☙ Seven Marches, Seven Masks of a Haunted Realm ❧
“There is no one Vulgaria—only a map drawn seven ways, depending on who survived to tell it.”
Though the Arch-Principality of Vulgaria may be spoken of as one realm, it is in truth seven fractured reflections, each a Province unto itself—known historically as the Duchies or Marches (Marken).
These Provinces are not merely administrative units. They are personalities. Each bears its own countenance, its own customs, its own burdens. Some cling to the old Roman roads and rituals. Others shun the capital entirely and trust only what howls in their own woods.
To know the Marken is to know Vulgaria—not as a nation, but as a patchwork soul. Each stands as a fortress against the ever-thickening dark that presses in from the south and east.
✠ The Seven Marken of Vulgaria
1. Wielgrau — The High March of stone citadels and forbidding resolve. Known for its austere order, it houses the great bastions that have never fallen, even when besieged by hell itself.
2. Staubthal — The Valley of Dust, where wind-swept ruins and buried libraries hold the memories of ancient wars. Its monks and wardens guard knowledge lost elsewhere, and seal away what ought never be found.
3. Einsammark — The Lone March, cloaked in pine and silence. Sparsely settled, but fiercely watched. Its scouts and rangers move like ghosts to track what stirs in the shadows.
4. Belweiss — A province of mournful beauty and resilient folkways. Its pastures ring with bells, its churches with hymns, and its people weave mourning into song. Here, memory is a weapon.
5. Haltenkrähe — The Crow’s March, high in the black mountains. A land of miners, crows, and watchfires. Its bloodline of vigilance has held the peaks even when the stars went out.
6. Löwenberg — The Lion Mountain March. Though its politics are tangled and its banners gilded, it stands at the cultural heart of the realm, ever marshalling wealth and will against foreign subversion.
7. Buchenhain — The March of Beech and Bone. Deep groves and standing stones speak of elder rites. The Order’s oldest liturgies were born here, and its druids still whisper to the roots.
Each is divided further into Counties, each with its own sigil, colors, and catalogue of afflictions. But the Marken are more than geography. They are memory, character, and vigilance made manifest.
✠ Forgotten but Not Gone
The term “Lost Duchies” refers not to political collapse, but to spiritual fragmentation. The Marken no longer convene. Their borders shift subtly with each generation. Their loyalties lie often with themselves, and only distantly with the Arch-Prince in Lembergrau.
Some whisper that the Marken are alive, and that they do not forget when their names are left off maps.
✠ The Order and the Marken
Each Knight may hail from a County or owe fealty to a Province. The Codex of Counties and Marken records these affiliations, and some heraldic quarterings reflect dual allegiances—Commandery and March, family and flame.
To walk the full length of Vulgaria is to change accent, custom, and currency seven times—and yet remain always at home in shadow.
That is what it means to live in the Last Bastion.
