Brythalia: One of the Eleven Kingdoms. Brythalia's political and economic structure is heavily based on the feudal system. Brythalia has more titled nobles than the rest of the Eleven Kingdoms combined, though the average fiefdom is not much more than a manor house and a couple of fields.
BRYTHALIA
Capital: Rumular
Government: Monarchy
Ruler: Rubric IV
Population:
Non-Human:
Resources: Foodstuffs, timber, metal ores, maple syrup, naval stores
Currency: Brythal
Slavery: Yes
Fun Facts
Geography
Brythalia is southwest of Darnk. The northeastern frontier is ill-defined and largely unguarded. A unclaimed wilderness of approximately thirty to forty leagues along the River Longwash separates Brythalia from Darnk. Northern Brythalia is hilly and heavily forested, with oak, ash, elm, birch, and maple, mingled with cedar, fir and pine. According to legend, this region was the primal plant nursery where The Gods developed all the different kinds of trees. This makes no sense whatsoever, but it is a point of pride for Brythalians. This region is sparsely populated, dotted with logging camps, trading posts, and small settlements. Logs are floated down the Longwash to Lake Brythal. Farther west along the northern frontier is a desolate region that was once the realm of Terrengia.
East of Brythalia the Hammerperk Mountains run north to south. The adjoining highlands flank the Brythalian lake district, characterized by numerous small lakes, rivers and streams. This well-irrigated region of rich farmland comprises the eastern half of the realm. South of the lakes is a hilly wilderness, beyond which lies Zastria. The western half of Brythalia is also rich farmland, a broad plain nourished by the Longwash. Brythalia borders Raelna to the southwest and Orphalia in the northwest.
Central Brythalia is dominated by Hamric's Mire, the largest freshwater swamp in the Eleven Kingdoms, infested with needleflies and alligators. The area was previously rich farmland, before the collapse and flooding of the Big Ditch in 942 AH that formed the mire.
Brythalia claims a narrow strip of land running through the highlands southeast of the kingdom's main territory to the sea. This Brythalian Corridor is secured by a chain of forts and is a secondary trade route to the sea.
Climate
Government
Brythalia is an hereditary monarchy with an extensive feudal system. The monarchy is stronger than the nobles mainly because there are so many nobles and most of their fiefdoms are relatively small. Selling titles is an important source of revenue for the Brythalian crown. The Royal College of Heralds is charged with inventing new degrees, orders, and titles to keep the brythals flowing, which has led to significant title inflation. All but the most traditional titles are not widely recognized outside Brythalia.
Economy
Brythalia has rich farmland and forests and abundant mineral wealth, but the kingdom is perpetually in debt, going back to the massive loans taken out to pay for the failed canal to the sea and the construction of the war fleet. Constant internal wars, the Annual War with Raelna, and conflicts with other neighbors further sap the kingdom's finances. As a consequence, Brythalians are more heavily taxed than the people of any other realm.
Brythalians of all ranks are subjected to a multitude of taxes: they are taxed for each door, window, and chimney in their homes. They pay the shoe tax, bare feet tax, goat tax, spoon tax, wart tax, freckle tax, egg tax, bucket tax, and several thousand other quite inventive taxes. Most local lords charges tolls to use their roads and bridges, or to enter and depart their towns and territories. Tariffs are also levied on goods bought, sold, or transported by land or river. All of this makes commercial development and trade outrageously expensive and inefficient, contributing to Brythalia's relative backwardness compared to neighboring Raelna, Caratha and Zastria.
In addition to royal taxes, local nobles lay also tax their subjects, both for their own account and to pay the taxes nobles owe to the royal treasury and their own liege lords.
Brythalia produced timber, naval stores, various ores and minerals (tin, iron, copper), rough cloth, maple syrup, and decent brandy.
Military
Brythalia's many nobles spend most of their time and energy fighting each other and attempting to enlarge their domains. The traditional campaigning season opens in the spring with small skirmishes in the month of Greenstart, followed by local wars in Windery. By tradition, after Feast of Fibbletoss, a national truce is declared and the nobles join forces for the Annual War with Raelna.
Recent kings have made greater use of drafted debtors, criminals, and landless men and hired mercenaries to create a small standing army, used mainly for border defense, rather than relying entirely on fee service and the levy. Soldiers of the King's Army wear brown uniforms.
In 990 AH, King Rubric IV assembled a large mercenary army with which to supplement his forces.
History
In 928 King Hamric ordered construction of a canal from Lake Brythal to the Indigo Sea.
In 942 the Big Ditch collapsed and flooded central Brythalia, creating Hamric's Mire, which now divided the kingdom roughly in half. King Hamric was deposed by his brother Hadric the Tolerably Eccentric.
Principal Settlements
Fiefs:
Bricksham, County of
Trothgar, Barony of
Cities:
Towns:
Villages:
Principal rivers:
Rulers of Brythalia
Hamric the Half-Mad
Hadric the Tolerably Eccentric
Rubric III
Rubric IV
Brythalian titles, in rough order of precedence, include:
Overduke
Grander Duke
Grand Duke
Duke
Nearduke
Underduke
Marquess
Supermarquette
Marquette
Minimarquette
Earl++
Earl+ / Overcount
Earl / Count
Earlet / Undercount
Viscount
Miscount
Archbaron
Overbaron
Grand Baron
Baron
Underbaron
Peer
Baronet
Overlord
Lord
Lordling
Seigneur
Knight Commander
Knight Banneret
Knight
Sub-Knight
Steward
Master
Squire
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