[hal]

Custom of the Manor
Each Noble was entitled to some extent, to find his own way when it comes to running his manor. However, customs to some extent, began to take on the character of "Local law" as it were. To the point, solutions to problems found by one Lord may not be the same fashion of problem solving used by another. Thus it came to be that each manor's customs might differ from others in some minor way.

I think it will be interesting, to presume that if there are 10 manors/villages involved, that each of you who wants to resolve an issue - should be able to do so in a way that is independent of your neighbors.

Thus - EACH of you, as Nobles of a Manorial Fief, who wants to put forth problems and/or solutions, are free to do so, but realize, as Lords of your own village, you are obligated to protect your people, honor their contracts with your forebear, and preserve their rights as passed down to their children. The phrase "me and mine" as well as "thee and thine" effectively recognizes that these contracts are binding on not just you, but your children, not just them, but their children.

So, let's take for example, the universal "education" you may want to instill in the children of your serfs.

By law, any man, regardless of his contractual obligations to his lord, may run away to a town or to a mine, and after one year of residing within the confines of the town or mine, be freed of said obligations. The more capable you make your serfs, the more "marketable" their skills will be to the extent that if they run away to a town, they can get a job. There are recorded instances, where a Serf's offspring was granted permission to leave the manor in exchange for a yearly sum (sometimes as little as a capon) and the Lord was unable to collect on that debt. More importantly, he was not able to get the individual to return to the village. As a result, the family usually ended up having to pay that fee. A serf who runs away, could very well be setting his family as hostages to the Lord's displeasure.

In order to manumit your serf from servitude, it often required the Lord lead the serf to a Hundred, a place that handled the administrative information, and recorded that the serf had been freed of his obligations. Courts cost money.

So, feel free to assume the personae of a Lord. If you want to try and BOND a mageborn to your service (household service), you're going to have to find a freeman mage willing to enter into that kind of contractual labor situation. If the free mageborn create a guild to protect not only themselves, but to regulate their brothers and sisters - then that will be another factor to consider.

If you note in the sample village I gave up thread, there was a fee paid by the craftsmen. This fee is to own essentially monopoly rights within the village. If there is to be a "Wizard's Monopoly" within a village, you, as world builders, are going to have to decide just what that monopoly entails. Same with Alchemists. Just remember however, that GURPS allows for what essentially works out as - lower wages. This is called "Struggling" for normal levels of income, or "normal income" for those jobs that normally garner "comfortable wages".

So - if you want to insure that your mageborn are bound to your land and unable to legally leave the manor - you may want to strongly consider what it will take to KEEP them there. If you want a Healing mage on hand for your family, you may have to consider what it will take to incorporate them into your house hold. If after say, three times, you accepted a year's income as the manumission fee for a serf, trying to charge more than that for the fourth one may run into the "Custom of the manor" motif where the villagers claim you are violating the custom of the manor. If you're willing to foot the bill for training the mageborn for new spells - do that often enough, and it may become a custom of the manor that the Lord is expected to foot all fees involved in that. If you promise the mageborn freedom after 10 years of service, and enforce that often enough - that may become the expected custom of the manor.

Also remember - as Lord, you can over-ride the customs and the villagers won't have any recourse for their complaints. They can't go to a King's court and complain. On the other hand, they can also deliberately slack off in their work or even sabotage it (Hopefully without getting caught). Flip side, you can refuse to safeguard their safety. Back and forth it goes...

So, for each problem you see, or each "idea" you want to try - I'm going to say GREAT, give it a shot and see what happens.

Eventually, I'm going to suggest events that may occur on any given Manor where the Lord may have to intervene as its leading administrator. Court cases may arise over failures on the part of mages. A man or woman may accuse a mageborn of some malfeasance.

As Lord of your lands, you may want to find a trained mageborn (aka Wizard or Mage) for your household. That means you can either find a freeborn mage in a nearby town, or maybe troll the nearby villages for an available mageborn for your household. Every COIN (aka Mageborn) spent working for a Knight's household, is one less mageborn for the needs of the Village. If you routinely utilize the mage to heal the villagers at your expense, that may become...

Custom of the Manor.