Royal Devils

Races- Humans

Humans, although not the original natives, are one of the most spride inhabitants of Oideyas second only to the harpies. They can be found anywhere in chartered Oideyas however their numbers dwindle the further they are from one of the three castle setlements as they are the foothold of the species. Humans as a species are the newest in Oideyas as well as the weakest, physically at least. They prospered due to their bast numbers and intelligence/cunning. They were and are pioneers in trading and social structure, they are host to the most complex social system and law system in all of Oideyas. This system consists of three main ranks; Royal, Earl and peasant. Within each of these ranks there is a further breakdown into smaller classes.

Within the Royal rank there is three families and although there is no official ranking to them it is generally accepted that one is the true ruler and the other two are lesser royalties. This system leads to citizens being loyal to whichever castle they live closest too ( and if they don't live near one they tend to be more estranged from the system) however most only think of themselves as ruled by one or two of the families.  The three families in ascending rank are, the Glen family, the Mendle family and the Forn family.  As the recognized rulers of the human domain the Forn family weilds more power than the other two and mendle more than Glen however no decisions about the entire domain can be made without a consensus betwee the three families. Each family has it's own territory and the size of this is respective of the power held by the family and each family has complete control over their own territory. Laws change drastically between territories with the only definite laws being that Title changes must be approved by all three houses and that anyone who deserts the army will be executed (however no wars have been fought in recent history which required the army to mobilize its full force so soldiers are generally found policing the cities.) Within the Royal families there is traditionally both a king and a queen rulling but it is not uncommon to find only one rulling monarch at a time due to assassinations and attacks (although there is no large disrest within the peopl often people are not content with the balance of power and try to either lower or raise the standing of the family they are associated with). Normally A king or Queen is succeeded by their oldest child however this is more tradition than law and the child always has the option to abdicate their position( however this is very rare) or if there is no children alive at the time of the current king or queen's passing or abdication then they may appoint an earl to be the next monarch. This occurence is even more rare than a child's abdication as it is a greulling tasks in which all three families (the two ruling monarchs and the deceased's advisors and generals) must come to an agreement on who should suceed. In these situations  the family in question often faces the risk of loosing it's royal position as these deliberations can last a long time and without a ruler their territories become restless and risk rioting and other acts of uprising. Although this has never happened it is one of the biggest reasons for children not to abdicate and family's are pressed to have heir's.

Below the Royals are the Earls, this rank is much less complicated and again is split into families and each has it's own rank however this tends to be based upon the families favour with the ruling monarchs in their imidate area as well as the power of their favoured monarch. Those families who have the favour of all three families are the most powerful (and are often the candidates for coronation in the event of no heir's) although this is the main factor it is not definite and can easily be influenced by the prosperity and actions of the family. Earls are often entrusted with trading between species for their city and those with favour will often do trading on behalf of the monarchs, each family tends to specialize in its own market (such as weaponry, jewelery, arts, clothing etc) however as the number of Earls is not so large as to allow all aspects of trade to be dealt with by an earl in each town and for every monarch many tend to deal a little in most trades.

Beneath Earls are peasants which have two main classes; Merchants/traders and Labourers, there is a third class for criminals however as this is heavily influenced by both the crime and the previous class of the criminal is so inconsistent that it cant's really be considered an independant class. Rather criminals are a sub class within each rank and can be further broken down for example; a earl who murdered someone would still be a higher class than a labourer who murdered someone however a merchant who murdered someone would be a lower class than a labourer who stole something. This is a generalisation of the system however it varies drastically between cities and is hard to catogorize definitively. Merchants and traders are higher than labourers and are often seen as the bridge between the higher classes (e.g. earls) and peasants. This is due to the fact that they carry out many of the same tasks as earls simply without the title and generally only trade within a set comunity like the previous classes different traders and merchants are more afluent than others depending on favour (with earls or business conections with other traders or merchants) but more importantly by their goods and prices, meaning that things are more honest  than the higher workings of society. Labourers are considered the lowest class and tend to live within themselves creating their own settlements and become self sufficient tending to their own crops and livestocks. In villages like these that no longer depend on the monarchs and such to provide them with food and goods there is a general desparity towards the monarchy and these villages tend to be self governing and sometimes blatantly disregard the laws of the land and consider themselves a seperate people. These settlements tend to be far from main cities and often aren't even chartered on maps  due to how small they are and insignificant in comparison to larger towns and cities. It is rare for there to be any trouble with these places as they are normally left to their own devices but sometimes passing soldier will stay and cause trouble with the locals since their customs clash and the villagers often disregard law. It is not overly uncommon for the settlements to be raized in these situations (since more often than not the vilagers had violated some petty law giving the soldier the right to deal out punishment). This leads to wandering settlements, these vilagers are considered completley seperate from the system as they are no longer bound to the human domain. These and the kind of travellers who often supply goods to other smaller settlments and will travel across the country selling and trading with small villages of all races.

Claire who is the main protagonist is the eldest daughter of the Glen family and was in line for the throne before the events of the book.

Gwendolyn is a minor protagonist and lived in a small detached settlement before becoming a dragon tamer and travelling on her own or with other travelers.

author's note; I swear the other species aren't as complicated as this, i thought that i would get the most annoying one out of the way first the others are a lot more fun,

kit xx