New Beginnings - The Royal Family

Usually, when I start a new campaign, I don't concern myself with the political structure of where the party is starting. They are assumed to be in a nameless kingdom, surrounded by other nameless kingdoms. This time, I wanted to get that structure down from the beginning to add flavor to the world. Even if the party never ends up meeting the Queen, I can have the smallfolk swear by her name, or they can hear rumors about the Duke of an adjoining duchy, etc.

A quick jaunt to my favorite name resource, Kate Monk's Onomastikon, has aided me in selecting names for the royal family of Finnwyck. May I present to you, the Kenways:

• Queen Carina Kenway
• Princess Lyneve Kenway, Duchess of Langstead
• Prince Bryant Kenway, Duke of Braedon

There's a little bit of a cheat on my part here. Both "Queen" and "Carina" have similar starting sounds. It's the same for Langestead/Lyneve, and Bryant/Braedon. I started doing it by accident, but then decided that it would help me remember who ruled which duchy. I mean, Stan Lee did the same thing with superhero identities like Bruce Banner and Peter Parker, so why not stand on the shoulders of giants?

Since we're starting in the Duchy of Mardwin, here's the government structure that concerns us the most.

• Owain Maddox, Duke of Mardwin
• Glyn Llewellyn, Marquis
• Rhonwen Vayne, Sherriff

Note that I kept the same initial sound in Maddox and Mardwin, but that the third Duke is not part of the Kenways. I liked the idea that the Queen didn't have enough children for each duchy, and that Duke Maddox has the worst duchy, being on the border and all. Did he do something to offend the Queen, so she shipped him off to the frontier? Is he young and trying to make a name for himself (and perhaps win the Queen's hand in marriage) by expanding Finnwyck's borders? We'll find out later.

Because Mardwin had Celtic/Welsh influences, I decided to go with those same influences for the Marquis and the Sherriff. It's little details like this that I hope will tie the world together in a way that's been lacking in my other campaigns.