History of Laconia

The city of Laconia is located on a sheltered harbor on the northern shore of Lake Maroo. It is an ancient city with some Temples and Pre-Empire buildings over 1500 years old. Since the Great Cataclysm it has become the commercial heart of the Empire. Rankar City is too new and the foreign traders prefer to do business with the families they have been dealing with for generations. Because of it's location and lack of pure blood Cameron rulers, the spells of destruction unleashed by Grimayre and his daughter Kylara had little direct effect upon the city. The City Guard was augmented immediately after the Great Cataclysm to destroy monsters coming south. Since then it is known as the County Guard. Several fortifications are located in the region to answer calls for help, and actively hunt what comes into their land. Some call for the Count or the King to cleanse the monster ruins of all that dwells there, but for now this policy of defending seems best for the army and guard. By patroling with large numbers they rarely sustain casualties. To attack the ruins would require a much larger army and definitely entail a huge loss of life. For now the status quo is maintained.

The rulers of Laconia are related to the Cameron family but not directly. This is because they are all 1/2 Elves. Over a thousand years ago, before the formation of the Empire, the heir to the Cameron Kingdom throne married an Elf. He renounced his title as was custom but his mother did not want to lose her son into the Kingdom of Elhalyn. She created a new title, the "Count of Laconia" and made large land grants and trade monopolies to accompany it. Thus the city of Laconia was established and flourished. Over the years when other nobles married into Elven Houses it was customary for them to move to Laconia and take up lands and titles there. This smoothed over social problems at upper levels and cemented alliances with the Kingdom of Elhalyn.

The current ruler, Count Ramon, is a distant cousin to King Turner. He is in his early sixties,still young for a 1/2 Elf, and has a fairly large family. Countess Lenore is also a 1/2 Elf and was first cousin to the Emperor before his death. She is known as a powerful scroceress.

After the Great Cataclysm, Grand Duchess Delilah moved to Laconia with her young son Tremain. During the attack of Kylara ten years later Delilah died but her 1/2 Elf son survived. Tremain was raised as a foster son of the Duke and lived in Laconia till he came of age. After visiting his kin in Elhalyn he returned to the area known as Shilea's Wood on the border between the two kingdoms of his parentage. He maintains Wizard's Keep on the end of Point Shilea. He holds titles from both royal houses and is often consulted on border and trade disputes.