Micklemont is on a very small island in the Bay of Biscay, between Spain and France. It was founded by one Richard FitzMorgan as he was escaping in a ship from England and the wrath of Henry VIII. He saw a woman fleeing over the water on foot and rescued her, defending her from a Wild Hunt, using a sword she enchanted for him. Her father turned out to be a sea-dragon, who repaid Richard by creating the island out of magically bound sand raised from the floor of the bay. The island is defended magically, too, the main feature being an eddy that swirls perpetually around it, rising up to create waves and waterspouts against enemies.
Richard pronounced himself king and settled the island with his followers, starting with the crew of his ship and their families.
Arms: Azure, a castle or, surrounded by a sea serpent vert. Crest: a royal crown. Supporters: two mermaids. Motto: J'ai été remboursé. "I have been repaid."
This coat of arms hangs over the fireplace in the throne room, opposite the thrones, as does Vincent, the now-named sword that King Richard I used to fight off the Wild Hunt.
The island is to last as long as Richard's line lasts. "Line" does not depend on gender or legitimacy, but each monarch has been the child of the previous monarch. (Or so Micklemontanes infer from their survival when only females or bastards were available for the throne).
For most of its history, the island has been home to a small castle and a small fishing village, heavily featuring sandstone. The Micklemontane fishermen became adept at English, French, and Spanish, and equally adept at passing themselves off, at any given port, as coming from another port. Occasional attempts at raids by esoteric pirates or other enemies were foiled by waterspouts, whirlpools, and bad currents. Merfolk were frequent visitors.
But most of the adult male population was wiped out in World War One, in France, led by then King Tobias II. The surviving widows and families returned to England's Sundered population, but kept in touch with each other and their sovereign, more or less, forming a Micklemontane diaspora. The island became a summer residence for the royal family.
In 2015, the widowed King John IX died without issue, on Micklemont. Since Micklemont is a Grand Norman ally/client, Grand Norman forces arrived to help evacuate the surviving royal family in the face of a number of esoteric looters. The looters were dispatched, the succession continued by the discovery that adoption (even by a ghost) would serve, and the royal family and the island secured by the intervention of the nascent Court of Harmony. (See Lords of Being.)
Currently, Micklemont is held by the young Queen Veronica, niece of King John. Other members of the royal family are Sophia and Tobias, Veronica's sister and brother, and Alexandra, John's sister. The island has regained a standing population and some important in the esoteric community, since it now hosts a base for the agents of the Court of Harmony, of which it and Grand Normandy are members. It is becoming a semi-neutral (semi-Grand-Norman) trading post of the esoteric.
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Copyright © Earl Wajenberg, 2011