NOVEL NEXT Interlude - Miscellaneous Thoughts on Granavale County and Agraria Duchy
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Archmund's Journal Granavale County is located within Agraria Duchy, in the river valley between the Red Mountains — abbreviated Redmont — the Blackstone Peaks, and the Greenroot Highwood. Redmont is known for their clay and iron ore. Greenroot is known for its elven lumber. Blackstone is known for its coal… which is largely underutilized. Granavale alone is blessed with fertile soils that its neighbors do not share. That is the extent of its wealth. As Granavale County is lacking in a native population of land-bound serfs at the moment, due to the aftereffects of the Crylaxan Plague, it is barely above the level of subsistence farming. The people of Granavale farm because it's all they've ever known, and because they have to feed themselves. This is a waste. Agraria Valley is full of rich, fertile soil. The Duke of Agraria is a merciful man who, to be honest, is a tad patronizing to his vassals. When the plague swept through Granavale County, the Duke of Agraria lowered his taxes significantly. In return, he secured the rights to have his people work the lands of Agraria without interference from the forces of Reginald Granavale. (As far as I can tell, taxes work similar to how the Romans did it. The Empire demands a tax from its highest vassals; those vassals then in turn demand a tax from theirs, who must extract it from their lands and subjects. How are these tax rates/levels set? I don't know.) The Duke is willing to sell the grain back to Granavale — at fair market rates, or just a little above. It's to his benefit to not have to transport the grain across the Empire, but he won't let us eat for free. In this way, Agraria has remained the breadbasket of the Empire, and Granavale has not. There was a clause in the agreement that meant, over the course of two decades, control of the lands would slowly return to Granavale, along with a higher tax rate. This, of course, could be canceled by agreement of both parties. The Omnio Empire isn't big on "consent of the governed", so it wouldn't matter whether settlers of ex-Granavale County had any allegiance to either Granavale or Agraria. Strictly speaking, loyal subjects of Granavale are subordinate to Agraria anyways. It would just be another link in the chain of tax payments. It won't be an issue either way until I need land for industry.
Granavale County's current industry depends, largely, on cottage industry. Baking, brewing, pottery, glassblowing, smithing, carpentry. Granavale County has been blessed with a surfeit of skilled craftsmen. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!House Granavale has subsidized the existence of any industry beyond that through food imports and close diplomatic ties with its neighbors. It lacks the economies of scale to make mass lumber harvest as profitable as Greenroot, or as efficient as burning coal from Blackstone. What meager ore exists in the ground is dwarfed by the quality of that from Redmont. My time at the Harvest Festival has opened my eyes. The Lord Granavale, my father, spends much of his time at the Capital arranging favorable trade deals, ways to send his money to his County and getting the crafts out. It is not sensible and sustainable. Sooner or later, Granavale County will have to return to the purpose dictated by its lands: farming. Mass farming of fertile lands, which the Duke of Agraria has reaped the rich benefits of. But not necessarily in the same form as before, and not by the same people. It's not wise to make a skilled blacksmith work the fields.
Granavale County retains some fertile lands. These lands, by some miracle, produce just enough grain to feed the people. Most families have a single chicken which lays eggs when healthy. There are a few cows, which produce milk. But the crunch comes in the form of labor. Simply put, the Duke of Agraria left us with enough farms that we can produce grain, but the people are too busy to harvest it. Enter the wandering workers. These people wander across the Empire, chasing the harvest season. Hearty greens in Spring. Vine vegetables in summer. Grain in autumn, and a hope for shelter. Too weak to be adventurers, too… ragged to work in cities, untrained in sedentary skilled labor. For the past five years, these people have formed a significant supplement to Granavale's harvest, but they have little desire to settle down permanently. Nor, I think, would the usual townspeople like them to.
This would have been my original analysis. But now that the Dungeon is opened, the Duke of Agraria could demand a greater share of wealth at any time. He could raise his taxes, for personal gain. Father thinks he won't, because if that were to happen, he could raise the matter in his visits to the Imperial Capital. Slowly, his complaint would make his way through the great machine of the Omnio bureaucracy, and the Duke of Agraria might find his life becoming suddenly unpleasant. But perhaps we are to be the wary ones. The Duke of Agraria isn't an idiot. He is surely aware of the infusion of wealth and strength that can come in the wake of a Dungeon Storm. But he is surely aware of how that time of wealth is limited, and how that value slowly depletes. How Granavale County will be a husk of itself, if its youth throw themselves into the Dungeon. And how he'll be able to take the fertile lands, reduce us to just our craftsmen — if any of them still remain, after the youth choose lives of adventuring instead — and turn us into a novelty. Remove us from the halls of power entirely. Reduce our respect and our holdings and our wealth to just our manor. Because now that the Dungeon's opened, even fewer people will want to work the fields. A smarter family could leverage this into true wealth and power, that could surpass him. But Reginald Granavale is reduced to begging for scraps in the capital so his people can continue their lives of honest work, while his son is a spoiled brat who makes messes and leans on the power of his betters and throws frivolous ceremonies to show off his own superiority. From Agraria's perspective, all he has to do is wait. |