On the Map of the Serault region
That map can be found HERE.
Village bases for the vassals of Serault, from north to south:
Castanafeu - very old settlement right up at the forest's edge. The biggest concentration of charcoal burners are right here. Some saw mills. The name is from Castana, a figure from Orlesian (or Ciriane) history, mother of Kordillus Drakon, and then the French Orlesian word for fire. Suggestion would be, this is where Castana had a campfire once, I guess. Not much going on here. The "lord/lady" is just a chevalier-knight, acting like a sheriff in "keeping the peace" and collecting taxes. It is somewhat hereditary but mostly appointed again out of local chevaliers by Serault when the old one dies or retires. Might call her/himself " Chevalier __ de Castanafeu"
Guenoles - this one is actually just about canon! Not its location, though I think it makes sense to put the more important villages on the River Last... but rather the name. Both the Muttering Banker and his sister the Elegant Abbess are given the surname "des Guenoles", and are said to be a local noble family. The Banker is just the heir, not the current baron/knight of Guenoles so you can choose who their parents are. I say it's the Kindly Knight, and that the family includes the Wayward Bard too. The Bard is the canon nephew of the Kindly Knight, so this would make him noble but not in line to inherit, and the first cousin of the Abbess and the Banker. Anyway whatever you decide, it's just about confirmed that Guenoles is a village and vassal of Serault.
Pastulaire - this is a canon confirmed village, it's just also abandoned and occupied only by bandits, and the encroaching trees. This is the "lost lands" of Pastulaire the Acerbic Dowager is upset about. They were hers, and her late husband's, who is implied to be the one with the de Pastulaire title by birth and she married in. She claims he was too soft on his subjects and was murdered in some kind of take over by bandits or something like that. It has to exist somewhere near the woods, wherever you say it is, so I chose this spot north and a little west of Serault.
Lud-Dans-La-Brume - it is clear Serault has more vassals at a few points in the story so I made up more than a few. This one is a reference to Lud-in-the-Mist . And by "reference" ... I translated it into French Orlesian using an online translator. It may be a bad translation, though because it seems the French version of the book was published as Lud-en-Brume. This is good to me though, because I was going to be posting with the Lud-Dans-La-Brume tag and I don't want to drown out whatever few posts of book discussion there are about it in French. It just seems like a place that could be right there next to Serault, with the kind of provincial mysticism and storytelling. Its River Dawl as you can see is present, and the River Dapple has become the Pommelé. I put it marsh-side and surrounded by rivers for maximum mists. The goal will be to re-read the book and figure out what a more medeival and more Orlesian/Dragon Age version of Dorimare would be like, and make that this place. The family currently in charge are going to be new to it, and settling uneasily among older, local families who were passed over to let an Orlesian-Antivan family move in and become the 'barons' here -- a choice the mother of the current Marquise made for reasons I'll get into in the story. This family's surname? Mirelees/Mirlez/Mireliez. Former occupation, gentry and merchants, specializing in sugar cane. They can now style themselves as "de Lud-Dans-La-Brume" or "de Lud" for short. The daughter of the current baron de Lud is a poet and author...
Plaine Dorée - means golden plain, I think. Wanted a village there and figured the flat looking space between those rivers was probably a plain. If it is planted with wheat, which this very forest and marsh heavy Serault area sorely needs, it would look golden. Bread basket village when things are going well, but doesn't control the port and so is dependent on Serault. Also haven't chosen the name of the ruling vassal family yet.
Champlevé - stole this name from an approach to enameling on metal, which maybe is related to glassworking a little. Perhaps in Thedas the Champlevé style exists, but it is named after some crafts person from this place. Literally I think it means something like "field surveyed" (translator) but really I don't know and am not finding much. Field surveyed would work well for a village, too. I decided to make this the seat of the Cheery Baron but he could be anywhere, as long as it's not too remote and is near the Tirashan. So he would (informally) style himself Baron de Champlevé.
Gothivallon - an 'old name' village. On the wiki page on the Ciriane, one of the precursors to the Orlesians, I read they had two similar sounding words for female chieftain or queen. One was Gothi. So that's one part of the name, and then vallon (allegedly, according to looking it up) means "dale" in French. Looking at the map, I picked a dale-looking spot and put it there. Queen's dale. Or, Female Chieftain's Dale. I assume there isn't much going on here. Just another meeting point for collecting grain, taxes, having a tiny market, see maybe 1-3 travellers a year from people trying to access that part of the Western Approach by going south through the Nahashin Marshes. Which queen? Nobody agrees on that. The Gothi river is nearby, branching off the Champlevé which in turn came from the Last. Again, haven't decided the name of the vassal family overseeing it.
Bellitaneaux - here I put an -eaux ending on Bellitanus, the Thedaosian constellation also called "the Maiden" and associated with beauty, and therefore the old god Urthemiel, who we can assume the Urthemiel Plateau is named after. Maybe this place used to be called something even more old god-y and they sanitized it post conversion to Andrastianism, perhaps it never really was founded as an outpost until later, and even if the plateau already had the name Urthemiel they weren't going to name a village that, so they went with the related constellation name. I think this is a small village, with some very unlikely people living (or hiding out) there. Probably more ranching and herding than farming, beyond subsistence. I made this to be the "long distance travel" vassal village the Acerbic Dowager can be sent out to visit and straighten out as a favor in The Last Court. The name of that family? TBD.
Not a regular village but also on the map:
Chateau Estival, a curious collection of Orlesian academics and their staff -- Draconologists, led by Frederic of Serault. I think Frederic is actually de Serault, as in of the latest generation of the de Serault family. He is just the youngest, and a mage who was sent away to the Spire, and so can't inherit.
Despite Chateau Estival not being much more than an outpost, it gets put on the Important Vassals map made within Serault because it is a de Serault of the main line running it. Frederic is named its lord, its "Baron" even though that is untrue not only because lesser titles are abolished for everyone, but because as a mage and therefore can hold no lands directly. I'm making that up but assume it would be true in Orlais.
Good reputation, good conduct (and noble name and donations) earned him leave to travel away from the Spire, but being seen as unreliable as a descendant of the Shame meant at first his research got no official funding. Lucky for him, his mom (then the Marquise) set him up with Chateau Estival and initial funding. The quality of his dragon scholarship subsequently convinced the University, Spire, and crown to collaborate and fund it in full.
Though neither the Huntress or Scholar may realize it, it was actually the extraordinary academic work and reliable of their younger brother that went a long way toward cleansing the Shame in the minds of the regular nobles and bureaucrats of the capitol, which was a good step in the direction of the Divine being politically able to visit Serault.
Villages that are vassals to Alyons and are in their immediate region (I am imagining Alyons, not being shamed, but being as-yet unable to pry territory away from Serault, has acquired more vassal territory elsewhere, not contiguous with their main borders)
Val Colline, mentioned as being in need of saving from Venatori in DA:I, appears roughly on the wartable map where I am putting it on mine. It appears on the cool original map by @chantry-scholar which is how I realized it was missing from mine. I had put a village called "Contrefort" there so I just replaced the name. Maybe Contrefort is a nickname for the region, which is after all in the foothills of the Blasted Hills. It is ruled by a baron as it says in the mission text, so it makes sense for it to be a vassal to a marquisate like Alyons. You could imagine it belongs to Andoral's Reach but this is the choice I made.
Lys-en-Champs, I mean this to mean Lilly in the Fields and it is so named in part due to the association of lilies and Alyons, with Chauvette de Alyons (who married the Shame before leaving him and remarrying) being called the Lily of Alyons. Maybe Alyons has a lily in its heraldry I don't know yet. It is near Lake Lys.
Ton Chemin, means "your way" or "your path" in French. I haven't decided much about this place yet other than it's a vassal of Alyons and clearly it's stuck in a dry spot surrounded by lake and marsh. Fishing and eeling (is that a word?) is their main focus I guess. It is in the middle of Lakes Lys, Alyons, and Ignorance. Yes there will be a backstory about why a lake got called Ignorance (which is the same in French and English as it turns out). The village is called your path because it's your only path on dry land through this area.
