The End and a New Beginning
Copyright© 2025 by REP
Prologue
The End and a New Beginning addresses many facets of life in the Empire. The different facets that would be helpful to understand are mentioned at times, however the facets may not be described in sufficient detail to understand some of the scenes.
I decided to add this Prologue to describe some of the facets of life in my fictional Empire that are necessary to understanding the story. The Prologue provides information about the Characters, Geography, Geopolitical Environment, Commerce, Taxes, and the Military-Political Aspects in which the story is set.
Characters
The interaction between characters in this story is based on how I believe the peasants would interact with the different social levels of the nobility, and how the different social levels of the nobility would interact with each other.
Titles of the nobility, names of geopolitical holdings, and modes of address are based on information I acquired on the Internet. I have limited myself to four levels of nobility: Emperor, King, Duke, and Earl; although the titles used for spouses and children are also used. For Peasants (i.e. the common man), I sometimes refer to them by their profession.
Nobles
I limited nobles to Emporer, King, Duke, Earl, and terms associated with family members (e.g Viscount and Lady).
I a few cases, I addressed people as ‘My Lord’, mainly castle staff even if they weren’t members of the nobility. There is a class of people below Nobility and above typical peasants who serve the nobility in positions of power and respect. So my mode of respect was flexible.
Geography
The names used to identify characters, rivers, lakes, mountains, cities, villages, geopolitical areas, and similar things are fictitious.
I visualize the geographical setting of the story to be in the area currently known as the northern and central portions of Germany. In the story, this area is referred to as the Empire of Stoner. The size of the Empire is not addressed by the story. The Empire is divided into Kingdoms by the Emperor. Only three Kingdoms are mentioned in the story.
The Kingdoms in the story are: Acuff, Vroman, and Fortan. Acuff is to the west of Vroman and Fortan is to the east of Vroman.
Acuff’s southern border extends as far south as Hanover and as far north as Flensburg. Its western border extends west to Bremen and east to Hamburg.
Vroman’s southern border extends as far south as Hanover and as far north as Flensburg and the Baltic Sea. Its western border extends west to Hamburg (i.e., the border of Acuff) and east to Schwerin.
Fortan’s southern border extends as far south as Magdeburg and northern border extends to the Baltic Sea. Its western border extends to Schwerin (i.e. the border of Vroman) and its eastern border extends to about fifteen miles east of Rostock.
Each Kingdom is divided by its King into Duchies that are ruled by Dukes. The typical Duchy is approximately 1000 square miles in size. Each Duchy’s Duke divides their Duchy into Earldoms that are ruled by Earls. The Emperor, Kings, Dukes, and Earls also have a region where their castle is located from which they rule directly
Geopolitical Environment
Throughout the Empire, there are disagreements, conflicts, and war between and within the Kingdoms. It is extremely rare for two Empires to go to war with each other. However, war within a Kingdom, or war between two Kingdoms, or war with local bandits is common.
The Emperor is an old man and during his reign of 40+ years he has learned many lessons. The main lesson he has learned is to not get involved in the conflicts that occur within the Empire when they do not affect the stability of the Empire. The Emperor has learned that a war between two Kingdoms is usually resolved by a peace treaty or by one Kingdom conquering the other and the winner assimilating and merging the two Kingdoms.
The Emperor knows that when a Kingdom becomes too large for the King to manage there will be conflict within the Kingdom. Usually, that conflict takes the form of a group of Dukes forming a coalition and revolting against the King. The revolt ends in the formation of a new Kingdom or the replacement of the revolting Dukes and Earls. The Emperor does not interfere.
The same types of problems occur within a Kingdom, Duchy, and Earldom. The King, Duke, or Earl cannot ignore the problems. The King must maintain control of his Dukes, and they must maintain control of their Earls.
It is common for there to be animosity between neighboring Kingdoms and neighboring Duchies and Earldoms of neighboring Kingdoms. The animosity can result in a war between the two Kingdoms or between the Duchies (or Earldoms). The situation is often resolved by a peace treaty between the Kingdoms (or Earldoms) and the two Kings (or Earls) disciplining their respective subjects.
Commerce
The Empire is predominantly an agrarian region. Farmers raise crops and domestic animals and then sell their products to their Earl, a tradesman, or a neighbor. There is some commerce in handmade products. These products are typically sold to a tradesman or a neighbor.
Commerce within the Empire is monitored within each of the Empire’s Earldoms. In each Earldom, the Earl’s Tax Collector uses historical data to project the next year’s gross income from the farmers, tradesmen, those who produce handmade merchandise, and raise domestic animals for sale to include their byproducts. The Tax Collectors adjust their predictions for trends in recent weather and other factors.
When the Earl purchases the products produced by the people of the Earldom, the Earl’s Seneschal manages his business affairs. The merchandise the Seneschal buys for his Earl is sold or bartered to the local or distant tradesmen.
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