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Locations  »  The Seven Kingdoms

Seven Kingdoms

Seven Kingdoms

Founded: 1183 IR
Continent: Angleland
Government Type: Kingdom
Capital: Brunanburh
Cyning: Sigeberht Alfredson


The Seven Kingdoms is a group of clustered kingdoms affiliated in a loose confederation on Angleland, a large island north and west of the Kreisens in the Lirian Ocean. Currently, there are seven kingdoms: Brunanburh, Cantwarena, Herefinna, Hwicca, Middlemarch, Suthwicca, and Westwicca.

Brunanburh is by far the largest city on Angleland, so large it has been seen as a kingdom in its own right, though its actual land area is smaller than all the others. However, it has been the home of the bretwalda, the high king of Seven Kingdoms, since 1980 and, hence, the most prestigious of all the kingdoms. The current bretwalda is Sigeberht Alfredson.

 

Politics

As mentioned, the Seven Kingdoms are a loose confederation of kingdoms nominally ruled by the bretwalda. However, each kingdom retains its own traditions, economy, and prerogatives, though culturally all those in the Seven Kingdoms are essentially one people.

In general, the Seven Kingdoms rely on personal oaths between lords and retainers throughout their society. This is, not surprisingly, especially true between lords and warriors. Lords, generally called ealdormen, accept the oaths of thegns to serve as warleaders and rulers of towns and estates. In turn, thegns accept the oaths of carls, professional warriors, and of ceorls, all other free members of Sevenish society.

Oaths are taken extremely seriously in the Seven Kingdoms and are always double-sided. The person accepting an oath expects a set of services. The person giving the oath expects certain rewards, prerogatives, and rights. While especially true for military service, this concept is the entire structure of Sevenish culture.

It is certainly not unknown for people to break oaths, for example Penwulf Cynricson to his father Cynric II Alfredson in Middlemarch. However, such things are so extraordinary, they often result in major consequences, such as the Battle of Raecford in 2106 IR following Penwulf's break with his father.

The people of the Seven Kingdoms tend to be individualistic and prize freedom and their rights. The vast majority of Seveners bear a sax, a knife that proclaims them to be free men and women. To lose one's sax is cause for great shame, and only occurs after some sort of oathbreaking.

Oddly, one of the paths to free man status is to swear an oath to a lord. That small percentage of the population who have not been offered their sax often strive to make themselves worthy, and lords who accept their oath are expected to provide a sax in return, either immediately or upon completion of the terms of the oath. It has not happened in centuries, but an ealdorman who fails to fulfill their terms of such an oath and refuse to bestow a sax can, in fact, be stripped of their own sax by a cyning.

Though the kingdoms compete with each other economically and on Angleland itself, they tend to put a unified face to outsiders in times of war. Of late, external conflicts have been less common, as they have had generally good relations with Svellheim and the Western Isles, their primary competitors in the Lirian and Woden’s Sea. It helps that the Seven Kingdoms do not share an actual border with either of these realms.

The primary source of conflict in the northwest is turbulence from the Kreisens. All the surrounding realms understand just how much wealth and power could be had if one or the other took significant control of even a portion of the Kreisens. Hence all of them watch the others closely to ensure none can gain that advantage. This has, at times, put the Seven Kingdoms in conflict with the Empire of Makhaira or the Matriarchate of Periaslavl, despite the fact they share little else in common.

The Seven Kingdoms also has to deal with upland barbarian tribes located in the western edge of Angleland. The people of the Brecan Mountains (in the southwest) and the Snowdon Mountains (in the northwest) share no cultural similarity to the Seveners. In fact, they lived on Angleland before the people who would become Seveners arrived on the island. Herefinna and Middlemarch are especially vulnerable to raiders from these mountains, and are therefore more focused on military skill than other, more peaceful areas of Angleland.

 

Economy

The primary export of the Seven Kingdoms are cunningly woven wool and linen fabrics. These fabrics are prized as far away as Amaranth.

While not extraordinarily wealthy in terms of mineral resources, the Seven Kingdoms produce more than enough iron, tin, copper, nickel, and gemstones to be self-sufficient. One cannot discuss Sevenish mines without mentioning garnet, which is generally accepted across Eard as the best of that particular gemstone. Sevenish jewelers set garnet in intricate gold latticework in brooches, sword pommels, pendants, and wherever else they can. These, too, are prized throughout Eard.

The Seven Kingdoms are also noted for their literature and poetry. Many scholars come to Angleland to study at their centers of learning and with their scops. All seven of the kingdoms boast at least one center of learning, with the pre-eminent being the Leornungscol in Gleawton, Cantwarena.

 

Military

As mentioned, the Seven Kingdoms rely upon a professional warrior class called carls, or house-carls. These are armed well and receive constant opportunity to train. Hence, they can match just about any infantry in all of Eard. As most ealdormen and thegns were once carls and all the cynings and ruling cwens are expected to have these skills as well, the Seven Kingdoms also tends to have skilled and experienced captains to lead their forces.

However, there aren't that many of this professional warrior class. In times of war and when an area is raided, the ealdormen and thegns can call upon the fyrd, the local militia.

Included in the oaths between lord and fyrdmen, however, are promises of regular training from the fyrdmen themselves and proper equipment from the lord in question. Generally, they are armed with spears, but well-made spears with good steel heads upon stout shafts are not insignificant weapons, especially when the fyrd have practiced working in walls combining the heavier armor and weapons of carls with fyrdmen behind them.

There are regional variations to this structure. Most notably, many coastal areas have a scipfyrd instead of a regular fyrd structure. These are crews for ships similar in design to Svellheimish longships, though usually smaller. These provide coastal defense at all times and can be mustered to provide an effective navy, though the navies of both the Western Isles and Svellheim are superior.

Founding

During the 7th and 8th centuries, as the Empire of Sabinia retreated out of the north, tribes migrated westward across Karelia. Ultimately, these tribes crossed to Angleland, defeating the indigenous inhabitants. The tribes began to coalesce into larger and larger groups, eventually becoming small kingdoms.

In 1183, Offa of Westwicca defeated the combined armies of the Gascaethings, the Hwiccans, and the Suthwiccans. At this point, no other kingdom on Angleland could boast anything close to the military might of the Westwiccans. The various cynings swore oaths to Offa, accepting him as the first bretwalda, though precisely circumscribing the limits of his power.

The bretwalda has changed over the centuries, with each of what is now the Seven Kingdoms having held primacy at least once. However, since 1980, the cynings of Brunanburh are accepted as bretwaldas. Prior to that, it was the Suthwiccan line, but increased trade through Woden’s Sea made Brunanburh even more prominent and wealthy than before because it boasts the best harbor in all of Angleland. No other kingdom had controlled the title of bretwalda for longer than a century, so some scholars wonder if this will ever change again.

The number of kingdoms has changed over the centuries. As late as 1783 IR, the region was called the Eleven Kingdoms. However, after a series of wars, by 1800 IR the region settled on its current number of seven kingdoms. The kingdom borders have changed quite often in the last three centuries, as one kingdom or another gains status, but the number of kingdoms has remained the same.

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