# Vethmarch — The Eastern Frontier Duchy

The easternmost duchy of Corvel. Holds the mountain range that forms the kingdom's eastern border, the old Pathfinder frontier routes, and the largest concentration of pre-Compact ruins in the kingdom.

## Position
East of the Crownhold and Vethmarch's southern border touches northern Sudermere. The eastern boundary is the mountains themselves — beyond them is wilderness, neighboring realms, or both. Undefined, room to grow.

## Ruler
**Duke Cason Arvale.** Late 30s. Ex-military. Inherited the duchy recently after his father's death. Not a courtier — he spends more time in the field than the keep. Holds the frontier through a mix of old Pathfinder connections and a personally-picked household guard. Young enough that the other dukes underestimate him.

See `characters/duke-arvale.md`.

## Seat
**Arvale Keep.** A frontier fortress city built into the foothills, with walls thick enough to survive a siege and a small civilian population clustered below the keep. Not grand, not decorative. Built for winter and for watching the passes.

## Key places in Vethmarch
- **Arvale Keep** — ducal seat, fortress city
- **Vethek Pass** — mountain pass. Site of the Pathfinder operation Devod Fields ran 23 years ago; still a known name in frontier circles. Terrain: canyons, ridges, bottlenecks.
- **Vethani Crypts** — pre-Compact tomb complex in the eastern ranges. Source of the Mallory focusing crystal (Book 2). Leon recovered artifacts here six months before the Book 2 timeline.
- **Multiple unnamed ruins, outposts, and waystations** — the frontier carries the infrastructure left by the Pathfinders, and much of it has never been catalogued.

## Character
Vethmarch is the duchy where the old stories happened. Pathfinders cleared it two generations ago; the duchy's folklore, architecture, and politics all run through that history. The ducal family traces its title to a military grant made when the frontier was still active — "march" in the duchy name means *border territory* in the old sense, and that's not a metaphor.

The duchy is sparsely populated, economically thin, and politically undervalued by the other duchies. It exports ore, timber, and veterans.

## Book 3+ relevance
- **Pathfinder history** lives here. Any scene requiring the Wolf's operational past to come back in person will likely pull Phelan (or Devod) to Vethmarch.
- **Duke Arvale as potential ally.** His age, his military background, and his family's connection to the frontier make him the natural Book 3+ noble for a Phelan team to approach when they need a duke who isn't Pamira.
- **The unknown ruins** are a recurring case-source for future books.
