Question about lands directly under Michael Roeles control ...

[Paljoey]

Hi all,was starting a new campaign set in the heady days of The Anuirean Empire and was wondering exactly what lands were under Roeles direct control.I.e. the Austrian,French and Holy Roman Empires all had lands under direct control of the Emperor.Does anyone know or have a solid source ?Haven't read any of the novels,etc.. so relying on the forums wisdom.With the original 12 Duchies,doesn't seem to be a lot of land left.Thanks in advance

[Fearless_Leader]

Well, there's nothing in the canon materials.

The way I set it up in some stuff I once wrote for a PBEM was that the Roeles came from the First House of the Andu, whose ancestral lands are in what is now called Avanil. They ruled Avanil (and the Imperial City) as their own personal demesne, with the crown prince ruling the land in the Emperor's name. This, then, somewhat matches the system in the old Holy Roman Empire.

This system lasted until about mid-way through the Imperial era, when control was devolved to a cadet branch of the Roele dynasty, who ruled as Dukes of Avanil --- the Empire had simply grown too large for the Emperor to maintain both the ancestral family demesne and the Empire as a whole. This cadet branch eventually came to be known as the Avans (a case in which the family took the name of the realm, rather than the reverse, as is common in most of Anuire's lands).

Today, that means that the Avanese base their claims on this historic transfer, with their regents even claiming the Princely title after the Michael Roele died.

[AndrewTall]

I worked on the assumption that they held law holdings all over the place - much like Avan does in the Canon, most of their income came from vassalage however - they ruled the City of Anuire directly (well, the chamberlain did it for them) and had bits of land around (easiest to do if using manor holdings) but as with Fearless leader their lands had been split off to Avan a while back.

[Paljoey]

I worked on the assumption that they held law holdings all over the place - much like Avan does in the Canon, most of their income came from vassalage however - they ruled the City of Anuire directly (well, the chamberlain did it for them) and had bits of land around (easiest to do if using manor holdings) but as with Fearless leader their lands had been split off to Avan a while back.

Thanks for the input guys! Good info to get started with !

[Thelandrin]

In the Empire's Twilight series, the Emperors maintained a law holding in each ducal capital, would likely have extensive manor holdings as well and control several provinces along the Adurian coast between the Baerghos Islands and western Mieres.

[arpig2]

was wondering exactly what lands were under Roeles direct control.

Whatever lands you need them to control to make your campaign work.

[Arentak]

I'd take a look at crusader kings and say "What type of demense would I want there as Emperor of the HRE?"

You'd want a rich. contigious demense, and Avanil is a great example. I'd also think "The Andu were ten tribes, Roele's should have ruled the largest and strongest, so it should be the largest single domain, larger then greater diemed or alamie. That would be Avanil, at relatively high province levels, with law holdings across the empire.


As any experienced birthright player knows, economy of action and resource is the key limiting factor, and for an Emperor, it would be action as his limitation. Too much demense would require his full attention as its Duke, so the "Avanil spin off" could be a sensible idea.

Think about it. Three Domain Actions a season. Between Declare War, Diplomacy and Espionage, a twelve Duchy (plus the conquered empire and constituent Baronies) Empire doesn't have a lot of room for Rule Province or Rule Law Holding. So, I'm buying into the idea that they started with Avanil, but spun it off since it was too hard to Administer.