The Unified Kingdom, and account of Arthean History following Unification

This book is compiled by Vitus Antonus, Senior Scribe of History at the Imperial Library in Mercunum, from the writings of himself and Bartol Dusept of the Imperial Library in Nareth. It describes the earliest days of Arthea following the unification and times leading up to the end of the first Ticetian King.

Introduction

The history recorded here is an account of the earliest days of Arthea from the crowning of Thomas Usindus as King Thomas through to the end of he house of Usindus and the imposition of an unpopular Ticetian monarch, Robert Lannenhart. This was a period of upheaval and change for all the kingdoms, but was also the time when trade rather than warfare became the way to wealth and glory. Robert is a much maligned king, but some of his small achievements have proved of huge benefit to our nations as we have grown.

We begin our account as King William of both Ticetia and Caldonacia is defeated in battle by Emperor Thomas II who took both the vacant crowns for himself. This had never been part of the original war plans, but was, from his perspective, an helpful and opportune happening. The Empire had entered into the war in the first place to quell the power of the Ticetians, and here they had done it fighting alongside the Caldonacians. William died in 1340, and the Imperial army marched through and conquered Caldonacia and Ticetia by the end of 1341.

Three Crowns become One Crown

To the Imperials, this was had always seemed unusual; in both the course it took and the opponent faced, it was different to the fighting that had taken place through history. Caldonacia was an occupied nation, it had been cut to pieces by the Ticetians, who had, during the build up to that war, conscripted thousands of men from that land. As the Empire had marched northwards, they had been met in battle by units of Ticetian army who were ill prepared and unenthusiastic for the fight. The also ran into small groups of deserters willing to switch sides and fight alongside the Imperials. Even prisoners of war captured from the real battles would openly turn the tables and fight on behalf of their former enemies.

When the victory was assured, Thomas was keen to see that these people were treated fairly. But at the same time there was no open heir to the throne of either Caldonacia or the defeated Ticetia. Even at the point of victory, Thomas had not considered that this situation could have arisen. He had political issues with expanding the Empire - his own nobles baulked at the idea as the size of these two northern kingdoms, especially Ticetia, would create an imbalance of power among the nations of the south. Ticetia was at least as big, in terms of population, as any two of the imperial nations. And while Caldonacia was smaller, it was not hugely so.

Another solution was needed, and one that didn't involve months of searching for the rightful heirs who could then turn out to be enemies of the Empire too. Appointing a new King for each nation, outside the normal line of succession was an option considered. The proposed solution, however, appealed to Thomas' ego, and a new kingdom was created. The only hurdle in the way was one of administration, especially in Ticetia where the nobles were past masters in political inaction and knew just how to prevent a kingdom from functioning. They had no way to raise an army of their own, but from the earliest days of the Unified nation, they established barrier after barrier to the reforms that Thomas wanted to make.

Gaining Political Control

The first attempt to bring those Ticetian nobles to Thomas' court was through a Senate, which was a simple copy of the political structure in the Empire. He established one each at Cellam and at Callow, and called upon the nobles from Count and Earl upwards to send a representative each, or to attend themselves. This chamber had a margin of success in Caldonacia, but in Ticetia the thing became a place of argument and brawl as debaters disagreed with each other, it seemed that Ticetians had an eye for sending a debater with physical attributes rather than skills as a politician. Eventually, by late 1343, the Senates were relegated back to status of the traditional Feudal courts in the manner that has existed for centuries. Nobles became courtiers, and appeared when they were needed, and the business of the King carried by a leader in his absence, or by the King himself whenever he could.

All through this process, Thomas was slowly trying to change the political balance in Ticetia by picking out and removing nobles and replacing them with his own trusted men. It had become difficult to identify who the worst troublemakers were. The nobles were crafty and subtle, and when plots were exposed they closed ranks and would not openly give each other away. And during inquisitions each Ticetian noble seemed eager to please and keen to help the new King. They would remain helpful and subservient until real information was demanded, or real deeds needed to be done.

Where such difficult nobles were replaced, the result was often less successful than would have been hoped. The feudal chain requires the obedience of those in office in the next rank down, and in Ticetia this was seldom forthcoming. As the King himself had experienced, the nobles found they could too easily be thwarted by a consistent failure to comply from all the nobles beneath. While this mess continued, the King began discussions with his Imperial friends and with the Caldonacians about the terms of a new constitution that would lay out the powers afforded to each of these nobles in this new kingdom.

A Land of Discovery

While King Thomas was pushing through his senate reforms, other discoveries were taking place in Arthea. There have been many towers, for example, discovered across Arthea that were buried by land movements or volcanic activity during The Great Disaster, and many have similar traits or had architecture that made them difficult to excavate. One such discovery was made by Dwarfish miners in 1344.

The dwarfs had spent the previous seventy five years constructing a new delve at a place they named Garezkh, which is in the south-eastern spur of the mountain range north of The Bemiris Khinat Delve, and south of the Elfish land of Segellian. The new delve was founded by dwarfs from Bemiris following surveys of the area which showed that the region was rich with natural minerals, especially copper ore and some nickel. During the digging to expose these ores they stumbled across a pre-disaster tower. They knew that the tower probably sat above a site of archaeological interest, probably a town or other pre-disaster settlement because they had encountered similar constructions before. What set this apart, however, was the damage to the lower sections of the tower, making excavation impossible without destroying the exposed upper sections.

What made the discovery more interesting than other similar pre-disaster towers is that this exposed top chamber still carried a faint aura of magic, and its magical seals were still in place. It was probably this magic, the Dwarfs surmised, that had held the top of the tower together over the long years since the disaster occurred. Unusually for dwarfs, they decided that they didn't have enough skill to deal with this tower efficiently. They were very keen to find any treasures that lay hidden inside, but the weak strength of the magic gave the site a special status. They wanted to be sure they could recover treasure rather than destroy it all. They looked further afield, and called upon their human trade partners in Ticetia to help.

When King Thomas received the request, he considered it as a formal diplomatic request, Ticetia had experienced good trade relations with the Bemiris Khinat Delve since the earliest days of human settlement of Ticetia, and they had remained good friends to both the Empire and Ticetia during the recent conflict. He dispatched scribes and historians from The Pale Flame immediately to help. With the correct anti-magic protections set up, the Ticetians soon had the tower opened.

The full details of what was inside were not fully recorded, but reports at the time suggested that some kind of monsters dwelt within, and the dwarfs struggled in their attempt to secure the building. They eventually achieved it, and the mysteries of the towers contents were exposed. There were many small items, especially small trinkets and jewellery, which interested the dwarfs immensely. There was also a set of trinkets that had significance to the human historians working here. A fee was agreed that allowed for the items to be owned by Ticetia, along with some of the surviving furniture (including a cabinet intended to display the artefacts that were recovered) and even some notes that had been found among the treasures in the tower chambers. All the items were eventually put on display in Cellam, where stories about the items were soon invented.

There are three interesting artefacts in the collection. These, as far as we are aware, can still be viewed in Cellam, although the museum is not often opened to the public. The items are a helmet, a ring and a metal staff.

The helmet is made of mithral, and is inset with gold and silver designs. The dwarfs, it seemed, did not find the style of the inlaid metalwork appealing, which is odd considering that the inlays are partly gold. The metal of the helm is unusual in that it is beaten to be very thin, so thin that it could not have been used to provide a protection against weapon blows. It would be far too weak.

The ring is a simple band made of a dark metal. It is darker than iron, but the dwarfs reported that it was very strong. The ring held the faintest trace of a magic it once held, but which has dissipated and the nature of that magic could not be discerned.

It was the metal staff that raised the most eyebrows in the discovery. It is smooth and highly polished with no mark or scratch upon it. According to the reports of those that carried it back to Ticetia, it is very lightweight and feels unusually cold to the touch. Like the ring it is made of a dark metal, but is a little lighter in colour. Set into the end of the staff is piece of polished quartz, too small to be valuable (it is little more than the size of a man's thumb) but cut and cleaned in an interesting shape.

The true nature of these items remains unknown. Any magic they held is long since departed, and none can say if they have any sleeping power wrapped within them. The Pale Flame are responsible for looking after these items and for keeping them secure. King Thomas, it is said, found them all quite fascinating, but had no interest in them beyond their curiosity.

Constitutional Changes

None of the Arthean nations had previously had their constitution written down. The closest that existed was a set of decrees in the Empire that had defined the work of the Senate. And those decrees had taken decades to be right. Ticetian and Caldonacian constitution was at best ad-hoc, and the contract between the King and his nobles, and between nobles and their subordinates, was declared by a promise of loyalty and fealty. This system continued to work in Caldonacia, where the nobles were keen to ensure their nation continued and worked successfully. But, as has been described, the Ticetian nobility would swear allegiance in one breath and be muttering deceit in the next.

By 1345 the King had agreed a way with his trusted senior dukes and princes about how best to deliver control across this huge and wide spread new nation. Unfortunately such an agreement needed teeth too, there was no other way to bring the Ticetians into line, a necessity that would lead to problems later on. In addition to struggles to control the nobles in Ticetia, it was also clear that the peasantry, too, were very close to out and out rebellion, and not just in Ticetia; this was happening across Caldonacia and in pockets around the Imperial kingdoms. Whatever the King did, it also needed to curtail the peasants.

The task of looking at the constitutional arrangements was handed to Leonus Amastus, the Prince of Amastus who was well versed in legal matters. He brought together all the fears that Thomas had, and all the pressure felt by the south by the belligerence of the Ticetian nobles, and wrapped it into a series of decrees. These documents became Royal Decrees, signed by the Kings hand and delivered at the court of Amastus in Mercunum where the seat of the Empire had been for centuries, and where the new King had set his throne. The decrees were immediately prepared for delivery to each of the kingdoms. Once the decrees were made, Thomas headed north to Cellam, where he was prepared to face the Ticetian nobles directly.

The detail of the new constitutional changes were not all that thrilling when looked back upon, although the nobles of Ticetia certainly felt uncomfortable under their new stricter constraints. The peasantry, of course, felt the changes immediately.

To address the threat of uprisings, powers of the local Barons and Viscounts was extended. Not only were they empowered to impose a strict rule of law, it was demanded of them. Imperial citizens could have been hardest hit, they had not been subjected to this kind of tyranny since the days of Emperor Dominus. There were additional short term doctrines imposed about limiting mass gatherings and banning secret societies. The only peasant organisations allowed during the whole of 1346 and the spring and summer of 1347 were professional trade organisations. Military training was also brought in, peasants were given military instruction in the use of pike and spear as a way of indoctrinating their thinking and soaking up their time outside of their working lives.

Despite giving the Barons extra powers, a close eye needed to be kept on the Barons. The roles of the Earl and Count was reviewed and they were given more control over who ran which barony and viscountcy, and control over where barony borders could be drawn. As long as the tax take could support it, they could have as many viscounts and barons as they liked, and they were free create baronies wherever and however they saw fit.

Prior to the decrees, there had been no constitutional powers granted to the monarch of any of the nations - it was assumed that they held absolute power, but there were traditions and responsibilities across all kingdoms that means that this didn't line up. This was now made utterly clear - the decrees ensured that the King's power was without question. And he alone was granted the power to appoint all Dukes and Princes, allowing him full control over who was to join his court and who was not. Prior to the change the feudal Princes often ran the show in their Imperial nations, and now for the first time we saw princes assigned to control Ticetia and Caldonacia, just as had been done in the Imperial Kingdoms for many years. To emphasise his control, the King took the Ticetian seat for himself, hoping it could be used to control his wayward new principality.

As the changes bit deep, the political landscape changed. Political patronage became the order of the day. If a Baron did not provide the necessary bond, then his Earl or Count would simply drop him from office. Being a Baron became very tough. They needed to control their peasantry and get them producing income, without that, their barony would be reallocated, and there could be a lottery over who would come in and take over. This was exactly the effect that the Prince of Amastus had intended when the decrees were drafted. A new profession turned up too - a ruthless Baron that would take over a barony for a year or two, force more and more output from the peasants, squeezing their income to produce the baron's bond, then finally leaving - resigning or withholding any bond long enough to be relieved of duty. They became the leeches of society.

CategoryHistory