Ehrenfest (Duchy)

Ehrenfest (エーレンフェスト, eerenfesuto) is a duchy on the eastern border of Yurgenschmidt. It is currently governed by Sylvester, the Seventh Aub Ehrenfest. The capital of the territory is the city of Ehrenfest.

The territory is bordered by the following other territories:
 * The duchy of Ahrensbach to the South
 * The duchy of Klassenberg to the North
 * The duchy of Frenbeltag to the Southwest
 * The duchy of Zausengas to the Northwest
 * An unnamed other nation to the East/Northeast

Ehrenfest stretches far enough north to south that there is a noticable difference in climate between the tips of the duchy. The nothernmost province of Haldenzel has significantly harsher winters in which even the fastest flowing rivers freeze over, while in the southern provinces at least some of the rivers remain unfrozen throughout most of the winter.

Apart from the generally already warmer climate, the southernmost province of Griebel is further heated by the presence of the active volcano Mount Lohenberg, which is only kept from erupting by the local feybeast draining significant amounts of fire-related mana. If too many of the beasts are slayn or too many of their eggs are stolen, the mountain will errupt.

The duchy is surrounded by a barrier upheld by a magical construct called the Foundation Magic, which needs regular mana supply by the Archduke and his family. Among other things it blocks most magical effects and spells. Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 4 This barrier is purely magical and invisible to the naked eye. It does not prevent animals and feybeasts from crossing the border.

Spoiler for Part 4 Volume 5 The barrier surrounding the duchy does not prevent anyone - animal, feybeast or Human - from crossing the border. It does however enable to Aub to sense when anyone with the mana capacity of a noble crosses over. It is unclear whether this extends to strong feybeasts as well.

The province of Leisegang is a very fertile region and produces the most food out of any of Ehrenfest's provinces, leading to many to call it "Ehrenfest's Breadbasket".

The duchy of Ehrenfest consists of 28 provinces plus the central district:


 * Central District
 * Asmann
 * Bauer
 * Bessel
 * Blon
 * Buers
 * Cremer
 * Dahldolf
 * Forst
 * Garduhn
 * Gerlach
 * Glaz
 * Griebel
 * Groschel
 * Haldenzel
 * Haseney
 * Herzfeld
 * Hirsch
 * Huber
 * Illgner
 * Joisontak
 * Kark
 * Khune
 * Kirnberger
 * Lancelle
 * Lehde
 * Leisegang
 * Reunwalt
 * Wiltord

The current archduke is Sylvester, the seventh of his line.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 4 About 200 years ago the family of Eisenreich were declared traitors to the King and their duchy was crushed. After redrawing the borders of the duchy to their current state, the King appointed the Ehrenfest family as the lords of these lands. Wanting to make sure not to be associated with traitors, the first Aub Ehrenfest did not retain any of the Giebes appointed by Aub Eisenreich and instead filled the ranks with his own trusted allies.

When Drewanchel invented the sanitary slime magic tool 80 years ago, Ehrenfest was among the bottom five duchies in ranking and accordingly had to wait a long time for the privilege to buy this technology. When they were finally able to aquire it, it came at a rather inopportune time, since it was right after Lady Gabriele of Ahrensbach had forced through a marriage between her and the second son of the Fourth Aub Ehrenfest. As a result of the politics surrounding the marriage, Gabriele's husband was given the title of Count Groschel and left the city with his family to take up residence in his new domain, taking all of their mana with them. This negatively impacted the archduke's family so much in mana capacity that they could not make full use of the new technology right away due to the high mana cost of using creation magic to make a sewer sysytem. To keep up appearances they first re-made the dormitory at the Royal Academy, since this was the place where the majority of interactions with other duches happened. It took several years to finally be able to establish a sewer system for the archduke's castle and several more years for the rest of the noble's quarters. Due to higher priorities the establishment of a sewer system for the lower city was pushed back time and again until most people had already forgotten that such plans ever existed, particularly when the people involved in drawing up the original blueprints started to die off from old age or other causes. And so the plans lay tucked away in the Aub's personal storage for decades, only being rediscovered recently by scholars in the employ of Lady Charlotte, one of the seventh Aub Ehrenfest Sylvester's daughters.

Several years ago there was a coup within the Sovereignty. Though Ehrenfest formally stayed neutral in the conflict and thus didn't suffer any losses in the fighting, many nobles from the region died and others moved to other territories. Furthermore the new king also enacted a purge of anyone believed to be affiliated with the brothers he had been fighting, even in the neutral duchies. Due to this, Ehrenfest, like all duchiers of the Sovereignty, is suffering a severe shortage of mana, causing much difficultty. Many nobles who had been sent to the temple were called back to their families and many of those remaining were called to the main temple in the Sovereignty, in turn causing a secondary mana shortage in the temple.

While Ehrenfest had several outstanding nobles in the past, almost all of their accomplishments stayed on an individual level and failed to raise the the duchy as a whole. Some of the individuals mentioned are Professor Hirschur who's scientific discoveries baffled even Professor Gundolf and the former blue shrine maiden Christine, who's incredible skill with the harspiel left an eternal impression on those who heard her play, including Prince Anastasius.


 * Nobles of Ehrenfest receive an ocher/yellow cloak when they go to the Royal Academy. The ocher colour is the Ehrenfest ducal colour.
 * The banner animal of the Duchy is the lion. Only members of the Archducal family are allowed to use a winged lion as their Highbeast and only the Aub may use a three-headed, winged lion.
 * Ehrenfest was known for producing many eccentric but talented individuals that will go out of their way to pursue their personal interest. For example:
 * Rozemyne, who's obsessed with books.
 * Justus, who's obssessed with information gathering.
 * Sylvester, who's fascinated with new things and experiences.
 * Hirschur and Ferdinand, who are obsessed with magical research.
 * Angelica, who's obsessed with strength.
 * Hartmut, who's obsessed with Rozemyne's sainthood.