House Salfeld

House Salfeld is a ducal house in the western part of the Imperial Territories. Its current head is Duke Gerald Salfeld.

History
House Salfeld has been a long-time vassal of the empire. It claims to have roots extending to before the foundation of Sanctuary, and that its members were among the first followers of the First King. Recorded evidence is scant, but the tradition is long accepted anyway. Salfeld has always been a stalwart supporter of the concept of the empire, if not necessarily a backer of individual rulers. Salfeld has a long tradition of seeking marital ties with houses both within and beyond the empire, which has been compounded by the fact that it therefore has relatives in foreign houses who proceed to recommend ties with Salfeld - and so it goes. Various new houses have split from Salfeld over the years and some members of the house claim that half the houses in the Imperial Territories were Salfeld, once upon a time.

In the year 615, the ruler of the Duchy of Greenwood in the Realm of Intis, to the west of the Empire of Adana, died without any apparent successor. The question of who should rule Greenwood went unresolved for two years, until the young Count Gerald Salfeld asserted that one of its members had a valid claim to the land and began to assemble allies within the Empire, including House Zebdel, which sent soldiers to honour a long-standing pact of friendship with the Salfelds, accompanied by soldiers from House Petrakis; House Corti, in exchange for extensive mercantile concessions, with House Corti to have expansive rights to purchase many Greenwood resources at low prices for twenty years; and House Lindner, apparently embarking on the campaign just for the sake of doing so.

A brief military expedition followed wherein Salfeld seized the castle of Wright's Rest in Greenwood. The Crown of Intis, a weak institution at that time, was lethargic about reacting, and the then Queen Filma Muhl was reportedly surprised that a young imperial count had taken land from her realm. Some remonstrations from Intisi diplomats in Sanctuary followed, but in the end, the matter fell to the wayside, unresolved.

Salfeld has been deliberate in its approach to the administration of Greenwood, replanting trees in places where they had previously been clearcut, and has methodically paced other logging operations.

Holdings
The largest holding of House Salfeld is the Duchy of Greenwood, centered around the castle town of Wright's Rest, built on the banks of the River Reuss, which, farther downriver, passes through the holdings of House Gabel. While the duchy only came into the control of House Salfeld in 617, having been taken from the Realm of Intis, the Imperial Territories west of the Encircled Sea and Intis share the same Adanan culture, and the transition of power has been smooth. Greenwood provides some of the finest timber for construction work on the continent, but it comes in just limited quantities, with House Salfeld having scaled back on logging operations compared with its previous rulers. Despite the name Greenwood, a substantial part of the duchy is in fact farmland of generally passable quality, along the upper reaches of the Reuss.

House Salfeld's other major holding is the County of South Valley, along the banks of the Ineth, a tributary to the Ada, which has its source far to the south - the waterway is shared with the northern reaches of House Gabel's county of the Plain Between and with House Lindner's county of Inethmeet, among others. The county is largely typical of the whole Ada Basin - farmland interspersed with small settlements. The castle town at its heart, Inethmark, has some particularly old fortifications, which have sprawled over time with various additions over the centuries, though nothing about the fortifications is actually that remarkable, and maintaining them is a significant ongoing expense, to the point that certain sections, deemed extraneous, are left to fall into disrepair.

Current Events
House Salfeld is rather preoccupied with solidifying its rulership of Greenwood and ensuring that the duchy does not fall away from imperial rule as quickly as they brought it in. Its most pressing concern is not the Realm of Intis itself but rather the aggressively expansionist Dominion of Rin. Although the empire shares no border with Rin, should the dominion invade Intis, Greenwood is farther west than any other imperial land and might be next in line. Salfeld has been left treading a line where it wants the empire to be prepared to face Rin, while also having to deal with the fact that one obvious way to do so would be to bolster Intis, which it invaded, and which still nurses bitter memories of the invasion of imperial houses, and is loath to accept their aid.