From the world of Restenford.
Here's a bit of world (human) history.
There is one large kingdom. The real power is with the royal family and the 8-10 most powerful noble families. The "government" in each local area is run by the Count (in our case, the Count of Restenford). The title of Count is not hereditary. Nobles (almost always from one of the most powerful families) are appointed for life. This can lead to some inter-family feuds and even an occasional assassination attempt.
The title of Count of Restenford was considered the least desirable of all the titles. This was because of the newness of the title (the Restenford area has only been settled for about 100 years and the title was only created about 50 years ago) and the distance from court/civilization (Restenford is on an otherwise unsettled (at least by humans) continent across a major sea from the mainland and the Count must live in his residence at least 10 months of the year).
However, now that there seems to be a war in the works (with the chance for glory/loot/...), this may change.