>>5796734As you returned home you began to settle back into your usual rhythm of holding court, hearing out nobles and important burghers and other such things.
As you went through the endless meetings, reading of documents and hearing of proposals you managed to identify three big issues that were plaguing the duchy
The inefficient and outdated levy system. Which relies on the use of so-called ‘’banneries’’ special military districts under the control of a local lord, who is given the informal position of bannerlord. It is their duty to gather the banners and then march to the location of the campaign. Unfortunately, this system has become plagued with problems, there are about forty eight bannerlords, where it used to be eight. A result of the partitioning that was popular before primogeniture became law. As a consequence of this levies are called in much more but also much smaller units which then have to march individually to the main army. A system that desperately needs revision.
Another concern that is kind of connected to the levy problem is the strength of the nobility that you rule over. Where once you had used the unruly lords of Greifswald to overthrow the order and you could keep them in line through popularity and comradery you were not certain of their sons, or what would happen once Albrecht would succeed you. The nobility here is powerful, and nearly any attempt to curb their power without concessions is impossible. These men are proud and shrewd and you would need every trick in the book to break them, or, to at least weaken them. For you envisioned that the building of a central authority would take generations.
Lastly, there is a problem of a more…supranatural kind. The deepwoods, the parts of the green forest where light barely gets through, you have had both positive and negative encounters with the strange creatures of this strange realm. Both in that strange music-making woodman and with those barbarian elves you were forced to contain last winter. This is a problem that would perhaps require a clear head and patience, a lot of it.
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>Tell me more about the levies>Provide me with knowledge of the nobles>I wish to learn more about the deepwoods. 