Chapter 2: Family Ties: Leash of Settlement
"... the highly restrictive nature of dynastic practices employed by the 4 princely clans, is understood to have greatly impeded the resettlement of Dogland... birth and death records kept by the Clerical Order of Barksva, put the population growth rate at ~15%... "
" as a direct consequence famine and disease were extremely common... often the supply of food being produced in the hinterlands could not sustain the explosive population of colonial cities...
"Given the hard task of resettlement, the use of familial bonds to keep citizens and aristocrats from leaving their cities was extremely counterproductive and irresponsible."
"each settlement was filled to bursting with irate citizens and anxious young nobles who often felt threatened by the desperation of their subjects... however the close quartered nature of this period of settlement meant that the ascendant young heirs would always be within the controlling influence of their family patriarchs, who insisted on building and maintaining their power base within the confines of their cities only."
Chapter 4: Love affairs and Secret Alliances.
"By the year 958 Prince Helicksi Mastadund Barksva had developed a complex network of contacts and drop off points along the waterways of the Kibl' River... By granting special secret privileges and trade rights to the fisherdogs that navigated it he oversaw the coalescence of secret order of peasant dogs who illegally transported noble sons and dughters, anxious to see the world outside the watchful gaze of their parents, and engage in the emergent culture of Forbidden Romancepopular in Corvid poetry at the time... Eventually these ferrydogs were called The Fae coming from the Cowish tradition of "Faeries", mythical creatures known to steal young calfs from their familes to eat them...
"The consequence of these special trade rights granted by Helicksi, caused a change in what is now Barksva. Accounts abound from Clerics and Nobles about the finer cuts of meat and finest clothes, becoming less accessible to the aristocracy and clergy and completely unavailable to wealthy artisans, as a result of ostentatious fisherdogs...
Fearing retaliatio... fisherdog families, began to petition the Prince for the right to settle farther from the city, up the delta, away from the power base of the Noble families.*
"small fishing villages had begun to dot the neck of the Kibl' by the year 960. Each one officially designated a protectorate of Mastadund clan by Prince Heliski, who appeared in each village to offically induct them into the clan's protection. establishing a tradition of that would continue until...."
"Making sure to place a trusted member of the Fae into each village, allowing them to occupy the newly created role of "Fish Curator"*... the Prince further expanded the reach of his secret transport network, and assured the loyalty of his conspirators, keeping away from his families base in Barksva."
"It is likely that Helicksi had first begun his relations with Prince Felipsa in the year 957 or
958... but the relationship would take on new dimensions in 961."
"Prince Felipsa Grisdund Pawztl, despite being the official head of the Pawztl clan, his Uncle occupied the position of leader as regent for so long that none of the other members of the clan recognized Felipsa once he was old enough to rule he decided to begin cultivating a powerbase outside his family city, much like Prince Helicksa. But unlike the Barskva Prince he sought his power by conspiring with former soldiers...