Which is part of what isolates the Region a little. Pentamere is basically Michigan's Mitten - with a little snippet of Ontario that butts against Detroit. So the only way in or out is the southern border. Which means that the Northern groups are on the Hinterland of OUR Kingdom and don't have any other Neighboring Kingdoms. So they tend not to see a lot of Royalty. One Shire recently went Barony in part on the philosophy that they'll at least see Royalty every few years for investiture.