House Mardas

House Mardas holds the Duchy of the Great Green, an archipelago in the eastern Encircled Sea. Its head is Duke Evander Mardas. It counts House Regas among its vassals.

History
The settlements of the islands of the Great Green are reckoned to be some of the oldest in eastern Elthos, though they have not been permanently settled, and most have been rebuilt twice over, in the wake of both the First and Second Greytides. When the Third Greytide came, the people of the Great Green, apparently to a person, fled to Sanctuary, and ever since, have felt a strong kinship with the people of Sanctuary. This abiding sentiment has led to the cities of the Great Green, although part of Dyria since its formation, to be unusually supportive of the empire.

The Great Green has a strong maritime tradition. It has depended on this over the centuries, as the key to supplying its various islands, none of which are self-sufficient, and to protect it from invasion. Ships flying the flags of House Mardas and its vassals are a common sight across the Encircled Sea.

House Mardas joined the coalition which saw House Kournis take power in Dyria.

Since the late-620s, republican sentiment has developed in the Great Green. The ideas are partly homegrown, but partly also stem from the contact merchants have had with the people of the Grand Republic of Thasen - notwithstanding that Thasen is in fact more limiting of its burghers than most places in the empire, the kernel of the idea was found there. House Mardas has so far dissuaded it in its direct holdings, but not eradicated it entirely. However, a number of its vassal houses find themselves swayed by the prospect of ceding power and rights to the burghers in exchange for financial compensation. Most recently, in late 631, a minor vassal, Gialmas, granted permanent positions in its governmental structure to burghers in exchange for handsome payments which extricated Gialmas from debt it had found itself in. Such an arrangement is quite unheard of in Dyria and has caused consternation among its nobility. House Mardas is considering what action to take.

Holdings
House Mardas' seat of power is in Cyrene, the largest of the islands of the Great Green. The harbour in Cyrene is remarkably capacious, being both a trading hub and a naval base, though the city's shipyards are focused mostly on maintaining ships rather than building them - new vessels are more often purchased from places with better access to wood. The island of Cyrene is largely given over to growing as many crops as can fit, with the city tucked away on its western edge.

As a land-based house might have a number of smaller holdings, so too does House Mardas, spread out over a few smaller islands which it controls directly, while the remainder of the Great Green is parcelled out to its vassals.

The name "The Great Green" derives from the term Dyrian mariners use for the sea.

Current Events
The wave of republican sentiment is by far the greatest concern for House Mardas just now. Although it has not gained that much traction in Cyrene, the holdings of its vassal, House Gialmas, are now governed by a de facto plutocracy, rather than the noble lines which are the norm in Dyria. Some in House Mardas are concerned that this might encourage others to follow suit. Views on how to address the problem are mixed. The news has not been well received by House Kournis, which is very keen indeed to see the republicanism dealt with. Indeed, it is unlikely to find support from nobility anywhere in the empire. Even the Grand Republic of Thasen is unlikely to be a source of support, being that its burghers outside of the established plutocracy are actually among the most restricted in the entirety of the empire.