Part I - Overview
Kaldor is a feudal kingdom in the eastern interior of Harn,
ruled by King Caldeth (formerly the Earl of Vemionshire) from the castle in the
royal city of Tashal. Like most feudal kingdoms, it at least pretends to hold to
the ideals of chivalry and feudalism. In a feudality, all land is owned by the
King, and as Kaldor has no "free cities" pretty much every square foot
of land is the King's to parcel out as he sees fit. Of course, much of that work
was done decades or even centuries ago, so that much of modern day Kaldor's land
has been held by the same families and temples for ages. In his royal city,
Tashal, freemen are permitted to own and build houses.. But the land is still
technically the Crown's, and tenants may be evicted at the King's will if they
should commit a serious enough breach of His law. This is much the same in the
other towns and cities of the kingdom.
In the countryside, land is held by tenants-in-chief put in
place by the King or his predecessors and their underlings in a process known as
subinfeudation.
Kaldor has a fine tradition of trade, being a terminus for
several caravan routes and having a sizeable enough population to support a
flourishing business infrastructure.
If the kingdom has one major drawback it is a lack of
tolerance. Kaldor has seen fit to outlaw several faiths and frowns upon a couple
others as well. The vast majority of wealth, land, and property is held by
members of, or friends of, the Laranian and Halean faiths, which are the
dominant faiths of Kaldor's free classes. The esoteric and often blatant
religions of Morgath, Naveh and Agrik are all proscribed in Kaldor.. worship of,
sometimes even mere suspicion of worship of, being punishable by death.
Part II - The King's Commonlaw
This is the basic set of laws governing all the King's
subjects. The law should not be thought of as a static thing, it has been and
probably will be an evolving set of regulations and laws as new needs arise. At
one point there was only Vendetta Law, an archaic and somewhat crude set of
basic principles whereby a person could often evade punishment by making
financial restitution or "in-kind" restitution for damages they
inflicted.
That type of law is slowly being replaced by a "common
law" form of justice where each individual is treated the same regardless
of status, though it is not quite reached that level of efficiency yet, as
Kaldor still has several "special" classes of person.
Examples of the laws currently in-place can be viewed at:
http://www.role-play.net/tashal-watch/law.htm
Or in HarnPlayer, page 26
Certain towns, like Tashal, often have additional bylaws which
should be recognized as well. Although they are not always taken as seriously as
the King's law and those violating such bylaws frequently get off with a fine.
Part III - Social Classes
Kaldor has primarily 3 social classes. The Unfree, Simplefolk,
and Gentlefolk
The above classes are more widely recognized by specific status
however, being either Serf, Freeman, or Noble
The Unfree (Serf) - Being bound to the land they work
and not having the freedom to come and go as they please, serfs are on the
lowest rung of Kaldoric Soceity. They do, however, have some advantages over
Freemen. Namely they have a Lord who is duty-bound to protect them from undue
harm and they have relative security and stability in the land they work. In
times of poor economy where the cities may be be suffering from as much as 50%
unemployment, serfs are much better off than their free cousins.
Simple Freemen - Having the right to come and go as they
please, work any legal job they can find, join guilds if they can afford it and
even own businesses, freemen would seem to have it quite good. They are,
however, on their own.. It is their responsibility to provide for their own
security and they shouldnt expect any free lunches. They are also subject to the
king's laws plus any bylaws of the town or city they reside in and depending on
who they are and what they own, may have to pay taxes, guild dues, etc.
Nobility - Also having the right to come and go as they
please and work any legal job they wish are the nobles, they can likewise join
guilds, own businesses, and also have the priviledge of holding land in the
countryside, either directly (tenant-in-chief) or from a higher lord assuming
someone has the land to grant and deems them worthy and capable. The nobles have
several advantages as well, they receive preferential treatment under the law,
may bear whatever arms they wish, and are entitled to vigorously (and sometimes
violently) defend their reputations or honor against any commoner who treads
upon them.