The lands ruled over by the princess Barthena Carnhold. The princess makes it clear that the one thing she values above all else is culture. She has turned her citadel at Newhigh into a bastion of the arts.
She has opened the doors of her citadel to pilgrims of the arts who flock from across the kingdom to come and watch performances of poetry, plays, readings of sagas and vast scale musical productions.
The highlights are broadcast across The Network and figures from her citadel are now famous with fans across the kingdom.
The choice of her banner is much speculated about. Is it saying that she holds a mirror up to nature and when she does so she sees we are snakes? Or is it warning that she is a snake as that is what she sees in the mirror? Or was she being pretentious and deliberately ambiguous? All these are views widely held across the kingdom.