Brackish and Its Political Ties

Brackish and its closest three neighbors (2 down the coast, 1 more of a logging camp to the southwest) comprise a small fiefdom named after its keep, Meltwave. This fiefdom is one of the several non-contiguous ones ruled by an Earl who does not pay much attention to it. He came from there, but only visits twice a year, leaving the region to be administered by his castellan otherwise. It is not a high-income region, and most of its reasonably taxable income is required in order to protect the marches of the region with foresters and troops and such. Ever since this now-Earl got ambition though only the bare minimum of funds are left for the fiefdom to take care of itself. He siphons off the rest of the money in order to further his political career elsewhere, leaving the place to fend for itself for the most part. There are only enough troops to effectively guard the keep down the coast, although they do occasionally do cursory patrols up the coast. The taxes are not ridiculously onerous however, because the Earl is smart enough to know that such actions can breed discontent, and discontent would mean that he has to devote more attention to this backwater that should only exist to fill his pockets. The fiefdom is ruled from Meltwave Keep which is the biggest of the coastal villages in the region, from which the family gets its name by the Castellan, who is an older knight of decent renown. This posting serves a variety of purposes for the Earl, who can reward a trusted soldier a bit past his prime (looking good to everybody that way) and have a man in place who he can trust not only to not rip him off to an exorbitant degree, but also to be solid boots on the ground if some worst-case doomsday scenario were to come pouring out of The Shifting Moutains.