Re-Estize Kingdom

Re-Estize Kingdom (リ・エスティーゼ王国) is a human nation in the New World with an estimated population of nine million and one of three nations neighboring Nazarick. It is currently in a state of political disorder and civil unrest due to a confrontation between the royalty and nobility as well as continues invasions by other countries.

Background
The Re-Estize Kingdom, usually simply referred to as "The Kingdom," is located west of the Azerlisia Mountains, north-west of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, with an estimated population of nine million. It was one of the many nations founded following the defeat of the Evil Deities over 200 years ago. Though one of three major human nations neighboring Nazarick, the Kingdom is currently suffering from the political disorder due to a confrontation between the Royalty and Nobility factions. The situation is quite severe, virtually dividing the country in two.

Political Intrigues
According to Gazef Stronoff, the Kingdom has been plagued by corrupt and inept nobles who view commoners as mere pawns in their power plays ever since its founding. Protected from hostile demi-human nations by natural barriers and neighboring countries, the Kingdom was relatively peaceful. However, this caused many nobles to grow delusional with the belief that their prosperity would continue forever.

By the time the current king, Ramposa III, came to power the Kingdom was already suffering from extreme political corruption due to the mistakes of previous kings. Throughout his reign, he tried to reform the Kingdom, but to no avail. As the king aged, his ability to exercise his authority deteriorated and thus nobles got more say in matters; one in, particular, being Marquis Boullope. This eventually resulted in the government splitting between a "Royal Faction" and a "Noble Faction". The only reason the situation didn't escalate into civil war was due to the efforts of Marquis Raeven, a patriot with connections to both sides. Many nobles, regardless of faction, are also secretly in league with other countries like the Baharuth Empire or the Slane Theocracy.

In addition, there is a conflict of succession; while it has long since been time for the King to abdicate, he refuses to do so out of fear of either of his two sons, Crown Prince Barbro or Second Prince Zanac, becoming a nobility puppet. Each of these brothers also desired the throne for themselves and began a bitter rivalry over it.

Royal Tournament
The Kingdom holds an annual tournament that attracts fighters throughout the human nations. As the name implies, the king and powerful nobles view the matches. The best fighters also get approached with job offers by them. While the purpose of the tournament was to discover powerful fighters within the Kingdom, the nobles used it as a propaganda tool to show off the strength of their men. As a result, the tournament fell out of favor with many of them after their men continuously lost to commoners and it's now a shadow of its former glory.

The first tournament was quite a large affair. The winner was Gazef Stronoff, who would go on to become King Ramposa III's personal guard. Unfortunately, many nobles from both the Royal and Noble Factions did not take kindly to the commoner, which prevented the king from properly knighting him. In response, the King created a new title just for him: "Warrior Captain," and granted him his own Warrior Troop to command.

Annual Wars
The peace which the Kingdom had enjoyed for so long came to an end when the Baharuth Empire declared war on them. Fortunately, the situation did not escalate into all-out war and instead of the two nations merely engaged in small territorial skirmishes at the Katze Plains every year. However, these annual wars took place during harvest seasons, slowing the food-production due to peasants being drafted. This caused the Kingdom to slowly consume their nation's strength while the Empire simply waited for an opportunity to conquer them with minimal losses. By the time the Kingdom realized the Empire's aim, it was too late as it had already fallen into decline. On the other hand, the common threat posed by the Empire also prevented the Kingdom from further splitting.

Despite the situation, many nobles failed to grasp how truly desperate it was and thus refused to take it seriously, viewing the Empire as nothing more than a nuisance that they could easily repel at any time. Some nobles are even betraying the Kingdom by leaking information to the Empire for their own gain.

Criminal Underworld
Apart from all the political issues, a large criminal group named "Eight Fingers" is undermining the Kingdom from within. Several nobles and even royals are secretly in league with them, some voluntarily while others are just being manipulated. In addition, communities throughout the Kingdom also work for them, letting them use their fields to plant illegal drugs in return for the money that they need to support themselves. All of this caused their influence to become so great that they are controlling virtually the entire nation from the shadows. They also spread the Kingdom's corruption beyond its borders, worsening its relationships with other nations.

Golden Princess
Third Princess Renner attempted a structural reform of the Kingdom, an endeavor that earned her the nickname "Golden Princess." However, most of her suggestions, such as crop rotation, were shot down by the nobles, who feared any changes could become a threat to their own authority. She was at least able to abolish slavery, though there are still a lot of unofficial slaves in the criminal underworld.

The Undead King Arc
Receiving news that several villages at the border were being destroyed by what were believed to be imperial knights, King Ramposa III sent Gazef Stronoff and his Warrior Troop to investigate. The Warrior Troop's vice captain believed this to be a trap set by the Noble Faction to eliminate Gazef, thus weakening the Royal Faction, and advised the Warrior Captain to retreat. However, Gazef insisted they carry on to protect the citizens.

Eventually, they arrived at Carne Village, where Gazef befriended a masked magic caster named Ainz Ooal Gown, who had previously saved the village from the attackers. Not long after Gazef's arrival, the village was surrounded by the Slane Theocracy's Sunlight Scripture, proving that this was a trap set by the nobles. Gazef and his troops lured the Sunlight Scripture away from the village and fought them, but were overwhelmed by their magic. However, Ainz teleported Gazef and his troops to safety and proceeded to defeat the Sunlight Scripture. Afterward, Gazef and his surviving men began their journey back to the Royal Capital.

The Dark Warrior Arc
E-Rantel, a fortress city near the border and one of the Kingdom's major areas of import and trade, came under attack by the death cult Zurrernorn, who attempted to turn the entire city into the undead. However, they were stopped by a new Adventurer Group called Darkness before they could implement their scheme.

The Bloody Valkyrie Arc
In E-Rantel, the Adventurer's Guild called for an emergency meeting to discuss a powerful vampire. Pluton Ainzach also invited Mayor Panasolei to determine how to defend the city from the vampire. Two adventurers teams: Darkness and Kralgra, departed the city to confront the vampire. Although Kralga was wiped out, Darkness returned victoriously and was made the Kingdom's third adamantite-ranked adventurer group.

Meanwhile, in the Royal Capital, Gazef was reporting to the king and the nobles what occurred in Carne Village. Although the King was grateful for Ainz's aid and wanted to personally meet him to extend his gratitude, several nobles were suspicious of the masked magic caster's origins and wished to capture him for interrogation.

The Men in the Kingdom Arc
& The Men in the Kingdom II Arc Princess Renner hired the adamantite Adventurer group Blue Roses as part of a campaign to rid the Kingdom of Eight Fingers. They enjoyed several early victories, with Blue Roses destroying drug transplantations of villages allied with them and the Princess' forces disabling their brothel in the Royal Capital. Their success convinced Gazef Stronoff and Marquis Raeven to aid them. The Marquis also hired Darkness as additional support. They set out to eliminate all of Eight Fingers' hideouts in the Royal Capital and once again enjoyed initial success, with the Princess' forces defeating, their security division.

Unfortunately, the entire mission went sour when the Royal Capital came under attack by a demon known as Jaldabaoth and his demon army, who claimed to have come to the city in search for a magic item. In response, Princess Renner halted the Eight Fingers suppression mission and assembled a large coalition of Adventurers to fight off the demon. Momon of Darkness fought Jaldabaoth in single combat while the remaining Adventurers fought off his demon army, with the palace guards, led King Ramposa III himself, joining when they were in danger of being overrun. Meanwhile, Second Prince Zanac helped civilians evacuate. In the end, Jaldabaoth retreated, claiming it to be because the odds no longer seemed to be in his favor.

In the aftermath of what came to be known as the "Demonic Disturbance," Momon became a national hero. Also, because the king and Prince Zanac aided in the defense of the Royal Capital, both the Royal Faction and the latters claim to the throne had gained more support. However, their victory came at the cost of countless lives. In addition, a large portion of the city's populace and resources had been taken away by the demon army. What was believed to be Jaldabaoth's magic item was found in one of Eight Fingers' warehouses, causing suspicion that they were responsible for the attack. Unbeknown to the Kingdom's populace, however, the attack was only a distraction while Nazarick took control of the criminal organization.

The Invaders of the Large Tomb Arc
Through it was time for the Kingdom's Annual War with the Baharuth Empire, Emperor Jircniv decided not to invade this year as the Kingdom was already in a weakened state from the "Demonic Disturbance."

According to Count Femel, the Kingdom was not aware of the mysterious tomb that the Empire had discovered within its borders. Under the Emperor's orders, the count hired several Worker Groups to infiltrate the Kingdom unnoticed and investigate the tomb.

Later, when the worker groups Foresight, Dragon Hunt and Heavy Masher compared the strength of the leading swordsmen in the lands, they mentioned several of the Kingdom's warriors, including Gazef, Gagaran, and Brain Unglaus, their performance during the first Royal Tournament.

The Magic Caster of Destroy Arc
During a meeting of the royalty and nobility, King Ramposa III announced that the Kingdom had received a declaration of war from the Empire. However, this time the Empire had formed an alliance with the newly founded Sorcerer Kingdom, led by Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown and demanded the Kingdom cede E-Rantel. Knowing that they don't stand a chance against Ainz, Gazef advised the king to give in to the demands, but it fell on deaf ears. The Nobility Faction, on the other hand, supported Gazef's suggestion, now even more desperate to undermine the Royalty Faction following the "Demonic Disturbance." However, in the end, it was unanimously decided to go to war after Marquis Raeven pointed out that the Empire was unlikely to stop at E-Rantel.

Around this time, the Kingdom's economic instability had begun to take its toll. According to predictions, the Kingdom would not survive another war with the Empire, noting that it would lead to the high chances of their nation going through civil war. Furthermore, peasants likely would start dying from starvation due to failed harvests and food shortages. Commoners also started to catch on to the Kingdom's situation, with rumors even reaching frontier villages like Carne Village.

With war looming closer as two months pass by, the Kingdom sent an unprecedentedly large Royal Army, 245,000 strong, to engage the Imperial Army at the Katze Plains. An additional 5,000 troops led by the Crown Prince Barbro, who came to the battlefield looking for glory, were sent to Carne Village to gather intel on Ainz. However, talks with the villagers turned violent and resulted in the crown prince's death at the hands of the village's demi-human inhabitants. Similarly, at the Katze Plains, the battle was over before it began as Ainz wiped out most of the Royal Army with just a single spell. In an attempt to turn the tide, Gazef challenged Ainz to single combat. Unfortunately, the Warrior Captain lost the duel along with his life.

As a result of the war, the Kingdom unanimously decided to cede E-Rantel to the Sorcerer Kingdom. Because the Royal Faction refused to heed Gazef's warning, they took most of the blame for the blunder. As a result, the balance of power shifted again; this time in favor of the Noble Faction. The Kingdom was now a shadow of its former power and in danger of total collapse.

By the time E-Rantel was officially ceded about a month later, the Kingdom had received a huge influx of refugees who had fled the city, believing Ainz Ooal Gown to be a monster and a tyrant.

The Ruler of Conspiracy Arc
Due to the heavy casualties of the Katze Plains Massacre, the Kingdom was left with a massive amount of orphans and widows. Moreover, many of the survivors were traumatized and unable to live normal lives. In response to this, Princess Renner invested a large sum of money into making an orphanage in the royal capital to provide a home for the orphans and jobs for the widows, hoping others would follow her example.

In addition, many fathers and firstborn sons from the nobility were killed during the massacre, forcing second or third born sons to take over their family's territory. Though most of these "spares" were never properly educated on how to conduct themselves in high society and thus lack class and etiquette. Some of them also did not want to be subservient to the leaders of their factions, once again shifting the balance of power.

The loss of both Gazef Stronoff and Prince Barbro caused King Ramposa III to fall into a depression. Similarly, Marquis Raeven was among those traumatized by the massacre and retired from politics. As a result, Second Prince Zanac, now the Crown Prince, assumed command of the Royalty Faction. As he struggled to rebuild the government, his biggest concern was how to proceed with relations with the Sorcerer Kingdom. Fortunately, news that the Sorcerer Kingdom would be sending a diplomatic envoy instantly solved this issue.

As the Sorcerer Kingdom's emissary, Albedo, visited the Royal Capital, a low-ranking noble heir named Philip used the opportunity to establish a relationship with the new nation, leading to the creation of a new faction that supports the Sorcerer Kingdom. Unbeknownst to Philip, however, Albedo had set up the whole scenario with help from Eight Fingers as part of her plan to eventually annex the Kingdom. Albedo also ordered Eight Fingers to import large amounts of food from the Kingdom to the Sorcerer Kingdom. Princess Renner is aware of this and is secretly assisting Albedo in order to become a member of Nazarick in the future.

The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom Arc
and The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom II Arc Envoys representing of the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army visited the Royal Capital to request for the Kingdom's aid in retaking the Northern Holy Kingdom from Jaldabaoth and his demi-human army. However, all the nobles and adventurers they approached turned them down due to various reasons, but primarily because the Kingdom was still in a weakened state following the massacre at Katze Plains. The envoys thus deemed the Kingdom to be a lost cause and moved on to the Sorcerer Kingdom in hopes of acquiring Momon's aid.

After Ainz Ooal Gown was supposedly killed by Jaldabaoth, news quickly spread to the Re-Estize Kingdom due to the efforts of Eight Fingers.

The Witch of the Falling Kingdom Arc
The current leadership soon became aware that the nation’s power was weakened, and that starvation was a possibility. This was due to the repeated clashes with the Empire, the Kingdom's inability to store sufficient grain continuing on to the present day. It was in these conditions that they ceded the crucial grain-producing region of E-Rantel, which was directly under the king’s rule, to the Sorcerer Kingdom. The loss of life on the battlefield also meant that they lost a sizable chunk of their labor force.

The consequent effects were not as pronounced for now, but years down the line, it was highly likely that the decrease in grain production would cause the price of grain to skyrocket till the point where the poor could no longer afford it. Not only that the political spectrum of the Kingdom was split between the Royal Faction, the Noble Faction, independents, and the New Faction that was formed after that battle. The distribution of power between the four factions was roughly 3:3:2:2.

Culture
The Re-Estize Kingdom is a feudal state. At the top of the hierarchical structure stands the king and the royal family. Next comes the nobility who possess major landholdings in the kingdom. At the bottom are the serfs.

It has a long deeply rooted believe that brave, strong cavalrymen are what defines to be a successful warrior and as a result many people especially noble families have been brought up with the belief that magic casters are not needed or not useful.

Titles and even professions are all hereditary. Social advancement in the kingdom seems to be very unlikely as any progress made is always hindered by the nobles, who fear that such changes might endanger their power and stations. In fact, it seems that, in order to protect their interests, is not uncommon for small wars to break out between the nobles themselves.

As a monarchy, the eldest son usually inherits everything once the father retires. This is because if the estate should be divided among the sons, eventually nothing would be left after a few generations. Therefore, the eldest son inherits everything, the second son becomes his helper and any younger sons are forced out once the eldest takes over. In fact, parents would usually only conceive another son to act as a "spare" in case the first or second dies. Meanwhile, women seem to be used as tools to acquire marriage alliances.

Meanwhile, for lower-class families, it was a common thing among parents to abandon their own children like Climb, leaving them to rot on the streets unless they were saved.

Unlike the Slane Theocracy or Baharuth Empire, the Kingdom lacks any kind of centralized magic academy. Therefore, a person would have to hire a magic caster to teach them.

The Kingdom follows a Guild-Based system which means that each city has its own guild and has its own rules. One tradesman that is a master in one city would be considered a junior in another.

Religion
The Kingdom's citizens adhere to the worship of the Four Great Gods, along with a compilation of minor gods.

Education
The literacy rate among citizens of the Kingdom is very low. Usually, every soldier stationed at a checkpoint are required to read and write. Literacy is also a desideratum for adventurers where, in order to gain entry into the Adventurer's Guild, a literacy test must be taken as part of the requirement.

On average only of those born of nobility, royalty and high profit earning merchants would be provided with the necessary education.

Politics
The Re-Estize Kingdom is a feudal monarchy traditionally ruled by the king and his nobles. The king and great nobles own 60% of the territory respectively while the remaining 40% are domains of lesser nobles. Policies are decided at conferences between the King and the nobles.

The Kingdom also has a law that bans the selling and purchase of slaves in the market. According to Staffan Heivish, it was spearheaded by Princess Renner who set up the plans which later allowed it to pass without a problem.

As for administration in the Kingdom, there are different entry rules and regulations for each region controlled by a noble. For citizens of each region, travel between areas is mostly prohibited.

For transit, the villages under royal control are issued permits. These permits allow one to bypass the toll tax issued at the city gates. The Kingdom keeps records of its citizens. However, such documents are almost always full of mistakes and aren't supposed to be taken all too seriously. Those documents can be used to verify the permits given to the local villages.

Highway Security
The Re-Estize Kingdom's roads traveled by merchants, adventurers, and others are critical infrastructure, yet there is a risk of bandit and monster attacks. Highway security was given by the nobles who lived on the estates through which the roads ran, but the nobles were only in it to charge tolls, leaving the security they provided often unreliable. In order to ameliorate the issue, Princess Renner organized patrols for the areas directly under the king's jurisdiction. Due to noble opposition, though, she was unable to implement enough, making it a stretch to say that the highways were being protected.

Pavement
In addition to the highway patrols, stone pavement maintenance was also initiated due to a proposal from Renner. The area under the jurisdiction of the king as well as part of the nobles' domains had been paved. However, the nobles considered the roads as a source of income. Loath to let maintenance costs eat away at their profits, they opposed the idea of doing an upkeep, so the project didn't go accordingly as planned. In the end, the result of this ended up being the current heavily potholed state of the roads.

Military Strength
The Re-Estize Kingdom's military is composed mostly of militia; its soldiers are mostly just the drafted peasants. They receive a government-issued weapon, no armor, and extremely sparse training. The Kingdom usually levies two-hundred thousand men to fight the Empire but can levy more if need be. The poor and unlucky commoners get drafted while the lucky ones join the City Guards which provides them with an excuse to avoid the front lines.

Nevertheless, the term "soldier" of the Kingdom referred to as such to be the militia armed by nobles who owned territory. It included the enlisted militiamen whose wages were paid by the governor. What they all had in common was that they were made up of common folk people.

Only Gazef's Warrior Troop, Marquis Raeven's private guards, King Ramposa III's royal knights, and the other elite forces of other nobles can match the Imperial Knights. The Royal Army of the Re-Estize Kingdom is really just a ragtag bunch of individual armies put together whenever the call of banners is issued in the face of a common or mutual cause. Although the King is in overall command, the nobles don't necessarily have to listen to him.

After the Massacre at the Katze Plains, the Kingdom's military capabilities were reduced to almost nothing. In addition to that, the Kingdom lost its strongest warrior as well as many of the nobles who were part of the army. In the end, the only soldiers left now are the ones who stayed out of the fighting or the few that managed to retreat back to E-Rantel. Although the Kingdom's national defense was already quite weak, to begin with, it has even fallen into further decline once the war with the Sorcerer Kingdom came to an end. It was to the point that they cannot even spare a few soldiers to aid other countries and is vulnerable to a complete take over from foreign invaders.

Foreign Relations
The Re-Estize Kingdom was the most geographically secure country of all and faced almost no territorial encroachment from aggressive demi-human nations that plagued its neighbors. It was by far the most peaceful nation, aside from the annual territorial dispute with the Baharuth Empire. It possessed the largest concentration of human effort. However, the Kingdom's seclusion from the rest of the world left it weak to corruption and stagnation from within, and eventually, its sickness spread to other nations.

Sorcerer Kingdom
Until the official declaration of war against the Kingdom in alliance with the Empire, both the Kingdom and Nazarick had no official relations with one another. Afterward, they became enemy states and fought against each other in the annual war which resulted in devastating losses for the Kingdom, including the death of its strongest warrior and the ceding of E-Rantel, and reducing its governance into near-total collapse.

Once the war was over, the two nations opened formal relations and tried to form a peaceful and productive cooperative relationship with one another. Some nobles are even conspiring to sell out the Kingdom with the new country in exchange for more power and control. However, many still see the Sorcerer Kingdom as a threat and keep a close watch on it while the nation recovers its strength.

Inevitably, the two nations came into conflict once again after the Kingdom's nobility allegedly attacked one of the Sorcerer Kingdom's carriages.

Baharuth Empire
The Kingdom and the Empire were in a state of war. The only way their nation can resist the Empire is by drafting a greater number of troops than them. Though losses on both sides were minimal, the conflict between the two nations has only been prolonged because the Empire never fully committed the entirety of their forces to the war, instead of engaging in a war of attrition to weaken the Kingdom and later conquer it with minimal losses.

Aside from the annual war, many nobles refuse to accept Emperor Jircniv's legitimacy and refer to him as "False Emperor." This is because he acquired his position by rising through the ranks rather than birthright.

After the most recent battle at the Katze Plains, the Kingdom believes that the Empire must truly hate them to the core for calling upon the Sorcerer King to cause such a massacre.

Dwarf Kingdom
The Kingdom has not attempted to forge any national-level ties with the dwarves, but the mining city of Re-Brumelashul is known to make small trade deals with the Dwarf Kingdom.

Slane Theocracy
Official relations between the Kingdom and the Theocracy are more or less neutral. However, some of the nobility were willing to conspire with the Theocracy to kill off Gazef Stronoff and had no problems in killing the Kingdom's citizens while doing so under covert operations.

Furthermore, there are people within the Kingdom that detest their treatment of non-human races. Despite this, the Kingdom's human civilization would have been wiped out long ago if it was not there, so they view the Theocracy as a necessary evil. According to the officials from the Theocracy, the territory around E-Rantel originally belongs to the Theocracy.

Roble Holy Kingdom
It's unknown what kind of relationship that the Re-Estize Kingdom had with the Holy Kingdom. Being distant from one another, there is at least trade between the two nations. Recently, the Kingdom turned away the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army, who pleaded for help against Jaldabaoth, due to the nobles being unwilling to open another war front so soon after their defeat at the hands of the Sorcerer Kingdom.

According to Zanac, it was said that the Re-Estize Kingdom's diplomatic relations with the Holy Kingdom began falling apart before the grain shortage. It started to occur when the Re-Estize Kingdom refused to provide military support against Jaldabaoth’s invasion of the Holy Kingdom. Currently, that decision by the country could have fatally damage diplomatic relations with the Holy Kingdom.

Trivia

 * The Kingdom's former territories, Carne Village and E-Rantel are ceded to the Sorcerer Kingdom.
 * The Kingdom is incurring food problems due to the strain of the war with the Empire.
 * At some point in the past, the Kingdom and the Empire were one and the same nation before they eventually separated and became two different nations.
 * The roads of the Kingdom, excluding the King's and Marquis Raeven's territories, are dirt roads with poor public order.
 * Many frontier villages suffer from monster attacks due to being unable to hire adventurers and in part because of the Kingdom's inability to deploy soldiers. Moreover, the nobles who rule much of the Kingdom are generally apathetic to the well-being of their serfs. Therefore, frontier villages are usually avoided by people. Only those who have nothing to lose, like third sons, would go to them. The exception is, of course, those who already live or used to live in a frontier village.
 * Oftentimes, when the head of a noble family changes, unless they are one of the great nobles, these family heads have to gain the approval of the Great Noble they are under.
 * If Zanac, Renner, Gazef and Raeven worked together seriously, they could have stopped the Empire's invasion and rebuild the Kingdom.
 * After the war with the Sorcerer Kingdom at Katze Plains, the Re-Estize Kingdom had lost about 4% of their male population, those who were young and strong to boot.

Gallery
Królestwo Re-Estize