Kamrpol

Kamrpol is a small city in the mountainous area in the southeast of the Kingdom of Groteron. The leader, also the holder of the title of the Lord of Kamrpol, is elected among the heads of powerful families in Kamrpol. Most of these families are merchants or landlords in and around Kamrpol, and almost all of them are descendants of the first human settlers in the region.

Once elected, the Lord of Kamrpol serves for life. An election usually takes place no more then three months after a lord dies. The election system, while entirely in control of the powerful families, avoids dramas surrounding successions commonly seen in other realms. The system is respected by all the powerful families, and the Lord of Kamrpol has to attend regular meetings of the family heads and listen to their counsel. Constant monitoring from the board of family heads prevents a single family from becoming too strong, contributing to the stability of the system, since no single family is strong enough to take the chair of the lord by themselves.

The Family of Gustav
The Gustavs is one of the powerful families in Kamrpol. In the year of 435, its head, Vasa Gustav was elected as the Lord of Kamrpol at the age of 38. She was the first woman to become a Lady of Kamrpol, although female rulers are not uncommon in the Kingdom of Groteron.

Vasa Gustav's rule was known to be peaceful. The Succession Wars had ended six years before her rule and Groteron had been largely intact from the wars. Vasa Gustav still used the ending of the Succession Wars as the excuse to disband most of the city guards, downsizing it from a total of 400 personnel to a size of 100. Vasa Gustav granted the disbanded soldiers the right to farm in the outskirt of the Kamrpol region leading to a population growth of Kamrpol. She also promoted basic education for the farmers and the soldiers.

Alongside the disbanding of the city guards, Vasa Gustav set up a personal guard of no more than 10 people to the Lord of Kamrpol. These bodyguards receive special training and serve as agents directly under the lord.

Vasa Gustav died in the year of 449 at the age of 52. In a rare exception to the tradition, the board of family heads elected Vasa's son, Charles Gustav as the Lord of Kamrpol. Charles Gustav was 22 at the time. In the final years of Vasa Gustav she had been sick and bedridden most of the time, so Charles Gustav attended the meeting of the family heads in representation of his mother. Charles Gustav had won the respect of the family heads and was thus elected with an overwhelming consensus.

Charles Gustav set up a court with open sessions chaired by himself, promising the residents of Kamrpol a rule of just laws. Charles Gustav worked with several other young leaders from the board of family heads to codify new legal rules. The most notable four of the young leaders, including Charles Gustav himself, Charles Sigmund from the family of Sigmund, Margrethe Frederick from the family of Frederick, and Olaf Hanson Atterdag from the family of Atterdag, were fondly nicknamed by the people of Kamrpol as the Quartet. The codified laws, known as the Codes of Kamrpol, were first made public in the year of 470, consisting of a total of three chapters and 142 laws. These laws codify the process of election of the Lord of Kamrpol and govern everyday matters including inheritance and marriage.

Princess Lana and Her Daughter, Mithrellas
Lana Gustav was Vasa Gustav’s second child and the younger sister of Charles Gustav. Lana was born in 442, in a childbirth complication which almost cost Vasa Gustav’s life. Both the mother and the daughter survived the medical complication, but Vasa has since suffered from longterm sickness. Lana, born when her mother was at a surprising age of 45, had not been a healthy child growing up. She was said to have inherited kindness from her mother, and she stood out with her slender body build and transparently pale to pink skin tone. She was often said to be the most beautiful person ever born in Kamrpol. After her mother passed away when she was just 9 years old, Lana turned her love for her mother to the people of Kamrpol. She would often visit farmers in the outskirt of Kamrpol by herself and even sat down at dinner with the farmers sometimes. In return, Lana was loved by the people of Kamrpol and was affectionately nicknamed “Princess Lana.”

Feeling a responsibility for the people of Kamrpol, Lana had never considered getting married and turned down proposals from other powerful families in Kamrpol, until a diplomatic mission from the Kingdom of Londar passed by Kamrpol on their way back from the capital city Nysgrad, in the year of 471. Lana was said to fall in love at first sight when she saw the chief diplomat of the elven mission, Luthien, at the banquet her brother, Charles, held for the diplomats. Lana got married with Luthien three days after she and Luthien first met. She then moved to Osh Elethiel with Luthien after a wedding where everyone living in the Kamrpol area was invited, including the poorest and the least privileged.

As a rare exception in the relation between elves and humans, Lana was welcome warmly and loved by the elves in Osh Elethiel. Lana gave birth to Mithrellas in the year of 473 in Osh Elethiel. Her health deteriorated soon after Mithrellas’s birth, and she passed away in the following year. An elvish funeral was held for Lana, again in a rare exception for a human living in the elven realm. Mithrellas is thus raised by her elvish relatives on the paternal side, especially since Luthien, being a diplomat, had to travel outside the Kingdom of Londar quite often.

Mithrellas received the news of her uncle, Charle Gustav’s death when she was 8 (year of 481). At the time, Mithrellas did not feel much about the death of an uncle she has never met. Her elven relatives, while taking a like in Lana, did not want to interfere in human’s matters, per tradition of the elves. According to the initial report Mithrellas received, Charles Gustav was murdered by one of his body guards who’s a tiefling. Given the bad relationship between most humans and their tiefling neighbors, it was not surprising.

One day in the year of 487 when Luthien was on a mission abroad as the tension between the younger realms escalated on the eve of the Silkstone War, Mithrellas accidentally walked into Luthien’s study and saw reports about the death of Charles Gustav piled in an unusual wooden box decorated in human styles. Mithrellas learned that Charles Gustav was likely murdered by one of his political opponents in Kamrpol, with the help of a sorcerer. Mithrellas also learned that the tiefling body guard was a scape goat. At the bottom of the box, Mithrellas then found a few dozens of letters addressed to her mother, Lana, signed by Charles Gustav. Mithrellas couldn’t stop reading the letters until she broke into tears. The love between the brother and the sister was more than obvious in those letters. Mithrellas felt that she has finally got to meet her mother after all these years, and she secretly made up her mind to sort things out for Charles Gustav.

The Family of Sigmund
Charles Sigmund was elected the Lord of Kamrpol after Charles Gustav was found dead after he was attacked in a tavern in the year of 481, when Charles Sigmund was 49. His rule of Kamrpol marked a shift from the Gustavs' rule and has been known for a drive to centralize power and the tightening of the laws. Under his supervision, the Codes of Kamrpol grew into two separate parts, known by their titles as the Crimes of Kamrpol and the Civility of Kamrpol. There are a total of 16 chapters and 1,204 laws in both parts of the Codes of Kamrpol, and the array of legal penalties also grew from just sentences served in prison and death by hanging to a full array of torturing including whipping, cutting of flesh, boiling to death, and dismemberment.

Kamrpol continues to grow in both population and wealth. The population of Kamrpol and its surrounding area grew from 15,000 at the beginning of Vasa Gustav's rule to 55,000. Charles Sigmund promotes trading, especially with Nysgrad, the capital of the Kingdom of Groteron. Charles Sigmund also expanded the city guards to a total of 3,500 personnel, the largest in the history of Kamrpol.