Duchy of Graceland

The Duchy of Graceland is a Kithain Fief in the Kingdom of Willows corresponding to the state of Tennessee.

Overview[]

Made up of central and western Tennessee, the Duchy of Graceland vies with Meilge's realm for supremacy of the Kingdom of Willows. Duke Florian of Graceland seeks to build his own power base in the heart of the Tennessee Valley. He has attracted many changeling musicians (not just country-western, but all genres) to the soul of "Music Country."

Physical Geography[]

The Appalachian mountain chain forms the eastern border of Graceland, separating the duchy from the Duchy of Appalachia. To the north lies the Duchy of Blue Grasses. The Mississippi River River marks the western boundary, while the Duchy of Cotton (including the disputed Duchy of Magnolia's Home) marks Graceland's southern border. Unlike the mountainous ares to its east, the Duchy of Graceland has a greater geographic connection with the Southern heartland.

Major Cities & Landmarks[]

Memphis[]

Situated on the Mississippi River at the southwestern tip of the Duchy of Graceland, Memphis stands as a monument to two musical traditions: blues and rock and roll. The blues of the Mississippi Delta came to life in the songs of legendary bluesman W.C. Handy, whose home on Beale Street is now the site of the W.C. Handy Home and Museum and, thus, the rallying place for the cities blues-oriented Kithain. B.B. King's Blues Club, also on Beale Street, stands alongside a number of other jazz, blues, and rock clubs; the city's wilders haunt the section of Memphis, gathering Glamour from the music that drifts out into the street. Graceland, the mansion and gravesite of Elvis Presley, is the city's primary tourist attraction, attracting millions of fans and devotees who year-round pay homage to "The King"; as the freehold of Duke Florian, Graceland absorbs tremendous amounts of Glamour from the adoration of visiting fans. Sun Studio, famous as the recording studio for Elvis, Roy Orbison, and B.B. King (among others), functions as both an active studio and a tour site; several local changelings musicians work here as session guitarists and drummers.

The National Civil Rights Museum, located in the building where Martin Luther King, Jr. fell to an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968, provides a fitting memorial for the champion of and martyr for civil rights. Many eshu visit this site to commemorate the Dreamer who so embodied their ideals of Uhuru and mutual respect. The Center for Southern Folklore preserves stories and crafts of the Mississippi Delta and provides a resource center of information for Kithain historians. the Mud Island theme park, located on an island in the Mississippi River, houses the Mississippi River Museum as well as the b-17 bomber, the Mississippi Belle.

Home to the University of Memphis Tigers and the site for concerts and other entertainments, the 32-story Pyramid serves as one of the more unusual arenas in the country. An annual rally of the Memphis Mystical Pooka Pyramid Admirers (MMPPA) celebrates the city's architectural oddity.

The city's National Ornamental Metal Museum, which includes a large display of wrought iron, holds a special attraction for Graceland's Unseelie changelings; secret initiation ceremonies for induction into the Shadow Court take place here. The Chucalissa Archaeological Museum contains artifacts from the prehistoric Mississippean Indian culture that dwelled along the Mississippi Delta until A.D. 1500. Recently, the museum has been the target of Nunnehi raids aimed as recovering items they consider sacred.

Nashville[]

Known as Music City, U.S.A., Nashville lives and breathes the heartbreaking, mournful music made popular by Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and Loretta Lynn. Opryland, U.S.A. contains the Grand Ole Opry, the Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl Museums, and numerous rides and live shows. An annual Country Music Glamour Jamboree brings Kithain from all over the Kingdom of Willows to Opryland for a four-night orgy of country music. The city also contains the national headquarters for the Gideon Society, famous for its practice of leaving Bibles in hotels and motels throughout the world; recently, a number of pooka infiltrators managed to slip pieces of dross (in the form of bookplates) into some of the Bibles, hoping to improve the lives of hundreds of tourists and traveling salesmen.

Other Cities[]

East of Memphis, the city of Jackson memorializes the greatest legend of railroad history in Casey Jones Village. Not far from Jackson, Shiloh National Military Park occupies the site of the Battle of Shiloh, one of the turning points of the Civil War. Franklin, Tennessee, south of Nashville, contains many fine antebellum homes, some of which house extremely conservative factions of sidhe nobles and a very few die-hard commoner nobles who refused to give up their holdings when the "usurpers" returned from Arcadia. Franklin also serves as the entrance to the Natchez Trace Parkway, which ends in the Duchy of Cotton. The Alex Haley House Museum in Henning honors the author of Roots and boasts an African-American boggan (who is noted for remarking to visiting eshu, "See? Not all blacks belong to your kind!" and who keeps the museum spotless during off hours). Lynchburg is the home of the Jack Daniels Distillery, a frequent target for wilders in search of thrills, who compete in changing the mix to create the most potent "Faerie mead." The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration holds its annual 10-day meet in Shelbyville, Tennessee, a yearly attraction for many of the Kithain "horsy" set found throughout the rest of Willows.

Natural Places[]

The natural scenery of the Duchy of Graceland is preserved in areas such as Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, which borders on the Mississippi River. Reelfoot Lake, formed by an earthquake in 1811, serves as a sanctuary for the bald eagle. These natural areas serve as refuges for small Nunnehi communities. Most of these native fae are never seen by other changelings.

Duchy of Graceland

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