Structure

Estates were self-ruled rural communities. They had much autonomy from the government and were reigned by a noble, usually of bisduke rank or higher.¹ Nobility of lesser rank, usually family, could be subcontracted to rule some parts of the land. People in the area either worked as farmers or as "industrial" workers, serving as economic machines for their lords.

Serfs

Male humans living on a noble's land could be indentured. This meant they, along with their family, had a certain period or economic value they had to fulfill until they were freed and could move to an unoccupied piece of land. Single women, nonhumans, and many men of non-Eastern ethnicity were instead slaves and had to work for their lord indefinitely. They also couldn't leave the estate or own anything.

History

Estate economy first emerged after the Jonesdays in 522 b. OW, when the rural nobility arose. The social structure of indenturing appeared and spread quickly, while slavery had already existed but grew far more common. Estates were responsible for a large chunk of social injustice in the Ochebana Empire and caused much unrest, leading notably to the rise of the Ochebanian Republic and to the Karloian uprisings.

The power of the rural nobility was rarely contested from above, however, even by military governors who were responsible for a rural region in which estates were located. It was a core piece of Ochebanian society and economy.

The lennes

The words lenne and lennelurd ("land", for estate, and "landlord", respectively) were occasionally used to denote estates and their noble rulers. This designation was not common until Deltree's rule, and the terms were afterwards used to designate only the estates in the late Deltree period and under Jeff Musket's rule.