Lorbex
In its over four centuries of independence, the Free City of Lorbex (Tearvin Lórbexnu Vâly Dzibâlt; Ebendian Uvol Łóubéc Džilalt) has sought to maximise its status as a leading city-state of a decentralised Holy Gilder Empire, becoming a bastion of merchants, adventurers and disgraced nobles who've sought their own paths at the expense - and often scorn - of the traditional ruling families of the Empire. With recent the outbreak of civil war and rise of wayward sects, Lorbex has openly supported the Sigswalder side of the escalating civil conflict in Kronach and the Estates Imperial, and secretly backed of the nationalist Gilderites movement in Cintenia and Janderstaff.
Lorbex is also a historic ally of the Duchy of Vottiwald, sharing its long-held rivalry with the ruling Zellendammens of the County Palatinate of Tachaw, whose monopolising ambitions have posed an endless threat to their trade networks across the Gloaming North and beyond.
History
Evidence of settlement on the local bend the River Ninebodt exists as far back as the 3rd millennium pre-Radiant Dawn, with written and archaeological evidence pointing to it being a captive's prison-town of Divine Asthuumry's House of Ashen Water, then named Lorbekis (Asthuumrian for "Black Bend"), and later as a stronghold of the descendant nation of Karbasig after the establishment of Great Altea.
Lorbekis was later seized upon by the Warlord Llatxela (later Tearvin-ised as Lachela) and his traitor contingent of Great Wolf-adherent Smokewaters by c. 240 PRD, forming the city-state of Lachela, with Lorbekis renamed Ninebodt. Ninebodt city would later be razed to the ground during the later wars between the banners of the Beast Gods in the century leading up to the founding of the Holy Gilder Empire under Béngwaz Alven.
The grounds of Ninebodt city were re-settled as the fishing village Lorbex in year 14 Radiant Dawn upon the bend of the river, where it rose rapidly as a frontier marketplace for the sale of loot and captives taken in the eastern anti-pagan crusades, becoming the economic capital of their suzerain Duchy of Bukholte and de-facto core trade node of the eastern Empire.
By the close of the third century RD, with the election of a second Karlaginer (Lambert) to the Silver Throne signalling Bukholte's clear shift away from expansionism and trade towards Imperial favour-currying, the leading merchants of Lorbex petitioned the College of Electors for Free City status, yet the machinations of the College of Electors and the highly ceremonial College of Cities stalled any meaningful reform. Come R.D. 298, after seventeen years of Lorbexan complaints, tension came to a head in an event that'd become known as the Defenestration of Lobrex, which, in an attempt to silence the "Loud Lorbites" once and for all, saw the guards of the College of Electors formally throw the Lorbexan representatives out the top windows of the Castle deny Taurou in Kronach.
Rather than be silenced, the population of Lorbex took up arms and declared themselves as the "Freeman's Republic of Lorbex", with its population of mercenaries and journeymen seeing no other place throughout the whole Empire to call home. The armies of the Duke responded swiftly, cutting Lorbex off from the world and laying it to siege. The Lorbexans had time on their side however, holed-up safe and secure behind the city's "double walls", a complex twin-ringed network of walls, towers, and earthworks built over generations by countless well-paid builders
Lorbex would remain under siege for the next two and a half years, extending beyond the death of Duke Lambert and the ascension of his son Lahald as Duke of Bukholte, who continued the siege in his father's name. Five months into the reign of the new Emperor however, things took a dramatic and favourable change; Duke Herman of Votti - a similarly-minded head of a national trade empire in the northern coastal Duchy of Vottiwald - sought to pay off his debts after successfully buying himself the title of Emperor through numerous bribes, with the Lorbex situation eventually catching his attention. In exchange for a sum of one hundred Mancus and the promise of future tax payments befitting the city's gross domestic product, Emperor Votti intervened into the siege, forcibly declaring a white peace and granting the Freeman's Republic free city status.
Following its independence in 300 R.D., Lorbex has continued to thrive as the penultimate free city of the Holy Gilder Empire, second only in cultural and financial prowess to Kronach.
Following the Child Emperor's alleged kidnapping Lorbex has supported the rightful Emperor Rupert V Alven, trusting House Alven to ensure the independence of the free cities, while seeing the maverick outlier of Gairovald and unitary ambitions of Ebendia as clear threats to their continued independence.
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