Winter's Deep

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Winter's Deep is the northern coastal province of Talinie. Culkein and Stromness are major settlements. Alister Matheson is the Earl of Winter's Deep. Carissa Castamona is Lady of Stromness. William Donalls is the Lord of Culkein.
Before the founding of Talinie as a realm, Jarod Dannis was the count of Winter's Deep. Even after he unified Talinie, he remained Count of Winter's Deep, as did his son, Edrand I. However, when Edrand I died, the county was given to Edrand's second son, Alister Dannis. The county has remained in this collateral line, though when Countess Ainslie Dannis married Arthur Matheson, the name of the counts have been Matheson.

Storm Holtson's puppet, Anphelan Halloravant and his Fellowship of the Miners and Sawyers control the trade in Winter's Deep. Caitrìona Burgess runs the provincial affairs of the Fellowship. Caitrìona has put Guildmaster Anphelan in a difficult position by her contacts with Larra Nielems of the Northern Reformed Church of Sarimie. The Hierarch of the Northern Imperial Temple, Torias Griene has imposed a policy of intolerance of other faiths. If the Fellowship were to be identified as a bastion of Sarimie or a threat of temple holdings of the Northern Reformed Church, the Fellowship itself would lose support of the Thane and Supreme Hierarch, Thuriene Donalls.
This situation is complicated by the fact that only two temple holdings in Winter's Deep are contolled by Thuriene Donalls. While the lost holding is a temple of Haelyn which could not accept Torias Griene, it creates an opening for the aggressive and well funded Larra Nielems to expand her reach.
Thuriene Donalls also holds only two of the possible three law holdings in Winter's Deep, making her capital province particularly vulnerable. Under the influence of Torias Griene, Thuriene has pursued a policy of total control, seeking to be the only law and temple holder (excepting her nominal overlord, Archduke Aeric Boeruine) and to exercise control over who may and may not be a guilder in Talinie. However, her inflexible policies and something of a absolutist political theory has created resistance to her achieving such control, even among people who would otherwise support her as Thane or Supreme Hierarch.