Feudalism

Feudalism governs much of Tenebria through a layered hierarchy of land, loyalty, and obligation. Power is held by kings, dukes, barons, and knights, each bound by oaths to those above and duties to those below. Peasants, tradesfolk, and villeins work the land and pay tribute, protected—or exploited—by the noble houses that rule them.

The clergy form a parallel structure of influence. While they do not rule land in the same way as nobles, monasteries, temples, and ecclesiastical courts hold wealth, sway public morality, and often serve as advisers or intermediaries in disputes. Their judgments can carry as much weight as any lord’s, and some regions are functionally ruled by powerful abbots or bishops.

Beneath it all lie those outside the system—outlaws, heretics, freedmen, hedge-witches, and wildfolk, living without protection or title. To be unbound by oath or lord is to walk a perilous path, but also to live beyond the daily proscriptions of authority, for better or worse.