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Thread: Elven Realm Structure (long)
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05-30-1999, 06:41 AM #1SCO Adam TheoGuest
Elven Realm Structure (long)
Hello birthright, Adam Theo here.
This day of Sunday, May 30, 1999, at 2:08:29 AM
hi, with me DMing the Queen of Tuarhievel in my RW game, and playing
the Prince of Tuarhievel in the 'ITSOD' game, i have come up with this
little thought on how elven society has structured realms and landed
vassals.
first of all, the Anuireans structure lands like this: Empire, Duchy
(or equivelent), Barony, County. of course, this was in the days of
the Empire, and the titles have little meaning now, but are still used
in realms for vassals, especially the lower titles.
the elves IMO do this: Kingdom, Kingdom, Kingdom, Kingdom. what i
mean is, that in elven views, the title, the name, for the realms and
rulers are the same, no matter your level in the system. whether liege
or vassal. the term 'kingdom' does not fit too well, since it
obvoiusly does not mean what we are used to. but when it was
translated by early Anuirean diplomats and liguists, this is what they
decided to use. of course, a direct translation in the elven language
would be something akin to our usage of the word 'realm' and 'realm
regent' for 'kingdom' and 'king'. a thought i had a couple of days ago
is that possible elven society is like a fractal design. there is a
basic, simple pattern, which is repeatted again and again on a larger
and larger scale, until you have a final result which is either flawed
from the original pattern (a 'flawed fractal') or it has turned into a
completely different pattern on this large scale ( a 'sum fractal',
coming from the phrase, 'the sum is greater than it's parts'). i see
elven socity's structure working much like a 'sum fractal' in the
respect of vassalage and liegedom with realms and law.
the law of the land is a funny thing with elves. for one, there
isn't a lot. very little. most of it is like Mhoried's. it just seems
like commong sense. and most of the 'laws' are nothing more than an
individual's or a family's moral code. so it is fairly easy for a
court to make judgements at a centralized level, which is sometimes
done to one degree or another. in an elven realm equivelent to an
Anuirean Duchy, there is usually a major Court (Tuarhievel's Court of
the Moon for example), which passed simple laws as it saw fit (rare,
for the simple fact most laws are common sense types of laws), or took
actions relevant to the region alone (taxes if any, punishing
criminals, deciding fund allocation, etc). bigger issues (wars, big
alliances, etc.) were done at a more centralized location if available
(none now, but in the Glory Days of the Elven Empire, it would have
been the so called 'Empire', although it's elven word would have
vbeen, yet again, 'kingdom' or possibly 'high kingdom' if it was
significant enough).
the word 'prince' (and 'princess')is not a native anuirean word, IMC.
it comes from early elven contact, and was modified by the anuireans
from the elven meaning, which meant something like 'right hand to the
king'. it was a title sometimes given to landed regents, 'kings' if
that regent was very close to the 'bigger' king above him, and did
work for him (a lieutenant as well as a landed vassal). but a prince
in elven society didn't have to be a landed vassal, or even a vassal
at all. he could simply be a lieutenant, or also oftentimes a
relative. but was always a 'right hand' or close assistant to the
king. the anuireans modified it slighly to fit somewhere in between
the Emperor and the Dukes. a anuirean prince could sometimes rule
land, even a duchy, but didn't have to. his main responsability was to
over see a particular region of the empire for the emperor, since he
probablty wouldn't have all that time to do it himself. things like
making sure the dukes and duke's family kept in check. looking after
individual noble family's problems, and trying to act as the Emperor
in semi-important issues so the Emperor could tend to wars and other
'empire level things'. in the case of Prince Avan of Avanil, his
ancestors ruled the ducky of Avanil, but was also the Prince of a
region of the empire, probably the Heartlands. there might have been
princes for other regions, but what has happened to them in the 500
years since the fall could be the source of some great stories. people
may say that if there had been other princes, we wopuld have heard
something about them, or they would have left some remnant of their
living. not really. remember, it has been 500 years. that is a
*looooong* time. a really long time. i am surprised that the designers
decided on a time frame so huge. i would have gone with 200 years or
so, personally. but just keep in mind how long 550 years is.
comments now? here's one for the Netbook.
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Adam Theo, A Patriotic American Libertarian Capitalist.
SCO of Theoretic Internet Services, http://www.theoretic.com, http://www.theoretic.com
'Your Web Hosting, Email Forward, and Weather Forecast Solution,
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Mailto:adamtheo@Theoretic.com , ICQ:22377963
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05-31-1999, 07:03 AM #2JNeighb934@aol.coGuest
Elven Realm Structure (long)
I have some aesthetic notes to add regarding the noble titles of the Empire,
but it is purely of my own making from my campaign, not official background.
The Andu were made up of several tribes, referred to as Houses, of which
there were at least five. I have found mention of only four of the old
tribal names from the published material, however: the Deretha, Elins,
Anuireans (ruled by the family that beget Roele and Haelyn,of course), and
Boru. The Houses were ruled by a ruling family headed by a chieftain. The
Houses were further subdivided into clans who loosely followed the chieftain,
but the chieftain's control over the clan leaders was far from absolute in
most cases. The chieftain was seen more as mediator of disputes between
clans and a respected advisor, and a leader during times of war. The warlike
Andu also used the title of baron, an Andu word meaning warlord, to signify a
charismatic and strong clan leader who lead several clans in battle.
After the Andu escaped the shadow of Azrai and the Adurian Empire
into Cerilia, they were able to safely settle down into sedimentary
lifestyles, changing from a nomadic people to farmers and craftsmen with the
help of the elves. Many clan leaders became wealthy and powerful and
proclaimed themselves kings, the old Andu word for ruler. Not to be outdone,
the tribal chieftains made themselves the High King of their tribe in an
attempt to maintain control of the petty kings. To back up their claims,
both High King and petty king relied on the muscle of the barons, clan
leaders who did not have the power to be king but still commanded many
warriors. A High King's heirs of the ruling house became known as princes, a
word taken from the elves roughly meaning "right hand to the king" (as first
described by Adam Theo in his previous post).
A few Houses were more united (such as the Anuireans, because of
their strong ruling family, and the Deretha, because of continual warfare
with the Spiderlord) and had only one king, with the barons beneath him.
Some of these barons wielded considerable influence and might. One such was
Baron Diem, a hero of the War of Shadow and friend to Roele. After Deismaar,
several clanlords of the Deretha flocked to his banner and he claimed the
western half of the Southern Coast, including the Free City (present day
Ilien). The king of the Deretha was left with only the lands that comprise
present-day Roesone and Aerenwe. Allying with Roele, Baron Diem was
instrumental in defeating the Deretha king, who was one of those who resisted
Roele's vision of empire, and the king was forced to cede most of the lands
that now make up Roesone to Diem. Thus Diemed was born.
Roele's allies and the more powerful of the defeated tribal kings, in
order to placate them, were made the archdukes of the new empire, with vast
territories to rule. Underneath them were their barons, who in turn elevated
their most faithful warriors to the rank of count. And the rank of baronet,
literally translating to "little warlord," was bequeathed to minor vassals
who led their liege's knights in battle. Well, that's more than enough
meaningless historical dribble for now :) Hey, it might be useful to a
character with Ancient History. Doubt it :)To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com
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