Introduction to the city of the hundred fiefs

Short book synopsis

A young lady has to defend the patch of an enormous metropolis that is under her control while she struggles to improve the life of the inhabitants of her towers. A powerful lord attempting to reunite the whole city under one single rule threatens her independence and her life, especially when he swallows her previous neighbour and she becomes his next target...

Genre: Romantic Fantasy, High Fantasy.
Location: A city full of towers divided into a hundred fiefs over which powerful lords and ladies rule.
Interest: Explore a magic-filled metropolis where lords and ladies are all powerful and fight fiercely for every patch of lands, and witness the consequences for the people living under them.

by grandfailure on DepositPhotos

The world of the story

The magic

Becoming linked to the land. People's magic can become linked to a specific area of the land, become its lord or lady or lady. This gives them protection for themselves while they stand inside of it, as well as superior control over everything and everyone there.
Can someone else seize control of the area? Yes, it can be done even thought it is difficult. The easiest way is to kill the current lord or lady.

The world

A divided world. The entire world is covered by areas claimed by people in this way, with no patch of land left unoccupied no matter how small.
Can empires or federations exist? Lords and ladies can occasionally make alliances with each other or gather under one allegiance to face common problems and threats, however those are fleeting and rarely survive more than a generation, if even that.

Metropolises

Big metropolis are rare, as holding a large area in a place that is fiercely fought over is extremely hard. Most people prefer to tempt their chance in the countryside, where it is easier for anyone with notable power to just claim any land and build a village there.
However, a few places in the world have very powerful magic that boost that of the people living there as well as their health. As a consequence, big urban areas have been built on top of these places. Yet, very few individuals manage to claim such a city in its entirety, and once they die, the city is immediately divided in small turf zones, each under the control of a different lord or lady. Those are the fiefs.

Lord Adélème by AmélieIS

The new would-be emperor...

What do the fiefs look like?

These fiefs are covered with enormous towers so that their lords and ladies can maximise the use of space inside their land. Everything is done inside those towers: living, manufacture, farming, and fighting. And it is tower by tower that each lord and lady fight in an attempt to reunify the whole city under their unique control.

The City of a Hundred Fiefs

In one such city, the situation is particularly bad. The urban area is especially vast, and the division into especially tiny fiefs has been so long lasting that the city is now only called the City of the Hundred Fiefs. In the absence of a solution, the lords and ladies have established a neutral zone where they can all gather together to debate current affaires and make common decision for the city.
Everyone was becoming comfortable with the situation, just when rumours started to spread. There would be a lord among them with the ambition to reunite the whole city. And given how he has started to swallow one fief after another, it looks like he might actually have the power to do so...

Main Character

Her past

Olénie was born in the city and suffered through the rule of a particularly bad lord. Fed up with the situation, she secretly trained her magic skills until, as a teenager, she arranged to meet the lord and used the occasion to kill him and claim the land for herself.
This led to an intense period during which she had to fight to get her authority and power respected by her neighbours and people alike, as well as change the way the fief was ruled to improve her people's life.

Current danger

Just when the situation was stabilising and she was started to look more outwards and considering forming her own alliances with the other lords and ladies, one of her direct neighbours falls to the new woul-be emperor.
This makes Olénie the weakest and most vulnerable of the man's current neighbours, his obvious next target...

Lady Olénie by AmélieIS

Upcoming confrontation...

Where to get started