Elfrieden Kingdom

The **Elfrieden Kingdom** was a nation of Landia that occupied the south eastern area of the continent and the only known Kingdom with the knowledge of performing the "Hero Summoning Ritual".

The kingdom was founded by the First Hero King who was a Summoned Hero, as a multiracial nation for humans and various races so that they could co-exists, and it eventually became a powerful nation in the east. However a period of political instability followed by increase in corruption and weakening leadership had caused the kingdom to decline until a hero summoning ritual succeeded in summoning Kazuya Souma.

Under King Souma the kingdom began large scale reforms which saw the kingdom recovering and winning a war with the Principality of Amidonia. As a result of a series of events the kingdom was forced to annex Amidonia and created the United Kingdom of Elfrieden & Amidonia with the former territories of the Elfrieden Kingdom becoming the "Elfrieden Region" of the new nation.

## Locations

* Parnam ("Royal Capital")
* Randel ("Capital of Carmine Duchy")
* Red Dragon City ("Capital of Vargus Duchy")
* Lagoon City ("Capital of Walter Duchy")
* Altomura
* God-Protected Forest
* Ursula Mountains (half of it, serves as natural border)

## History

The Elfrieden Kingdom was founded more than 500 years ago after the founding war with both humans and non-humans participating in its founding under its first king who was also the first hero to be summoned from another world. The first king would be one of the few outside the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom to become a dragon rider.

By the time of the 12th king the Gran Chaos Empire's expansionism caused concern in the kingdom which also adopted expansionist policies. This era saw the Elfrieden Kingdom annexing almost half of the territories of the Kingdom of Amidonia including the main grain producing regions. As a result Amidonia which became a principality after the war became bitter enemies with Elfrieden for decades. However the rapid expansion exhausted the kingdom and the 12th king was assassinated by those unhappy with the situation.

The sudden death of the 12th king sparked a succession crisis and the three dukes which controlled the Army ,Navy and the Airforce avoided involvement in the crisis fearing a possible civil war. The bloody conflict resulted in the royal bloodline being nearly wiped out with Elisha Elfrieden being the only survivor with a claim on the throne. Thus Elisha's husband Albert Elfrieden became the 13th king.

King Albert was loved by the people but he was also indecisive. Under his reign nobles became more corrupt and the kingdom was facing a massive food crisis. In addition the appearance of the Demon Lord's Domain caused an influx of refugees from northern regions that were taken over by armies of demons. While the Kingdom did not sign the Mankind Declaration the Gran Chaos Empire demanded tribute to support the war effort against the Demon forces. The Empire demanded either funds or a hero in case of the Kingdom succeeded in a hero summoning ritual. Unable to pay the demanded tribute the Kingdom attempted the hero summoning ritual and succeeded in summoning Kazuya Souma.

## Politics

The Elfrieden Kingdom was an absolute monarchy ruled by a king. While an elected body known as the Congress of the People consisting of representatives elected by the vote of citizens exists it has no power other than to draft suggestions which would be presented to the king by the prime minister.

The political hierarchy of the kingdom follows a feudal system. The commoners paid taxes to their lords who are in turn responsible for protecting their lives and property while the lords paid taxes to the king and serves in the military in times of crisis in return for protection from the king. The lords consisting of nobles and knights who owned lands had a number of rights within their lands as well as various responsibilities to the kingdom. There titles and lands are mostly hereditary but distinguished commoners can be elevated as nobles or knights by the kingdom based on accomplishments in administration or warfare respectively. Further it is also possible to marry into nobility. Nobles can also be demoted to being commoners or even slaves and in certain cases entire houses be destroyed if they were found to have committed grievous crimes.

The three dukes stand apart from the rest of the lords with significant powers as well as control over the military. The three dukes are non-humans each responsible for one of the three duchies which are given self-rule for swearing fealty to the kingdom. The dukes of the Walter ,Carmine and Vargas duchies control the Army, Navy and the Air force respectively. The system was placed so that in case the human king became a tyrant non-humans will not be oppressed and the king would easily replaced.

During the reign of the 13th King, Alfred Elfrieden, the kingdom would enter a period of decline as its economy became strained and food shortages became rampant. Due to his indecisive nature, Alfred was not sure about whether to sign the Mankind Declaration Treaty, nor was he aware of the activities of the corrupt nobles with Amidonia. As a result, he was seen by the enemies of his country as weak.

With the appointment of Kazuya Souma as the 14th king, the government underwent extensive reforms. All nobles found guilty of embezzlement, fraud or theft, were arrested, stripped of their positions and all of their assets seized. Those who had been involved with Amidonia to overthrow him were executed after the One Week War. Promotion of knights and nobles is now based on how well they manage their territories, rather than on lineage and accomplishments during times of war. All useless or wasteful expenditures were discarded and new innovations such as forest thinning and sanitation were implemented. These processes are still continued even after Efrieden became the Kingdom of Friedonia.

## Military

The military of the Elfrieden Kingdom is divided into the Army, Navy, Airforce and the Forbidden Army. The army which is the numerically largest out of the three has around 40,000 troops. The navy has 10,000 with most of them being sailors with the exception of the 2,000 strong elite marine corps. The airforce only has about 1,000 but a single wyvern knight is considered to be equivalent to 100 ground troops. The army is controlled by Duke Carmine, the navy by Duchess Walter and the airforce by Duke Vargas. The forbidden army on the other hand is controlled by the royal family. In theory the forbidden army has approximately 40,000 soldiers, including both career troops and troops of noble estates. However the forces the king can directly command are around 10,000 consisting of the royal guard under Ludwin Arcs and the rest of career soldiers after the removal of Zemish mercenaries by King Souma. The forbidden army also has a single battleship called *Albert* , but is useless due the forbidden army lacking any escorts. The *Albert* would be converted into a land based siege weapon and is damaged during the The One Week War. The system was created if the Human monarch becomes a tyrant against non-humans or if a duke attempts to usurp the throne he would be easily defeated by the rest. However this also means the command structure of the kingdom's military is divided.

Mages are allocated to the armies based on their affinity with fire mages for the army, water mages for the navy ,air mages for the airforce while earth and the rare dark mages go for the forbidden army. Light mages are distributed to all forces to serve as healers.

Under King Souma's reforms an intelligence agency known as the "Black Cats" for intelligence gathering, counter-intelligence and covert operations were created. Further Souma began to reform the system and unify the armed forces under one organization. New innovations such as the Little Susumu and the aircraft carrier are introduced.

## Economy

The economy of the Elfrieden Kingdom is mostly based on agriculture with wheat and cotton being the main food and cash crop respectively. The main grain producing regions are to the south-west most of which had been conquered from Amidonia in the past. Fishing and shipbuilding were carried out in the coastal regions with the largest of the ports being the Lagoon City. Due to limited mineral resources mining was rare and due to Elfrieden being "rich" in Cursed Ore even mining the limited deposits was dangerous.

However the increased demand for clothing and daily necessities due to the expansion of the Demon Lord's Domain caused a high demand for cotton resulting in many fields being suddenly converted to cotton fields. The high demand for cotton, an inefficient government as well as the limited ability to import food due to the limited food production of its neighbors created a massive food shortage.

Thus under king Souma limits were placed on the crash crops and many cotton fields were converted back to produce food crops. Furthermore, Poncho Panacotta was made the Minister for the Food Crisis to introduce new types of food commonly available but traditionally not eaten such as octopuses and gelin. The information as well as cooking techniques were taught through Jewel Voice Broadcasts. Mystic wolf refugees who knew how to produce miso and soy source were given a district in Parnam and rice was introduced as a crop. Due to the limited space for both economic activities and military activities in the Lagoon City, Kazuya also ordered the construction of a coastal city named Venetinova to focus on civilian and economic activities.

## Education

The major educational institutes in the kingdom were the Royal Officers' Academy, the Royal Academy which produced researchers from all fields and the Mages' School which studied magic. Other major cities also have academies but were inferior to the Royal Academy in Parnam. Further access to the highest academic institutions were limited to the nobility and thus commoners had limited access to formal education.

Disgusted with the substandard education for the general populace, Kazuya implemented universal education to teach everyone how to read and do math. Thus increasing the chances of finding potential diamonds among coal for the important positions.