A city in southern Cardacci — constitutionally exceptional: it has never sworn to the Doge, yet is accepted without contradiction as part of Cardacci. Famous outside Cardacci for exactly that independence, and lately for the snake demon.
What We Know
- One of the great old Cardacci cities (most of which predate the Old Empire), lying in the south of the country. Its political independence from the Doge makes it famous even abroad; Cardacci themselves see no contradiction in it. (GM)
- “Free city” here is the Cardacci constitutional sense, not the Circle Sea sense. The GM timeline’s phrase “the free city of Stoccarda” refers to its never having sworn to the Dogal office — it is not one of The Free Cities of the Circle Sea coast like Halwa. (This page previously guessed the name was Morschatti in flavour and the location unestablished — both superseded by the Western Kingdoms primer.)
- Summer 1735: a “snake demon” was found to be possessing a noblewoman here. Revealed at a party, it killed a number of nobles before being slain by members of the Order of the Gull and visiting Owl Knights. (GM)
Why It Matters
This is very likely the incident Hazadi gossip records as “a terrible demon attacking a Cardacci noble court” during The Troubles — see Cardacci. The old objection to that identification — that Stoccarda wasn’t a Cardacci city — is now gone: it is one. Still an inference, but there is no longer a competing reading.
It is also the Owl’s second recorded demon kill in three years, eight months before the Order of the Phoenix declared them fallen to the Deceiver. The Gull fought the same demon and was not touched.
Related
- Cardacci · The Fall of the Order of the Owl · Order of the Gull · Order of the Owl · The Troubles · On the Summoning of Guardian Spirits
Source: Sources/Western_Kingdoms_Eastern_Hazadi_Player_Primer_v1.md (2026-08-15).