Westerland Feudal Traditions

Westerland Feudal Traditions are core concepts of Westerland Society and Culture. Feudalism basically describes a pyramid-shaped government model where someone owns all the land involved in the Feudal society, but grants partial ownership of some of this land "in fief" (an archaic term, meaning that they basically become hereditary-governors on behalf of the actual ruler), but in return, they pay taxes up the chain and must also offer military support when called - in addition, the ruler extends military protection to all below him, and they in turn do the same.

Feudalism in reality, isn't very different from the types of Government we have in the modern-day real-world, but one core concept is different - namely the notion of "nationality". In medieval times, borders changed constantly, and the concept of a Country was not something that was defined until late, and as such, people tended to identify with a culture or with a ruler - typically, a person would derive their nationality through their sovereign ruler - but other core concepts of society, such as taxation, military duties, citizen-status and land ownership were all concepts that, in principal, have remained the same.

Core Concepts of Feudalism
Feudalism can be difficult to wrap your head around, especially because there was almost as many exceptions as there were rules. Of interest to those who already understand Feudalism, is primarily the Westerland Peerage.

Feudalism 101
To speed up your understanding of what a Feudal society works like, see this brief example:
 * Imagine a tribal society spanning a region the size of England (not GB, just England), and then imagine that this tribe likely consists of smaller tribes, that we're going to call "clans" for simplicity, and the clans all feel a sense of cultural similarity with each other. Maybe they speak the same language, believe in the same gods and just have history with each other, often the result of marriage ties to avoid incest.
 * Some years down the line, this tribe gets into trouble with a neighboring tribe, and conflict arises. Or maybe some of the clans cause trouble among themselves, and a large war breaks out internally. In either scenario, one clan-leader rises up and defeats any potential adversaries and claims ruler-ship of the tribe.
 * England, which we agreed to use as a size-comparison for the tribal society, is a large country, so we're understanding that the new Tribe leader cannot physically control this region, but he demands a tribute from those that have surrendered to his power, paid within 7 days of every New Moon, or he attacks those that hold out on him. He further more demands the military support of the other Clans, requiring them to supply him with warriors if he needs this.
 * This sounds like a pretty bad deal, because the other clans will probably just plan to depose him, unless of course he instates Clan Leaders of each clan, that are loyal to him.


 * The Tribe Chief probably had a few clans that were loyal to him already, so what he does is that he takes away many of the warriors from the other Clans, that are not loyal, and takes many of their women and children too, forcing them to live in his lands and forcing the warriors to patrol his borders constantly and work as his lowliest soldiers. Now he has hostages, and he controls the majority of the disloyal military forces.
 * Now he sends a number of his loyal warriors, and their families, to live among the disloyal clans, and he has them rule the disloyal clans. They have weapons and soldiers, but the local families don't really have any of that anymore, and the families he sent will always remain loyal to him, because he gave them a position of power.
 * Later, the Tribal Chief takes advantage of the fact the he controls everything, and has the various shamans declare him to be the rightful ruler, in the eyes of the Gods, and now people cannot deny his right to rule anymore. If they questioned it before, they now have a, to them, legitimate answer to why they have to do what he says, other than not to be punished.

Why is Land so important?
In a modern society where trade and business has become the primary source of income for many individuals, this was not true in the past, and still isn't true in many regions in the real modern world. Food production was alpha and omega in the medieval, and almost everyone grew something, even if they weren't farmers. Almost everyone owned some sort of livestock.

Value of land
Land in itself was worthless in the medieval, but farmable land, lakes, water sources, rivers, creeks, grassy hills, forests with game, minable areas with minerals and metals and finally strategic locations were all extremely important to control in order to exist. In fact, most medieval wars were fought over such land, and millions of people died fighting over it, because it was the key to a better life to control such lands.

Those who directly need it, and those who do not
The average person in a medieval society is going to be, what is typically called a "peasant", which roughly translates to a commoner (not part of the elite). Peasants are usually either farmers or laborers, and farmers obviously require land the most. There are usually more farmers than there are anyone else in a medieval society, though the divide can be fairly close if the nation in question features a large number of big cities - Rome for instance, was so large that feeding the population was totally unsustainable, and the Romans had to capture more land just to keep up the grain production, and ship in food from other regions.

Laborers and city-dwellers typically do not require land to exist, and live an existence of plying a trade, crafting or serving someone who does. Finally, a lot of people are employed in the trade business.

What constitutes land ownership?
The concept of ownership in general is abstract. It is a given to us, in a modern society, that we can own something. Things can be registered in our names, but ultimately, everyone probably owns a number of items, that if taken by someone else, would now effectively just belong to those people, and this is a disturbing concept, because we live in a monetary society where our labor translates into buying power that we exert to obtain material possessions. In a medieval society, ownership was just as tricky if not a worse concept to bear in mind. You couldn't leave your home unattended in the medieval, ever, because if someone was to sneak in and steal something of yours, it was quite simply lost, and you likely couldn't prove that you owned it to begin with.

Ownership today, and always, is enforced by the threat of violence and punishment. If you take something that someone else considers to be theirs, they (or someone on behalf of them) will come after you for it. Today, it's the military and the police that fill that role, but in the past, it was limited what could be done.

Feudalism is based on the concept of protecting ownership, by taking some members of society, naming them warriors and arming them and placing them under the command of a leader who seeks to lay down some rules and enforce them, you have the very basis of a society, where ownership means more than just what an animal considers to be territory.

Before there was law, the only things we had that described ownership were feelings of ownership, and typically these feelings were mirrored in religion, and we used religion as a way to justify why laws should be laws, and because our religion formed the initial basis of our traditions and laws, it was also by virtue of religious approval that most early rulers took dominion over people.

So to summarize, ownership is constituted by possession in a primitive society, or by having armed men stand at the ready to protect what is claimed. A King can grant the right of permanent usage, probably referred to as ownership, to those below him, but in truth, no one owns anything but the King, because the King is the one who enforces the right of ownership, and were someone to leave their possessions, not even the King could reasonably protect an individuals rights to property and ownership - but on the other hand, the King is unlikely to forget where his borders are, and can roughly enforce his personal ownership of everything within.

The Concept of Nationality
Nationality is an easily understood concept in the modern world, but it is truly an abstract concept. In modern times, being born within certain borders, enforced by certain rulers, certain military forces and certain law-enforcement agencies constitutes a sense of belonging to that nation, even though we live in a time where, if permitted, anyone could reasonably relocate to anywhere they wanted and for the most part, live a similar existence. The concept of nationality was fairly late to develop, but it started out by humans discovering each other, and noticing distinct differences in culture, religion, language and social ties. While it sounds xenophobic, it makes perfect sense that people would seek to protect themselves and their own interests from other people who may not respect or understand those interests.

The concept of nationality originally started as a tribal mindset of belonging to the same "people" - of being different and distinct from other humans, and eventually became something much more abstract and complex, but at the core of nationality, we still find the tribal mindset.

In the medieval, people couldn't just up and leave - the majority of people made their living by growing food and driving livestock, so they were bound to the land they had. Many other people depended on natural resources, greatly limiting where they could exist, and this is where our basic need for territory comes from - our inherent inability to survive elsewhere makes ownership of land important enough for us to be willing to form a tribal mentality to protect our rights to exist on said land.

The introduction of money, trade and craftsmanship were concepts that changed the world, because now there was a class of people that didn't necessarily depend on their land for living, and often these people had more power and influence than those that did, because they gradually became more important through the services they offered.

The notion that one tribe could subdue parts of another, or a whole other tribe and annex it into their own tribe, was also something that went against the basis of a tribal society, and eventually the artificial concept of nationality was created to make up for this, and make it possible to coexist.

In modern times, people often struggle with the idea that their rights can change from country to country and that surviving in a place where they know nothing of local customs can be difficult, but we often fail to take into account that, but a few hundred years ago, traveling just 100 km in any given direction inside the borders of a country would also dramatically change the apparent culture, but despite being different, the cultures of a nation in the past still lived under a common set of rules of government, enforced by their rulers, and ultimately the true purpose of nationality is to assimilate cultures into a collective "master tribe", and to provide security and governance to those that live in the nation.

Fief
A fief is the formal name for land that is given by a ruler, to their subject, for them to govern on his behalf. In the example found above, it is when the Tribal Chief gives the Clan Chiefs he has appointed to rule the other clans ownership of the territory that belongs to those Clans.
 * In later medieval societies, the Tribal Chief would be a King, and the Clan Chiefs would be Lords, and may fulfill a number of more complicated functions in addition to being holders of a fief.
 * Fiefs often feature something referred to as a "holding" - which can be anything from a forest or a mine to a lake or a castle. Holdings are named features of importance on a fief, that are part of why the fief has value.
 * Someone who owns a fief is referred to as a "landed noble".

Vassals and Liege-lords
Landed nobles are known vassals (not to be mistake with protectorates, which are entirely different) of the person who rules the land they have been given ownership of.
 * The ruler, is in turn known as the Liege. In a more complex society, the vassals of the ruler may have their own vassals, who may have their own vassals and so forth, creating the typical pyramid government that we associate with more complex feudalism.
 * Vassals are appointed by the Liege, by them swearing fealty to the Liege.

Fealty
Fealty, is the act of swearing alliance to a liege, by a vassal. This only makes sense if the Liege is able to effectively recognize the swearer - therefore they have to be important enough for them to matter. A promise from someone unimportant is irrelevant to a King.
 * Only the aristocracy, can swear fealty, and typically only with a significant number of witnesses who must also be members of the aristocracy, at least one of whom should be a religious leader; ensuring that all parties understand that, by divine right, the agreement is binding.
 * Breaking an oath of fealty was a thing that, because of the way it worked, completely stained the reputation of the oath-breaker.

Aristocracy
The main aristocracy in a Feudal Society is called "Nobility", and from parents to children, certain traditions are passed on, that allows a continued system of law and governance to continue across the generations.
 * The concept of nobility has mutated wildly from early times to later times, and the latest understanding involves those of noble stature to be related to someone who owns, or has direct claim to certain fiefs, but in the past, nobility was more associated with importance - pure and simple. However, this importance largely came from being placed in power over a fief, or by being a trusted servant of the ruler, who served important functions.
 * We're going to use that as a definition for nobility here, but nobility are not the only forms of aristocracy that exists, as anyone with enough documented history, wealth and influence can reasonably be said to be aristocrats, provided that they are parts of lawful society.
 * Being a member of the aristocracy in truth means one thing; namely that one is recognized by society and need not prove their identity, because they are known. People can only be known if they are infamous, famous or important. In the latter case, you have the aristocracy in its essence, but it isn't uncommon for the definition of aristocracy to merely include the famous as well, or for the famous to eventually become important.
 * The Clergy, powerful merchants, skilled craftsmen, the knowledgeable and sworn military leaders as well as powerful warriors are all considered to be part of the aristocracy.

Title
The word title has many meanings, it can simply mean proof of ownership or it can mean an actual title, as in a moniker.
 * Often, both the Vassal and the Liege have these, and often the title somehow indicates a hereditary ownership and owing of fealty to certain nations (and the rulers thereof).
 * It is in fact primarily titles that are inherited from parent to child, keeping the same families in power from generation to generation.

Ownership versus Lordship
To understand the definition of this, we need to investigate the definitions we use for ownership. Theoretically, in a Feudal Society, the Divine Beings own everything, and Kings are merely those appointed to rule on the planet in their stead, while technically speaking, who over actually uses the land owns it.
 * This means that there is a difference between the theoretical definition, which suggests that the closest earthly being to own anything is the king who claims the lands, and the actual owner, by technical definition, who is the residence who lives on, and occupies the land.
 * This brings us to the use of the word "Lordship", which means to "own something" in a more administrative capacity. If a Lord sells a piece of land (or never owned it), which is still within his domain, then he has Lordship over that land still, but who ever actually owns that land, is referred to as the owner.

Names
Everyone obviously has a name, but in the medieval, many people simple had one name. Obviously, eventually this would no longer do and in modern times, even a last name isn't enough that we can tell each other apart, we need middle names and even identification numbers!

In the medieval, people didn't live very long, it took a long time to travel, and very few people knew how to record things. The clergy in the past, often went to some sort of school or training, as back then religion and education was synonymous, lacking anything more sensible. As such, the clergy often was trusted to record the births of people, recording their given names.

Common people were simple [Given name] of [location] son of [parent, usually father], [profession if applicable]. This naming convention worked well enough for the most part, but it became confusing when John of Hammlett, son of Bill is investigated, and it is found that there are were five individuals named Bill who could have been John's father.

Creating an elite who recorded and chronicled their heritage, carried special names (last names) and could somehow more readily be identified, was the first step in creating the aristocracy, and the most important.

Knights
Knighthood is another very complicated subject that is frequently simplified in even historical portrayals because it changed so much from time to time, and here I seek to portray a core of traditions relating to Knighthood that gather the essence of what it meant at its height, but also reflects a few variant traditions that can be used.
 * See Westerland Chivalric Traditions for more information about this subject.