Land ownership

[DarkAsmodeous]

A problem recently arose in the steadhelm claims board regarding the ownership of land and distribution of power. How is land owned in tamriel, is it sperated into king/duke/fiefdoms? Does each town just have a representative ruler who answers to the empire?

[Razorwing]

I only know Morrowind, and in there the Province is divided into six Districts. Only the Vvardenfell District is referred to by name in lore. In the past I've called our area "Silgrad District" but I imagine a better name would be "Redoran District", since one can assume the five Districts besides Vvardenfell is controlled by respective Great House.

It's not clear-cut who owns any piece of land, because different powers have different rights. The man at the bottom, say a farmer, has the right to grow crops and live in a house on his land. The Count, Duke, King and Emperor - in sequence - has the right to exact taxes from him. First his taxes goes to the Count of the County he's in, the Count then takes a portion of those taxes and bundles it with all the other tax incomes and ship it to the Duke, and so on.

One can say that the Emperor controls Tamriel, the King controls the Province, the Duke controls the District, the Count controls the county, and a local leader controls the village. From top to bottom they each deal with incrementally smaller issues in their area of control. They all feed taxes up the chain, so the King and the Emperor gets wealthy, but they also get rich themselves in the process - ensuring that it's in their best interest to stay loyal, and maintain the peace and status quo, lest they lose their wealth and future income.

[Cuthalion]

Why don't we just take a map of Morrowind, and split it up in powersections; Barons with little land, Count(s) with alot of land, etc....

[DarkAsmodeous]

Didn't stros m'kai have a governer? So, should we just use a.... wait, in the empire, each town has a count! I think a count should rule the towns.

[Razorwing]

DarkAsmodeous: If you scrutizine the map that comes with the game you'll notice Cyrodiil is divided into Counties. Thus the Count in the main town of the county rules the whole county. I don't see why we couldn't transfer that setup over to our part of Morrowind's mainland. IIRC, The Elder Scrolls III were more fuzzy on this matter (an individual's control of towns) than TES IV is.

[Axen]

Morrowind isn't Feudal.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Axen
Morrowind isn't Feudal.

King Helseth?
Duke Vedam Dren?

HH_DestroyIndarysManor: "Crassius Curio asked me to kill the Redoran Lord Banden Indarys at..."

[Axen]

Originally posted by Razorwing

Originally posted by Axen
Morrowind isn't Feudal.

King Helseth?
Duke Vedam Dren?

They're Imperial (though Dunmer in race) figures.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Axen
They're Imperial (though Dunmer in race) figures.

All the nobles are part of the same chain, from Emperor down to Knight. You're right that feudalism doesn't have a long history in Morrowind and that it was instituted by the Empire, not that that was the question. Helseth is Morrowind's King, and under him are Dukes and other nobles in control of smaller and smaller dominion much like any other feudal system.

[Axen]

Originally posted by Razorwing

Originally posted by Axen
They're Imperial (though Dunmer in race) figures.

All the nobles are part of the same chain, from Emperor down to Knight. You're right that feudalism doesn't have a long history in Morrowind and that it was instituted by the Empire, not that that was the question. Helseth is Morrowind's King, and under him are Dukes and other nobles in control of smaller and smaller dominion much like any other feudal system.

Remember the Armistice.