About Limeria and its illegitimate prince:

The Limerian empire, or Limeria, is one of the largest empires in the known lands. It borders the kingdom of Shareeba in the east and to the south – The Southern Marzbanats (a union of small states). To the west, the empire reaches the Ocean and its northernmost territory is the island of Norden. There are no known countries in the far north, only some small unorganized tribes.

The current Limerian emperor, Leander, has three sons from three different wives. His first-born son from his first legal wife is the crown prince Llewellyn. After giving birth to him, his mother contracted an illness and died a year later. Shortly after her passing, the emperor took a second legal wife, who was the first empress’ cousin. However, after three miscarriages in two years, the new wife lost the emperor’s favor to such an extent that he left his still recuperating spouse and unburied child and went to war with the South.

After a punitive campaign against the Marzbanats that lasted for two years, emperor Leander returned to the Limerian capital victorious and brought a beautiful seventeen-year-old princess as a slave. Not long after, the princess gave birth to a baby boy. According to the Limerian laws, the child was illegitimate and could not receive the title of “prince”. In addition to that, the empress and the high council forbade the boy from receiving a “royal name” (all male offspring in the imperial family have names connected with the word “lion” and their last name is Limeria) and being heir to the throne. Therefore, the child was named Noah in accordance with his mother’s wish.

The slave-princess that birthed the second imperial son lived in a remote part of the palace, far from the social circles. Nevertheless, she received the emperor’s affection regularly, to the dismay of the empress and the entire court. Then, four years after entering the palace, the princes died suddenly only two weeks after giving birth to stillborn twin girls, due to childbed fever. Or at least that was what the royal physicians reported. The emperor was devastated by the double loss. So devastated in fact, that he looked for consolation in the empress’ chambers. Nine months later the empire celebrated the birth of the second prince and third imperial son – Lionel.

Compared to the sickly first prince and the unfavorable and gloomy second child, prince Lionel was a bright and healthy boy and a spitting image of his father, and soon became the emperor’s favorite. The court was ecstatic and so was the empress. Despite being extremely smart and well mannered, the weak body of the crown prince was a huge drawback. And the second son, in addition to his shameful lineage as a bastard, did not even inherit any of the imperial traits. His skin was the olive hue of the marzbanat’s people. His hair was black instead of the imperial gold. Even his eyes were not like the clear sapphires of his half-brothers but were dirty gray instead. What is more, the second child was a magnet for misfortune. There were always accidents happening around him, even some people died. Everyone in the imperial court was convinced that the boy is cursed. The nobles begged the empress to do something, but she, in all her benevolence, stated that cursed or not the child still bears the emperor’s blood.

The years passed. The first prince was getting sicker, the curse of the second son was still there and the youngest prince was shining brighter and brighter. But then one day the precious prince Lionel got in an accident together with the bastard son. Both of them survived but it was evident that the curse was spreading. Finally, the court managed to convince the emperor and the empress to get rid of the child of misfortune. Some suggested to give him to the Church of Two Gods to repent there for the sin of his birth. A few more radical ones even demanded him to join the ranks of the eunuch-priests, so that there is no chance for him to taint the imperial bloodline in the future. In the end, it was decided that the boy, now fifteen, will be sent to the far lands of Norden to fill-in the ducal position. This decision was still acceptable for the court, especially since the last duke was assassinated in his sleep.

And it so happened that the second imperial son was knighted at the age of fifteen (despite many considering such honor unfit for a bastard) and received the name Noah Lux Norden.

About Norden and its political structure:

Norden is a large island and part of the Limerian empire. Its territory comprises almost a fifth of the imperial lands, but it is scarcely populated. It is ruled by one of the two imperial dukes (the second one being the emperor’s younger brother in the West). In the earlier days of Norden’s conquest, the lands were under the jurisdiction of five barons. Later however the barons started fighting amongst each other instead of quelling the rebellions of the local savages. Therefore, it was decided that a duke will preside over the lands and all barons will serve under him. The title of duke Norden was unfortunately a cursed one. The first duke was killed by one of the barons. His son was murdered by the wild binshi. The next duke died in an avalanche without an heir, so his cousin took the throne. He, on the other hand, died suddenly during his wedding night with his third wife and many believed that it was a binshi’s curse. The next duke drowned without an heir and his younger brother was assassinated by his cousin. A couple more dukes left this world due to a mixture of poisonings, stabbings, mysterious illnesses, and excessive drinking. The father of the last duke died in a skirmish with the binshi, and his son was assassinated in the nuptial chamber by his wife, leaving no heir or relative to inherit the seat in castle Ildemar. And so it was decided that the next to take the cursed title would be the illegitimate son of the emperor. Everyone that heard the decision knew the truth – this was a death sentence.

To everyone’s surprise, the boy-duke survived. He thoroughly cleaned the five Baron Houses by putting more capable men at the helm. What is more, he made a truce with the bloodthirsty wild binshi and created the Council of Norden, which consists of the Duke, the five Barons, and the seven kush-turgans of the largest binshi clans.

For the curious ones, here is the map of Norden:

The red marking on the map shows the main military road, connecting all baronies with the Ducal lands (William de Mar is referring to it during his talk with Noah in “The thieve (1)”). As some might notice, the Ducal lands have no clear border with the binshi’s territories. All the other baronies have either a clear border or the next mountain range counts as a divide between limerian and binshi lands. The explanation here is simple. Officially the Binshi Lands are part of the territories directly under the supervision of Duke Norden. Practically, Noah has left the clans to decide how to rule themselves, the only exception being their obligatory presence during the meetings of the Council of Norden.

These are the Houses of Norden (from the Limerian side) with their coat-of-arms and mottoes (translation bellow the picture).

Duke Norden: Ad astra per aspera - to the stars through difficulties

Baron De Mar: De profundis ad astra – from the depths to the stars

Baron Rowell: Tutum te robore reddam - I will give you safety by strength

Baron De Vindur: Servire et Tueri – protect and serve

Baron Argente: Lux in tenebris lucet – The light that shines in the darkness

Baron Firmon: Vincit qui patitur – he conquers who endures

Correspondingly, here are the seven insignia of the binshi clans. Since they have not been introduced up to now, the only important one is the first at the top. This is the sign of the now perished clan from Star-path Valley.

Last but not least, a closer look at the building plan of castle Ildemar.

You might recognize some of the places shown above from the chapter "Welcome to castle Ildemar".