Arafed man in a blue coat and hat standing in a wooded area

Baron Jean AuSable governs the remote, lightly populated Duchy of Iosco from his fortified trading manor known as AuSable Hall. Located at the mouth of the Au Sable River as it empties into Lake Huron's Sandy Coastline region, Baron AuSable claims lineage back to early French voyageurs who traversed Michigan's wilderness during the 1660s search for the Northwest Passage. As second son, he grew up in Montreal but spent most summers around northern frontier posts with his uncle, learning skills of navigation, firearms, rough field medicine and indigenous languages. After serving as militia translator negotiating tribal treaties, Jean petitioned the governor and received a large land grant along the Au Sable River basin. At AuSable Hall the Baron manages affairs through a frontier style council, more fur brokers than nobles. Basques, Scots-Irish, French traders and tribal members gather each spring and autumn to coordinate trapping bounty, fishing allotments and timber allotments. Winters are spent snowed in, drinking brandy by the grandfather's grandfather fireplace.