Lotharia
Kingdom of Lotharia 𐌺𐌹𐌽𐌲𐌳𐍉𐌼 𐍉𐍆 𐌻𐍉𐍄𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌹𐌰 | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Capital and largest city | Solisthiel |
| Official languages | Lotharic |
| Recognised regional languages | Various Lotharic dialects, Jorunite, Lorvish |
| Demonym(s) | Lotharian |
| Government | Autocracy |
• King | Vandalarius III |
• Lord High Steward | Osric Pacatian |
• Lord Chancellor | Berig Majorian |
| Legislature | Council of the Realm |
History
| |
| Population | |
• Estimate | 644,000 |
| Currency | Lotharic Sorin |
Lotharia (Lotharic: 𐌻𐍉𐍄𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌹𐌰), officially the Kingdom of Lotharia, and sometimes called the Lotharic Kingdom, is a rump state that exists south-west of the Bleak-Wind Mountains, reaching from the Dread River in the east and to Jorunland in the west. Lotharia reaches south to the Cursed Sea and controls a significant portion of the Bay of Tears. Lotharia is an autocratic monarchy, currently ruled by King Vandalarius III. The kingdom is split into a series of viceroyalites, the primary administrative division, each ruled by an appointed viceroy. The kingdom is further subdivided into varying numbers of estates and castellanies.
The kingdom maintains a system of manorialism, where peasants are under the jurisdiction of their immediate landowning elite, whether it be a patrician or a viceroy. Labour is the key factor of production, and over the years has made the peasantry become tied to the land. Workers such as bakers, armourers, or workers in the mint, had their occupations made hereditary. Sons succeed their fathers in their trade, councilors are forbidden to resign, and the cultivators of land are not to move from the land they are attached to. The kingdom restricts social and professional mobility. Soldiers' children are also forcibly enrolled.
The kingdom has been decaying for more than a century. Bordering realms such as Darveon, Icomia, Quirinia and Faycrest, were all former viceroyalties that broke away from the kingdom. Jorunland was created by right of conquest. An ambitious adventurer named Jorun the Conqueror invaded Lotharia with his personal army, and carved out his own kingdom. Lotharia has been plagued by corruption, inefficient economic practices, declining population and a weak military for nearly a century. Lotharia used to be the most powerful and influential kingdom south of the Bleak-Wind Mountains, but after 700 years of existence, many scholars believe that Lotharia is reaching the end of its life expectancy. The kingdom has also suffered from a failing succession system, where a series of old and weak kings and short reigns crumbled the power and influence of the monarchy and plagued it with internal conflict and division. Ambitious claimants create periods of instability and succession crisis. As a result, Lotharic kings have mostly focused on consolidating their power within Solisthiel and its surrounding regions rather than maintaining control over the viceroyalties and periphery regions. These periphery regions have since degenerated into petty kingdoms. Lotharia only controls a third of its former lands. As the kingdom decreases in size and power, the stagnation that will ultimately cause its collapse has accelerated. Production quotas and levy requirements are rarely met, barely exceeding 50% of the desired targets.
History
Geography
Southern Lotharia along the coast of the Bay of Tears is dominated by lush temperate deciduous forest. The central and northern regions of the kingdom are primarily grasslands and isolated forests, mostly used for used for agriculture and grazing. The forests of the south are known as the Boar Forest, where hunting and logging operations take place. In the Bay of Tears, dense fog frequently covers the coastal areas.
Mammals that inhabit this ecoregion include black-tailed deer, coyote, raccoon, mink, sea otter, harbour seal, and red fox. Birds represent the majority of resident species, including cooper’s hawk, bald eagle, golden eagle, owl, blue grouse, waterfowl, and numerous passerine species.
Large population centers of any scale are the result of traffic. Solisthiel is a major trade junction, and Conrad’s Point a major port. Coastlines, navigable rivers and overland trade-routes form a criss-crossing pattern of trade-arteries, and the towns and cities grow along those lines. The larger the artery, the larger the town. And where several large arteries converge, there are cities. Villages are scattered densely through the country between the larger settlements. Fringe areas, especially the northern frontiers, are sparsely populated, often with no major roads. Villages range from 20 to 1,000 people. There is believed to be thousands of them. Villages are agrarian communities within the safe folds of civilization. They provide the basic source of food and land-stability in the manorial system. Usually, a village that supports orchards (instead of grainfields) is called a 'hamlet.'
Government
Lotharia is an absolute monarchy ruled by a King. The second most powerful position is that of the Lord High Steward, an appointed official who serves as the monarch's topmost advisor and, in his absence, holds court and may even sit on the throne. If the King is a minor and, thus, unfit to properly rule, the government falls in the hands of a Regent, who may be the steward, queen or another lord selected for the task.
King
The King is the Head of State for the entirety of Lotharia. The King resides in the Royal Palace in the capital city. With the title inherited through blood, the title is primarily passed to brothers, and then the eldest from among their sons, but has been bestowed upon other relatives such as cousins. Adopted from ancient culture, subjects are required to prostrate themselves in his presence; the most fortunate are allowed the privilege of kissing the hem of his robe. Civic buildings are designed to keep the face of the King perpetually in view, and always in a seat of authority. The King is a figure of transcendent authority, a man beyond the grip of the masses. The cult of the King is one of the more prominent features of the monarchy. The Lotharian King acquires and maintains divinity as a result of specific kingship rituals. Through coronation ritual, the King becomes the son of Solis and Solana, the chief deities of the Faith of the Two Suns, and thus a manifestation of divine royalty. The King serves as an intermediary between mankind and the divine, responsible for sustaining the balance of the universe through maintaining divine order. The divinity of the king has become more of a formality in recent decades, but some groups of hardliners still believe.
Queen
The position of Queen-Consort should not be confused with the position of Queen Regent or Queen Regnant. The Queen-Consort certainly has great wealth and authority over the royal household, but nearly all her political power is subservient to her husband the King unless he grants specific power to her. Her main purpose is generally to provide heirs and sometimes seal alliances through marriage. A Queen-Consort may be appointed Regent (acting monarch) if the King is clearly unable to rule or the King himself may make her Regent when he is absent. This is usually only done if the Queen-Consort has sufficient education, nerve and political experience, however. Queen Regnants, on the other hand, are deemed the heirs to the throne. Still, due to prejudice against women rulers, their power is slightly restricted and the Queen Regnant is encouraged to delegate to or share her power equally with her husband, the Prince-Consort.
Council of the Realm
List of Great Officers of the Council of the Realm (in order of ranking)
- Lord High Steward
- Lord High Chancellor
- Lord High Treasurer
- Royal Secretary
- Comptroller of the King’s Household
Lord High Steward
The Lord High Steward is a senior position in the central government apparatus of Lotharia, subordinate only to the King himself. The steward is often the position of the King's unofficial 'First Minister', and performs much of the work of running the country - especially the running of administration and managing the cogs of bureaucracy - that is delegated to him by the Council of the Realm and the King, making it a vital government function. The steward also has frequent personal access to the monarch himself. The steward is responsible for bearing the Great Seal of the Realm, which is traditionally returned to the monarch after his death, dismissal or resignation. When required, it is the steward that typically assumes the role of Lord Regent, if one isn't officially announced by the King.
Administrative Divisions
Administratively, Lotharia is divided into a number of administrative holdings, called viceroyalties, governed by a viceroy. The viceroys are office-holders who are legally delegated with administering constituent provinces on behalf of the king. They are the monarch's personal representative, and is a form of royal appointment rather than noble rank. They hold authority over a territory, giving them nearly all the attributes of sovereignty, but they remain subject to royal law and supreme authority, including royal tribunals and royal war contributions. As the highest authority for a given location, viceroys lead in battle, preside over courts, levy taxation, appoint positions, and serve as the liege of the three lesser landholders, patricians, castellans and mayors.
Estates (sometimes also called manors) and their surrounding lands are under the jurisdiction of their respective patricians, a hereditary title. Patricians are the highest authority of their estates and are subordinate to their viceroy. They make up the bulk of the wealthy landowning elite in Lotharia.
Cities and their surrounding lands are administered by mayors, an appointed position. Mayors handle the administration of a city, issuing laws, collecting taxes and levying troops. They are also directly subordinate to their viceroy.
Castles and their surrounding lands are administered by a Castellan, usually a hereditary title but sometimes appointed by the king or a viceroy.
Military
Lotharia possesses a standing military force of full-time soldiers. Each viceroy of Lotharia permanently maintains a retinue of reasonably-trained and reasonably-equipped conscript soldiers that are stationed at scattered forts and outposts across the land. In wartime they function as the main army of Lotharia, with respective viceroys acting as their commanders. During peacetime, they patrol the extentsive system of roads, guard border fortifications and assist in law enforcement. The most common footsoldiers are spearmen and swordsmen. These soldiers are typically seen wearing chainmail armour, a kettle helm, and equipped with a kite shield, and a longsword or spear. Soldiers who regularly conduct law enforcement activities are armed with blunt weapons, maces, or flails for crowd control. These are usually supported by archers, crossbowmen and a mixture of light and heavy cavalry. In the past, Lotharia would have around 20,000 active soldiers garrisoned in forts, outposts and border fortifications, but that number has been severely affected by the decline of the kingdom, and estimated troop count is likely to be 5000 conscripts, most of which are situated around Jorunland.
Economy
Lotharia's economy is centred around agriculture, with livestock and land being popular units of value in local trade. Lotharia is a major producer of grain, which is primarily used for bread or porridge. Lotharia is renouned for its silversmiths, and maintains a number of silver mines near Solisthiel. In recent years, Lotharia has relied on its reserves of smelted silver to sustain itself. It is speculated that Lotharia owes subtantial amounts of gold to various moneylenders in Kouryssos and Aliceport. Additional economic activities include animal husbandry, which results in hide and leather production, and commerical slave farms, which specialize in the breeding and development of hereditary slaves which are mostly exported. In recent history, Lotharia has become increasily reliant on slave labour to maintain its economy, which is believed to be detrimental in the long run. Slave revolts have caused expensive damages, and sometimes cause prolonged conflicts. Escaped slaves also raid the countryside, making the ill-guarded roads dangerous and affecting merchant traffic. Merchants are choosing to avoid many Lotharic roads as a result, preferring to move their product to Icomia or Quirinia instead.
Lotharic Manorialism
The open-field system is the prevalent agricultural system in much of Lotharia. Each manor or village has two or three large fields, usually several ploughlands in size (120 to 360 acres) each, which are divided into many narrow strips of land. The strips are cultivated by peasants. The holdings of a manor also include woodland and pasture areas for common usage and fields belonging to the patrician or tenant-in-chief of the manor. The farmers live in separate houses in a nucleated village with a much larger manor house and temple nearby. The open-field system necessitates co-operation among the residents of the manor. The patrician of the manor, his officials, and a manorial court administer the manor and exercise jurisdiction over the peasantry. The patrician levies rents and required the peasantry to work on his personal lands. In general, little land is owned outright. Instead, patricians generally have rights given to him by the king or a viceroy, and the tenant rented land from the patrician. Patricians demand rents and labour from the tenants, but the tenants have firm user rights to cropland and common land and those rights are passed down from generation to generation. Patricians can not evict a tenant nor hire labour to replace him without legal cause, usually determined by a viceroy. Most tenants likewise are not free without penalty to depart the manor for other locations or occupations.
Methods
The method of ploughing the fields creates a distinctive ridge and furrow pattern in open-field agriculture. The most visible characteristic of the open-field system is that the arable land belonging to a manor was divided into many long narrow furlongs for cultivation. Each tenant of the manor cultivates several strips of land scattered around the manor. The a typical manor has about 15 ploughlands of arable land divided into 8 oxgangs each. The acreage of a ploughland and oxgangs vary; a ploughland is usually 120 acres and a oxgangs is around 15 acres. Thus, the total of arable land amounted to 1,800 acres. The patricians demesne land consists of usually 5 ploughland of pasture. The remainder of the land was cultivated by tenants who live in a village on the manor. Counting spouses, children, and other dependents, plus landless people, the total population resident in a manor village like this is probably 500 to 700.
The patrician also owns two water mills for grinding grain, a fulling mill for finishing cloth, and a millpond on the manor. The village contains a temple, a manor house, a village green, and sometimes sub-manors of yeomans or rich farmers who cultivate no more than two ploughland, and are allowed to have tenants of his own. Non-arable land is allocated to common pasture land or waste, where the peasants graze their livestock throughout the year, woodland for pigs and timber, and also some private fenced land (paddocks, orchards and gardens), called closes. The ploughed fields and the meadows are used for livestock grazing when fallowed or after the grain is harvested.
Crops
The typical planting scheme usually divided the arable land into thirds. Barley, oats, or legumes would be planted in one-third of the ploughland in spring, wheat or rye in the second in the fall and the third left fallow. The following year, the planting in the fields is rotated. Pasturage is held in common. The tenants pasture their livestock on the fallow field and on the planted fields after harvest. An elaborate set of laws and controls, partly set by patricians with the authority of the viceroy, and partly by the tenants themselves, regulate planting, harvest, and pasturing.
Wheat and potatoes are the most important crops with roughly equal amounts planted on the average. Annual wheat production ranges from 3.1 to 6.5 seeds harvested for every seed planted, averaging 4.8 seeds harvested for every seed planted. This translates into yields of 7 to 17 bushels per acre harvested. While potatoes are used directly for soups and stews, wheat is usually mixed with other grains to produce bread, a dietary staple for the poorer farmers. Wheat is often sold as a cash crop. Richer people eat bread made of wheat. Other crops are oats, peas, beans, rye, flax, apples, and vegetables.
The land-holding tenants also have livestock, including sheep, pigs, cattle, horses, oxen, and poultry. Pork is the principal meat eaten; sheep are primarily raised for their wool, a cash crop. Only a few rich landholders have enough horses and oxen to make up a ploughing-team of six to eight oxen or horses.
Labour
Convicts provide much of the labour in the mines or quarries, where conditions are notoriously brutal. In practice, there is little division of labour between slave and peasant, and most workers are illiterate and without special skills. The greatest number of common labourers are employed in agriculture, as slave farm labour is less important than other forms of dependent labour by people who are technically not enslaved.
Non-agricultural occupations make up a significantly smaller amount of the population, and are usually hereditary, where sons will take up the occupation of their fathers. Millers and bakers are one of the most important tradesmen, producing flour and bread for the people and families living in his town or village. Blacksmiths produce tools, weapons and other iron objects such as pots, horseshoes and nails. Stonemasons (along with carpenters) are responsible for building castles, bridges and temples, and work on the production of stone blocks and bricks to construct these buildings. Weavers make clothes and other textiles, usually with wool, and candlemakers produce candles for use in the home and also for religious ceremonies.
Industry
The dominant form of mechanized power is created from watermills. Using water towers as buffers and gears for transmission, watermills have been the primary means of industrial production in for decades. Watermills are used for grinding grain, producing flour for bread, malt for beer, or coarse meal for porridge. Hammermills use the wheel to operate hammers. Fulling mills are powered using water wheels for cloth making. The trip hammer is also used for making wrought iron and for working iron into useful shapes, an activity that is otherwise labour-intensive. The waterwheel is also used in papermaking, beating material to a pulp.
Lotharian engineers have developed a unique style of watermill station. If a location does not have a dedicated source of flowing water, a water tower will be constructed and filled. The process of filling a water tower is time consuming, as the water must be transported by land, and lifted in large buckets using a treadwheel crane. After the water tower is filled, the tower will be connected via a system of wooden aqueducts to the water wheel. Once used, the water is channeled into a small drainage area where it is then pumped back into the water tower using a windpump, or muscle-power via horsemill where slaves are often used. This system is more expensive, requires constant maintenance and periodic refilling of water due to evaporation and general water spillage, but provides the kingdom with the means to construct waterwheel powered industry where needed. As a result of the laborious process, watermills are generally constructed along the abundant river systems found on the islands.
Windmills are also used in competition to water wheels. Certain areas of the kingdom have advantages to using windmills or watermills and vice versa. Windmills are also used to power many other industrial processes, including papermills, threshing mills, and to process oil seeds, wool, paints and stone products. There are more than 30,000 watermill stations and 18,000 windmills spread across the kingdom.
Charcoal burners provide the kingdom with charcoal, as underground or surface deposits of coal are rare. This is achieved by carbonising wood in a charcoal pile or kiln. The charcoal is primarily used for metalworking.
Culture
The average peasant’s life is filled with a great deal of hard work and modest earnings. The majority of families work tirelessly in order to grow and gather enough food to feed their family and sell in order to purchase items such as clothing that they may need. Most families are barely able to make ends meet, and their children often married off at a very young age. All of the children are expected to help work in order to help feed the family, so education is not pushed on the children. The wealthier people of society (patricians) often have a much easier time in life. They do not have to do much hard labor at all and in fact often have live in servants. Some members would be invited to the court of their respective viceroy, or to the royal court itself.
Society
Art and Education
Lotharian culture has a strong concentration on the artistic talents of many individuals. The sprouting of artists from individuals that live and work outside of the temples is a defining trait of Lotharian culture, with some of the most famous artists being born to yeomen or peasants. The preferred style of art in the kingdom depends on what the king decides. The current king Vandalarius III, like the many "enlightened despots" before him, is a lover and patron of the arts. Vandalarius has commissioned the creation of more art (in his preferred style) than any other king before him.
Education is seen as very important within Lotharia. Rich people especially put a lot of faith into education and schooling. The poor do not have the opportunity to receive a formal education though they often still learn to read and write. Children within rich families are well schooled and taught by private tutors or went out to a school.
Learning in public schools is heavily disciplined, with caning for the slightest mistake. This is to encourage the belief that boys would learn more quickly and accurately if they were in constant fear of making mistakes. For pupils who continually get things wrong, they are held down by two slaves and beaten by the tutor with a leather whip. There are not many subject choices in Lotharia, so children become quite bored quite quickly. The days are long, beginning from sunrise with a short lunch break during the day, then arriving home by sunset. Lessons are learned off by heart and without question - the children only need to know facts to escape beatings. Books are too expensive so lessons are generally dictated to the class.
Lotharia hosts two types of schools - one for children up to 11 or 12 who learn reading, writing and basic mathematics. Older children attend more advanced schools, studying specific topics such as public speaking and writings of the great Lotharic intellects. Girls do not usually attend these schools as they are able to get married from age 12, where boys wait until 14.
Girls are only allowed to learn reading and writing while boys receive lessons in honourability and physical training to prepare them for a man’s role in society. Girls from rich families receive a home education to learn how to be a good wife and run a good household, with tasks such as music, sewing and the running of a kitchen.
A school week is seven days with no weekend. However there are many school religious holidays, along with market days which means school closure, and even a summer holiday.
Religion
Faith of the Two Suns
Faith of the Two Suns, also known as the Lotharic Faith, is a henotheistic religion and the state-cult of Lotharia. The faith is centred around the primary deity "the Deified Sun", usually simplified to "Solis", the superior of all deities, which is represented by the primary sun of the planet. He is the god of time, generation, dissolution, abundance, wealth and agriculture. "The Sun Goddess", usually simplified to "Solana" is represented by the lesser sun, and is the wife of the Deified Sun and the personification of the dawn. There exists three other chief deities, each represented by the three moons of the planet, one appearing at night, one in the evening, and one during the day. There exists a vast number of minor deities associated with the distant stars in the skies, and several nature deities, represented by things such as storms, rivers, mountains or animals. For example, the Bleak-Wind Mountains are believed to be the realm of "Desoris", god of desolation and sterility, whereas bodies of water are represented by Maris, god of rivers, springs, and waters.
List of Deities
- Solis, the Deified Sun: God of the Greater Sun, Chief Deity.
- Solana, the Sun Goddess: Goddess of the Lesser Sun, Secondary Deity.
- Laris, God of the Underworld: represented by the largest of the three moons of the planet, only appearing at night. Brother of Solis.
- Alessana, Goddess of the second of the three moons. Appears during the day. Daughter of Solis and Solana.
- Manis, God of the third moon. Appears briefly in the evening on the horizon. Son of Solis and Solana.
- Desoris, God of the Bleak-Wind Mountains, Desolation and Sterility.
- Maris, God of Rivers, Springs, and Waters.
- Nemeus, Lesser God of the Forests.
- Nemessa, Primary Goddess of the Forests.
Ecclesiarch of the Faith of the Two Suns
The Ecclesiarch of the Faith is the most important and most powerful position in the religion. A council of the highest-ranking Prelates elect the Ecclesiarch, usually from among their own ranks, although there have been notable exceptions. Despite wielding substantial influence, the Ecclesiarch is still controlled by the king. The Faithful Council of Prelates is subordinate to the king and usually elects the king's preferred candidate for Ecclesiarch. The Ecclesiarch who is elected gives up his name, as the Faith believes that the Ecclesiarch no longer has any need of a man’s name, since he has become the avatar of the gods.