The Green Baronies

The Green Baronies, three domains that each contain one ruling city, rule the fertile and wealthy Saltplains. They owe fealty to the the Tower of Five and pay Middlish taxes but are also granted broad trade and customs subsidies when trading with the five capitals of the Middle Lands . The domains of the Green Baronies are called Ortraud, Goswin, and Dietgard, and each have a same named castle capital. Ortraud used to be a magus tower called Ornburg, which was owned by the grand magus Volkner von Horvath. Ornburg had been erected in the decades that lead up to the First Invasion, which kicked off the Great War, though von Horvath had no idea that the Nordmen were planning an attack. He had been concerned with Yamato aggressions against the eastern Saltplains and decided to move his research base from the northern Saltplains up here to the East. After von Horvath perished during the Great War, his descendants took over his holdings and constructed a hamlet around Ornburg, turning it into the barony of Ortraud. Goswin has historically been ruled by the Goswin family during the Age of Awakening, but was taken over by the Staufers in the latter Age of Heroes, after a bloody intrigue called "the Night of the Withered Green", and Dietgard has historically been ruled by the Dietgard family in the latter centuries of the Age of the Iron Divide and was conquered by Yamato forces during the Age of Awakening, only to be taken back by the Riedengrass family, which still rules it today.
— From the Aqualon Grand World Atlas, 2nd Edition