There are many different fantasy governments, but the most common is that of a monarchy with a supporting aristocracy. This can be feudalism, a system where the crown owns everything and everyone else is basically renting those lands from the monarchy. This allows the king to grant land to families or others, who can then grant parts of those lands to others, who then grant them to others and so on to the lowest noble. The people who live on that land may or may not be tied to their noble in a system called serfdom.
Shildaria will be using a variation of feudalism. However, the area is only sparsely populated with large areas of open land. Using land as the basis of power like this makes no sense. In Shildaria, the basis of power and wealth is the horse. Almost everything is based on horsepower, from farming to transportation to the military. Therefore, the ability to field horses (both for military and public use) determines the power of a particular noble. For this reason, only nobles are allowed to actually own horses. Everyone else must pay the noble for the right to use them.
The lowest members of the noble class are the barons. Powerful barons will be in charge of a town or village, but there are unlanded barons who will simply own some horses, and may live in a town controlled by another baron. These horses may, in fact, be housed, fed, groomed, and taken care of by the people using them. They simply must pay the baron for the ability to do so.
Next up the chain will be lords. Each lord will have dominion over several barons, which means they effectively control whole herds of horses. In Shildaria, that means that every horse the baron controls, is also technically controlled by the lord. They will get an annual tribute for each horse the baron has, which adds up quickly the more barons swear fealty to a particular lord. They also have the right to levy a baron’s horses, calling for any and all of them to be sent to their liege on demand. Obviously, lying to your liege about how many horses you actually control is a serious crime, and baron’s have lost their lives over such offenses.
Above the lords are the earls, who have basically the same rights and responsibilities over lords as lords have over barons. Even though they wield tremendous power, many are physically located in small towns. Since the barons are responsible for keeping their horses for their lords, and the lords for their earls, there is no need for them to be located in any specific town or city. Indeed, many lords control towns much larger than the earls they swear fealty to.
Continuing up the chain of nobility, we have reached the dukes. There are only twelve dukes, one for each province. Every earl in their area swears fealty to them. In addition, they control the province itself. Any noble in their area will directly or indirectly swear fealty to their duke or duchess. They have the right to levy all horses in their domain and the forces that ride them. Because they are the true political power in the province, they dwell in their provincial capitals. They also control their own armies outside of what they can levy, ensuring that no one can overcome their authority. Dukes wield absolute executive and legislative power in their province, subject only to the will of the king. All nobles of lesser rank are merely enforcing the law, not making it.
Finally, we have the king, whom the dukes swear fealty to. The king has the right to levy from the dukes, but cannot levy a duke’s personal army. The king wields executive and legislative authority over all of Shildaria, but all edicts can be vetoed by the dukes at the meeting of the King’s Moot. The king may also be the duke of the province of Turris, but usually that post is held by the heir to the throne or their regent.
The King’s Moot convenes once per year when Versae, moon of time, becomes full after Shaimon, moon of seasons, passes into the dry season. It lasts until the next full moon, or earlier if they have completed their business. If ten of the twelve of them vote an edict down, it ceases to be law. Although this would typically be a new law from the crown, they have struck down laws that have become burdensome or outdated. The king may reissue the law only if six of the dukes agree to have it reinstated. The only laws they cannot strike down are tax laws, horse levies, treaties, and the King’s justice.
Nobles are also typically the judges for their area, with higher nobles trying appeals of cases tried by their vassals. It isn’t uncommon, however, for a noble to appoint a magistrate to deal with some or all of these cases. How this works is up to each noble, so the citizenry have a hodgepodge of different judicial systems, none of which are independent of the nobility.
Now that I’ve explained all of that, I want to go into why things are organized this way. Every story needs conflict, and your setting needs to have enough of that built in that the characters can get caught up in that conflict. This arrangement isn’t all that different from the early to middle Medieval period in both Europe and Japan. The setting is recognizable and not too difficult to understand, but different enough from reality to make it fantastical.
This set up allows for there to be evil barons being allied to unbelieving or incapable lords. The earl could suddenly come to town, not accepting that the lord suddenly doesn’t have enough horses to meet his levy. A baron may want to switch allegiance to another lord. An earl could die without an heir, leading to a succession war. The magistrate could be corrupt and the baron clueless. There are enough layers to make things very murky, with court intrigue and war, not withstanding their issue with the abominations. Dukes will have rivalries with each other. Perhaps everyone hates the king, but the dukes are too fractured to do anything about it.
These are all feasible and believable to the people who will be experiencing the setting, whether they are playing a game or reading a book. Creating the way your setting is governed is the first real opportunity to build conflict and personality into your world.
Next week, I’ll be discussing the economics of Shildaria. I’ll see you next Thursday!
