Saddleglader Ideas

Traditions
+5% All Estates' Loyalty Equilibrium
+25% National Supply Limit Modifier

Crimson Scions, Crimson BannerSaddleglade was the heartland of multiple rebellions against Ioriel during her time as regent of Lorent, frequently using a solid red banner with an orange sun.\n\nThe orange sun references the hope of a new dawn for the Entebenic people, free of Lorent, as well as playfully nodding at the distinctive ginger hair that has long fascinated other Lencori.\n\nThe red represents the blood of fallen heroes and all those slain who have given their lives before and will do so again. This blood eventually came to be seen as stained in tragedy, after the last of the rebellions that rose up behind the Crimson Banner were defeated and destroyed.
-1% Yearly Army Tradition Decay

The Most Venerable of CattleSaddleglade is home to one of the oldest continuous annual cattle markets in Lencenor; people have gathered here to trade breeding stock and show off since Lorenan’s time. The prominence and longevity of this market has ensured that the local Caylenstead breed of cow is seen as a synonym for good quality steak, and as a result Saddleglade has long received visiting culinary students hoping to experiment with the different breeds that farmers have spent multiple lifetimes cultivating.\n\nWhen the síl Rubenaire came to inherit the county, they took the Cattle Festival of Caylenstead and linked it to the ancestral wine for which the Winelords had been known. To this end, the practice of pairing Caylenstead beef with the most prestigious Rubenaire Red gained popularity across the courts of the Lorentish aristocracy and has never truly waned as a pairing since.
+10% Goods Produced Modifier

The Horselord's HorticultureSaddlegladers were said to be some of the best of the Lencori at cultivating the grass needed for grazing; their knowledge of these techniques was passed down from when the Entebenic peoples of old maintained great cavalry forces. While chroniclers often focused on the might of these great armies, the stories of how to keep such great hosts in the field went untold outside of the Entebenic peoples themselves, for their enemies only saw the might and not the rearing of their majestic mounts.\n\nOf these stories, the most popular amongst Saddlegladers are the old folk tales speaking of the thief Marissa, who gambled off the fey the luck of a good harvest and blessed her community with this chicanery. Whether by this legendary stolen fey luck or by deep cultivation, the lands of Saddeglade have in recorded memory never suffered from a truly lean harvest; as a result, great hosts of horses have been consistently drawn from the County. Even newcomers seem to gain this blessing, adding to the providential nature of the Saddleglades.
-20% Cavalry Cost

The DulhallanSaddlegladers traditionally have their head separated from the body and go on one last ride with their lead pallbearer through their hometown, before being buried separately in their own graveyards. It’s not well documented but widely believed that this last ride is connected to Trovecos of the ancient Eidoueni pantheon, the previous Lencori god of the dead, with the pallbearers symbolically taking up his role, standing in for his place as guide for lost souls. \n\nThe cultural legacy of this practice made the Saddleglades a popular setting for horror and romantic horror fiction as those genres came into prominence in the seventeenth century. Authors looked for the most rural places to have their characters get lost in and the Saddleglades became a place so associated with death that the term ‘Saddlegrave’ was coined,used to refer to an eerie place where death and necromancy might be just beneath the soil. Even as the County became a more peaceful place alongside Lencenor as a whole, the practice of the Dulhallan as the lead pallbearer remained even after it ceased being a place where the fighting occurred.
+2 Tolerance of the True Faith

A Fivefold Vow‘This venerable seat of majesty\nThis soil of bounty, place of rich reward\nThis fortress built by Nature for herself\nAgainst infection and the hand of war,\nThis happy breed of men, this little world,\nThis precious sanctum set in verdant growth\nWhich serves it in the office of a wall,\nOr as a moat defensive to a house,\nAgainst the envy of less happy lands,\nThis blessed plot, this earth, this Saddleglade’\n\nThe opening lines of the vow given by Vincen Bloodfields as part of his investment as Count of Saddleglade after the extinction of the sil Aer family. Declaimed in the iambic pentameter held to originate in the county, otherwise colloquially known either as the Steps of Caylen or Saddlespeak, after the way in which sounds are stressed and unstressed - first codified in 1257.
-15% Stability Cost Modifier

The Arthelis OakThe Arthelis dynasty were a cadet branch of the royal Enteba dynasty, their claim to stewardship tied to their oath to personally maintain the oldest tree of the glades with each new generation. As the centuries of their reign passed, it came to be believed that the Arthelis Oak would sway in the times of the greatest turmoil, when the order of things threatened to be upended.\n\nWhen the Arthelis dynasty was deposed for their role in the rebellions against Ioriel, the Arthelis Oak outlived the family for which it was named. The tree remains to this day, a site of regular pilgrimage which sees visits from regional nobility who come to pay their respects to the guardian of this land, in the hope it might bless them as it was said to bless the Arthelis. The tree in particular has a penchant for attracting would be rebel leaders; the Wine Lords were said to have sent their generals to sleep beneath its shade for a night as part of their initiation during the Lencori theatre of the Lilac Wars.
-10% Leader Cost

Elethar the LastThe sil Aer dynasty came to rule the County of Saddleglade after the deposition of the Arthelis. It came about as a union between the elven general Elethar and the last heiress of the Arthelis, as a reward for the former’s service to Ioriel and to lend a fig leaf of legitimacy to the new order laid down after the end of the rebellions.\n\nIt was said that Elethar’s relationship with his wife and her land was initially strained, but that as the years went on the relationship became more loving. Her passing led to his withdrawal from public life for decades on end as his descendants ruled and he mourned his lost wife. He eventually took to roaming the County, returning only to give occasional guidance and support to his half-elven scions as best he could. In the end though, the once-soldier would outlive not only his children but his dynasty, earning the tragic epithet Elethar the Last. He would disappear from the records after appearing only once to confirm the legitimacy of the Rubenaire inheritance.
-1% Prestige Decay

Ambition
+15% Reinforce Speed