View source for Pelervar/Western Marches

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Western Marches}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Western Marches}}
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; width:23em; margin:0 0 1em 1.5em; font-size:90%;"
|+ The Western Marches
|-
! style="text-align:left; white-space:nowrap;" | Type
| [[Pelervar/Membership Tiers of the Free Cities|Chartered Region]]
|-
! style="text-align:left; white-space:nowrap;" | Regional centre
| [[Pelervar/Ashford|Ashford]]
|-
! style="text-align:left; white-space:nowrap;" | Ruler
| [[Pelervar/Principal of the Western Marches|Principal of the Western Marches]]
|-
! style="text-align:left; white-space:nowrap;" | Population
| Mostly human, with mixed and foreign communities
|-
! style="text-align:left; white-space:nowrap;" | Threat
| Red-sailed raiders from the western sea
|}
The '''Western Marches''' are the western frontier of the [[Pelervar/Council of the Free Cities|Free Cities]], a region of farms, frontier roads, ruins, and shrinking settlements, with [[Pelervar/Ashford|Ashford]] as its regional centre.

== The Raids ==
About five years ago, raiders began to come out of the western sea in ships with deep red sails, speaking a tongue no one in the region has been able to place. They are not wanton: they do not burn or destroy without need. They land, they pillage, they take captives back with them across the sea, and they withdraw — and then, months or even years later, they may return to the same place and do it again. Against an enemy that cannot be spoken to and always slips back beyond reach, the Marches have steadily lost ground. Settlement after settlement has been abandoned.

== Government ==
The Marches are governed as a [[Pelervar/Membership Tiers of the Free Cities|chartered region]] under the [[Pelervar/Principal of the Western Marches|Principal of the Western Marches]], elected by the registered citizens of the region's recognised settlements and confirmed by the Council. The crisis has hollowed out much of what the Principal once oversaw, but the office endures and its authority over the region as a whole remains real, if diminished. Ruins, abandoned lands, and powers beyond the chartered settlements lie outside Free Cities authority altogether.

== Westwatch ==
'''Westwatch''' is a ruined town of the Marches, lost to the raids and now standing within sight of [[Pelervar/Ashford|Ashford]] — a visible measure of how far the frontier has fallen.

[[Category:Pelervar/Regions]]
[[Category:Pelervar/Free Cities Region]]