Ehrenfest (Duchy)



The Duchy of Ehrenfest is a region on the eastern edge of the Kingdom of Yurgenschmidt. It is currently governed by Sylvester as 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

The duchy of Ehrenfests 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
 * Wilford

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.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 4 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.