Now as everybody knows, Yvain/Scott's departure leaves Brookshire with just three active citizens between five whole Baronies (with possibly one more if Eri's recent appearance is made more permanent). Keeping in mind we're each having to manage things on both a Baronial and County level already, it's fast becoming an unacceptable state of affairs.Krasniy sat at the ancient desk in the Ducal offices of Brookshire Hamlet as evening fell. Aeons of scratches, stains, layers of varnish and minor graffiti adorned the great chunk of furniture, testament to the fevered scribblings and all-nighters of countless Dukes past. Tonight however, Krasniy was in reflective mood. The teamster crew had finished delivering his essential files and departed. His faithful secretary Lev Kuznet was downstairs somewhere, trying to re-assemble a typewriter that had broken in transit.
In the office, however, all was quiet except for the gentle ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner. Ancient as the Ducal desk, it had seven hands and a face that was mostly incomprehensible. Krasniy had been told there was a user manual stored somewhere in the archive; as long as old Cedric hadn't taken it with him, of course.
But such fleeting throughts served as paltry distraction from the real issue which now occupied the new Duke. With Yvain Wintersong's departure and the affirmation by Krasniy's spies that he would not return to ic life for a long time if at all, the Duchy had lost that which gave it life for so long until now. No word had arrived from the ex-Duke regarding safe continuation of his established plans and now the spectre of neglect and disintegration hung over the land, poised to strike.
Things will get better, said a faraway voice in Krasniy's head. It was countered immediately by another:
Indeed so, but they will get worse first.
It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Half the land stands limp and forlorn for lack of attention.
Hasn't it always been that way?
The status quo is nothing to aspire to. This is Brookshire for The Gods' sake. We're not anarchists like our cousins to the south. We can't afford such indulgences.
A third voice appeared out of nowhere:
isn't it strange how carrots can't talk? I bet they'd really want to.
Krasniy shook himself up at this new mental intruder, and taking his quill he made an entry in his notebook:
'RE: DUCAL DECISIONMAKING - LUNARIS METHOD INADEQUATE'
"Lev!" he shouted. "Get your potato-padded arse up here for a second!"
The thumps of footfalls were heard downstairs, getting gradually louder until Lev finally strolled into the office.
"You called, M'Lord?"
"Yes. First off, have you found the manual for that damn clock yet?"
"Nay, sire. But I haven't got around to looking everywhere yet"
"No worries, if you haven't got it we'll get an astronomer in. They started all this timekeeping crap"
"Yes, sire"
"Also, do you know there whereabouts of my Barons?"
"Up until ten hours ago, yes sire"
"That'll do. I want them sent for. It's no good having the realm's two finest lawyers on my doorstep if I'm not going to consult them on one or two things...."
Now I'm not going to go off doing anything rash to get a quick fix, but a few solutions have been floating around my head even before Yvain's abdication. Now with one man down, the impetus to look at the issue again presents itself. So, some vague ideas:
1) Leave everything as it is and wait for more citizens to arrive - it safeguards tradition and provides space for immigrants, but until those immigrants arrive we're still wandering around a labyrinth of dead fiefdoms and generally getting seperated from each other.
2) Do away with the Barony system like Elwynn and Straylight - Gives us one less layer of bureaucracy to worry about, so we can concentrate on our counties. On the other hand it means we'd be running a lot less of Brookshire in detail than we currently do (3 counties out of 18).
3) Amalgamate some Baronies - of course the first candidate for such an action would be to honour Yvain/Scott's departing wishes and merge Vorpmadal with Ynnraile to recreate Goldshire in Baronial form. That'd bring back the ratio of Baronies to Barons to a more reasonable level, and reflect a bit of ancient tradition too. The downside being, We'd then have a giant Barony with seven Counties while the others have three or four and it all looks a bit lopsided. I guess some of the smaller, un-culturally-developed Counties within the new Barony could be merged to resolve this, but then we're looking at a VERY well-made plan to please everyone and keep things balanced.
That's all I can think of for now, so I'd like to re-open the debate and hear the views of my subjects. Basically to see if A) you agree that there's a problem at all, B) my ideas are feasible and C) you have any ideas of your own on the matter.
Also any non-Brookshirians are welcome to pitch in if they have something intelligent to say...
I SAID INTELLIGENT
*waves Makarov pistol around*
Unless you meant dishing out whole Baronies to new folks... 
