The Brimmer Kingdom was a powerful state in western Balebu.

History

Olive Timfur's Drummir Kingdom ended in 601 b. OW with her assassination. After this, the many human settlements in western Central Balebu continued as they had during the "kingdom" - as independent, sometimes friendly trading, sometimes fighting, settlements. The area was rich in conflicting races and ideologies. The remains of Timfur's ideology, and of Weluchian new constructivism, were felt in the form of human superiority and racial conflict; remains of Drummirian culture were more pro-coexistence with goblinoids and had a set of traditions diverging considerably from Weluchian ones. Two separate human worlds - the Munite natives with Andan origins, and the Archaens from Weluche - with different traditions and sets of languages, were meeting and merging into a single new people, the Eastern ethnicity and culture. In this patchwork of human cities and satellite villages, complete with interspersed orcish settlements or herder tribes and dwarven enclaves in the mountains, a land-based network of feudal-style relations appeared. The "nobility" lived in cities or in holdfasts, and relied on trade to maintain their wealth and thus their high status. There was no notion of superior blood; noble dynasties relied only on having greater wealth and connections to remain in power.

Due to recurrent cling-clang invasions, the south began federating under the Marcher Lords; and one village after another in the north decided to join the Undine Kingdom. Many nobles were worried to lose their sources of income, or even their sovereignty, to either of these neighbors. The scene was perfectly set for Djöfnir Brimmr to step in. He was the richest man in Drummir-Fjor, the largest city, and also its First Margrave (the commander of its sizeable army); this gave him both the influence and the authority to bring all the important nobles together under his leadership. In 589 b. OW, he established the Brimmer Kingdom.

Djöfnir Brimmr did not succeed just because the nobles were scared of annexation: he had several rivals who were attempting to form their own states. For one, Brimmr had the explicit support of several nobles and their guilds, because of financial deals, as well as promised future benefits. These guilds also included the Drummir-Fiorite merchants, of course, who in turn had access to the overseas powers of Trensandor and the Dwarven Empire. It was in no small part thanks to considerable financial support from these powers that Brimmr got his throne; in exchange, he was their firm ally and agreed to several lucrative trade deals. He was also Balebu-born, but also a close friend of the Weluchian and new constructivist societies, which made him popular all around.

The new state had a potent military force, thanks to its centralized levy army; the idea was mostly to deter any neighbors from trying to forcefully annex the state. Brimmr also introduced the Just Council, a body responsible for writing the Book of Mandates, what went for the kingdom's national law. This was the only authority of the state Brimmr forced on his vassal nobles; they were given free rein to continue doing business freely.

Brimmr got into some difficulties after certain deals did not work as expected, and had to swiftly leave the kingdom with a full purse in 571 b. OW; he appointed his Archaen niece, Tatya Brimmr, as his legitimate successor. Though a cunning politician and guildswoman, she struggled to deal with the government debt because the entire government operated like a guild. The support of Drummir-Fjor's merchants and the foreign powers allowed her to stay in power for some time. However, in 565 b. OW, the conquering armies of Ochebana were virtually at the walls of Peteran, and pressure mounted on Tatya. She found herself forced out of the throne by Lord Duke Brofur Reifenvale, a merchant magnate and famous military investor from Baklavda. Because of his widespread support, Tatya had to abandon her throne.

Brofur the Brimmr was in power, but he did not have the support of the crown's most essential friends: the Great City of Drummir-Fjor, and its foreign allies, were unhappy about a man from another city taking power. Brofur's hold on the complex government and nobility structure was very tentative, and he constantly struggled to uphold his authority by proving himself and making economic maneuvers. He did, however, manage to close a military alliance with three neighbors who feared Ochebanian expansionism: the dwarven enclaves of Ironstone and Bheg Darhom, and the Marcher Lords of the south.

Though he did not expect the Ochebanians to attack already in 564 b. OW, he was ready. He had a larger army than the Ochebanians, excellent fortifications in the richer northern part of the kingdom, and an alliance with the experienced Marchers. But his domestic support was wavering: the Ochebanians were conquering village after village in the south, and the nobles were beginning to lose trust in him. If he did not act fast, he would lose his crown at the hands of his own people. Thus, he marched the royal army south to meet the invaders. But Drummir-Fjor delayed sending military support as long as possible, and the hastily notified Marchers' army would take a while to get north.

Brofur attempted to wait for his supporting forces to arrive by entrenching himself in the hills, but the Ochebanians sought him out anyway and defeated him in the Battle of the Cloud Peaks. As a prisoner in Peteran, he surrendered the kingdom to Ochebana: there were no armies left beyond Drummir-Fjor's, and most nobles now sided with Ochebana anyway, hoping to keep their riches intact.

Society

Government and Economy

The Brimmer Kingdom took pride in its militarist traditions, and many nobles hailed humanity as the elect, superior race. However, the actual government was not stratocratic, or even based on hereditary nobility: it was fundamentally an economic institution.

National Government

The Book of Mandates stated: "The Brimmer Kingdom knows one king, and his name is Brimmr." Though the monarch's position was hereditary in name, like everything else in the kingdom, it was more of a financial position. All three kings ruled because they had the most wealth, the most connections, in Brimmer. Accordingly, most governmental institutions were akin to private guilds owned by the ruler. Under Tatya, the same institution responsible for collecting taxes was also her land-based merchant guild; and the institution that organized levies also produced and sold weaponry. The Book of Mandates did not specify institutions that had to exist in a certain form; it only stated national law, and which tasks the government had the authority to fulfill, as well as which taxes it was allowed to collect.

The only real government institution was the Just Court, the legal assembly. It was in name independent from the king, but in effect consisted of the most influential nobles, which of course included the king himself. The Just Court assembled whenever it wanted, wherever it wanted, and could freely edit the Book of Mandates, the collection of laws guiding the state.

Nobility

The Brimmer nobility was not hereditary, but instead determined by who held the most money. Nobles could give themselves titles by owning certain pieces of land; this was the only distinction between nobility and guildsmen, and usually the words were used synonymously. A large part of the land was directly owned by nobles; villages within their domains owed them taxes, but the people living there were technically free. Most of the rest was either owned by guilds and guildsmen, who were exactly like nobles but didn't have a specific structure like a holdfast, a single biological entity, enough continuous land, or the will to have noble titles. Small bits of land, here and their, were not claimed by anyone and worked by peasants. This was mostly the case for orcish villages and herding grounds.

Noble Titles. The table below shows which prerequisites a person had to meet to have a certain noble title. All nobles had "Lord" in their title.

Eyes were the highest denomination of Drummir-Fiorite coinage (golden coins, "eyes", worth 20 square coppers, "wings", worth 5 round coppers, "claws", worth 5 small round coppers, "tails").

Knights were a special case. Usually, minor nobility - Lords Bergfried and Lords Holdfast - trained as knights in service to the crown in exchange for equipping and training levies, because it was more economical. Knights had to accomplish a rite of passage to be knighted, and only dukes and kings had the authority to do so. However, once claimed, the status of knight was permanent - and with it, the noble title. Accordingly, if knights came to lose their properties, they were still considered nobility, but without any according land - so there titles were just "Lord".

The Grand City of Drummir-Fjor

When King Djöfnir founded the kingdom, he subjected all its subjects equally to the obligations of the Book of Mandates and the authority of the king - except for the Grand City of Drummir-Fjor, and to a lesser extent the Great Cities Baklavda and Peteran. Because most of his power rested in those cities, the king did not have the authority to impose his law on them - this was their condition for allowing the kingdom to happen in the first place.

Drummir-Fjor was given by far the most autonomy. It was subject to a fixed amount of taxes, and was the monarch's seat, but it did not stand under any other obligations. The king could not give any orders to the city councils, and the city had its own army - the elite Drummir-Fjor Guardsmen. In a perfect example of the paradoxical coexistence of royal authority and economic freedom, the king's own guard were Guardsmen - who took orders from the city of Drummir-Fjor, which was not subject to the king's authority.

The two other Great Cities were granted less autonomy. They were subject to the royal levy system and did not have armed forces beyond the city guard, but they did have some freedom from the Book of Mandates: notably, criminal law was completely set by cities, and things that were a crime in other Great Cities or the kingdom at large might not be a crime in the one city.

Ideology

The Brimmer Kingdom featured a huge variety of peoples, races, and cultures. However, the most dominant ideology, a narrative embraced by the government, was that of militarism. The king always had to appear like a strong military leader, and often surrounded himself with the elite Guardsmen and their shining weapons as a symbol of power. Noble titles essentially forced them to own fortified infrastructure, minor nobility usually fulfilled their levy quotas by serving as knights, and the regular levies were often accompanied by local festivities and parades. Despite all this, the Brimmer army never saw actual combat until 564 b. OW, and the militarist ideology was mostly just that: an idea.

New constructivist values of humanity being the elect race, all other races being unworthy, and the like were also highly praised. Many native Balebians despised nonhumans, especially hobgoblins, who they saw as evil oppressors. The notion of pure families and communities without nonhumans was generally held in high esteem; Peteran even had racial laws supposed to keep the city "pure". As a consequence, nonhumans were often rejected from the higher rungs of society, and either lived in villages that didn't care about ideology, or formed small communities of their own. However, the primary belief of the Brimmers - money - outshone even institutionalized racism; allegations of impure and inferior races were forgotten as soon as there was something to be gained. The Brimmer king even drew levies from the orcish population, a regiment of heavy badeep cavalry commanded by orcs, supposedly for the sake of fairness, but really because orcish cavalry was a powerful asset to the Brimmer army. In fact, as long as orcs had the resources, they were even allowed to have noble titles. And many Brimmers did not hesitate twice to trade with their dwarven neighbors.

Armed Forces

The Brimmer Kingdom had a powerful army, though it was inexperienced. The levy system, along with the knights tradition, meant the king could call upon a large royal army - sometimes estimated to be 4'000 strong - with a strong heavy cavalry. Heavy cavalry was key, because its charges could easily break enemy infantry, of which there was plenty: the cling-clang beyond the Free Marches were exclusively foot-based, as was the growing Ochebana Empire, and Undine did not have an army - which to Brimmer minds equated to peasant foot levies.

The prospect of invading Brimmer was considerably worsened by the fact that it bristled with fortifications. All nobles built castles, and the major cities had strong ramparts. If an enemy force marched on Brimmer, all the royal would have to do was sit in the castles and maneuver against the enemy from a position of strength.

Royal Army Structure