The Definitive Country Almanac: The Lesser Crowns — Part 2#

Kethra Almanac • Approved 19 September 2026 • drafted 18 September 2026 • Sections 5–8 (Sections 1–4 are in Part 1)

Status: approved. Briana approved the whole almanac on 19 September 2026 (the Almanac Approval Decision). Where this file calls something a proposal, read it as approved, except the open points that decision lists.

Status before approval: proposal throughout, except what Part 1 lists as established in earlier files: seven small states, 128 million people, Assembly members, bound to the Crown by the Stair Accord (AL 2032).

Section 5: Government, Law & Politics#

Constitutional Framework#

The Lesser Crowns have no shared constitution. What binds them is a treaty, the Stair Accord of AL 2032, signed at Arvenmouth by the seven and the Caldren Crown.

(Articles VIII, X and XI deal with fisheries, the post and weights and measures.)

How the Council decides:

• Unanimity for treaties, defence and admitting a member.
• Five of seven for trade and the common budget.
• The Speaker rotates every year by seniority: Arvenne, Pellmoor, Sallow, Cordale, Hastholm, Ormsby, Brightwick. The first Speaker was Arvenne's, in AL 2033. In AL 2314 it is President Liz Hale of Pellmoor; Sallow follows in 2315.
• The Stair Accord Secretariat in Arvenne employs about 4,200 people under the Secretary of the Stair, Anselm Cray (a Cordalese diplomat, in office since 2309).

The Seven States#

Each state is fully sovereign. These profiles are the administrative divisions of the bloc.

Kingdom of Arvenne#

Principality of Cordale#

Pellmoor Republic#

Duchy of Hastholm#

Kingdom of Sallow#

Northern Kingdom of Ormsby#

Free City of Brightwick#

Where the Seven stand, AL 2314#

Defence under Article IX needs unanimity, so a single state can stop the Shield Clause. As of AL 2314 it cannot pass.

The Judiciary#

• Each state has its own courts and law. Arvenne, Cordale and Brightwick use written codes modelled on the Crown's; Pellmoor's code is the Labour Code of 1911 grown into a full civil code; Hastholm, Sallow and Ormsby keep old customary law beside modern statute.
• The Stair Court, Brightwick: seven judges, one from each state, plus a Crown judge for disputes that involve the Crown. It hears trade, movement and Accord cases. Its rulings bind all eight.
• Death penalty: abolished in all seven. Hastholm was the last, in AL 2240.
• Exile across the Line, which the Crown ended in 1811, was never used by the Seven; they simply sent convicts to the Crown's ships.

Foreign Relations & Defence#

Memberships#

• The Homeworld Assembly: all seven, as founding members (seven of 15 votes). Voting together, the Seven are the Assembly's largest bloc, and they know it.
• The Stair Accord: the seven and the Crown.
• The Frame Accord: all seven.

Relations#

Defence#

Combined defence budget: about Cr 75.5 billion, 1.9% of the Seven's GDP. The Crown spends 2.4%; the Imperium about 6.5%.

Doctrine. Hold the Stair until the Crown arrives. The Seven plan to delay, not to win. The Shield Clause debate is about whether the Crown should be there already.

Section 6: Economy, Infrastructure & Industry#

Macroeconomics#

Working. Population × GDP per head: 31 × 30,500 + 22 × 44,000 + 19 × 26,000 + 17 × 24,000 + 16 × 29,000 + 14 × 22,000 + 9 × 48,000 = Cr 4,019.5 billion.

Key Industries#

Finance & Banking#

• The crown (Cr), issued by the Bank of Aletheia, is the currency of six states.
• The Cordale ducat, issued by the Bank of Cordale, is pegged at 1 ducat = Cr 1.20. The peg has held since AL 2032, through the war.
• The Brightwick Exchange is the Seven's stock market.
• The Accord Fund in Arvenne pays for joint projects and the Frame Company from a 0.5% share of customs revenue.

Infrastructure#

Communications#

• Stair Broadcasting: a joint public broadcaster founded in 2040, in every Stair-side dialect.
• Newspapers: the Serell Ledger (Cordale; finance and shipping), the Pit Lamp (Pellmoor; labour), the Arvenne Courant (court and society), the Brightwick Crier.
• The Seven share the Crown's data networks under the Accord.

Section 7: Culture, Arts & Daily Life#

Holidays & Celebrations#

Culinary Traditions#

The Seven follow the same kitchen rules as the Crown: Earthkin food at the centre, the Wild-press kept apart, and nothing wasted. The Lean Years made the last rule stricter here.

Arts & Literature#

• Brightwick indigo glass: windows, lamps, and the Guildhall's Great Window (1520), showing the Brightwick Forty.
• Pellmoor brass bands and miners' choirs. Every pit had a band.
• Sallow's Mere Choirs and reed-paper books.
• The Long Night painters of Ormsby: landscapes in red and black.
• Arvennish tapestry, woven from Arven wool.
• Literature:
  • The Serell Convoys, Oriel Dace's memoir of 2284, a set text in every school of the Seven;
  • Lesser, a verse cycle by the Arvennish poet Maelle Garside (2071) on the Treaty of Hollowby;
  • The Pit Lamp Stories, a century of Pellmoorish short fiction first printed in the newspaper.

Sports & Recreation#

The Assembly Games. Competing separately, the Seven win more medals together than the Crown, a fact recalculated after every Games by every Stair-side newspaper.

Social Norms & Etiquette#

• Name the state, not the bloc. Calling a Pellmoorish woman "Lesser" is an insult; calling her "Stair-side" is friendly; calling her "Pellmoorish" is correct.
• Precedence matters. At any gathering of the Seven, Sallow's representative sits first (the Captain) and Arvenne's second (the eldest crown). Getting it wrong is noticed.
• Monarchs are addressed plainly. "Queen Clemence", not titles upon titles. Only Hastholm insists on "Your Grace".
• In Pellmoor, everyone is "citizen" in formal speech, including visiting royalty.
• Debts are sacred in Cordale, and forgiving one is an insult: it says the debtor could never pay.
• Lean Day manners. Never refuse bread in a Stair-side home.

Section 8: Appendices & Reference Materials#

Statistical Tables#

Gazetteer#

Every place below is in the interactive Atlas. The generated Register of the Lesser Crowns lists them with coordinates.

Bibliography#

In-world sources#

• The Stair Accord, with commentary (Stair Accord Secretariat, AL 2032, revised 2309)
• Oriel Dace, The Serell Convoys (Port Serell, AL 2289)
• The Rolls of Hollowby (Crown heralds, AL 1242)
• Maren Pryce, Proclamation of the Republic (Grimholt, AL 1788)
• Annual Returns of the Brightwick Exchange (AL 2313)
• Maelle Garside, Lesser (Arvenne, AL 2071)

Development sources#

• 00 - Spine and Status
• 08 - The Caldren Crown, Part 1 and Part 2
• 10 - Who's Who, First Colonial War
• Register of the Lesser Crowns (generated from the Atlas)
• Almanac structure supplied by Briana.

Guidance for AI actors#

• A Stair-side character names their own state first. They say "I'm from Sallow", not "I'm from the Lesser Crowns".
• The Shield Clause is the argument of AL 2314. Every politically aware character has a view on it, and it follows their state (see the table in Section 5).
• The Lean Years are living memory. Anyone over about 30 remembers hunger. Anyone born 2284–2290 is "lean-born".
• Who's Who says the Seven fear "being the battlefield". That fear is the thread through everything here: it is why Hastholm wants an army, Arvenne wants the Crown's garrisons, and Pellmoor wants neither.
• This almanac is approved. Briana approved the whole almanac on 19 September 2026 (the Almanac Approval Decision).