The Ochebana Empire conquered the Brimmer Kingdom in 564 b. OW; that same year, Brimmer formally handed over his vassals to Emperor Londer in Peteran, and the Brimmer Kingdom was officially incorporated and dissolved. In effect, the process of Brimmer incorporation was much more gradual, due primarily to the fact that Brimmer had an extremely strong feudal military-aristocrat tradition which was not easily broken down into the more centralized Ochebanian model.

Incorporation through Alliance

As Tommen Londyr's army marched into Brimmer in early 564, it already began the process of incorporation; various lords, who were unhappy about their King Brofur, preferred to ally themselves to Ochebana and make their food and, in some cases, levy or knightly forces, available to the Imperial Army. By the successful conclusion of the armed conquest, a majority of the aristocrats in the Southvale and Lakeshore regions had sworn their loyalty to the Ochebanian cause.

Even after King Brofur handed over his vassals, incorporation through alliance was a necessary measure; some nobles in the Darrenrise and Orksereach refused to recognize the Ochebanian Emperor as their new (indirect) liege lord. Especially during the campaign in mid-564 to take Drummir-Fjor and bring the Orksereach into the fold, Ochebanian and Ochebana-siding Brimmers preferred to forge alliances rather than try to use the legal leverage of vassals. In the end, nearly all Brimmer nobles joined Ochebana voluntarily.

Land Redistribution

Though the Ochebanians took great care not to upset the Brimmer system too much - in the intention of keeping the new subjects loyal and at peace - they did perform some changes in the noble hierarchy, punishing aristocrats who had fought against Ochebana or those who had refused to submit themselves to Ochebanian rule - note Lord Duke Thauyenfield, the King's Marshal, who was imprisoned in Peteran for an entire year, or Lord Venerable Nekkyrzek of Baklavda, who was tried and executed in Londerhome. The land of these men, and parts of the land of many others, was handed over to nobles who had early on turned to the side of Ochebana. Thus Thauyenfield's expansive holdings in the Orksereach, as well as those of his vassals, were to a large part taken and given to minor nobles from Southvale.

Ochebana didn't like the Brimmer feudal system: land was split into too many small fiefs, and there were too many hierarchical levels and blood ties for any hope of effective central rule. Thus, they supported major nobles to increase their own estates and expropriate minor ones though policies and military allowances. In some cases, Lords Bergfried or Holdfast were offered to sell their land directly to their liege lords and move to cities as a wealthy middle class, or to move to the imperial heartland in the south and serve as administrative officials or military officers there. Alternatively, the small lords handed ownership and rights over to their liege lords, and then served only as their bureaucratic officials rather than landowners in their own right. Larger domains, such as those of Lords Duke or Barony, could then be much more effectively controlled; they could be made to supply a certain number of levies and taxes to the central state.

The names and a semblance of the system would be preserved for a long time; it was difficult to uproot culture. However, by 550 the vast majority of autonomous small nobles had all but disappeared; and, in another few decades, the long tradition of Brimmer nobility would fade away, to be replaced with Ochebanian noble titles.

Cities

The Imperial Army was quick to get control over cities even during its campaign; a soldier was made Governor of Peteran in the very first week of the campaign. In this, it followed the proper imperial model: all urban centers of any importance were governed by a military man, a governor, whose responsibility it was to gather taxes, more or less enforce imperial law, and defend the city against any and all threats. At first, the real advantage of having governors all across the Brimmer lands was to ease the bureaucratic incorporation of the state; it was much easier for questors and soldiers to reach the nobles' lands if they had the full support of the cities.

Later, the cities also began filling a role as an actual part of the empire, facing obligations to collect a certain number of taxes in the emperor's name. The governors often oversaw a separate chancellery office, which collected taxes of both the city and surrounding fiefs for imperial questors.

Nominally, Brimmer cities were also governed by a feudal aristocracy, but this system was not strongly embedded and could easily be glossed over. In some cases, district administrators and other officials bore noble titles, but in many cases the governors reformed the urban administrative system anyway and eradicated the Brimmer urban nobility.