Topic: The Principality of Stattenland

[Derek Contyre]

The Government of Stattenland

Early Government;

The body that made up the government of Stattenland centuries ago was simply the noble houses that ruled parts of Statten. After Armand Contyre became Baron he reformed the governing body into a council which was elected every ten years to govern the town under the current baron. The council could be any freeman, but not serfs.
This style of government existed for nearly two centuries before being reformed again by Alecto Contyre with the creation of the Provincial Army.

The House of Nobles;

The Noble house system already existed per se behind the now defunct elected government of early Statten. But the flaws of that government were clearly evident in the first Ahlenhof-Statten war when decisions of the body did not work in the best interests of the war at the time. This crippled the County until Othello Contyre reformed the government into four Noble Houses.
The houses at the time of the second reformation;
The Contyre House
The van Garret House
The van Tasset House and
The von Hergig House.
All the noble families of Stattenland were shifted (according to locale) into one of these four houses.
Naturally, most of the noble houses were located in the Contyre holdings, and so the Contyre house became the largest.
The van Garret’s and van Tasset’s were equally large and together equalled the Contyre house.
The last and smallest of the houses was the von Hergig house, however they could tip the balance of power in the event of a stalemate.
This government met in a chamber every week to govern the County, create new laws, raise and lower taxes, recruit troops and send diplomatic envoys.
This ‘House of Nobles’, existed right up until the ‘Reign of Blood’, when Aldebrand Contyre dissolved the House of Nobles and declared himself above the law.

The House of Freemen;

Upon Lucius II ascension to the rule of Stattenland, he immediately restored the House of Nobles system, thwarting both attempts by the van Garrets and van Tassets of finally ousting the Contyre House from power, as no one would rise against the ‘Saviour of Stattenland’ after ending the ‘Reign of Blood’.
The County after the ‘Reign of Blood’ was devastated, the treasury empty, the nobles and people resentful of the Contyre’s. Lucius could ill afford to levy a tax to repair the damages if it would cost him the throne.
Instead he offered everyone in Stattenland a choice;
While the House of Nobles would stay in effect, he would create a second governing body to be called the ‘House of Freemen’.
Lucius was as good as his word; the House of Freemen was established in a wing of the building that the House of Nobles met every month.
This building, called the ‘Government House; grew from a moderate two story building huge palace in several years time.
Lucius solved the cash crisis too at that time. Instead of instigating a tax, he told the people that if any village or town wanted to be represented in Government House than a yearly payment, dependant on circumstance, had to be paid to maintain their representatives. This money would go straight back into building roads, maintaining the Counties army, and of course the Watch, Fire service and any other ‘government’ service.
The Houses of Freemen and Nobles would have powers of creating laws, naming taxes and maintaining the many services that the Government had in force.

The system of Houses worked like this;
Any law relating to the Freemen and their holdings was dealt with by the House of Freemen while any law relating o the nobles, their estates, taxes and powers were dealt with by the House of Nobles and was determined by popular vote.
The House of Nobles at first was the stronger of the House system as many of the Freemen could ill afford to maintain a residence in Statten all year and also the Noble House was more established and knew how to work their system.
Many new and empowering laws were put into place by the nobles restricting Freemen and serfs. But that changed when the House of Freemen gathered in secret and passed a law allowing them to veto the House of Nobles at any time and with a minimum of one member to do so.
The system broke down at first as the nobles refused to acknowledge this new law. But they relented after twenty years when the House of Freemen passed numerous laws and transferred all the Government services over to their body.
Suddenly all the Watch, Fire Services, Military, Trading Guilds and Docking Authorities were controlled by the House of Freemen.
When the House of Nobles was crushed and reduced to begging to be allowed back into Government House, the Freemen relented and allowed the House of Nobles governing duties again.
However the system was broken.

The Reign of the Princes, the Statten Project and the Principal vote;

The House System existed in its broken state for centuries, although the monopoly of power existed with the Freemen.
This needed to change before the common people finally gained control of the County by force if not by law.
The Nobles were terrified and after Marius Contyre came of age and became Count, they pleaded with him to change the governing body before his end is come.
Marius was, above his age, extremely knowledgeable of the law’s regarding Stattenland’s governing body, and while the Governing body existed, the many powers of the Count did not.
The only real powers the ruling family had was the ability to declare war, being exempt and above the Governing body and of course, the head of the Contyre-Statten Trading co.

Stability needed to be restored and Marius was the man who did it.
After being presented with the crown of rulership, Marius marched on the House of Freemen, who, after three centuries had grown corrupt with power.
The Armoured Guard seized the assembly of men and marched them to the centre square of Statten.
In front of ten thousand people Marius declared the House System at an end and crowned himself Prince of Stattenland. The people of Statten terrified of being reduced to serfs or worse, almost overwhelmed the stage he was on.
But, discharging a pistol into the air and bellowing quiet in the name of St Anastasia, the crowd relaxed.
His first decree as Prince was that the Government House be destroyed and a new ‘Assembly’ be constructed. All the districts of Stattenland would ‘elect’ by popular vote their representatives while each noble families second son would be allowed a seat after popular vote in that district.
The fifty districts of the Assembly centred around each major town and city, including many thousands of people.
All of the older members of the House system were discharged and sent home. Elections for the new Assembly would begin in the new year.

The next month, Prince Marius headed the one hundred strong Assembly and gave them its responsibilities.
Taxes, Government services including; Hospices, Fire Services, the Town and City Watch, the Statten river patrol and law creation all became the duties of the Assembly.
The powers of the Prince were the ability to veto the Assembly on any law, Lord High Marshall of the Principalities army, General of the Armoured Guard of Hamburg, Ruler de facto of everyone in the Principality and Speaker of the Assembly.
After much debate this was accepted. With the creation of a governing of Stattenland and civil infrastructure, Prince Marius began the ‘Statten project’.

The Statten Project;

The idea was to create a subsidiary body of governing people to ease the job of the Assembly, busy as they were learning the incredibly difficult job of governing a nation of nearly six hundred thousand people.
Marius created a town council of Statten which acted as a smaller, second government which discharged the duties and saw to it that they were implemented of the Assembly.
His first idea was a replica of the Assembly with fifty districts. It failed.
Instead, Marius, the heads of the various guilds(including the thieves and assassin’s guilds) met with the Watch and Fire Service chiefs, the current ruler of Statten(Marius) the commander of the militia and the Captain of the Stattenland mounted river forces.

All in all a number of fifteen men and women. This council governed the city as best they could and enforced the laws pertaining to Stattenland. However many of the laws filtering down did not affect the major cities so the council was given power to ignore certain laws or change them as they saw fit.

Next Marius went to the people of Statten and gave them the power of a ‘Principal Vote’. This vote gave them enormous responsibility.
The Principal Vote determined the various council members of the Statten Council. Every four years the council would be elected from the voting citizens to one of the seats. This gave the people of Statten a purpose and lowered their resentment of the ruling classes somewhat.

The Mayoral Seat

Seth Contyre, on his ascension to Prince, created the Mayoral Seat for Stattenland and Statten respectively.
The Noble house system, though replaced by the much more modern Assembly, which worked far better at keeping the Principality running smoothly, still existed between the noblesse.
All the noble families of Stattenland belonged to one of the original houses in some form or another and so, instead of these bored nobles causing trouble, Seth created the Mayoral Seat.
Each of the four houses could run for the seat and it is a five year term on the seat in which the Mayor of Stattenland would attend the most important functions of State, have access to The Assembly and a hand in its policies and also act as a court advisor.
Each House took this extremely seriously  as it could potentially tip the scales of power in Stattenland to whichever house held the seat.
Currently, Seth Contyre holds the seat as of 2520IC.

[Derek Contyre]

The Provincial army.

Over the centuries, many Contyre's have reformed the military of Stattenland, usually for the better in response to a threat that the older machine of war couldn't handle.
In the early years of the Contyre dynasty, large unwieldy regiments of halberdiers, supported by smaller units of archers and some mounted spearmen and missile cavalry were the mainstay of the army of Statten. These men were usually drawn from the larger breed of farmhands and farmers, bruisers and mercenaries that the Barony could afford in wartime.

This all changed during the first Ahlenhof-Statten war, when the much more disciplined pike formations and horse archer regiments defeated their Stattener counterparts easily.
The Ahlenhof pike formations having greater discipline and tighter formations than the larger mob like combat techniques of the halberdiers, while the Ungol horsemen, being born into a saddle easily out rode and out fought the cavalry that Statten produced which were little more than mounted men at arms.

Though the Siege of Statten in 1993 ended in the Treaty of Ahlenhof-Statten with a distinct taste of victory to the Contyre's, their military wasn't seriously tested till The Secret War just over thirty years later.
This time, the Ahlenhof army was reinforced with Knights which quickly broke the units of Halberdiers that were sent into battle. However, individual units of mixed arms began to distinguish themselves, namely, small units of highly manoeuvrable archers and highly skilled swordsmen and duellists. These troops, when used aggressively proved themselves time and again.
In 2047 the military of Stattenland is reorganised around regiments of swordsmen and archers as aggressive skirmishers, with Tuetonic knights as supporting and highly efficient flankers.

During the skirmishes of the Second Battle of Stattenwood, this new configuration of troops performed admirably, being able to hold their own against much larger enemy forces and driving them back with highly aggressive tactics.
This new mobile aggressive army certainly proved itself during the 'Reign of Blood', when Aldebrand Contyre invaded Hochland and Alhenhof-Hohne, inflicting stinging defeats on much larger armies.
Though the reliance of very skilled archers and swordsmen eventually became a major problem when casualties began mounting.

After the 'Reign of Blood' and Lucius Contyre seized the throne, he retrained the Provincial Army of Stattenland into a more effective force without losing the eliteness of his regiments.
By making the swordsmen and archer units 'Armoured Guard' units, they kept their status as Elite troops while opening the door to allow regiments of Halberdiers, Spearmen, crossbow and handgun into the army. The halberdiers and Spearmen formed the bulk of the Stattenland infantry, the spears and halberds easier to train the newer recruits in using efficiently without sacrificing large amounts of time to dedicated training.
The massed shooting of the crossbow and Handgun intending to break charges and slow down oncoming troops wary of losing their life to the long range bombardments.
With the creation of permanent elite regiments like the Swords of Hamburg and the Greencoats, the Contyre house needed a form of heavily armoured shock infantry able to charge into the thickest fighting and emerge victorious and alive.
From the numerous wars and skirmishes against Ahlenhof-Hohne and Hochland emerged extremely talented veterans, many of which had earned enough to buy or commission suits of full plate armour from the Dwarfen smiths in Hohochhiem and Hamburg.

The veteran soldiers, usually picked from the Swordsmen regiments and occasionally the Tuetonic Knights were formed into a core of disciplined and ferocious Greatswordsmen. These incredible warriors became the stereotype for the 'Armoured Guard' and also the household guards of the Contyre Family.

With the consolidation of the Provincial army towards aggressive infantry, a professional cavalry force was needed. For defence of the Contyre person, the Tuetonic knights form excellent heavy cavalry bodyguards that would rather die than allow a Contyre to be killed. However, the size of Tuetonic knight detachments varies according to need, so Lucius Contyre created the 'Lancers', a body of fast moving highly skilled medium cavalry designed to flank, harass and generally make a nuisance of themselves to the enemy.
These Lancers, usually only protected by a Lance, small buckler, a breastplate and a pistol are eager soldiers, generally seen leading the van and scouting far ahead. They are usually the first to report back to the Commander of Stattenlands military of potential enemy threats.

[Derek Contyre]

The Lancers also engage other light troops and skirmishers, which their speed, manoeuvrability and hitting power allow them to overcome these foes easily.

Over time, this new military machine proved its worth against a variety of foes. On the battlefields of Hochland against the Middenland Empire, where the aggressive north men found a challenge in the cool, calculated aggressive tactics of Lucius Contyre. The numerous battles in and around the forests of Hochland taught the many allies and enemies of Stattenland to respect the small province's military strength and expertise. 
In particular the Greencoats, an elite regiment of skirmishers and scouts made a name for themselves against the military's of Middenland and its allies.
Their prowess as woodsmen enabled them to outmanoeuvre the slower infantry and artillery regiments of the foe. Meanwhile planning ambushes and traps across the path of the enemy slowed them to a crawl while their accurate bow fire sniped enemy commanders and unit leaders.
Middenland high command placed large bounties and rewards on the heads of these Greencoats, and while those that were captured were tortured and eventually killed, the resolve of their fellows only grew stronger in the face of this adversity.

Not only did the Greencoats gain an almost legendary status in the allied armies, but a particular group of spearmen in the Stattenland muster also gained a certain renown.
The origins of the '5th' can be shadily traced to a mercenary spear regiment that hired itself to the Barony of Statten during the first Ahlenhof-Statten war, the excellent training and discipline these men displayed in their many running battles against their better armed and armoured opponents, generally knights of the white wolf and the Ahlenhof pike regiments earned them a reputation of die hard's and desperate men, that would fight against overwhelming odds and triumph time and again.
As the decades passed, this mercenary spear regiment gained many names, most commonly following whatever particular captain decided on at the time.
How their eventual name of the '5th' was settled on no one knows, but it forged the group of hard soldiers into a penultimate fighting force.
During the battles against Middenland in the 21st century, the '5th' fought in every engagement, even at some point leaving the Stattenland army and fighting for Hochland and her allies in other parts of the Grand Barony. Their exploits became something of legend in the short but extremely brutal war in which Hochland and Stattenland were overwhelmed by Middenland.
The 5th also fought in the Battle for Hergig, where the allied armies of Hochland and Stattenland attempted to halt the juggernaught that was the Middenland army. Outnumbered almost three to one, the allies fought heroically for hours. Whole regiments of soldiers were shattered in the brutal close quarters fighting between the two sides, but in every engagement, the 5th proved itself time and again.

Even when the Provincial army were forced back and the Middenlander's flank and crush the Hochland centre positions, the 5th kept fighting, surrounded by an ocean of white and blue. Only when Lucius Contyre led the spirited counter attack that eventually broke the back of the Middenland right flank and began cutting apart their artillery were the 5th relieved. Out of the three hundred men that were in the unit from the start of the day, only twenty remained, their purple and grey uniforms coated in gore, their spear shafts red from the blood that they spilled.
The 5th proved to be one of the most heroic mercenary regiments in the northern empire. Small detachments of the men can be found in service across the Olde Worlde, their fame and prowess directly proving the excellence of the Stattenland Military that forged it.

[Derek Contyre]

With a slew of military honours and campaigns now under the Stattenland military collective belts, it wouldn't be long before they would be tested like never before.
That test came following the return of Anastasia Contyre to Stattenland in 2209 after hearing word that her father Lucius Contyre had been murdered by her mother.
For years Anastasia had grown up with the men of the Armoured Guard, the hard bitten ruthless men of the 5th, the stealthy archers of the Greencoats and the ever present grim and imposing armoured men of the Greatsword's. These elite units taught her everything they knew about fighting and warfare, instilling rigid codes of soldiery and training.
So naturally these elite regiments joined her immediately in the bid to oust her mother from power. Once the Battle of Hamburg was over, the military of Stattenland was in a shambles. Almost a decade of corruption by the chaos powers left many in doubt as to the integrity of the army, indeed after a civil war in which many family members died, Stattenland seemed ripe for the picking.

Anastasia changed that, after her marriage and coronation, she and her husband set about reforming the Provincial army along the lines of her own personal army that she had used to conquer the border princes.
The same cool aggressive tactics stayed the same, with regiments of foot supported by small skirmishing units of archers and detachments of crossbow, handgun and halberd.
The larger regiments became pikes, a distinct change of pace for a northern Imperial army where the spear and halberd are far more common.
These regiments of Pike drew their intakes from the heavily populated cities and villages rather than the much more disbursed farming communities that the older military model had recruited from before. This ready population of young men, many with trades and other skills, could be trained on a full time basis, rather than the part time farmers and labourers from before.
This recruitment area also allowed the state regiments to be at full strength all the time, instead of the soldiers going back to the farms to reap harvests and start families.
This kind of recruiting also set in place a ready village militia system of pike armed soldiers, usually the veterans or their sons.
With the basis for the backbone of the Army in place, the specific units began to come together. Regiments of archers, usually from villages bordering the Stattenwood or the Western forest became a staple part of the army. These men drew the attention of the Greencoats, the best archers and woodsmen across the many regiments being an excellent recruitment for the stealthy scouts.

With the core of the army now pikemen, the provincial army had almost lost the aggressiveness of their former years being more static now, the inclusion of Halberd regiments brought back the aggressive assaulting tactics of the previous decades.
Another change that Anastasia brought was introducing units of her personal troops into the Armoured Guard. The Crimson Dragoons she added into the Guard as an aggressive pistolier regiment. These men she formed in the southern Empire fighting as a mercenary captain, and are some of the finest light cavalry in the Empire. Having travelled all over the Olde Worlde and fought in countless engagements since their inception. The Crimson Dragoons are a band of brothers forged in the hot fires of war. Each an exceptional rider, their status as legal brigands is almost true. The Crimson Dragoons to a man are a regiment of arrogant, self delusional bastards at the best of times, but every man in the Provincial army and the Armoured Guard know that they have the skills as pistol experts and are glad that the Dragoons are fighting with them.

Yet another unit also joined the Armoured Guard Elite regiments, The Nueremburg Rifles. This regiment of elite marksmen drew from the handgun regiments of Lucius' reforms for years, training the best crack shots of the army into one regiment. Though this regiment is only new to the Stattenland army, they already have an excellent reputation for tenacious and spirited artillery defence.

[Khalim]

Crazy amount of detail!

You have got me waiting for the next installment like it was one of my favorite series! Very well done, can't wait for the rest!

[Derek Contyre]

I'll get this done eventually, damn Uni got in the way. 

[Derek Contyre]

Threadomancy here.

I've migrated away from Warhammer Fantasy battles (with good reason considering their ridiculous replacement game, what is it called again?) and have instead drifted dangerously close to Mantic's Kings of War and Warpath game systems.

As a result, I will be continuing the use of my beloved Empire Army (and the Contyres) in that system.
However, that isn't the only news, I pan on actually writing a novel, and for those who have gamed with me in the previous years on this beloved page will know, that novel will be around the life/escapades of Countess Anastasia Contyre.

Just thought I would leave this here for now and see if anyone would actually read the book 

[GamesPoet]

Welcome back!

There is a new campaign being contemplated, and although much is still up in the air, there is the possiblity it may follow a similar structure as "The Solland Effort of 2524".

[Fidelis von Sigmaringen]

Just thought I would leave this here for now and see if anyone would actually read the book 

I am willing to give it a Nueremburg trial.

[Doc J]

I really enjoyed reading this, I like how you broke down the population of your areas and there size ect. The timeline is great. 

[Derek Contyre]

Threadomancy.... it's aliiive!
Thanks Doc J!
It took many hours of work in order to do so too so it's always great when someone appreciates that aspect.
The timeline was great fun to write and I have carried that style across to my writing too.
To Fidelis von Sigmaringen hahaha thank you! It looks set to follow a short story I am writing based on my experiments as a GM and the exploits of a PC's character.
I got super exited when writing her up as a character in a campaign so I dearly want to address the story that began burning inside of me several years ago.
I can't wait to tell it.
And to GP, thank you for welcoming me back. I honestly missed you all!
DC

[Derek Contyre]

Threadomancy again.

Wow, doesn't time fly?

I have some updates for you all since last year (personal life got in the way, then work began on my breakout novel which I am in the midst of writer's block for), most notably, I finally finished my World Map.
As those who are familiar with GW are, you can imagine what would have happened if I published a novel set in their Olde Worlde. SO instead I made my own Old World.

A familiar, yet different, The Empire awaits you for those who see it (the quality isn't the best, as I hand drew it after all, and my hand-writing is quite messy) but I believe there is plenty of distance between them that I can get away with reasonably writing in it. 

All my characters are present here as well as Stattenland (albeit a bit larger now that I don't have as much world to squeeze it into) and I hope that you guys enjoy it when I start writing.

I'll ensure to post up chapters here so you can read it and get excited (and hopefully buy it when it gets released )

Cheers for still liking my stories,
DC

[Doc J]

I look forward to seeing it.

[Xathrodox86]

I look forward to seeing it.

Ditto.