The Feudal System and Ages

First and foremost, let's have a quick discussion about Feudalism. Historically, Feudalism was essentially a system of government that arose out of The Dark Ages out of the shadow of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. It was based around a tenuous balance between the nobility and kings.

However, the power of the King was generally kept in check by the fact that these nobles; Especially ones with land(vassals) had their own personal armies and money to throw around. This meant that despite the King's right to rule based on divine circumstance or blood rights. Their rule was not absolute and vassals expected their liege to treat them fairly and abide by the law. This is contrary to popular belief that the King's rule was absolute that has been instilled in us by many films and shows. In reality this was much less the norm until The Renaissance when professional armies paid for by the King made it possible for them to whittle their Vassals rights down to almost nothing.

For a visual explanation, here is a nice image that i found online

That's all nice and all, but I'm not really expecting a 100% accurate portrayal of feudal life. I'm using a simplified version that's based on the Crusader Kings II system. Whether it's accurate or not, it's easy to use and that's the important part for broad involvement. The basic idea is this. There are four tiers of nobility that are named based on what type of government they have and how far up the political food chain they are. In a formal setting and even some more relaxed settings, the person's title is said first, followed by their first name. For example: Countess Marie, Count Deekan, Duke Ducal, etc. In less formal settings, the higher title may drop the lower person's title. For example if a count and king were having dinner, the king may say "Hey Robert", but the count must use King, or Your Majesty. Your Highness is used when addressing a prince and Lord/Lady is used to address an unlanded noble. That is- a noble without any major title. Sir(or Ser)/Dame(or Lady) is used for Knights

So what are the different major titles?

For feudal rulers the titles go: Baron, Count, Duke, King, Emperor.

Barons tend to rule over a relatively small estate with a simple castle. Counts rule over whole counties and may have multiple Barons as vassals. Dukes rule over entire regions of counties and may have multiple counts as vassals. kings, of course rule over whole kingdoms. Emperors can reign over multiple Kingdoms. There are currently no known or described Emperors in Motania. Although there is the general idea for a Far East Empire to appear at some point. These titles can also have cultural names. So an Earl could be the cultural name of a distant kingdom's Count-level titles or a Jarl could be the cultural name of a distant kingdom's Dukedom-tier title.

People can go up in rank by gaining or conquering land and proclaiming themselves as the higher title or they can go down if they lose land. Also while losing your realm somehow is listed as a "Loss Condition". Don't be so quick to end the story if there's a chance that the dynasty could get back into power. Political maneuvering can be quite saucy sometimes and...well, this is a site for sexy stories.

Ages:

(created by SonOfDusk)

In Motania, time is kept track of differently than in the real world. There's no BC or AD or CE or whatever preface that you wish to use. Obviously the world events that transpire are different from ours, so why would they be based on the same thing?

Instead the date is divided into different ages depending on the state of the realms. There are four ages in total that derive from these states.

Age of Strive

Loose term for intermediate period of factions at war, usually after a larger scale empire fell down under its own weight. The Age of Strive and the Age of the Empire might bounce back and forth. Their warring nature usually comes with a decline in knowledge and an increased likelihood of devastating disease.

Age of Kingdoms

Period, in which certain power structures are build and start to reach the end of their first stage of the development. Kingdoms have divided the land into spheres of influence, and they may or may not be at the edge of wars with other kingdoms. Alliances, via marriage usually, increase the size of kingdoms generation after generation while they slowly reach a state of equilibrium.

Age of The Empire

Driven by different developments, usually economic or ideologic, the Kingdoms are formed into an all-encompassing empire.

Age of Decay

While slowly collapsing under its own weight, the Empire slowly descends into decadence and squabbles between different factions.

Obviously this system isn't that great on a global scale as each individual nation would have a different Age descriptor. However, this is a world where the eastern and western part of the world barely know of each other. So there isn't really any standardization of time in this world yet. These periods of times cycle over many years and a nation could have a Second or Third Age of Kingdoms while another part of the world is in their First Age of The Empire. It's all a matter of perspective.