Welcome all of you.
I am Duke (and Anarch) Vilhelm von Benkern, I've been running the show down here in Yardistan for a good few months now. Yardistan is a very... unique Duchy. It's the sort of subdivision that you'd pat on the head and call "special." For example, you should familiarise yourself with the term YAC or "Yardistani Annexation Corps". The YAC goes around annexing stuff. We've annexed a lot of stuff over the years, and as Yardistanis, you're sort of unofficially/officially inducted into the Corps. So if you see something shiny, try to pry it loose. Some mottoes to give you an idea of our philosophy: "We've got what it takes to take what you've got!"; "If it's not nailed down, it's ours; if we can pry it loose, it wasn't really nailed down."; "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable."We're also the only Duchy with a legal exception on rebellion. Basically when the Kaiser or Landsraad or any figure of centralised authority does... anything, every Yardistani thinks to zirself "Hmm. Can I make a rebellion out of this?" Often the answer is: "YAAAARGH!"
Our Duchy currently has two Baronies, Absentia (new and mostly empty except ancient Mar Sara and some work which its good Baron Boris has put in) and the Holy Lands (not really a Barony; very old lands which are sort of sacred and full iirc). I'd advise you take up residency in Absentia and see if you can't bum a county off Prodigy. Or indeed me, as it seems someone's gonna take my poor Mar Sara from me.
There's also the icy icy Bailiwick of Lac Glacei, which doesn't really exist in this dimension on account of it having no lands. That's run by our very own in-Duchy lawyer Bailiff Mike Fors. Oh yes! Lands. I almost forgot. The lands of Shireroth, divided into Baronies (slightly out of date - Boris, where's Eastern Absentia going? If you haven't already posted elsewhere of course); the key should help you see what's Yardistani. Notice how we're spread out all over the place? Yardistan is the place where small clods of dirt and filth merge into something great. We used to be a storage Duchy, but now all those odds and ends identify as Yardistani. Which is good, cause otherwise when they inevitably tried to secede, we'd annex them.
Oh, and don't mind Jess. He's Baron of the Holy Lands. He's kinda... eccentric, but he seems to be loyal and good enough, even if he does randomly ban emoticons. He may be a bit annoyed because you're taking over the title of "Yardistani most perceived to be a girl", but I'm sure he'll warm to you. And there's also Jacobus. There was recently a sort-of succession crisis. It was bad, and Jacobus put himself in exile for a while I think. He used to be Duke. He's cool, but has a tendency to disappear and reappear like that. Speaking of disappearing and reappearing, some of the oldest Shirerithians call Yardistan their home. If you see Gryphon aka Nick the Yardistani or Greg Gman Russell, they're pretty nifty guys. But they don't hang around all that much anymore.
So yeah anyway, welcome!
After all, Gil has her lesbian "followers". 
