Benoic

*"L'honneur est tout. Chivalry est tout."*
The homeland of the ancient Eponi, the **Kingdom of Benoic** is a feudal Human kingdom renowned throughout Asul for its mighty knights. Indeed, Benoic's knights - and their horses - are held to be the finest in all Asul.

A realm of chivalry and honor, Benoic is also however a realm of poverty and oppression; the majesty and might of its knights standing in contrast to the squalor and desperation of its peasants.

## History

The Kingdom of Benoic was founded by King Frollo du Graal with the aid of seven mighty and noble knights; the Seven Peers.

## Government

Benoic is a kingdom strictly organized along a rigid feudal hierarchy. The Kings of Benoic are all descendents of King Frollo du Graal, the founder of Benoic, and similarly each of the ducal lines trace their lineage back to one of the Seven Peers.

Like most feudal societies, the King of Benoic technically owns all land in the kingdom, and simply leases it out to the handful of dukes beneath him, who in turn divide their partitions further amongst their own counts, who then subdivide it among their vassal barons, who do so in turn among their own knights. There are obviously more nobles than there is land in Benoic, and so many are constantly scheming and lobbying with their lords and rivals ever eager to increase their own demesne and standing.

## Culture and Society

The heart of feudalism in Asul, the chivalric code and feudal order color everything in Benoic and form the foundation of its culture and society. A land of contrasts and stark juxtapositions, division defines the society of Benoic, and the realm as a whole is a contrast between the splendor and majesty of its nobility and the squalor and desperation of its peasantry; between the lofty ideals of chivalry and honor, and the stark realities of oppression and exploitation.

Benoic is in many ways a backwards place, and its population is largely rural and rustic. The overwhelming majority of Benoic's populace live in rural villages and hamlets, and the kingdom has few towns, and only four, now three, cities.

### **Cuisine**

Like the neighboring nation of Lareaux, which Benoic shares a cultural foundation with, the culinary offerings of Benoic - at least those enjoyed by the upper classes - are something for which the Kingdom is famed and which many across Asul enjoy. Unlike Lareaux, however, Benoic is also - and even moreso - famed as an exporter of fine wine, the best perhaps in all Asul. The duchy of Gironde is especially famous for this, and the production and sale of wine, domestically and abroad, has made it, and Benoic, quite wealthy.

### **Equestrianism**

As the folk of Benoic are descended from the ancient Eponi, there are many who would claim that horsemanship is in their blood. Indeed, the famous knights of Benoic are, first and foremost, heavy cavalry and very few, if any, would ever deign to fight on foot. Indeed, doing so is generally seen as something unbecoming of a proper knight. So it is, then, that a knight's life and livelihood alike depend on his steed, and a mount that dislikes or fears their rider is thus worse than useless. Unsurprisingly most knights thus take great care to ensure that their mount is well fed, properly housed, and highly cared for. Some have grooms or squires to help with part of the work, but most undertake such activity themselves, to help increase their bond with the mount. It would be entirely accurate to state that most horses in the employ of knights enjoy a quality of life far greater than that of any peasant in the Kingdom, and even some lesser nobility might have cause for jealousy.

Fortunately for Benoic's knights, the destriers of the land are the finest in all Asul and are famous across the Western Kingdoms and beyond. Indeed, longstanding royal decree forbids the export of such fine warhorses.

### **Justice**

Unsurprisingly given its feudal nature, there are effectively two parallel systems of law and justice in Benoic; one for the nobility and one for the peasantry. Cuthbertine clergy accused of crimes are typically handed over to the Inquisition, although local lords may sometimes choose to subject them to chivalric law.

#### **Chivalric Law**

Nobles are subject to chivalric law and matters are resolved via courts and trials. The convening lord sits as judge and declares, well in advance for the convenience of the accused and the plaintiff alike, a date for the trial. Seven noblemen of at least equal standing to the accused serve as a jury. The judge ultimately decides innocence or guilt, while it is the role of the jury to determine the sentence. Quite obviously, the quality of the justice served is almost entirely up to the integrity of the judge and jurists and nobles with a corrupt or corruptible peers and lords can get away with almost anything.

Most sentences are symbolic; nobles are rarely if ever subjected to imprisonment or corporal punishment. Fines are possible, but rare, and generally take the form of compensation. A noble who killed five of another's servants in a drunken rage may be required, for example, to cover the costs of training replacements. Common sentences include public apologies, services to be performed for the victim, limits on behavior, or imposed quests of valor. In the most extreme cases, the court may petition the King to strip the guilt party of some of his fiefs, or even of his title altogether. Nobles who refuse to honor the judgment of the court become outlaws.

Noblewomen are also subjected to this legal system and may be assigned, at the jury's discretion, the same penalties as men. As a quest of valor is typically the legal equivalent of a death sentence for most women, a few noblewomen have become outlaws as result. Particularly suicidal valor quests are often the go-to punishment for noblewomen caught posing as men.

#### **Peasant Law**

Formal courts for peasants are very simple; the peasant is brought before his liege who hears the circumstance sof the case. The lord may allow the peasant to speak in his defense, or he may not. He then pronounces judgment and a sentence. Sentences are, in contrast to the chivalric courts, typically corporal punishment of some manner; exposure in the stocks, flogging, torture, mutilation, or death. Imprisonment costs the lord money, after all, and is thus generally avoided.

Obviously, formal justice for peasants is entirely subject to the whim and good will of their local lord. In those fiefs where the lord is both wise and well-intentioned, the system works well, while in others it is simply another instrument of oppression. A lord might sentence a peasant to a light flogging for murdering another peasant, while he may sentence another to torture and death for being rude to a noble.

Because of these obvious problems most peasants prefer to try and resolve legal disputes without getting their local lord involved. Instead, they tend to turn to the most respected village elder. The elder hears the circumstances of the case, and then passes down judgment and a sentence. Typically these sentences involve paying reparations to the victim, generally in labor as peasants have no money, but sometimes the village elder may arrange an 'accident' for the guilty party which results in the loss of life or limb.

### **Knighthood**

In Benoic, knighthood is seen as the ultimate expression of personal and national virtue, and the goal to which all noblemen should aspire. Indeed, for many knighthood and manhood are one and the same, and to insult someone's skills as a knight is to attack their very masculinity. While a fief can be earned as well as inherited, it is still something which other men can give or take - knighthood is something only a man can earn for himself, and which only the King or the Lady herself can take. To the people of Benoic, the Knight is a shining paragon of all that is best in Man.

Able-bodied noblemen, regardless of station, are universally expected to become Knights, and nearly all do. While knights in other kingdoms typically begin their careers as squires to other knights, knights in Benoic follow a different path. Upon reaching adulthood (15 years of age as in most Human cultures) a nobleman pursuing the path of knighthood is dubbed a **Chevalier Errant** and sent out into the world to prove himself. Such knights are supposed to travel the country, or beyond, eagerly seeking out peril and adventure so as to test and prove their mettle. The social pressures to pursue fame and glory in this manner are very strong, and so most nobles make at least a show of it and as a result there are, at any given time, fairlylarge numbers of young knights roaming the Benoic countryside looking for trouble. Unsurprisingly, these young knights almost always find it, although quite often this trouble is of their own devising. Those chevaliers errant born in coastal or border regions, or possessed of sufficient wanderlust, can often be fuond seeking adventure and glory beyond the borders of their kingdom, and indeed in much of Asul the sight of a chevalier errant is not unknown; particularly in the Siegreich.

A knight does not cease to be a chevalier errant until they are granted a position from a higher ranking noble with the authority to do so. This position can be a fief, or a landless position as a household knight. Whatever the position, knights who have so graduated are considered true and full knights, and dubbed a **Chevalier Galant**. Most chevaliers galant have genuinely earned their title and proven themselves worthy knights, but there are of course a minority who simply made a half-hearted show of their errantry and then after a short while received a title (and most likely a fief) from their liege. In such cases nepotism is usually the most likely motive.

Again, the importance of knighthood and chivalry to the culture of Benoic cannot be overstated, and the number of noblemen who are not themselves knights can be counted on one hand. Indeed, there are no few nobles who are so proud of their knightly achievements that they prefer 'Sir' as their title, even though they may also be themselves barons, counts, or even dukes.

### **Levies**

Each and every able-bodied male pasant between the ages of 15 and 35 is required to serve their liege in his military campaigns or in defense of his estates when the call is issued and the levies raised. Militiamen are seldom equipped by their lords, and almost never given any formal training, and so they generally march into battle with nothing more than farming implements and other makeshift weaponry.

More fortunate peasants, however, are fielded as bowmen rather than as melee militia. Peasants are seen as innately lacking in honor and knightly virtue, and so there is no additional shame incurred in their wielding such cowardly weapons as bows. These bowmen are sometimes actually equipped with low-quality bows by their lieges, but most peasant families do in fact own a longbow, pased down from father to son for generations. The most fortunate peasant families, perhaps those with a gendarme in their lineage, may even own two.

### **Magic**

Owing to both its Cuthbertine heritage and its largely backwards and superstitious culture, Benoic takes a very low opinion of arcanists. The Kingdom has no centers of arcane education and visiting Wizards will find only their demise should they attempt to enter without the permission of the local lords concerned.

Sorcery, however, is something viewed along gender lines. Male infants and children that display sorcerous power are slain as abominations or - if they are 'lucky' - left in the wilderness to die. Females, however, are seen as touched by the Lady and are given over to Damoiselles du Dame to be initiated into the cult's mysteries and trained as a Damoiselle du Dame herself. The Damoiselles typically wield spells of flora and fauna, of abjuration and divination.

As in many cultures, Bardic magic is something of an outlier in Benoic and not seen as quite magic. Indeed, many noble courts in Benoic employ a **Troubadour**, as Bards are known in Benoic and Lareaux, or two. This tradition is especially strong in Troyes, and its nobles, ever eager to show off their wealth and culture, are renowned for their patronage of troubadours.

### **Religion**

Religion in Benoic, like nearly anything else, is something divided along class and gender lines. Peasants and noblewomen worship Saint Cuthbert almost exclusively, although the power of the Church is far, far, far less in Benoic than it is in neighboring Lareaux or the Siegreich. While most noblemen worship the Saint as well, the deity worshiped by all noblemen in Benoic, and typically placed above even the Saint, is the **Lady of the Chalice**, a uniquely local goddess who is in many ways synonymous with Benoic's ideals of chivalry and, indeed, the very Kingdom itself.

The Lady is worshiped in a manner not unlike the ideal of courtly love, and it is for this reason that the peasantry and women are forbidden from worshiping her; women have no cause to do so, and peasent men are unworthy of her. That said, the **Damoiselles du Dame**, the priesthood of the Lady, true to name is an entirely female clerical body.

The Cuthbertine clergy, arguably, forms a middle class of sorts between peasants and nobility, but in practice they are simply another type of noble and are treated accordingly by the peasantry and the nobility.

### **Society**

Society in Benoic is defined by twofold divisions; the divide between the classes, and the divide between the sexes. Feudalism in perhaps its purest form, there is a place and a role for everyone and everything, and deviation from these social norms is met with equal parts disgust and outrage.

An extremely rural and feudal people, the vast majority of Benoic's population live in villages or even smaller settlements. Towns are rare, typically found only outside the walls of the more powerful noble castles, and cities are almost unheard of; found only at major ports.

#### **Class**

Unsurprisingly for a feudal kingdom, there is a sharp and stark divide between the noble and peasant classes in Benoic. This divide, however, wider and deeper than it is in even other feudal nations, and Benoic also has no merchant or middle class to speak of. There are elite nobles living in privilege, and downtrodden peasants living in squalor, and almost nothing between the two.
The nobility in Benoic consists of the king himself, the various noble lords beneath him, and of course the great throngs of knights. Noblewomen are afforded great respect and courtesy, as noted below, but their voices are unheard. Chivalry and noblesse oblige are paramount to the nobility and while hunting with bows and archery as a sport are championed as properly gentlemanly past-times, the use of ranged weaponry in actual combat is seen as dishonorable, cowardly, and worst of all as something befitting a filthy peasant.

Peasants in Benoic have essentially no legal rights at all and are almost universally illiterate and uneducated. Considered property in nearly all ways both *de facto* and *de jure*, the peasants own little and must surrender 9/10ths of their harvests to their feudal lords. In many manors the actual tax rate is effectively less than 90% (although still extremely high) as the 'generous' liege 'gifts' some portion of his tithe back to his peasants, although there are certainly no few lords who do in fact collect and retain their full nine-tenths due. Serfs all, peasants may not leave their assigned lands without express permission from their lords and, as a result, inbreeding Benoic is generally more common than elsewhere. This inbreeding coupled with the general level of poverty and ignorance suffered by most of the peasantry leads many peasants to be rather unpleasant in both appearance and demeanor. Naturally this only serves to reinforce the low view the nobility takes of them.

Numerous laws also exist to keep the peasantry confined to squalor. White, red, and blue cloth are also the exclusive domain of the nobility, as is the fur of the fox, ermine, and squirrel. Peasant clothing must be un-dyed and may carry no embroidery. Unless given special permission from their lord, peasants are strictly forbidden from riding horses.

Stone is forbidden to peasants as a building material, as per these laws, and so the majority of Benoic's peasants live in hovels made from wattle and daub. Those peasants living in or near forest villages, or those 'wealthier' families, will instead dwell in crude wooden homes. The 'urban' peasants of Benoic, those living in castle towns or the three cities of the realm, typically dwell in such wooden constructions, while the most fortunate among them will live within brick houses.

A tiny but notable middle class of merchants and professionals has developed in Seine and the other cities and large port towns. While their economic importance is significant, they wield no political influence and are still seen -and treated - as peasants by the nobility and the law alike.

##### **Gendarmes**

**Gendarme** is the highest rank to which a peasant can aspire. It takes many years of dedicated service for a peasant to be so promoted, and even then an act of bravery on the battlefield is required. While no peasant may ride the noble steeds utilized by the nobility, gendarmes are permitted to ride into battle atop draught horses. As battlefield scouting is seen as a task which yields no honor, despite its danger, it is one often assigned to such individuals, who also serve as light cavalry skirmishers and archers. Unsurprisingly, they often also serve as sergeants, mounted or otherwise, in militia regiments.

Gendarmes are granted a lavish reward upon acceptance, but this all often vanishes almost as soon as it is granted as the gendarme is expected to pay for their uniform and equipment and strongly encouraged to donate a contribution to one of the local churches or chapels. A gendarme is housed (typically a rough straw mattress in some barn on the estate) fed (usually thin gruel and stew) and outfitted by their lord and also earn a wage for their faithful service. In theory, this wage is quite generous and far in excess of anything a peasant could otherwise earn, but in practice it is a fraction of that value - if it is even anything at all; every expense the lord can conceive of is deducted from this salary; from their food and housing to each and every piece of equipment and replacement.

When not busy with military matters, a gendarme will typically serve his liege as a gaoler, groom, manorial bailiff, or some similar capacity. His family will generally inherit his favored status, although his sons are not themselves gendarmes, and may be rewarded with a measure of freedom. Typically the family and descendants of a gendarme are granted leave from their lord's fields and put to work as domestic servants in his castle(s), as innkeepers at roadside inns within his demesne, or allowed to pursue their own careers as burghers of a sort in the castle town.

While a gendarme retains his title unto death (and as noted, his family often inherits some of his prestige, although not his title, office, or privileges), it is common for a lord to allow a gendarme to retire after either a lengthy period of service or some spectacular deed in battle.

#### **Gender**

The divide between the sexes in Benoic is nearly as great as the one between the classes. Chivalric misogyny is universal, and women in Benoic are venerated and elevated at the same time as they are denigrated and infantilized.

Men are expected to be courteous and polite to women at all times, and to directly insult one is seen as a severe and terrible breach of etiquette. When a woman enters a room, men are expected to stand, and to always allow her to go first when moving, with the exception of climbing stairs where men are expected to ascend first. At meals, women are served first, and at inns they are to be given the more comfortable lodgings. The role of class, however, is not absent here, and noblemen are not expected, and almost never do, extend these courtesies to peasant women. All ladies are women, but not all women are ladies.

For all this courtesy shown, women may not own property, may not travel without male escort, may not ride horses, and will find that nearly all trades and professions are forbidden to them by law. Benoic is a firmly and institutionally patriarchal society. Noblewomen may are expected to keep their husbands' estates in order while they are out questing, at war, or otherwise indisposed and such instances are effectively the only times they will experience anything resembling actual authority or direct influence in society. And, of course, even this is conditional as many lords employ castellans to manage their castles and stewards to manage their fiefs.

While most women born and raised in such a society internalize and normalize these beliefs and see them as normal, if not justified, there are nonetheless always tales and rumors in Benoic or women who masquerade as men so as to partake of their rights and privileges. How widespread this practice actually is, however, remains unknown.

Notably, the Damoiselles du Dame are exempt from these strict rules and regulations, and indeed are seen as apart from the mundane norms of Benoic; they are the agents of the Lady herself and beholden solely to her.

#### **Inheritance**

Unsurprisingly, given its strict and rigid gender norms, the succession laws of Benoic are those of agnatic primogeniture. Indeed, women in Benoic are legally forbidden from owning property. Should a lord die without any male heirs one of two things will happen, depending on the local laws of the realm; either his eldest daughter shall, at the discretion of her liege, be married off to some suitable nobleman and her father's estate passes to her husband, or the liege simply claims the fief as his own, retaining it as part of his demesne or granting it to a vassal as he sees fit.

## Geography

From its emerald green fields and rolling hills, to its tall mountains and great forests, Benoic is a place of beauty and majesty. Beneath this veneer of grace and splendor, however, Benoic hides deadly dangers and dark secrets, just as the veneer of chivalry and honor mask its culture of oppression and exploitation.

Politically, Benoic is divided into eight duchies, although one of them has effectively been disowned and forsaken by the kingdom. In most fiefs, fields are very large and divided into strips; with each strip being tended by a single peasant family. Wheat is the primary crop of Benoic, although oats, barley, and leafy vegetables are also grown. Hills too steep for farming are generally given over to fruit orchards or as grazeland for sheep.

Rural and rustic, the majority of Benoic's population live in small villages, hamlets, and thorpes that dot the landscape; towns are rare and the kingdom has less than a handful of true cities to its name. Roads are also rare and at best there are travel-worn paths between settlements.

The three northernmost duchies (Cornouaille, Seine, and Troyes) are all dotted with the hill-barrows of the ancient Eponi. Some of these tombs have been discovered and since looted by adventurers or chevaliers errant eager to prove themselves against the undead, but many remain untouched - and many more remain undiscovered, mistaken for nothing more than hills.

### **Bayonne**

Held directly by the King, the duchy of **Bayonne** is the cultural heart of Benoic. Not merely the traditional seat of the King, it was in Bayonne that King Frollo du Graal famously achieved the Chalice and met the Lady.

### **Cornouaille**

The duchy of Duke Meliadus le Loup, **Cornouaille** is a coastal realm of lakes and mountains. Larger once than it is today, a sizable portion of Cornouaille sank beneath the waves long ago, swallowed up by the sea.

### **Gironde**

The duchy of Duke Auberon le Sobre, **Gironde** is a coastal realm in the southwest of Benoic. Gironde is rather well known even beyond the Kingdom for it is both a center of maritime activity and the center of wine production in the Kingdom.

### **Listenoise**

The cursed duchy, **Listenoise** is more commonly known simply as the **Wasteland**. A blighted realm of misery, disease, and horror, Listenoise is a fog-shrouded land of stinking marshes and barren hills.

### **Paimpont**

The duchy of Duke Louis le Sombre, **Paimpont** is dominated by the dense and mysterious Foret Corne. Paimpont is a popular destination for Chevaliers Errant as the dark forest is a known lair of mutants, Termagants, Minotaurs, and other foul half-men of Baphomet.

### **Rochemont**

A mountainous duchy on the border with the Altreich, **Rochemont** has almost no arable land and must import nearly all of its food supply. Nonetheless, it is a wealthy realm for much income is generated through mining and metalworking, as well as through the various tolls along the mountain pass.

### **Seine**

While most famous for its eponymous port, the coastal duchy of **Seine** in fact has little in the way of usable coastline and consists mostly of farmland.

### **Troyes**

**Troyes** is a coastal duchy that is also the source of Benoic's famed horses, held to be the finest in all Asul. Troyes is also the most 'urban' (an extremely relative term in Benioc) of the duchies and known for its noble bearing and courtly intrigue.