Cornwell
Jun 13, 2017 4:25:12 GMT -6
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jun 13, 2017 4:25:12 GMT -6
Overview
Originally a minor march of Lycia, rising discontent with their incompetent leadership and the lack of Lycian action against the threats facing many of the smaller Lycian territories eventually came to a head. The first protests were cracked down on brutally, leading to a rising tide of anger that culminated in a full scale rebellion. The civil war was short and brutal, with significant portions of the army defecting to the people they had been used to oppress, and the combined force stormed the marquess's castle, butchering everyone inside and utterly obliterating the royal house of Cornwell.
In the wake of its secession, heavily distrustful of creating a new dynasty of out-of-touch nobles, Cornwell opted for a different system - rather than a monolithic government, it embraced its identity as territory by the people, for the people, and of the people - doing away with the concept of nobility in general, it became home to refugees and would-be heroes alike, culminating in a process led by an ambitious Cornwellian citizen to organize a defensive force to protect their own and aid Lycia as a whole, a woman named Cynthia Wood.
Over the last few years, Cornwell has surprisingly survived where most expected it to fail; after some early friction, the guilds - still under Cynthia's leadership - agreed on a set of rules and social mores, major guilds acting as a system of checks and balances against each other. While it isn't perfect, Cornwell has proven itself surprisingly useful to surrounding territories and arguably Lycia as a whole, so it is begrudgingly accepted out of necessity by the rest of Lycia. While it is no longer a member of the Lycian League and does not have an official marquess or even leader, Cynthia Wood is almost unanimously agreed to be its de facto spokesman and unofficial leader by an adoring populace, often acting as a mediator in guild disputes, and was appointed the leader of the guild union not too long back. That she arguably wields more power than most Marquesses is a matter that few like to think about too hard.
Military
Cornwell no longer has a standing military, though individual towns and cities typically have their own paramilitary police forces. Instead, the network of guilds provides protection, and can be hired out to various Lycian territories, or even outside Lycia entirely in rare occasions for the most famous of them. In many ways Cornwell could be considered the logical end game of the Ilian style of mercenary existence, but a force united by ideals rather than nationality. Few of the guilds now housed in Cornwell consider themselves Cornwell's 'citizens' exactly, many of them hailing from across Lycia and even further, but the freedom and eye for coin - and aiding Lycia - unite them to a degree that even nationality would struggle.
Originally a minor march of Lycia, rising discontent with their incompetent leadership and the lack of Lycian action against the threats facing many of the smaller Lycian territories eventually came to a head. The first protests were cracked down on brutally, leading to a rising tide of anger that culminated in a full scale rebellion. The civil war was short and brutal, with significant portions of the army defecting to the people they had been used to oppress, and the combined force stormed the marquess's castle, butchering everyone inside and utterly obliterating the royal house of Cornwell.
In the wake of its secession, heavily distrustful of creating a new dynasty of out-of-touch nobles, Cornwell opted for a different system - rather than a monolithic government, it embraced its identity as territory by the people, for the people, and of the people - doing away with the concept of nobility in general, it became home to refugees and would-be heroes alike, culminating in a process led by an ambitious Cornwellian citizen to organize a defensive force to protect their own and aid Lycia as a whole, a woman named Cynthia Wood.
Over the last few years, Cornwell has surprisingly survived where most expected it to fail; after some early friction, the guilds - still under Cynthia's leadership - agreed on a set of rules and social mores, major guilds acting as a system of checks and balances against each other. While it isn't perfect, Cornwell has proven itself surprisingly useful to surrounding territories and arguably Lycia as a whole, so it is begrudgingly accepted out of necessity by the rest of Lycia. While it is no longer a member of the Lycian League and does not have an official marquess or even leader, Cynthia Wood is almost unanimously agreed to be its de facto spokesman and unofficial leader by an adoring populace, often acting as a mediator in guild disputes, and was appointed the leader of the guild union not too long back. That she arguably wields more power than most Marquesses is a matter that few like to think about too hard.
Military
Cornwell no longer has a standing military, though individual towns and cities typically have their own paramilitary police forces. Instead, the network of guilds provides protection, and can be hired out to various Lycian territories, or even outside Lycia entirely in rare occasions for the most famous of them. In many ways Cornwell could be considered the logical end game of the Ilian style of mercenary existence, but a force united by ideals rather than nationality. Few of the guilds now housed in Cornwell consider themselves Cornwell's 'citizens' exactly, many of them hailing from across Lycia and even further, but the freedom and eye for coin - and aiding Lycia - unite them to a degree that even nationality would struggle.