Tudesco

The Kingdom of the Tudescans (Tudescan common: Theodisc rīke ), commonly referred to as Tudesco  is a predominantly-human kingdom and multiethnic state in southwestern Ovaicaea. Like most human kingdoms, Tudesco is a combined tribal-feudal state, as its constituent parts evolved as tribal kingdoms from among human tribes that settled along the Eldun Plateau and the mighty Eldun River. For much of its history, the kingdom now referred to in its entirety as Tudesco was once several independent human kingdoms. The kingdoms of the Tudescans, Gethans, West and East Clovians, Walhians, Alamians, and others acceded to the Empire as member states. For the first hundred years of the new empire's existence, they existed in relative harmony.

In the midst of the Red Plague in the early 920s, however, many of these kingdoms were plunged into crisis. Several royal princes of the Empire fought in the Gestrin War, in which many contracted the plague and died. The King of Tudesco was able to diplomatically arrange for his heir to inherit the suddenly heirless kingdoms of Esclovia, Alam, Getha, and Walhia. These powerful states united under one common monarchy, though in practice they are in personal union and have maintained their own traditions and laws, and much power has been held by the landed nobility as in most feudal realms. In recent years, however, attempts have been made by the kings to exert royal control and a common legal system.

Name
Tudesco is the Elven-influenced name for the country. In their local common language, the term Theodisc denotes "of the people" or "popular", referring initially to the Thiudescan tribe under their native dialect. Today, under the suggestion of legal and ethnic scholars, the term's meaning has expanded to implicitly stand for the many tribes who have fallen under Tudescan hegemony. This has been to recognize the multiethnic and multicultural nature of the kingdom.

The kingdom's full name is Kingdom of the Teodescans, Gethans, Walhians, Alamians, and East Clovians, representing all tribes that have come to unite under its common law and crown.

Society and government
Tudesco is fundamentally a hereditary, composite monarchy. The kingdom has evolved from a tribal state to a feudal state, retaining many aspects of customary law and tribal clientage combined with neighboring dwarven and elven social systems of land tenure, military obligation, and manorialism. Unlike many of its neighboring human kingdoms, Tudesco borrows heavily from elven legal concepts of freeholds and tenant estates, contrasting with the eastern dwarven-centric models of feodal land tenure. The results are similar, in that local government is based heavily around manorialism and the baronage, but the legal implications differ sharply and serfdom in Tudesco looks very different from that of Lithuar or Tolossia.

Government
The government of Tudesco is, like many human feudal-tribal states, decentralized due to necessity. The lack of infrastructure to maintain a standing army and convey them rapidly from place to place requires much military power to be vested in the hands of local magnates, tribal chieftains, and those entrusted by the King to keep the peace. This was the case in the predecessor states that merged with old Tudesco to form the modern kingdom, and this continues to be the case in the new state.

Most territory is held by barons through feudal land tenure. The royal government is centered on the King, who is formally elected by the Witanagemot, the royal council. Very often, a king will arrange their heir's election as co-king to ensure a smoother succession While the King has the right to issue edicts, it is generally considered unconstitutional and against the prevailing tribal tradition. The King seeks the counsel of the land's magnates and of the people, originally as the royal council and tribal assembly, which has morphed into a parliamentary body, the Rikesdag. The assembly is composed of all archpriests, archwizards, abbots, earls, and thegns, as well as two knights elected from each shire, two burgesses elected from each borough, and two citizens elected from each city.

Local and regional government in Tudesco can be divided into two levels: the royal administration and the feudal estates, which somewhat overlap. The Kingdom is administratively divided into three layers: folklands, shires, and hundreds. The folklands correspond to the preceding kingdoms that merged to become the current state, each with their own popular assemblies, or Folcgemots, which make decisions for the region in the manner of the old tribal assemblies; however, these are mostly ceremonial, and the decision-making power of the Folcgemots is limited by law and the practical realities of land ownership. The next level, shires, are provincial divisions under the authority of royally-appointed shire-reeves or sheriffs, under whom are usually about five or six aldermen who administer at a smaller municipal or local level in a territory called a hundred. These officials have limited appellate judicial power over their areas, but more importantly are tasked with the collection of royal taxes, overseeing royal lands and resources such as mines and forests, and calling up the fyrd in times of war. The feudal estates ruled by thegns and earls sometimes conform to the shire divisions, but sometimes cross boundaries between shires based on the lands the noble lords have inherited.

List of Kings
Since unification, the kingships of the tribes have been united under the Teodescan royal clan. The kings are officially numbered based on this line, and the following list is of the Teodescan kings from the tribal kingdom's foundation:

Early period
In this early period, Teodescan kings were elected. Wiglaf led his people out of the Great Waste, much like other founder-kings of the human tribes, and was acclaimed the first king of that people. Some were sons or relatives of previous rulers, but most were selected based on merit.

Frithring dynasty
Frithric began a dynasty, starting with his son Aethelfrith. His dynasty would shepherd the kingdom through the collapse of the Old Empire, the Orc invasion, and the early growth of the kingdom as it conquered local townships.

Husring dynasty
Cenred, Earl of Huser was elected to the kingship after a civil war broke out and Aldwin was slain in battle in 526. His dynasty would rule until merging with another dynasty as its last ruler married into the House of Lorch.

Oremening dynasty
Ormenred, Earl of Lorch, was elected co-ruler with his wife Cynflaeda, the heiress of the Husring dynasty, after Edwin II died without a male heir. The latter part of the dynasty reigned over a tumultuous period of warfare with neighboring kingdoms and a refugee crisis caused by the War of the Orcish Succession.

Conburh dynasty
Sigbert died young and childless, and so a new dynasty was elected to the throne: that of Aethelwald, Earl of Conburh. His home shire was well known for its Confessor monastery and temples, and had become enriched as a center of pilgrimage. Aethelwald was easily the wealthiest lord in the kingdom, and one of the largest landowners.

Whitwall dynasty
Aelfwald went into the Orc heartland to re-negotiate tribute to the Khans. He unadvisedly went with his wife and son. He was betrayed and ambushed by rival khans to the one whom he was petitioning, and his whole household was slain. His lands dissolved among his various thegns. After a year-long interregnum, in which several claimants fought each other for the throne, the Witanagemot elected Loefric, Earl of Whitwall. His clan had its name from their home castle, whose strong stone walls were made from white limestone, one of the first large stone castles in Tudesco.

Aelfing dynasty
After Aedmund's ascent, his heirs would hold the kingship over the several tribes under the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction of 924. As his wife was an elf, his children were half-elves and the clan would be commonly termed the Aelfings, though the elven ancestry faded over time.