The Duchy of Mornpale

Mornpale-The South Central Duchy of Tralhalion

Mornpale is one of the oddest of Duchies in Tralhalion. Located in the south central of the country is had the odd nature of being largely uninvolved in the battles and squabbles of the other Duchies. It has remained neutral in the ongoing Naxos-Rhuane War and simply ignored the naval conflict between Zeeland and Starprius. The reason for this is not well understood.
The land here is a forest between mountains and constant struggles with the humanoid clans in the mountains keep them busy. And, along with Starprius, the land is scattered with ruins of pre-Tralhali civilizations. The land has also been heavily settled by elves and half elves, giving the land and large number of Hexarchy members and indeed there are large numbers of Covanent-Holds here and, even rarer, are the many private family libraries and magical groups only loosely involved with the Hexarchy Orders called the Lay Orders. This does given them a very large number of casters and a notable advantage in conflicts that can occur.
The capital city of Mistdark is a splendid town situated on a island in a lake on a river. Its location makes it virtually impossible to attack and also is home to a Hexarchy Telebridge Portal as well. The ruling Marlis family is descended from the great Metallic Dragons and has many sorcerers among their members, also Elven blood flows freely in their veins. Their archers are the best in all the lands of Tralhalion and their mages experts at scrying.
The land is also home to the Dwarven Mountain Fortress of Ironaxe, settled by renegade Njorsk dwarves. The people here once held out for centuries against the humanoid attacks and when finally convinced to form an alliance with the Tralhali, due to desperation, things finally went well. Although the vast majority of dwarves have become slaves to the giants they hope to liberate their fellows eventually. Ironaxe dwarves make some of the best magical items and have the best mining techniques and that combines with the scrolls and potion works and well as the alchemical centers make the land rich as well.
The basis of the Mornpale economy, aside from that of grains and cereal crops, is probably one of the most mixed in all the lands. Mining is a large part of the economy and the dwarves stronghold of Ironaxe provides much of that as do the outlying mines. Clay deposits along the river are some of the best in Tralhalion and pottery manufacture is commonplace as are the arts of weaving both various forest products into wicker and of wool. The great southern Forests are deep and dark and provide good game and hunting as well as home to many elves and archers. Fine cloth and finished goods as well as silken goods are made here and the regions medium sized cities are also noted for their excellent libraries, scroll and codex workshops, artists, potion and alchemical laboratories. On the whole the land is mostly self sufficient and due to the fairly high militia requirements the people are perhaps the most able to defend themselves, and they need to be as the land lies between the two largest humanoids lands that exist.