Quote:
Originally Posted by RyanW
Actually, you may very well likely want some of the society changes.
Absolute monarchies and anything resembling the modern concept of the state are largely absent in historical TL3, but are a staple of fantasy worlds. Across most of Europe during the medieval period, the king functioned as something like the chairman of the nobility, and land that was nominally in one "country" would often be held by the king of another. When a king held two different lands with different inheritance traditions, wars could start over who was the proper king of what. To say nothing of the patchwork of little semi-independent German duchies and archbishoprics that pretended to be Holy, Roman, and an Empire.
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It was worse then that as not only the nobility but the whole system was a labyrinth of liberties and exemptions and privileges and peculiar duties and what not. A Medieval kingdom was more like a maze of contracts then a constitution.
Perhaps "worse" isn't the right word as those who are clever enough to leverage the system can thrive and that does not just include the bigger folk though they will of course thrive better(despite the common threat of assassination and fratricide). A neutral word like "more convoluted" is better.