#the power of powerpoint | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

vigilskeep · 2 years ago

Text

a quick guide to dog lords, telling your arls from your teyrns, and generally how ferelden works

okay, this isn't quite what anon asked for, by which i mean not at all, but unfortunately they activated my interest in some of my favourite lore. it should hopefully contain a lot of the relevant stuff and i’ll try to branch out to less fereldan specific information in other posts!

okay, let’s start with the hierarchy. there’s four kinds of noble in ferelden

royalty: you know who these guys are. except for during the orlesian occupation, ever since ferelden became one kingdom, it’s been ruled by the theirin family. which i think is for 388 years, i really hope that’s right, i got out a calculator

teyrns: these are super powerful lords, basically banns so powerful that other banns swear fealty to them. they’re second only to the king, who is essentially just the most powerful one of them. there used to be a lot of them, but with one dynasty in power for so long, that kind of opposition has been eroded away. there are only two remaining: the couslands of highever in the north, and the mac tirs of gwaren in the south

arls: these are extra special banns. they answer to a teyrn or king and hold a strategic fortress for them. we know of six—amaranthine, south reach, denerim, redcliffe, west hills, and edgehall—but i’m unsure if that’s because they are only six or because there are unnamed others

banns: these are your common or garden noble, the lowest ranking and most common. this is your local lord type. they seem to vary the most in power, though, with some banns having big speaking roles in the landsmeet

but i kind of should have written that list in the opposite direction. what do i mean by that? well, in your standard medieval hierarchy, and in a lot of the rest of thedas, power comes down from the king, who lets you hold the land. but in ferelden, most of the land is owned by freeholders: commoners, well-off enough to own their land but still not by any means nobles.

how does that work? well, let’s say i’m a freeholder.

i own my land, but thedas is a rough place. if i want to keep my land, i’d better swear fealty to a bann. i’ll pay him a portion of the goods produced on my land, and in return, he’ll protect my land from anyone wanting to beat me up and take all my goods... and also, you know, not beat me up himself, as he probably would if i didn’t have any bann looking after me. it kind of sounds like he has all the power, right? like a medieval protection racket? it’s certainly how he gets his power and wealth

so i, freeholder harker, have signed up with bann jeff. it makes sense, because he’s the closest to my freehold, and i want soldiers to actually get here in time if i’m in trouble. that’s why my family has been swearing fealty to his family for generations. it’s just how things are done

but the thing is: i hate bann jeff. maybe he takes too much of my harvests, maybe he sides with a different freeholder when we go to him with a dispute, maybe his men don’t mind their pleases and thank yous when they come for my goods. i’m well within my rights to say fuck bann jeff and leave him. especially if there’s another bann nearby who would be perfectly happy to take my goods instead and treat me right. and the less freeholders bann jeff has, the less resources and men he has to make a fuss about it with. if bann jeff pisses off enough people, he might not have any freeholders left at all. and where will his wealth and power come from then? maybe soon he won’t be a bann at all

of course, bann jeff’s family might feud with the family of the bann that stole me away for a few hundred years. but that’s hardly my problem, is it? “courting” someone else’s vassals is apparently the biggest cause of conflict within the bannorn

anyway, this isn’t just how banns work; it’s how all power theoretically works in ferelden. there are no serfs/“unfree” men. every peasant has a right to go where he will and choose which freeholder he works for, just as every freeholder has the right to choose their bann, and banns who swear to teyrns can break away. (the latter is probably less common because a teyrn could fuck you up. i’m guessing you’d have to get the king’s backing about it to survive that.) and even the king answers to his lessers in the landsmeet, the super ancient gathering of nobles where law is made, which can override the king on any matter of law. (but they’re not going to do it if the king is really popular or powerful, because. you know. there’s a limit to all things called common sense and they would prefer not to get squashed about it.) but generally, everyone who holds power in ferelden has to curry favours with their so-called lessers in order to keep their goodwill.

everywhere else in thedas thinks this is weird as hell, by the way. having to court the approval of those beneath you? even the king having to do that? wtf? but the level of freedom means everything to fereldans. it’s their highest ideal and they’re really proud of it.

(the people who really don’t have a voice are what the ttrpg calls “low freemen”, which according to its handbook, consists of criminals, prostitutes, and elves. they still have the right to freedom of movement and to be paid for their work, but they’re not going to have freeholders and banns seeking their favour and speaking for them, and they typically have to resort to bribery for entrance to cities, their homes are bought and sold by others on a whim, things like that. ultimately it makes their position incredibly vulnerable to abuse, as we see in the games. i’m sure we’ve all played the tabris origin. there’s a reason the potential boon to get a bann for the alienage is so wild.)

so, let’s say you made it, everyone loves and/or tolerates you, and you’re a noble. what good does that do you and what can you do? firstly, you have a voice in the landsmeet, which is super important and means the king wants your goodwill and advice. more generally, you have three basic functions of a noble: raising taxes/tribute, commanding soldiers, and dispensing justice. nobles are expected to live off the wealth provided by their land and it would be hugely looked down on if they did work instead, with exceptions for, like, military careers and the chantry, which are respectable for their status. they raise militia from the commoners when necessary, and they also have trained soldiers or possibly knights (see postscript) in their service. that means you can protect your land and you can win glory and spoils when the kingdom goes to war, it also means you’ll be expected to provide those men when your liegelord calls for them. and lastly the law is their responsibility. remember how in the awakening dlc you had to make judgements as the arl of amaranthine? like that! the smaller scale you are, the smaller scale it’s going to be. in turn, if you want a dispute sorted by a higher power, you have to go up to your liegelord, maybe a teyrn or the king, or if you can’t get one of them, a more powerful bann or arl in the area. possibly the chantry would be an alternate option? if it’s just about finding someone you will both listen to, which is usually the main issue

some privileges other than the standard “power over those beneath you” that you can typically expect to belong to the noble class, even if it’s not specific to dragon age: the right to carry a sword, the right to have a coat of arms, the right to precedence on formal occasions and a special seat up front in your local chantry... sometimes niche ones, like fabrics and clothing that are only permissible to wear for people of a certain rank, so it distinguishes them. you can expect favours from/common class interests with your king, you would expect to be given a trial or treated chivalrously if things did not go your way, depending on era you might be captured for ransom in battle rather than killed outright, you probably have exemptions from certain royal taxation... etc. etc.

that’s what i have! i hope these are some helpful fundamentals and that anyone who has more knowledge than me on any aspect feels welcome to contribute it

P.S. as an aside, i’m a little confused about the fereldan use of knights. they definitely exist as lesser nobility, but i don’t understand how they fit into the hierarchy. a real knight was typically a vassal who held land from his liegelord and fought for him in exchange. i... don’t know how that works in the context of land ownership mostly going upwards. they’re definitely around, anyone addressed as ser is a knight, you have the knights of redcliffe and people like ser jory and ser cauthrien. (someone in an order like the templars has the rank of knight and gets ser and everything, but is not a noble.) as a rule of thumb i think generally they’re probably just members of noble families with that dedicated military training and no greater title to lay claim to? i’m basing that on stuff like nathaniel howe being sent as a squire to his mother’s cousin, a chevalier; if he’d completed that he probably would have been a knight unless/until he inherited his father’s place? i don’t know. i’m making this up. and on the other hand, there’s very little distinction in fereldan between your regular noble and a some kind of warrior class, which is why i struggle to see the purpose. (there are also inexplicable career soldiers who are not knights. what the hell is funding that upkeep and armour, buddy. you and whose land ownership? this is why you were fighting the darkspawn with your whole arms out, aveline. stop trying to imply ferelden has a standing army you can go off and join. yes i see you carver lore. i will not buy it.) ANYWAY, because knights are more prevalent in certain areas, i do wonder if it’s an import from the long orlesian occuption, based on the knightly order of chevaliers? i don’t fucking know. worth chewing on

#dragon age #ferelden #dragon age: origins #sorry to anon for asking specifically what your exact question was #and then going off on one anyway. that is my bad. if anything is not answered here let me know #and to anyone who has noticed the probably obvious things i missed pls be gentle #god this is so fucking long AGSHSJSKKS i thought i was being brief i dodged powerpoint... anyway #i just couldnt get to grips with what a noble can do until you know what different kinds there are and where there power comes from and.#well here we are

726 notes · View notes

spatteringstars · 23 days ago

Text

I had a thought (Absolute Essay below sorry yall)

purely because of happenstance timing of watching OSP's detail diatribes about the first phase of the MCU and Captain America and the winter soldier respectively and watching Thunderbolts all within like, a week and a half of each other, I had the thought that people are more onto something than they think they are when they say "The MCU is sooo back" in response to what Thunderbolts did. I'm not going to get into anything nitty gritty about the movie because that takes time to sit down and rewatch the movie while taking notes because no way in FUCK am I picking up on more complex theming on the first watch through when the only characters I really recognize are Yelena and Alexei.

Anyways my point- As stated and explained wonderfully by Red & Blue over at Overly Sarcastic Productions (you should go watch those two most recent videos they're great) the whole appeal of the first phase of the MCU was like- these people and heroes work well independently. They can kick ass and be great independently and then they get together and they are still good and great and working together to kick evil ass. They are connected both in story and as characters in a way that we as an audience can find extremely compelling.

It falls into the pit trap of like, ugh edginess no way all of these highly competent individuals could get along so easily, so like yeah, these people are really disagreeable with each other at first but they're also all incredibly traumatized in a way that makes it difficult for them to seek out human connection so I can forgive that. And in a way I feel like it makes the crux of my ultimate point in this more compelling. Because somehow THE WRITERS MANAGED TO BRING IT BACK!!! The parts we loved about the first phase where these characters felt like they could be independent and rich on their own but become even more so when you see their reflections in each other and how they choose to interact. We loose a little bit of that sense of superhero-ness because god forbid corporate let us embrace our comic book origins lest we remember this shit used to be for geeks, but we've finally come back a little bit to what the Avengers was supposed to be about. These misfits (because lets face it even the first group of avengers were freaks. you have to be a weirdo to actually become a superhero... Tony) come together and find comraderie and strength and family in each other. Not to power of friendship literally everything but like.... its the fucking power of friendship I don't know what you want from me. And personally, I think the power of friendship is beautiful.

I think it even does a pretty decent job on the front of connecting its villains into the context of the world the story is existing in. Valentina feels like the kind of asshole who would get pulled up in this political climate post Hydra sabotaging the world to get to project insight, she feel like the kind of person who would fall for that same trap that Fury did of "Prevention of Disaster is more important than the ethics of freedom and choice that I allegelly subscribe to as a resident and representative of the United States" but fell for it harder, thus creating Sentry, after the disaster of the Blip. That could just be my wishful thinking since Thunderbolts is the only thing I've ever seen her in, but as far as villains go I feel like she makes sense even if she's a bit uuuuuhh..... morally inconsistent (?) I guess is a way I could phrase it. Whereas shit like Thanos was entertaining and was integrated into the lore of the MCU but felt a bit out of place in the context of the themes of previous movies and I'm not even touching whatever the fuck is going on w the multiverse nonsense.

Thunderbolts cared about its characters being together. It made a point to be like "literally any separation of this team trying to deal with a problem this big will fail. You all need the unique influences and skills that everyone on this team has to offer in order to actually fix what Valentina has done (and thank GOD they're solving someone else's problem instead of their own for once *cough cough* ultron *cough cough* civil war. again OSP has much more realized thoughts on this) so get in your fucking get along shirt and learn to love each other like a family" AND I LOVE THE WRITERS FOR THAT SO MUCH. THANK YOU FOR GETTING THESE DYSFUNCTIONAL FUCKS TO LOVE EACH OTHER BOB MEANS SO MUCH TO ME

And like- obviously the movie has flaws even in this context. I can see the whole "rivalry with the *other* avengers team" going really wrong and completely trampling over everything that I (and OSP I cannot tell you how much more you will get my point if you watch their phase one detail diatribe) love about what they did with Thunderbolts. I think Ghost could have been better developed in the movie or in Ant-Man and The Wasp but I understand they had to prioritize getting us on board with Bob first. They could've done a better job expanding on the themes of mental illness in the movie and I would have loved to see it better integrated with chracters previous appearances (although again I haven't watched *all* of the new shit so I could be missing something and maybe it is better integrated, but I shouldn't have to do that much fucking homework to watch a movie but thats a separate issue I'm talking about THEMES HERE). But overall, I feel like this group of writers at least looked at what made the first phase of the MCU so good and tried to learn from it and put it into their script for Thunderbolts. And that trying, especially with all of the surrounding bullshit they have to peripherially deal with, is so valuable to me. If they keep what this movie has going, we might actually "be so back" with the MCU for a whlie until the mouse machine ruins it again.