cathedral of the Authority listening to prayers than paying attention to affairs of state.

A recent war saw Belswick annex some of Arrayne's baronies in its southeastern region.

• Sudeley, Mardogne, Lanzac, Ozillac, Valbonnais, Arques, Lissecourt and Sennecey were annexed 18 years ago. Smuggling with Arrayne to avoid taxes is an ongoing pest.
• Lissecourt, Ozillac, Arques and Valbonnais are still ruled by their original noble houses.
• Richer Sennecey, Sudeley, Mardogne and Lanzac were given to vassals of Duke Betram.

Across a hefty mountain range lies the Principality of Wild Stone. This Dwarf land expelled all envoys from its court for ten years while it closed its borders, then started up relations again three years ago. The Dwarfs keep silent about their goals, but import food and raw resources on an enormous scale.

OF NOTE

Divisions
The prosperous central group of Belswick, Badlesmere, Stourton, Cogges and Raddenshire consider the rest of the province to be country bumpkins. Although the eight former Arraynian baronies were annexed decades ago, they are still considered second-rate by the rest of Belswick.

Individual baronies

Baronetcy Emlyn has been hotly contested for three years by the twins Geoffrey and Niall. Frankly, it is a mystery why anyone should want to fight over this plot of land off the main trade road to Lorrisey. The tiny barony is a hotbed of intrigue, gossip, favoritism and outright assassination attempts. Any information or object that can tip the scales will get its bearer sucked into the feud.

The Soot Hills between baronies Crommey and Badlesmere are so ill-reputed that no-one has managed to drive a road through them. This leaves the two Baronies paying large tolls to Barony Belswick to use its road with defensive watch towers.

Barony Mardogne is ruled by Duke Belswick's vassal Cyget, a Swanling prone to his blood's famous bad luck. So far, the annexed barony has not suffered from this. Cygnet suffers from ongoing curses and is especially haunted on the day Mardogne was annexed.

Baronies Old Fulwood and Ballumbie are both ruled by toadlings - the two barons of the house Windesmere are distantly related and detest one another. Neither of the baronies is particularly prosperous or rich in natural resources, and the two seek out every advantage they can get over each other in trade, status and populace.

Baronetcy Martin was hit hard by a curious plague a decade ago -mercifully confined to the marshes- and its fishing town of Tilmarsh is still recovering. It collects so few taxes that the local baronet could not make upkeep and was removed from the Second Estate. No claimant to the baronetcy has come forward and the crown is loath to step in. Trade from the rich barony of Sudely (formerly in Arrayne) tends to take ship to Port Trellis or detours via Arrayne to Barony Mardogne to avoid the Martin marshes.


Barony Corsewall holds the single pass to the Principality of Wild Stone. The town declined after the Principality closed the Corsewall pass. Corsewall was hit hard by famine on top of the trade embargo. A splinter of the faith is causing unease here, with the Owlling baron Montfaulc

Enclaves
Barony Radnor is a Royal Domain where the crown hunts in Radnor wood and visits the ruins of Castle Stormhold.

Baronetcy Thworpe is administered by the Church in the person of Bishop Edegard, a Slugling content to see Thworpe stay a backwater. Thworpe is a dirt poor strip of land with limited fishing rights on the lake to the west and poor farming ground in its eastern reaches. Even though Lake Ful's faintly glowing shellfish have fallen out of fashion at court, Thworpe's fishers continue their exhausting night time searches for this traditional catch.

Barony Lanzac has been granted to a High Elf warrior named Hustilar by King Tristam's order. The new Baron makes full use of his serfs’ obligation to work on his land - specifically, to douse and dig for strange clay urns buried in clutches of 6 and 13 in barren plots of land. There is much worry about this from the peasants, who have had to clear good crops for Hustilar's search. Local priests have called out against the practice of unearthing heretical burial practices, but have been ignored so far.

Barony Ozillac is administered by the Church in the person of Abbot Julien Raulme of the Leaden Order of St. Vivione. Raulme often exchanges letters with his brother Fabien, Baron of Les Essarts in Arroyne.