Dunkelfelger



The Duchy of Dunkelfelger is a region on the southern edge of the kingdom of Yurgenschmidt, rated as a greater duchy.

The territory is bordered by the following other territories:
 * The duchy of Ahrensbach to the Northeast
 * The duchy of Neuhausen to the North
 * The duchy of Quandtreeb to the Northwest
 * The duchy of Losrenger to the West
 * The former territory of the duchy of Werkerstock to the North
 * an unnamed country to the South

Dunkelfelger's duchy colour is dark blue.

The symbol of the archduke's family is an eagle.

Dunkelfelger is home to an unusually large number of dangerous feybeasts and feyplants. This forced the local population to be far more martial than the denizens of any other duchies and is almost assuredly the reason why this mindset can be found in all aspects of Dunkelfelger culture.

Each summer, a powerful feybeast rises to become the Lord of Summer in Dunkelfelger.

The people of Dunkelfelger focus heavily on warrior's spirit and combat prowess. Most of the literature produced in their duchy likewise deals with knights going up against enemies more numerous or powerful than themselves, but keeping on fighting until they eventually overcome their foes, no matter how often they suffer defeat or how long it takes.

Likely as a result of this culture and attitude, Dunkelfelger has the highest proportion of knights among their nobles of any of Yurgenschmidt's duchies and even nobles who are not knights tend to have more knowledge of weapons than anywhere else.

Dunkelfelger nobles are known to be headstrong and independent, seizing whatever they want and securing victory at any cost. They prioritize practicality above all else. One example of this was a female archduke candidate. To escape her arranged marriage with a noble from a lesser duchy, she ran away and started a romance with a prince, eventually becoming his third wife in the middle of the civil war.

In addition to all this, female nobles of Dunkelfelger also have a reputation for being very manipulative.

Noble children of Dunkelfelger are usually taught how to create their own feystone bodysuits before this is taught during the second year of the Royal Academy. Unlike in some other duchies, like Ehrenfest, where it is mostly knights who wear these them, in Dunkelfelger, it is common for all nobles to wear these bodysuits at all times, regardless of profession or location. This makes it unlikely to find any Dunkelfelger students in the feystone bodysuit creation class past the first day.

The majority of noble Dunkelfelger children wish to become knights. This percentage is so high that if all of them were allowed to do so, the duchy would be desperately short on attendant and scholars. To counter this, Dunkelfelger established an exam that lasts from the day of a child's baptism to their enrollment into the Royal Academy. Anyone who falls short of the strict requirements is forbidden from becoming a knight and has to choose another career path. Many of the students who tried and failed to pass this exam end up becoming what is known to Dunkelfelger nobles as attendants or scholars "of the sword". Usually these students favour the sword over the tools of their profession and keep training with the apprentice knights, in addition to their own courses. They also tend to be even more passionate about ditter than the actual apprentice knights. This practice results in attendants and scholars that are quite capable to double as guards should the proper knights be needed elsewhere.

One example of one of these scholars of the sword is Clarissa, who became a scholar after failing the exam due to being too small and physically weak.

Another result of this obsession with strength and warrior spirit is a great appreciation for ditter that sometimes crosses over well in the territory of outright obsession, with Professor Rauffen being a very good example of this.

This leads to practically every single knight of Dunkelfelger, as well as many other nobles who aren't tied down by duties in the duchy itself, to visit the Interduchy Tournament and the annual ditter tournament the event was named after in particular.

Dunkelfelger nobles have a much higher chance of obtaining the divine protection of not just Leidenschaft himself, but also some of his subordinate gods, most commonly Angriff, the god of war. It is tradition for Dunkelfelger knights to perform ritual dances and songs before ditter matches and after a victory to dedicate some of their mana to Leidenschaft and his subordinate gods. Only quite recently has it been rediscovered that these two things are in fact connected. That they more often and more earnestly pray to those gods increases the chances of students to obtain their divine protection.

Dunkelfelger buildings are generally purpose-built for functionality with few, if any, ornamentations and decorations. Even the archduke's own castle is near enough entirely bereft of decoration, consisting mostly of pure white walls with only the occasional bit of blue to show the duchy's colour. This style naturally extends to the Dunkelfelger dormitory in the Royal Academy, where only the rooms for meetings with other duchies were given a minimal amount of decoration, likely for diplomatic reasons.

According to a book written in Dunkelfelger itself, the duchy existed since the very founding of the country of Yurgenschmidt itself.

After the civil war in the Sovereignty, the territory of the Duchy of Werkerstock - located to Dunkelfelger's north - was split, with Ahrensbach being chosen to manage the northern half, while Dunkelfelger was put in charge of the southern half.

They currently hold the second place in the duchy rankings, being surpassed only by Klassenberg.

When Rauffen entered the Royal Academy, he singlehandedly improved the training program of apprentice knights, making the duchy into the dominating force in the ditter sport they are now. After his graduation, Rauffen became a professor at the Royal Academy.

Dunkelfelger has managed to keep this top spot ever since, except for the years during Ferdinand's term, in which they are decimated by his devious strategies.

Recently, they lost a match of Treasure Stealing Ditter against Ehrenfest to everyone's considerable surprise. Despite expectations, the majority of students from Dunkelfelger do not seem to begrudge Ehrenfest for this loss and are quite eager for a rematch, though Lestilaut's sister Hannelore would still like to apologize for her brother's rude behavior in the incident leading up to the match.


 * Cambridge Online Dictionary