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Please note that much or all of this page is currently in what we are calling “Bullet Draft” format, i.e. it’s not been fully written out but we’ve listed the ideas we’re working with in bullet-list form. We will be fleshing these out further and turning them into proper paragraph prose at some point in the coming year, but we wanted to put the lore out for players to read before the first event, even if it’s not as polished as we’d like it. Any sections here that are in bullet list format are not final and are subject to change, though hopefully only small adjustments will be needed between this and the final version.

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Overview

• Marchers are generally fairly law-abiding and respectful of authority.
• They respect the hierarchy that they live in, though, and not necessarily the people in it; the Marcher tendency to view slights and offenses against them applies just as much to their liege lords as it does to people outside of their hierarchy.
• Bad leaders will often find their vassals acting with malicious compliance or entirely voiding their oath of fealty, and it’s considered a very bad sign if a noble has consistently high churn in the vassals working for them.
• Lords are forbidden from Denouncing their vassals, but vassals are allowed to Denounce their liege if there is a good reason for it, which keeps the balance of power from falling entirely in the lord’s favor.
• Good leaders inspire fervent, almost religious devotion — there is something about the Marcher personality that makes them feel somehow more complete when they have a deep faith in their leader’s capabilities.
• With regards to the law in general, Marchers usually follow it, but their passion and tendency to believe that they know what’s right can sometimes lead them to believe that the law is wrong, at least in their circumstance, and thus that they have good reason to ignore and/or break it.
• Consequences for breaking the law are almost always either fines or (for the worst crimes) the death penalty; there is no middle-ground in Rivermark, where debts and wrongdoing have so much in common culturally.
• Lately there has been a new initiative to have fines be adjudicated on a sliding scale based on how much wealth the offender has to offer, rather than based on the traditional weregild system that only took into account the offense and the status of the victim(s).

Government

Rivermark’s government is a centralized absolute monarchy, supported by a relatively weak aristocracy who manage the Kingdom’s lands and a cadre of armed Knights who act as enforcers of the Crown’s law and defenders of the nation’s people.

The Crown

The Kingdom is led by a monarch, referred to as a King or simply as “the Crown” regardless of their gender. The Crown’s power is remarkably broad, with the ability to command the nation’s armies, depose nobles, change laws, and levy taxes, all without significant formal checks. However, it’s not uncommon for noble Houses who have been insulted or taken advantage of by an unwise Crown to levy a Denunciation against the monarch, who must then either justify their decision in the court of public opinion or admit to being dishonorable, which rapidly erodes their power base and can lead to them being deposed by one of their Princes. This vulnerability ensures that the Crown is always careful to tend to their power base and avoid taking hasty or unpopular actions, as the only real defense should they be Denounced is to have an iron-clad case that their actions were honorable, just, and intended for the betterment of the Kingdom.

The Redcrown line of Kings has, against all historical expectations, managed to maintain power over the Kingdom for its entire millennia-and-a-half history, though the dynasty has long since lost any trace of its originators’ actual bloodline. The Redcrowns have so far navigated the civil wars and power struggles between the noble families well enough to ensure that the Crown always passed down to one of their chosen successors, even if it was done at the demand of a particularly powerful noble House that was fed up with the current Crown’s behavior.

The current Crown is His Majesty Gregoire Brousseau MacBànach Leblanc of House Grìfonais ap Redcrown, second child of the previous Crown, and former Knight Errant with a decade of patrolling the Kingdom under his belt before he ascended the throne on his mother’s death. He is known for his gruff manner and intolerance for conniving or honeyed words, for sponsoring the construction of the Talla-Togailen school of engineering in Aniar Bogh, and for his kind and understanding manner when dealing with common folk on the yearly Processions he makes through the Kingdom.

Princes

Part of what has made the Redcrown Kings so successful as a dynasty was their decision to ignore the culturally-accepted inheritance rules of primogeniture early on in the dynasty’s history. Instead of the King’s successor being determined by birth, anywhere between two and ten Redcrowns are chosen by the entire Redcrown House to be Princes, and thus in line of succession. The actual voting body that elevates a member to Prince status is known as the Earls’ Council, and all of its members hold the honorary title of Earl. Membership in the Council, is determined by three generations of matrilineal descent from a Crown or their sibling, i.e. if someone’s maternal grandmother was the child of a Crown or one of their siblings, they gain the title of Earl and have a say in who the nation’s Princes will be. The Earls meet (or send representatives to the Council) every year in the royal palace in the Rivermark; mostly these meetings are family get-togethers, but sometimes they turn into very serious political tussles as various members lobby for or against someone being named as a Prince.

Though most Princes are chosen from amongst the Redcrown line, sometimes the Earls’ Council chooses to “adopt” a promising Baron or Knight who has proven themselves both undeniably honorable and extremely capable. This usually happens once or twice every generation, and ensures that the Redcrown line never gets as stagnant and insular as many other noble houses have tended to over the centuries. There is also a tradition of always having at least one Prince from a royally-connected Cairnfolk Clann and Rivelin House, to ensure that both peoples feel that they have a stake in the monarchy.

There is no set number of Princes, though the total has never exceeded ten and the Earls Council is quick to ensure that there are at least two Princes in the line of succession at all times. Once chosen as Prince, someone only holds the title for ten years — the Redcrowns believe that to do otherwise would be to remove the young and vital from the throne, and thus lead to their eventual decline. This ensures that there is a regular churn of Princes over the years, as Princes lose the title and new ones are named in their stead. A Prince’s actual place in the line of succession is dictated by the Crown, or by their seniority as a Prince if the Crown has not chosen a successor when they pass away.

The current Princes are Màili Leblanc Gòrdanach of House MacMorrigan ap Redcrown, a skilled strategist who has made a name for herself by winning two of the past three Guerre de Bâtons, and Julien MacBànach Lycònette of House Grìfonais ap Redcrown, a Scrivener who has earned considerable respect for his combination of political acumen and magical talent. With the onset of a new Churning, there is a lot of speculation that the Earls’ Council will be appointing at least one new Prince in the coming years — the previous Churning led to a number of deaths among the Princes, so many in the Kingdom think it only prudent to build up the line of succession a bit more.

The Nobility

• Nobility in Rivermark is (in theory) a transient thing.
• Ducal and Comtal Houses serve at the pleasure of the Crown, and can have their ruling privilege and noble title revoked if they act dishonorably (or at least are caught acting dishonorably) or otherwise perform below the Crown’s expectation in managing their lands.
• The Ducal Houses
• Viscounts and landed Barons serve at the pleasure of their liege lords, and can have the title to their lands revoked should they fail to properly perform their duties or bring dishonor upon their lord’s House.
• Land-holding noble Houses are very aware that their position, prosperity, and power base depends on the goodwill of their superiors.
• There is also a deep-seated culture of noblesse-oblige running through the oldest landed Houses, a belief that they have a duty to care for their people and vassals.
• Combined this makes for much less churn amongst the land-holding Houses than one might expect — nobles who act in a way that puts their House’s position in jeopardy are swiftly removed from power or even removed from the House entirely, replaced by someone who will perform their duties well and with honor.
• The actual powers of a landed House are management of the laws and law-enforcement of their territories, control over (and responsibility for training and equipping) a defensive militia and/or professional fighting force to protect their holdings, and the ability to grant demesnes (businesses or tracts of agricultural land that produce income, pronounced the same as “domains”) to their vassals in order to pay for goods and services.
• What they do not have control over is the actual act of taxation — though nobles can impose taxes on their people, the Crown is the one that run the Kingdom’s tax collection service, divvying out tax revenue to the nobles based on what it collects from their lands.
• This serves two purposes: it prevents local tax collectors from becoming corrupt far from the eyes of royal authority, and it means that the Crown has both a solid understanding of how much the nobles are extracting from their people and a firm grip on the leash that is the nobles’ income.
• Whenever a noble House starts increasing taxes to an onerous level, the Crown always investigates; if there isn’t a very good reason for it, high tax rates are one of the most reliable way for a noble House to provoke the Crown into revoking their landed title.
• The Crown’s overarching goal when dealing with and managing the nobility is to maintain internal stability, prosperity, and security throughout the Kingdom — any noble who threatens any of those three things risks the Crown’s position at the head of the nation, and this the Crown will not tolerate.

The Barons

• Barons, Lairds, and Baronets are the lowest level of nobility, landed or otherwise, and the one most frequently made up of common-born Marchers.
• A Baronet becoming a landed Baron or Laird involves impressing a Viscount, Count, or Duke with their aptitude, either for managing people and/or money or for their ability to lead a fighting force.
• Management skills make a noble valuable as an administrator to grow their liege’s tax base and keep their lands safe, happy, and prosperous.
• Higher nobles need military commanders and warriors with their own sworn Lances to fill out their territory’s defensive forces, and granting them a tax base of their own binds them to their liege and gives them the funding to maintain their fighters without the liege needing to spend their own coin.
• Barons are the nobles that the majority of Marchers deal with most frequently, the ones administering a town or city or a swathe of agricultural or wilderness territory.
• They vary wildly in their approach to nobility; some seek to be salt-of-the-earth types and stay close to their common-born roots to maintain a rapport with their people, while others dive into the lifestyle and fashion choices of the nobility in an attempt to prove themselves worthy of a higher rank in the noble hierarchy.
• Baronets are the least nobility in the Kingdom, leading a House but lacking any territory granted by the Crown.
• They hold only limited political power on their own; what power they can claim comes from either wealth, reputation, numbers, or a combination of the three.
• Wealthy Houses are seen as being some of the most valuable assets in a noble’s territory; if they have a strong preference regarding policy, they often get at least a hearing from their liege before a decision is made.
• Reputation is gained for great feats or consistently dependable capability, and each has its own use within a noble’s vassals as a landed Baron.
• Finally, if a House has managed to recruit a large number of members and maintain them in good order and prosperity, that in itself is a quality that many nobles look for their in their vassals — managing that many Marchers and doing it in a way that keeps the House’s fortunes on the upswing is no mean feat, and speaks well of the Baron in charge, not to mention the value of having so many extra vassals to help a noble deal with problems as they arise.

Leadership Positions

• There are three general paths to power in Rivermark: military command, knighthood, and House leadership.
• Hierarchical advancement is not the only path to power — earning large amounts of money or building up a massive level of renown while remaining unaffiliated with the landed Houses is also a way of grasping a form of soft power.
• However, for those who seek lawful positions of power in the Kingdom, climbing the ranks of the Nobility is the primary means of advancement.
• Military command often requires either knighthood or being a Baron first, so many view it as a second step rather than a first.
  • Those who lead a Lance of fighters and can distinguish themselves in battle — usually the Guerre de Batons, but tourneys or any other combat or skirmishes that occur in and around the Kingdom will work — in order to impress a higher noble and be offered an oath of fealty.
  • Once that is accomplished, it becomes a matter of repeatedly showing their mettle and capability, to the point that higher officials in the Kingdom notice and seek to recruit them to their banner.
  • Eventually this process culminates in a position as a Marquis, serving the Crown directly as a commander of the royal armed forces.
  • In the meantime the commander is often a landed noble themselves, tied to a piece of land and entrusted with all the normal powers that go along with being a part of the nobility.
• Knighthood is similar to military command, but depends much more on a show of personal capability and honorable judgement.
  • Once a Knight achieves their title, they can begin to work for the Crown, earning renown and raising their status that way, or seek membership in a House to begin acting as either a leader of fighting forces or as an administrator and adjudicator, climbing the ladder of Rivermark society whichever way works best for them.
• Baronets who seek to climb the ladder must focus on proving themselves and their House, earning renown and showing their individual and collective abilities to those above them in hope of elevation to higher status.
  • This requires steady and reliable performance in whatever the House does, as little internal instability as possible, and seeking out opportunities to show the best of the House’s capabilities.
  • Poor leaders who cannot manage their House well do not gain advancement in Rivermark.
  • Neither do those who are content to coast and maintain the status-quo, except perhaps to a fairly low-level management of a Barony somewhere.
  • Advancement goes to those Houses and Baronets who earn renown in times and situations both stressful and boring — if they cannot manage both, they are much less likely to gain the recognition needed to advance into the higher levels of the nobility.