Introduction to the Duchy of Wessex

[Azzerhoden Razeri]

Found an error on page 14.

"The chain of command is thus: The Duke, Constable, Warden/Admiral,
Commander/Commodore, Captain, Marshal/Forester/First-Mate,
lieutenant/mate,Serjeant Major, First Serjeants, Serjeants, Armsman"

But besides that, it's a perfectly good little introductory guide.

Thank you Randver, Fixed this. Also stripped out the first use of the word 'experienced' which we discussed yesterday.

[Azzerhoden Razeri]

Page 3

I believe the following is a limitation to a landed knight's recruitment abilities that was introduced by the KoW regime. Whether it should be kept or not would be up for the current cabinet to decide.

Page 4

Not all Lords are Magnates. I'd replace the following with "Lords (Nobility)"

Can also remove the multi-game related stuff

I stripped that awful power grab from the Fiefs section, and updated to Lords (Nobility). Question on the following section under fiefs:

The Duke and his cabinet retain the right to summarily exile any resident.

My understanding was that exile required a trial. Cabinet members should not be able to summarily exile anyone, let alone someone from another fiefdom! His Grace, yes. Even then though I believe he would prefer to leave the matter to the lord of that fiefdom, or if absolutely necessary hold a trial first. I think that statement should be re-wrote to:

The Duke retains the right to summarily exile any resident, though preference is always given to the lord of that fief or to normal trial proceedings.

[Azzerhoden Razeri]

Per His Majesty, swapped Ventenar and Centenar back to First Serjeant and Serjeant Major.

[Altus Whyte]

OK, I rewrote that paragraph on page 2 to the following draft:

Sounds good.

I think we should discuss county a bit more, perhaps on teamspeak. There are 25 references to the term county in the doc and generally is used as an RP convention for 'game'. As an example: My reading is that the title gentry travels from game to game with the player, but the title Burgess does not.

The problem is that all these multi-game concepts were created during KoW, when Wessex was a kingdom with multi-game shires, and don't apply to the original Wessex structure. The easiest thing would just be to get rid of em instead of trying to make em fit in.

As for "County," it is just the name of one of the feudal-tiers that a hyperion shire can be (barony, viscounty, county, marquisate, duchy). As far as the term goes, only "shire" should be used when speaking of the different clans of Hyperion (unless the shire in question actually is a county).

Knight's fees are an exception to this, since they fall below baronies, and don't count as shires (even if sworn directly to the king? will have to check with brando).

So yeah, I'd say the whole county section has to be removed, since it directly conflicts with Hyperion royal structure. Perhaps rename it to "Colony", like we had the colony of Nave. Bailiff being renamed to Governor. Colonies aren't at all mentioned in Hyperion structure, so it shouldn't be a problem.

As to the shire section, add that "the duchy of wessex is a shire of the hyperion kingdom"

[Altus Whyte]

My understanding was that exile required a trial. Cabinet members should not be able to summarily exile anyone, let alone someone from another fiefdom! His Grace, yes. Even then though I believe he would prefer to leave the matter to the lord of that fiefdom, or if absolutely necessary hold a trial first. I think that statement should be re-wrote to:

There is no law that requires trials in general. Freemen and gentlemen are given the right to assize trials when it comes to fines assigned by royal courts. Freemen/gentlemen are also given the right to judgement by their peers when there are no laws on the matter at hand.

Carta Solis:

18. Any serf or vagabond of any shire may be distrained upon by the Crown and immediately exiled if such is found by the Crown to be in the interest of the realm at large. No freeman or gentleman shall be executed, or disseized, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed-nor will we go upon or send upon him, save by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
21. For a trivial offence, a free man shall be fined only in proportion to the degree of his offence, and for a serious offence correspondingly, but not so heavily as to deprive him of his livelihood. In the same way, a merchant shall be spared his merchandise, and a serf the implements of his serfdom, if they fall upon the mercy of a royal court. None of these fines shall be imposed except by the assessment on oath of between three and six reputable men of the neighbourhood of the accused who shall be chosen by the sheriff and called as a jury of assize.

There is really nothing that prevents the kicking of a member by the shire leadership. If a member is exiled from the whole kingdom, that judgement can always be appealed to royal courts.

Technically all fiefs and vassals of Wessex would fall under the jurisdiction of wessex law. The duke and the chancellor would be the two with the power to make shire-level judgements.

As a general policy it would make sense for the duchy to let the fiefs manage their own members as much as possible, but if the fief members start causing trouble that goes outside the fief, shire-judgments could be made.

Your version seems good.

[Vanzan Vega]

The definitions for Armati and Hobiler are reversed in the PDF. Hobiler is light, Armati is heavy.

[Sir Levald Aurelius]

On a new note we'll need to start reviewing this with an eye on CoE to better fit them together. Many of our existing roles are part of the game mechanics already, though with a few differences.

[Manus Dei]

Our territories are very large, and we have a lot of space to fill. A duchy supports 11000 people. Even granted that some are NPCs, we are going to need to start a heavy recruitment drive.

[Azzerhoden Razeri]

Updated Intro document uploaded, replacing previous version. Revision history at the end of the document