Worldbuilding: Rontak Empire Nobility
The Rontak Empire is governed by a mixture of absolute monarchy and feudalism. This form of government is necessary due to the incredible size of the Rontak Empire and made possible by the mana comm. From highest to lowest, the Rontak ranks of nobility are: Emperor, Lord, Count, Viscount, and Baron. There are also a few assorted lower noble ranks below Baron, but they are not typically entrusted with civil matters of much importance.
The Emperor is the hereditary monarch who holds absolute power. He has total authority over the entire Empire and its military. However, the Empire is so large that nobles handle most day-to-day running of the Rontak Empire.
Lords have two main roles within the Rontak Empire: sitting as a member of the House of Lords or governing a province. The House of Lords is a quasi-legislative body that handles administrative matters. They are still subservient to the Emperor though, and the Emperor can pass or nullify any legislation he chooses. The House of Lords is a vital component of the Rontak Empire’s government.
The House of Lords is typically a stepping stone position to becoming the Lord of a province. Provinces are large swaths of land ruled by a Lord. They are usually whole kingdoms previously conquered by the Rontak Empire. However, as land is awarded or revoked from various nobles, provinces can change over time. Lords are taxed by the Emperor based on the size, population and natural resources of their land.
To help Lords govern their large territories, they appoint Counts to rule over smaller regions. These regions are determined by each particular Lord and can vary in overall size. Counts are responsible for maintaining a small army within their territory. These local armies act as manpower reserves for larger Imperial armies to call upon to replenish their ranks.
A Count's army is responsible for maintaining order within the Count’s territory. Their typical duties include hunting bandits, enforcing laws and decrees, building and maintaining infrastructure, and overall defense.
The training and discipline of a Count’s army is a major symbol of status. A sloppy and poorly trained unit will reflect poorly on a Count, while a well trained and professional force will be recognized accordingly. The tradition of Counts upholding small armies as a symbol of status was put in place by Cevlion Rontus III during his military reforms. These reforms also put in place minimum standards for Counts to maintain regarding their armies. Cevlion Rontus III’s reforms are largely responsible for the modern Rontak Empire’s strong military.
Viscounts serve under a Count and govern major cities and the surrounding land. They are responsible for maintaining productivity in the city under their Count’s direction. They are also the ones to implement their Count’s military initiatives within their small territory. The other duties of a Viscount vary depending on their individual city and land.
Much of a Viscount’s land is rural and sparsely populated. As a result, they often build estates in the countryside for their own personal use. These manors litter the landscape and sometimes small villages spring up around them over time.
Barons either govern smaller cities, or are in charge of a particular industry or district within a city. For example, a larger city governed by a Viscount might have a Baron in charge of the city’s agricultural production. Another Baron might be the one who directly oversees the soldiers’ training within the city. Viscounts also sometimes appoint Barons to oversee groups of villages throughout their land. A Baron in charge of a small city has responsibilities similar to a Viscount.
Lower nobles are not usually entrusted with major civil duties, but they sometimes run their own workshops, farms or serve as the head of a guild. They also often serve as officers in the military. They lead individual units and, from there, work their way up through the ranks of the military. Eventually, lower nobles can become generals leading entire Imperial armies. Becoming a general is a good way to earn the title of Baron and possibly climb even higher. Nobles with this background are typically entrusted to lead major wars of conquest across the Kraffnia continent.
Chapter 9: Mithril
June 30th, 2053
South Duremar Plains, 6:00 AM
Daniel was running through the forest they passed through yesterday. He heard the footsteps of some kind of animal chasing after him. No matter how fast he ran, the creature was always right behind him. He made it out of the trees and into a small clearing in the middle of the forest. Then, the trees began melting together around him. All the trees morphed into a single wall encompassing him. He was trapped.
He turned around to face his pursuer. All he saw behind him were the remains of the forest ghoul, with its menacing skull staring at him. He ignored the skull and went around the edge of the wall, desperately trying to find a way to escape.
Then he heard a low growl from behind. Slowly, he reached for his ARX-35 assault rifle slung across his back, but it wasn’t there. He reached down to his hip for his sidearm, but that was gone too. He checked for his combat knife; nothing. He was completely unarmed.
Daniel felt an overwhelming sense of fear and dread come over him. As he slowly turned around, he saw that the skull atop the pile of forest ghoul remains was gone. In its place was a menacing, vaguely feline creature watching him. It had swirling purple eyes that radiated faint purple particles. Its large tooth filled mouth spanned the entire front of its head. It had frail looking arms with boney human-like hands and sharp claws. The creature seemed to be grinning at him, as if it were enjoying itself.
He tried to back away from it, but his legs wouldn’t move. Suddenly, the creature leaped through the air toward him. The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes and waited for a painful death was the animal’s razor sharp teeth, inches away from his face.
Daniel bolted upright in his sleeping bag drenched in sweat and his heart racing. Instinctively, he reached his hand over to make sure his rifle was still where he had left it; it was. He fearfully looked around for any sign of the creature that was chasing him. Realization dawned on him that it was all just a dream; it felt so real, though.
Some of the marines were starting to get up and eat their breakfast while others got right to work packing up camp. Benny walked past him, carrying a box of rations, and asked, “You have a bad dream or something?”
“Yeah,” Daniel replied. “You could say that.”
Putting the disturbing dream in the back of his mind, Daniel got up and resumed his duties as the leader of the 4th Deep Recon Team. Checking a report from the vehicles’ AI on his tac-pad, he saw that no hostile fauna attempted to approach the camp last night. The droid patrols detected a handful of animals in the vicinity, but all of them kept their distance.
They had made little progress the previous day. The meandering road through the forest took a very roundabout route. Eldryn was not familiar with the roads this far south, so they didn’t have anyone to guide them. The tree canopy wasn’t dense enough to block the sunlight, but it made it difficult for the recon drones to find a more efficient path. By the time they made it out of the forest, it was already mid-afternoon.
They drove for the rest of the day yesterday, but didn’t quite make it all the way to Miretan. They were only about 50 kilometers away now. Today they will finally reach their destination. Hopefully, they could ask the people of Miretan for a map to make the return trip easier. After packing up the camp and eating their morning meal, everyone was ready to go.
As he was boarding his Rhino, Daniel saw another mana ball. They’d seen a few of them roaming around yesterday, but this one looked like the first one they saw; after Elmot shot fire at it. It looked like it was fleeing from something. Scanning the area around the mana ball, Daniel didn’t see anything. It had probably just noticed them, so he thought nothing more of it and boarded the Rhino, closing the hatch behind him.
Daniel walked up to the command cabin and took his seat. He called out to the rest of the convoy on the radio, “Alright people, let's get moving. I want to be at Miretan within two hours.”
The lead Abrams X2 broke the circle around their camp and Benny drove after it. The convoy got back in formation and began driving towards Miretan. Soon, the small dirt road they were on widened and smoothed out. An hour later, the road began to pass through some crop fields, and the town of Miretan came into view.
It had stone walls, but they weren’t particularly tall. The overhead recon drone footage showed the buildings were similar to those from the Rhinewood River valley. They were a bit larger, but still circular with nearly flat conical roofs. The buildings were arranged into several circular patterns throughout the city.
“Elmot, I thought you said Miretan was a ‘small mining town’?” Daniel asked, calling back to the crew compartment.
“The last I heard, it was,” said Elmot. “Apparently my information is out of date.”
“Exactly how old is your information?” Benny asked.
“More than 60 years,” Elmot replied.
Benny laughed, “Don’t you think that's something you should have mentioned to us before?”
“To an elf, 60 years is not that long,” Elmot replied.
Outside, Daniel could see some of the people working the fields staring at them while others ran or tried to hide. The convoy wasn’t making any threatening moves towards them, but they had never seen anything like modern armored vehicles before. Not paying the farmers any attention, they continued on to the main city.
On the far side of the city, closer to the mountains, the footage showed what looked to be primitive mining operations. Black smoke mixed with light blue particles was rising from the chimneys of several buildings.
“Looks like they’re still mining mithril,” said Marcus.
“Looks like it,” Daniel replied. “Hold position one kilometer away.”
The vehicles came to a stop at the exact distance Daniel specified. They could see people gathering on the walls, possibly defenders expecting them to attack. The main gate opened and about two dozen men on horseback came out. They weren’t at a full gallop, but they weren’t slowly trotting either. They all carried shields in one hand and spears in the other.
“They look a little armed for a welcoming committee,” Benny said.
“So far, this world hasn’t exactly been the friendliest of places,” Marcus replied.
“Marcus, I want you ready with the ADS, just in case,” Daniel said.
Marcus targeted the horsemen with the ADS and said, “I got you covered. If they try anything, I’ll roast’em.”
“Alright,” Daniel said, “let’s go say hello.”
Daniel, along with a few marines, got out of their Rhinos and walked to the front of the convoy. They gathered a few meters in front of the lead Abrams X2. The horsemen slowed to a stop a respectful distance away.
One of them, wearing more ornamental armor than the others, came forward a few meters on his horse and announced, “I am Captain Harlon of the Miretan City Guard. State your business, strangers. But know that we are capable of defending ourselves if necessary.”
Daniel stepped forward as well and said, “I am First Lieutenant Daniel Ramirez of the United States Marine Corps. We’re here to negotiate for the purchase of mithril.”
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Skeptical of the newcomers' inventions, Harlon replied, “Many come here to trade for our mithril. But few come with great beasts of war… unless they intend to take it by force.”
“They are merely our transportation,” Daniel countered. “To show our good faith, we’ve brought food, water, and medicine as a gift for your people.”
That caught Captain Harlon’s attention. “Show us,” he said curtly.
Daniel gestured for him to come closer. Captain Harlon and two of his men dismounted their horses and approached the marines. They walked back to the first logistic truck. Passing the Americans’ vehicles, Captain Harlon and his men saw that the war beasts were actually metal carriages, exactly as Daniel said.
As they passed the front of the truck, Daniel said to the driver, “Open her up.”
“Yes sir,” the driver replied. They heard the lock click and the mechanical doors swung open. They went to the back of the truck to show Captain Harlon the truck’s contents. He stared at the truck’s cargo in astonishment and picked up a can of soup from one of the crates.
“What are these?” he asked.
“We call those ‘non-perishables’,” Daniel replied, gesturing to the crate full of cans. “They’ll stay fresh for years unless they’re opened.”
“Years?” Cried one of Captain Harlon’s men. “That's impossible!”
“Quiet!” Snapped Captain Harlon. Turning back to Daniel, he said, “We can’t trade much mithril for this, but we can pay you in standard Rontak coins. Will that be acceptable?”
“The supplies are a gift to show our good faith. We aren’t asking for anything in return,” Daniel answered.
“Then how do you intend to trade for our mithril?” Captain Harlon asked.
“We have another truck, just like this one, filled to the brim with wyvern scales. We were told that would be an acceptable form of payment.”
Captain Harlon’s eyes widened as he heard what Daniel said. “You mean an entire one of these metal carriages is filled with wyvern scales?”
“That's right,” Daniel replied confidently.
Captain Harlon’s expression and attitude immediately shifted from one of suspicion and curiosity to one of hospitality. “Then consider yourselves welcome guests of Miretan! Come! We shall take you to the Mining Guild Council.”
Captain Harlon gave the Americans permission to park their vehicles closer to the city wall. Liv took charge of unloading the humanitarian aid, while Daniel, Emily, Marcus, Elmot, and David went to meet with the Mining Guild Council to arrange an exchange for mithril.
Like all cities in the Rontak Empire, Miretan is ruled by a Rontak noble. However, since their economy is so dependent on mithril, the city’s Mining Guild holds most real power. Ordinarily, the council wouldn’t meet with just anyone seeking to buy mithril, but the Americans were offering to buy a significant amount; this warranted their attention.
Captain Harlon led them through the city and up to the Mining Guild’s keep near the center of the city. The room was circular with a whitish-blue textured carpet with golden markings covering the whole floor. It was lit by a beautiful central chandelier hanging from the modestly high conical ceiling and two large semi-circular hearths on the right and left sides of the chamber. There were five council members sitting in high backed chairs at an intricate curved wooden table. Behind them, was a great window overlooking the rest of the city.
In a regal tone, Captain Harlon said, “Esteemed guests, may I present the Miretan Mining Guild Council: Grand Master Ubralok, Master Japlon, Master Yerspid, Master Horab, and Master Gervo. Masters of the Guild, these are our guests from the United States. If you will excuse me, I must return to my duties.”
He bowed respectfully and exited the room. Masters Yerspid and Gervo were significantly shorter than the average person, even sitting in their chairs. After the Americans and Elmot introduced themselves, Grand Master Ubralok said, “Tell me, where is this ‘United States’? I have never heard of it before.”
Daniel explained the attack on New York City and the Rontak Empire’s subsequent defeat.
“What interest does your kingdom have in our mithril? If you are powerful enough to defeat the Rontak Empire in battle, then surely you have your own source of mithril on your world.”
“Actually, we do not,” said David. “Magic doesn’t exist in our world and we have no magical materials of any kind.”
“No magic at all?” Asked Master Horab? “How is that possible?”
“Believe me, I can’t wait to find out for myself,” David said with a hint of enthusiasm in his voice.
“I see your predicament,” said Master Japlon. “Despite your initial victory, without magic, you are at a disadvantage against the Rontak Empire. You want our mithril to forge magical weapons.”
“Not quite,” Daniel countered. “After coming through the portal to this world, we were attacked by a demonic entity. Without any way to defend against it, many of our people were slaughtered.” Daniel paused, thinking back to the horrific footage of the attack.
“I assure you, we have no interest in mithril outside of its applications against demonic entities and scientific curiosity,” Daniel assured them. “We have no intention of using it against the Rontak Empire.”
“We will happily trade our mithril to those wishing to slay demons, even if they are enemies of the Rontak Empire,” replied Grand Master Ubralok. “Dealing with those foul creatures is in everyone’s best interest.”
“I’m glad to hear that, Grand Master,” Daniel replied. “How much mithril are you willing to sell?”
“Unfortunately, we do not have much on hand at the moment,” replied Master Gervo. We have a small stockpile, but that is all. I saw your metal carriages outside the wall; we could fill perhaps one, maybe one and a half of them. We have a few hundred mithril swords we could sell you as well, but that is all. Our mines have been rather slow as of late. I’m afraid we don’t have enough mithril to match the value of your wyvern scales.”
“That would be enough to meet our current needs,” Daniel said. “But perhaps we could arrange a more long term agreement between Miretan and the United States.”
“What do you mean?” Asked Grand Master Ubralok.
“Our mining methods and equipment could extract far more ore than what you produce right now.” Daniel pulled out an envelope with packets detailing his superiors’ long term trade agreement and handed them to the Council.
“This outlines our proposal for a partnership between the city of Miretan and the United States.” Summarizing the proposal, Daniel said, “In short, we would like to buy mining rights to your ore, work with you to refine it, and then buy the finished product.”
The Council members looked over the packet of information and were astonished by its generosity.
“Your proposal is more than generous, but this would be treason against the Rontak Empire,” said Grand Master Ubralok. “If we were to agree to it, they would send an army to slaughter us for our betrayal. You may buy our mithril to defend yourselves against demons, but we cannot do more than that. I’m sorry.”
“If you sign any sort of agreement with us, the United States will of course guarantee your safety from the Rontak Empire,” Daniel countered.
“And what will this protection cost us?” Asked Master Yerspid.
“Nothing, of course,” Daniel replied. “It would do us no good to have our first trading partner in this world be destroyed just for doing business with us.”
“That is… We will need time to consider this proposal,” said Grand Master Ubralok.
“In the meantime, we would still like to purchase the mithril you have onhand. All the mithril you have right now for our wyvern scales.” Daniel said.
“Very well,” said Master Gervo. “How many scales would you be willing to part with?”
“We have no real use for them. You can keep the change,” Daniel said with a smile.
The council members looked at him with confusion. “Keep the change?” one of them asked.
“It's an expression from our world,” Daniel clarified. “It means you can have them all. Consider it another show of our good faith.”
Some of the council members let out gasps of surprise.
“You Americans are most generous indeed. We have an agreement then,” said Grand Master Ubralok.
As they walked out of the council chamber, Emily said to Daniel, “You handled that pretty well, sir.”
“Just doing my job,” Daniel replied. He was never given any training on being a diplomat or negotiator, but that's what the job required, so that's what he did. Daniel, Emily, Marcus, David, and Elmot left the Mining Guild keep and returned to the rest of the 4th Deep Recon Team.
After the meeting, the Mining Guild Council sent for all the mithril the city had to be sent to the main gate. The Americans’ vehicles were too large to be brought into the city along its narrow roads, so they had to transfer all the cargo at the gate.
As they walked back out of the city, Liv was still working with Captain Harlon to unload the humanitarian aid. There were several horse drawn carriages carrying supplies into the city as soon as they were unloaded from the trucks. Daniel saw Thungar effortlessly carrying a crate of supplies that would ordinarily have taken two people to lift. The droids were also busy unloading supplies from the trucks, but even with their help it was going to take time. Emily was put in charge of transferring the wyvern scales and mithril. With the help of Captain Harlon’s own men, she got to work unloading the wyvern scales.
While the marines were busy coordinating with Miretan’s own logistical crews to transfer the cargo, the scientists were allowed into the city. David went with Agent Vanderhoff to the mithril mining and processing district to find out more about the material itself. Alejandro and Leila, the team’s biologist and anthropologist respectively, went to mingle with the locals to find out more about the culture and way of life of people on this world. At Daniel’s insistence, each pair had a marine assigned to them for protection.
Walking through the city, Alejandro and Leila took notice of some peculiarities. There were a number of unusually short humans. Upon asking about it, the scientists discovered that they were actually dwarfs. They found out that dwarfs have a natural talent for elemental earth magic and, as such, make excellent miners.
There are not many dwarfs in the Rontak Empire, but they tend to cluster in mining towns like Miretan. They also unfortunately found out that it was common practice to use enslaved elves to supplement the city’s limited magic. Enslaved minotaurs were also forced to work in the mines. Leila was disappointed at the prevalence of slavery, but wasn't surprised by it. Nearly all societies on Earth with the Rontak Empire’s level of development practiced slavery to some extent.
In the mithril industry district, David and Agent Vanderhoff made the same discovery regarding slavery. Still curious, David examined the ore refining process. It looked like a typical primitive ore refining process, but with a few magical steps thrown into the mix. According to the elven mages, there were magical impurities in the ore that could only be removed via magic. David was given an ore sample to take back for study.
Agent Vanderhoff was less concerned with the unethical labor situation and more with the properties of mithril itself. How strong was it? How can it be weaponized? The former, the magi blacksmiths couldn’t answer in meaningful terms; they didn’t have the concept of material strength to objectively quantify it. However, they could elaborate on mithril weapons.
Usually, mithril is just forged into normal weapons like spears or swords. The metal’s light weight makes excellent arrow heads as well. Given its strength and durability, mithril weapons are among the best weapons in the Rontak Empire. Although, mithril weapons are still too rare for them to be common throughout their armies. Usually, they’re only given to elite units or officers.
Agent Vanderhoff was satisfied with this information. If mithril was mostly just a strong and rare metal that was used for ordinary swords and spears, it didn’t pose much of a threat to the United States. After learning enough about mithril, Agent Vanderhoff slipped away from David and his marine bodyguard to gather more information about Miretan.
What he discovered was mostly mundane. Miretan was a small mining city with a population of around 8,000 humans, elves, minotaurs, and dwarves. They have enough farmland to sustain themselves, barely, but most of their economy was centered around mithril mining. The Mining Guild had an extreme amount of influence over the city and its nobility, to the point where they were effectively the governing body. The Rontak noble officially governing the city, Baron Pelondo, was mostly incompetent and didn’t actually do much.
The marines spent the rest of the day transfering humanitarian aid and wyvern scales to Miretan and loading mithril into the logistic trucks. The Mining Guild arranged for an inn for the Americans to sleep in. Daniel ordered a number of droids to stand watch around their rooms during the night. Even though no one they’ve met so far in this world has had any real love for the Rontak Empire, it didn’t hurt to be careful; they were still in enemy territory after all.
June 30th
Duremar Plains, Rontak’s Reach, 5:00 PM
Princess Maribelle was meeting with Commanders Ralva and Palok regarding their first attempt to gather intelligence on the American base.
“Our mission was a complete failure, Princess. My knights were all lost before they could relay any information,” said Palok in a dejected tone.
Ralva and Maribelle sat silently for a moment, mourning their lost knights. Palok was hit the hardest by it though. She had hand picked those knights herself; they were all close friends with each other. She blamed herself for their deaths.
Breaking the silence, Princess Maribelle asked, “What happened?”
Palok solemnly explained, “They reported seeing streaks of fire and smoke in the sky heading right for them, just after they came within sight of the enemy camp. That was their last transmission. We haven’t heard anything from them since.”
“How could their weapons reach so far out?” Ralva asked. “To be destroyed after only just coming into view of the enemy…”
Princess Maribelle looked up with resolve and said, “We’ve suffered a terrible loss, but our mission is more important than ever now. We need to find out what these anti-wyvern weapons are and how to avoid them.”
“I’ll do it,” Ralva said.
Palok and Maribelle both turned their heads and looked at their friend. “We can’t send more scouts by wyvern,” Palok said, not wanting to lose anyone else. “It’s far too dangerous.”
“I know,” Ralva replied. “I’ll take a small group of knights to a village close to the enemy base and, from there, approach by horse under the cover of darkness. The enemy will never know we were there.”
Princess Maribelle thought for a moment and finally said, “Very well, Ralva. But at the first sign you’ve been spotted, return at once. I don’t want any more casualties.”
“Of course, Princess,” Ralva said. “I’ll make sure every knight makes it back alive.”
With that, Ralva immediately went to prepare her knights for the mission; they would leave tomorrow morning. Princess Maribelle and Commander Palok were devising strategies against the Americans when General Rallek came in.
“Princess, forgive the intrusion, but a mana comm message has come through from Baron Pelondo,” said General Rallek.
“General, I am the Princess,” Maribelle said annoyed, “I cannot bother myself with the names of each and every noble in the Rontak Empire.”
“Of course not, Princess, my apologies,” General Rallek said quickly. “Baron Pelondo rules over the mining city of Miretan. His message said that the Americans are there.”
“What?” Exclaimed Palok. “How could they have gotten so far south without us knowing?”
“Remember Palok,” Maribelle said, “Their beasts are said to have the mobility of light cavalry. I suppose it's not impossible for them to travel that far so quickly.”
“That is not the worst of the news, Princess,” continued the General. “According to Baron Pelondo, his miners have betrayed him and are supplying mithril weapons to the Americans.”
That caught the Princess’s attention. “How dare they betray the Rontak Empire!” She shouted.
She could understand if the enemy had forced the people of Miretan to supply them with mithril weapons, but outright betrayal? Willing cooperation? That was less forgivable. Returning to her calm and collected self, she asked General Rallek, “How many war beasts are there? A few dozen? A hundred?”
“According to Baron Pelondo, only eight beasts. But some of them are beasts of burden being used to transport mithril.”
“Princess, we have to leave at once to stop them!” Palok exclaimed.
“With eight war beasts, but some of them burdened by transporting cargo… We might stand a chance against them,” said the Princess, deep in thought. “But our casualties would be high if they use their anti-wyvern weapons against us again…”
Palok and Maribelle thought of their lost comrades. Neither wanted to repeat that loss on a larger scale. Princess Maribelle continued thinking for a moment before finally coming to a decision.
“We will not engage the Americans in battle. But we will go to Miretan to find out more about their war beasts. If the town really has betrayed us, perhaps the Americans have shared some of their secrets.”
“But Princess, who knows what kind of magic weapons they will create with that mithril?”
“I gave my father my word that I would not take any unnecessary risks. I will not break my word by deliberately attacking several American war beasts that potentially have devastating anti-wyvern weapons. Besides, they already have overwhelming magical weapons. What harm could come from them acquiring some mithril?”
Princess Maribelle made up her mind. She and Palok would leave for Miretan in the morning, but only to gather information about the Americans. They will wait for the Americans to depart the city from afar. Once the Americans are gone, they will approach the city themselves and question the people for anything they know about the Americans.
Hopefully they could learn about the Americans themselves, not just their war beasts. In war, it was important to understand your enemy in order to defeat them. How do they think? What do they value? If she could garner a greater understanding of the enemy’s soldiers, rather than just captured slaves, it would be a dramatic boon to any strategy against them.
Author’s Note: This is subject to change, but I am thinking the next worldbuilding section will be the Rontak Empire’s military structure. It sort of flows nicely from this chapter’s worldbuilding section, which briefly mentioned parts of their military. If you have any major questions about the world or requests for worldbuilding topics, let me know!