Eric read the politics correctly: Alastair's claim to his own duchy was fragile at best, fraudulent at worst.
The king had already turned the ownership into a contest because Alastair had stopped acting like a duke and started acting like an absentee captain, willing to throw men at border wars while ignoring the rot inside his own lands.
For generations, Greenvale had tolerated monsters and criminal nests within its borders because Alastair and his ancestors treated their banners as tools for the frontier, not instruments of internal order.
To them, it was fine to lose some citizens. It was okay to have an entire town become a criminal den or overrun by monsters.
The Sustaining Arm, consisting of the three non-frontal duchies, namely: Silverwind, Thornhollow, and Duskmere, was tasked with sending resources to help the two frontal duchies, Greenvale and Ravenshade.
