Maelstrom's time machine

So, yesterday morning, the following turns up in my email:

Hello Mike,

We are pleased to tell you that your order #2069478704 has been dispatched today, 21st March 2012!


DISPATCHED ITEMS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following items from your order were dispatched:

    Q Item                                                   Cost
  ----------------------------------------------------------------
    1 Katherine Vinoq, Noble Adventurer                   £10.49
    2 War of the Spanish Succession Cavalry               £27.72
    2 War of the Spanish Succession Infantry              £27.72

Dispatched SECOND class, mark you. Imagine, as I'm sure you can, my considerable surprise when at 2pm yesterday the postman turns up with a large box from Maelstrom! Painting's on hold till 2nd April, mind...

Advance notice of puns and word games

Someone on the WD3 forum has, indeed, already guessed why the Duchy has the name it does.

In the best tradition of the beast, once you've figured it out, look deep. I love puns and word games, and my English, Latin, French and German (as well as my ability to wield Google Translate) are more than equal to producing some moderately obscure ones. And not all of them are in the proper names of characters and places in and around the Duchy, either.

Introduction

As I may have mentioned in my other blog, I've created an imagi-nation to take part in Henry Hyde's Wars Of The Faltenian Succession Byzarbian campaign via the WD3 forums.

I give you: the Duchy of Elland.

Elland is a moderately-sized but punching-above-its-weight state somewhere on the borders of something not too unlike Britian. Elland does have a bit of a reputation for fighting hard and not always fair, but that's offset by an equal reputation for being surprisingly egalitarian.

Elland's nearest outpost to Byzarbia is the coastal port of Anafor Gri, West along the coast from Byzarbia, with the feel of a Mediterranean coastal outpost (i.e. a base for operations to deal with pirates, etc) threatening the Duchy's lucrative trade route (known to the Duchy as simply "The Road") with Byzarbia. Elland supplies cloth from its newly opened mills, fine quality barrels and a surprising line in craftsman-made horse tack (spurs, bits etc), traded for Byzarbian... who knows? Spices? silks? what DO the Byzarbians have for trade?