Artesia, the Middle Kingdom

Various smaller Lordships and Holdings

The Wayfarer’s Duchy is known for three things: art, horses, and the adventurous people who roam the land. Artesians spread tales of their exploits through verse and song, priding themselves on their colorful and romantic history. Roadside taverns bustle with rowdy knights looking to make a name for themselves, bards enrapturing their audience with dramatic performances, and servers filling mugs to the brim with flavorful wines.

The people are tall, their hair dark, and their features proud and scarred. They are the heart of the land, daring and chivalrous spirits. Orchards and forests dot the vast, rolling plains, and harvests are shared among the country’s many citizens. Most Artesian settlements are villages or towns, but there is one city, a large and prosperous capital called Aubade. The streets here are always filled with music and traders selling their wares, and colorful banners wave in the breeze. A castle in the center of the city serves as a festival hall and meeting place when a moot is called. The city’s duke and duchess live here throughout the year, and in the warmer months nobles from different regions will travel to the castle to conduct business and enjoy the city.

Artesians are the idealists and romantics of the world, and their horses’ thundering hooves in battle and on the road herald them across the Wayfarer’s Duchy and beyond.

## Geography of the Middle Kingdom

Artesia has three distinct regions, much like its western cousin the Tosgiv Empire. The snowy mountain range in the north is home to heartier people who supply the country with raw materials for blacksmithing. The southern region, which accounts for the majority of the country, is characterized by its breathtaking plains and rivers, and holds the town of Port Mallister on the nation's only strip of coastline. Finally, the Wayfarer’s Duchy, is the capital region in the center of Artesia from which the Fruit Road originates and where many come to trade goods and stories.

### The North

The Northern Region contains the northern third of the Duchy and is hilly closer to the central region and more mountainous the farther north one travels. Keeps dot the sides of mountains and hilltops, and the Fruit Road comes through between passes. Each pass is vigilantly guarded from bandits, raiders, and hostile creatures by wandering knights and the various northern families. The snows are ever present, drifting from the mountains into the passes. The hills are better off, rarely seeing snow, but it often rains instead. Travel is more restricted here, with the northern parts of the Fruit Road only seeing consistent use for half the year. The land itself does not provide much in the way of harvests, with turnips being among the most common crops, but it does have a bountiful supply of game. Additionally, the mountains are rich in ore, with many mines and quarries dotted under the watch of a keep. The hills are rich in ore though not nearly so in stone, but have the added benefit of thick forests. Despite the cold, northerners are just as spirited as those in the south and practice their arts beside a warm hearth.

### The South

The lower two thirds of the Wayfarer’s Duchy is commonly referred to as the South, and boasts much of the population, fields, and orchards of the Duchy. Rivers and lakes are found across the landscape, and small orchards and woods break up a vast undertaking of paths, roads, fields, farms, and keeps. The land is relatively flat and fertile, breathtakingly colorful in times of harvest, and wild horses roam freely. Villages are scattered throughout the plains with small towns adjourning river crossings or the Fruit Road. One of the more notable of towns is Port Mallister, which is situated on Artesia’s sole coastline. The town boasts small fishing vessels, but by no means are they comparable to the impressive ships commanded by the Tosgivites. Artesians are entirely disinterested with trade across the sea, as the only potential trading partner near the port town would be Tosgiv, so sailors are virtually nonexistent.

Inns and taverns are found along the rivers and roads as well, packed full each evening with travelers and merchants. Small keeps are situated in the same areas, where wandering knights and warriors can rest and find work. and have an open ground nearby set aside for local tournaments. Larger keeps house the lords of the county and have an open ground nearby set aside for local tournaments and duels.

### The Duchy

The Duchy is the center of the Artesia and only differs from the South in general in a few regards. The region contains the capital, which is the only true city of the Duchy. In it lies the Grand Tourney Grounds, where adventurers and bards come from across the country to showcase their talents, and the Heartland Castle where the Duke and Duchess reside. The rural parts of the Duchy home Artesia’s greatest vineyards, which dominate most of the fields around the city. The Duchy serves as the focal point for the countless branches of the Fruit Road, and as such is the center of trade and art within the country.

The Fruit Road carries great cultural significance for Artesians. Its most basic purpose is for trade; fruit and other crops are carried along the main road from the southern keeps and fields to the north, where they are exchanged for stone, ore, and furs. However, its true value lies in how it connects even the most remote regions of Artesia to the heartland. Stories, songs, and the country’s history spread like wildfire along the road, inspiring listeners and encouraging patriotism. To travel the Fruit Road is to live one’s life to the fullest, gaining wisdom and experiencing all that Artesia has to offer.

## Laws and Legal Rights of the Duchy

The laws of the Wayfarer’s Duchy are derived from the Code of Chivalry, as well as the common law known as the Fruit Road Rights.

### Code of Chivalry

The Code of Chivalry demands that justice be sought for criminal actions, and each crime is paid back with a similar punishment. An eye for an eye, a hand for thieving, the gallows for murder, and so on. It is up to the lord of the land, or any lord who is passing through the region (who has that right if the land’s lord is not present or represented) to determine what punishment is appropriate. Traveling knights may also be asked to judge smaller crimes such as petty thefts, in which case they will typically cut off one or more of the criminal’s fingers rather than the entire hand. While this system does leave room for abuse, those who do abuse it find themselves in ill repute among other lords and must spend more time at home, losing the privilege of visiting other counties as they please. The only established courthouse belongs to the capital, where law is passed down by oral tradition and enforced impartially.

### Fruit Road Rights

The Fruit Road Rights are simple, but inviolable law in Artesian culture. Refusing anyone these rights is treated as a crime, and any who do this will be shunned by all in their county, oftentimes being forced to leave it entirely. In extreme circumstances, violating the Fruit Road Rights could even warrant death. The Fruit Road Rights include the right to safety under a host’s roof, the right to one fruit, cup of wine, or the like if in need on the road, but no more, and the right to lodgings when traveling through more dangerous terrain. There are minor variations of these rights depending on the specific keep or region, though these variations can only be enforced in those lands by those who know it. If a guest invoking the Fruit Road Rights fails to be courteous and respectful to their host, the host is permitted to ban them from their household or refuse lodging after allowing the guest their food or drink. However, this is only permissible if the guest was truly horrendous in their behavior or assaulted anyone within the household.

## Religion in Artesia

Religion in Artesia

The religion of the Wayfarer's Duchy is the Pantheon of the Many. Artesian families may choose one of the pantheon as their patron deity, who they direct the majority of their worship to. However, all gods in the pantheon are respected by the Artesians, even if their form of worship is far more casual than other countries'. It is not uncommon for an Artesian to refer to their patron deity as if they were a good friend, a parental figure, or even someone to be courted, but they will never be insulting or lewd about them. The city of Aubade has He Who Guides, the god of traveling, as its patron deity, and He is a widely respected figure who the whole Duchy pays homage to alongside their own patron deities.

## Customs and Traditions of the Middle Kingdom

There are a few things that the Middle Kingdom are well known for. Chief among these is traveling, and the existence and importance of the Fruit Road. Traveling, usually on horseback but not always (depending on your social or economic means) is seen as the way to live one’s life. A farmer would travel among the fields, having strips in areas a few hours away from the next. A knight or merchant would grab a wagon, traveling from Inn to Inn selling their services or good for upkeep. A noble goes from the one tourney to the next, or from one estate to the next. It is ingrained and even built into their society that one should see the land as much as possible. Most Merchants bring wares from one end of the Fruit Road to the other, making a circuit of the road. Traveling the circuit is a pilgrimage of sorts, one everyone in Artesia hopes to do at least once in their life, but few get the chance or have the means to, even the great lords as their responsibilities prohibit it.
The Tourney is another great tradition of Artesia. For a period of three days (and it is always three, no more or less except for Great Tourneys) knights and people from all over gather to test their skill in Jousting, Archery, Wrestling, and other martial skills. The nights are filled with bards and musicians with their oral epics and bawdy rhymes competing to entertain the crowds, or the famed Mountaineers singing their harmonic sounds from the throat that resonate with the soul, each having a deep passion and purpose behind it’s sounds. Feasts are held in plenty, with great dishes of Fruits and Meats dominating the table.

One curious quirks the Artesians have is that one will rarely refuse another’s plea for help, even when they are hard pressed itself. Some have been known to give their last crust of bread to a starving man, only to end up starving themselves. Those who refuse, lest they be the elderly or in the immediate pursuit of some great task, become shunned from society as the word spreads very quickly.

In Artesian culture, when they go to war, many leaders vie for command of the army that assembles. The meeting is called a moot. At these moots, each leader vies for command, making their case, then the assembly makes their decision known. It makes fame as important as anything else in picking a general. The only time a moot is not called is when the Duke himself is present, in which case command is deferred to him. Mayors of towns are usually elected this way as well, and rarely, issues affecting a whole community merit a moot being called to force an answer. The one to moderate a moot is one who is usually not in the running but a well respected figure of the group.

## Society in the Middle Kingdom

The Middle Kingdom is split into four distinct social classes. At the top are the Lords of the lands. Each bears a title, some land and keeps, the right to deliver justice and raise armies, and tax their lands. While the Duke of Artesia has pre-eminence among the lords, he has no right to rule over them, though he can summon them to defend the Kingdom from foreign invaders or threats that are large enough to peril the Kingdom. The Clergy occupy a rung below the Lords, fairly independent but ultimately subservient to them. The peasants below them, and the greatest in number. Merchants and Bards occupy a special place in society, coming from any of the other three social classes but are the lifeblood of the Kingdom. Each has the right to travel the roads freely, irrespective of the Lord’s writ save that of treason or murder, and may be nobility in their own right, through their own efforts or that of their ancestors. The Middle Kingdom is ripe with fruits of all sorts, furs, minerals, and fish, with their wine and drinks being famed as far as Tosgiv or across the Great Sea to the South. A common way to tell a noble or a Merchant from a Clergyman or Peasant is a horse, which is as much a status symbol as it is a means of travel.

## People of the Middle Kingdom

The people of the Middle Kingdom can usually be picked out due to their size and colouring. They are a tall folk, with luxurious and long brown or black hair, always combed or styled, never unkept. They have eyes of brown, green, or black. Amber eyes are rare and usually is taken as a blessing upon the person gifted with them. Few marry outside the Kingdom, and those few tend to be in the North. They have fair skin, though usually tanned from work outside or travel. Northerners tend to have long beards, well groomed, as well as being more pale.

## Cuisine in the Middle Kingdom

Cuisine in the Middle Kingdom is dominated by a few things. First is the excess of fruit, of which forms the core of each meal that the people of the kingdom eat. Apples, pears, and berries are most common. Bread is fairly prevalent as well, though wheat and oats are also stewed into a porridge and then flavoured with slices of fruit. Meats are sauced with it as well, and the more fruit used in a single course, the more noble one tends to be. Drinks are usually wine, with second and third pressings the usual fare for the peasantry. Cider, and Perry are more expensive but still fairly widespread drinks as well. Fruit flavoured teas and juices are a common sight, and tea even regularly brewed is a normal way for one to break their drinking fast in the day, so to speak.