Shireroth

Posted: **Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:18 pm**

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 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.

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*

Posted: **Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:24 pm**

I say we go with 1. Enough tinkering with the subdivisions.

Posted: **Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:30 pm**

Would that be because it's the best way to solve the problem, or because the problem doesn't exist at all?

Posted: **Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:31 pm**

Our problem is that we have too few citizens. We won't get more citizens by tinkering with the subdivisions (again). Therefore, the best option of those listed is 1.

Posted: **Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:37 pm**

Indeed we can't conjour citizens out of thin air, but we can reduce the amount of overall subdivisions so there are less lying empty and more land under the care of what citizens we do have

Posted: **Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:50 pm**

Maksym Hadjimenatov (you might have known him from his time as Zatriarch Max of Matbaa) used to be Baron of K'Tzuni, but left micronations a while ago. He's now hanging out around MNN and MCS. If you can track him down, maybe you can harass him into coming back.

He's involved in a lot of Communist stuff now, so maybe you could even make him a deal to have some old Zemlyan nukes "accidentally" fall into his hands if he joins you here.

Posted: **Sun Aug 17, 2008 11:21 pm**

1. With titles available, we have something to temp people with.

Posted: **Sun Aug 17, 2008 11:27 pm**

Scott of Hyperborea wrote:Maksym Hadjimenatov

itym Hadjimehmetov

Posted: **Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:40 am**

Erik Mortis wrote:1. With titles available, we have something to temp people with.

I seriously doubt we're ever going to run out of counties for people

Unless you meant dishing out whole Baronies to new folks...

If we go one Barony down (via aforementioned re-Goldshirification) AND get Max back with us, we'll have reached a workable fusion of the two ideas and we'd have all the Baronies under active leaders.

I know nobody likes a border change (even though it isn't, it's just a superfluous-border-removal exercise) but this one would at least honour history. I'm confident it can be well executed and (through a merger of Syrelwinn with Holwinn and Goldendown with Asantelian) leave the resultant new Barony with a respectable five counties, numerous enough to fill with citizens but few and small enough not to overwhelm the other Baronies in size.

It really is the lazy option to shrink back like a snail in its shell at the mention of change, but the fact is Shireroth has rarely been this active and full, and I rather fear it won't be again. It'd take a ridiculous several-fold growth on top of this before we're stretched even under a reduced system.

I'm thinking a big part of the fear is that change sets a precedent for further change, and before you know it you can't set eyes on a piece of land without it being jiggled around five times more (logical fallacy of the slippery slope right there, it's worth noting [also, this paragraph is the classic strawman setup. Go me] ). I can confidently state that if I do this, I won't be doing any more territorial tinkering during my Ducal tenure, and I doubt my successors will need to either for a long long time. In my mind this isn't a quick fix, it's a long overdue remedy for the over-ambition of the New Feudalism and the basis for a more sustainable territorial composition around a sub-dozen population.

Posted: **Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:07 am**

Let's put it like this. Reconstitute Goldshire all you like, just don't touch Lakhesis.

Posted: **Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:06 am**

Of course

I'm only being this bold because it's my Barony in question, along with that of the recently departed Baron of Ynnraile who put the idea in my head in the first place

If I start screwing with Lakhesis or, Gods forbid, Dolor, you may by all means launch into open Baronial revolt

Posted: **Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:41 am**

I just don't see 1. the point of moving things around 2. how it actually helps anything. 3. what the problem to begin with is.

As I see it we have a non-problem. And we are trying to create a solution for a non-problem. Or for the wrong problem. We lack people. True. But that's the real problem. And thus we should find solutions to that.

And the current Barony set up was NOT created by New Feudalism. I'm the one who set up the current layout, to evenly distribute counties between baronies, and create baronies that could some day hold barons. I created a structure, to be filled. The problem I see, is that we aren't filling it successfully, and that's the problem. Imagine if we could at least fill in the barons, we'd have a good number of barons, evenly distributed over the land we have. Further, if Goldshire is ever able to sustain itself, it'll have a 2 barony structure to start with, and we'll still have 3. Nice and evenly distributed.

Changing the borders is the wrong solution to the wrong problem.

Posted: **Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:46 am**

Iskander Mirkdale (Sir Iain de Vembria) used to be Count of Holwinn. Check the main Elwynn forum and make him an offer before the Elwynnese get him for good.

Posted: **Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:50 am**

I'd rather you didn't, unless you next want to be seen floating face down in the Elwynn with your back picked full of arrowheads.

Posted: **Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:52 am**

Way to show pride for your Duchy Scott.

Posted: **Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:53 am**

I think he is moving in any event, so there will be no need for the Riksdag to pass an act of attainder.

Posted: **Mon Aug 18, 2008 12:29 pm**

There goes my mandate...

Erik, as much as you despise the spectre of authority that hangs around you despite your desire to live the commoner's life, it isn't going to go away and I'm not doing this without Brookshire behind me. You may rest easy and consider my plan scuppered, and my Ducal tenure well and truly castrated for the enirety of its duration.

My march into Niyazov-dom is what killed Zemlya, and I have no intention of doing it again here. Brookshire's not mine to kill, after all.

The matter is closed.

Shireroth

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