Re-Estize Kingdom

Re-Estize Kingdom (リ・エスティーゼ王国) is a human nation of the New World with an estimated population of nine million and one of the three major human nations neighbouring Nazarick.

Currently, it is in a state of political disorder and civil unrest between the Royalty Faction and the Nobility Faction.

Background
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. The Kingdom was one of the many nations founded following the defeat of the Evil Deities over 200 years ago. Though it is one of the three major human nations neighboring Nazarick, the Kingdom is currently suffering from political disorder due to a confrontation between the Royalty and Nobility. The situation is quite severe, virtually dividing the country into two.

Political Corruption
Ever since its founding, the Kingdom has been plagued by corrupt and inapt nobles who view commoners as mere pawns in their power plays. This only became worse over time; protected from the dangerous demi-human nations by natural barriers and neighboring countries, the Kingdom was relatively peaceful. However, this peace caused many nobles to grow delusional with their pride, believing that their prosperity would continue forever.

As a result, 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, Ramposa III tried to reform the Kingdom, but to no avail.

Eventually, some of the Great Nobles even attempted to undermine the king and take control of the Kingdom. This caused the remaining nobles to ally themselves with either the king or the rebellious Great Nobles, resulting in the government splitting between a "Royalty Faction", led by the king, and a "Nobility Faction", led by Marquis Boullope of the Great Nobles. The only reason the situation didn't escalate into civil war was due to the efforts of Marquis Raeven, a high ranking noble with connections to both sides.

Also, 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 that either his two sons, Crown Prince Barbro and Second Prince Zanac, could become nobility puppets. Each of these brothers also desired the throne of themselves and thus began a bitter rivalry.

Royal Tournament
The Kingdom holds an annual tournament that attracts superior fighters from around the country. As the name implies, the king and powerful nobles view the matches. It was the perfect chance for fighter from the surrounding countries to show off their strength. Whoever fights with the best record gets approached with offers by the king and the nobles.

The purpose of the Royal Tournament was suppose to discover powerful fighters within the Kingdom. In reality, it was to be used as a propaganda tool by the nobles to show off their man and power. However, as it became apparent that the nobles chosen fighters would often went off to be crushed by commoners (including Adventurers), the tournament fell out of favor with the nobility. Because of that, the tournament's scale has shrunken to become a mere shadow of it's former self.

The first tournament was quite a large affair, and all sort of people participated. It goes without saying, but the most famous participants was Gazef Stronoff, who became captain of the Royal Select.

Annual Wars
The peace which the Kingdom had enjoyed for so long came to an end when the Baharuth Empire declared war on the Kingdom. Fortunately, things did not escalate into an all-out war. Instead, the two nations simply fought each other every year at the Katze Plains. However, these annual wars took place during harvest seasons, slowing the food-production due to the peasants being drafted. This caused the Kingdom to slowly consume their nation's strength while the Empire simply waited for the opportunity to conquer it with minimal casualties. By the time the Kingdom realized the Empire's aim it was too late as it had already fallen into decline.

Despite the desperate situation, many nobles refused to take it seriously, seeing the Empire as nothing more than a nuisance that they could easily repel if they actually tried. Some of them are even betraying the Kingdom by leaking information to the Empire.

Criminal Underworld
Apart from all political issues, a large criminal group named "Eight Fingers" is undermining the Kingdom from within. Their influence has grown so great that they are virtually controlling the entire nation from the shadows. They also spread the Kingdom's corruption beyond its borders, worsening its relationships with other nations.

Several nobles are secretly in league with Eight Fingers, some voluntarily while others are just unknowingly 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 and survive.

Golden Princess
Third Princess Renner is attempting a structural reform of the Kingdom, an endeavor that earned her the nickname "Golden Princess". Although most of her attempts were thwarted by the nobles, her efforts are not in vain as slavery was abolished. However, 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, the King sent Gazef Stronoff and his Warrior Troop to investigate and eliminate them. The Vice Captain believed this to be a trap set by the Noble Faction to eliminate Gazef, thus weakening the Royal Faction. However, despite his men advising him to retreat, Gazef insisted that 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. Afterwards, Gazef and his surviving men began their journey back to the Royal Capital.

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

The Bloody Valkyrie Arc
In E-Rantel, the Adventurer's Guild called for an emergency meeting to discuss about 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 in victory 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
Princess Renner hired the adamantite Adventurer group Blue Roses as part of a campaign to rid the Kingdom of the criminal organization Eight Fingers, which had been undermining it from within. They enjoyed several early victories. Blue Rose attacked villages allied with Eight Fingers and destroyed their drug transplantation. Meanwhile, the Princess' forces successfully disabled Eight Fingers' brothel in the Royal Capital.

Their success convinced Warrior Captain and Marquis Raeven to aid them. The Marquis also hired Darkness as additional support. Together, they set out to eliminate all of Eight Fingers' hideouts in the Royal Capital. They enjoyed initial success with the Princess' forces while defeating Eight Fingers' security division, Six Arms.

Unfortunately, the entire mission went sour when the Royal Capital came under attack by a demon known as Jaldabaoth and his army of demons. He claimed to have come to the city in search for a powerful magic item. In reality, however, this was all orchestrated by Demiurge in order to increase Momon's reputation. While executing his plan, he was also able to recover a large percentage of the Kingdom and Eight Finger's resources as well as kidnap thousands of its citizens for experimental and other uses for Nazarick.

In response to this, Princess Renner postponed the mission to eliminate Eight Fingers and assembled a large coalition of the Kingdom's adventurers to fight off Jaldabaoth. Momon of Darkness fought Jaldabaoth in single combat while the remaining adventurers fought off the demon army, with the Royal Army, led King Ramposa III himself, joining when they were about to be overrun. Meanwhile, Second Prince Zanac helped civilians evacuate.

In the end, Jaldabaoth retreated after Momon began overwhelming him. In the aftermath, Momon became a national hero. Also, because the king aided in the defense of the Royal Capital, the Royalty Faction had gained more support. The Second Prince's claim to the throne had also gained more support due to his actions.

However, their victory came at the cost of countless lives of both adventurers and soldiers. Their sacrifice was made worse by the fact that a large portion of the city's populace had been taken away by the demon army. Furthermore, unbeknownst to anyone, Nazarick had secretly taken control of Eight Fingers.

The Magic Caster of Destroy Arc
King Ramposa III called together the royalty and nobility for a meeting. He announced that the Kingdom had once again received a declaration of war from the Baharuth Empire for their annual war at the Katze Plains. However, this time the Empire had formed an alliance with the newly founded Sorcerer Kingdom, led by Ainz Ooal Gown, and demanded the Kingdom cede over the city of E-Rantel. Knowing that they don't stand a chance against Ainz, Gazef advised the king to give into the demands. However, the king explained that he couldn't do that. Despite this, the Nobility Faction, now even more desperate to undermine the Royalty Faction following their increased influence, supported Gazef's suggestion. 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.

It was also around this time that the Kingdom's economical instability began to take its toll. According to predictions, the Kingdom would not survive another war and peasants would start dying from starvation due to failed harvests. Commoners also started to catch on to the Kingdom's situation, with rumors reaching frontier villages like Carne Village.

With war looming closer as one month passes 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 had come to the battlefield to sieze glory and protect his place as heir to the throne, was sent to Carne Village to gather intel on Ainz. However, talks with the villagers broke down, resulting in the crown prince being killed by the village's demi-human inhabitants. Similarly at the Katze Plains, most of the army was wiped out by Ainz using a single spell and five huge monsters he summoned. In an attempt to turn the tide, Gazef challenged Ainz to single combat. Unfortunately, Gazef lost the duel along with his life.

As a result of the war, E-Rantel was ceded over to the Sorcerer Kingdom. Because the Royalty Faction were the ones who initially refused to give into the Sorcerer Kingdom's demands, they took most of the blame for the disaster. As a result, the balance of power shifted again; this time in favor of the Nobility Faction. However, this hardly mattered as he Kingdom was now a shadow of its former power and in danger of total collapse.

By the time E-Rantel was officially ceded over 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
Because of the heavy casualties of the massacre at the Katze Plains, 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 crisis, 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.

Meanwhile, the loss of both Gazef Stronoff and Prince Barbro caused King Ramposa III to fall into a state of extreme mental distress. 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 creating 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
The Royal Capital of the Kingdom was visited by envoys representing of the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army, who came to request for aid to retake the Northern Holy Kingdom from the demon, Jaldabaoth, and his demi-human army. However, all the nobles and adventurers that they approached turned them down due to various reasons, but primarily because the Kingdom was still in a weakened state following the massacre at the 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.

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.

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 is not uncommon for small wars to break out between the nobles themselves, should one act against the interests of another.

As a monarchy, usually the eldest son 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 will inherit everything, the second son will become his helper and any younger sons are left to fend for themselves 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. Women seem to be used as tools to acquire marriage alliances.

Unlike the Slane Theocracy and the Baharuth Empire, the Kingdom lacks any kind of centralized magic academy. 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 adheres to the worship of the Four Great Gods, along with a compilation of minor gods.

Education
The literacy rate among the Kingdom citizens 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.

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. Due to Ramposa III's advanced age, he is unable to exercise his leadership as he once could and thus the nobles have more say in matters. The only reason that the Kingdom did not split is because of Marquis Raeven, the opportunist who owns the highest authority among the Six Great Nobles. Many nobles, regardless of faction, are in league with other countries like the Baharuth Empire or the Slane Theocracy.

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.

Military Strength
Re-Estize Kingdom's military is composed mostly of militia. Its soldiers are mostly just 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 it can levy more if need be.

Only Gazef's Warrior Troop, Marquis Raeven's private guards, Ranposa'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 was reduced to almost nothing. In addition to that, the Kingdom lost its strongest warrior as well as the nobles who are part of the army were killed too.

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. Even so, the kingdom's national defense was already quite weak and has 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.

Baharuth Empire
The Kingdom and the Empire were in a state of war. The only way their nation can resist the Empire is through greater numbers of troops over them. Though the losses on both sides were minimal, the conflict between the two nations has only prolonged for a while now was due to the fact that the Empire never fully committed the entirety of their forces to the war.

For the Empire, they merely engaged in a war of attrition to take on the weakening Kingdom with minimal losses. One factor of antagonism is the Kingdom's negligence over the continuous production of the addictive drug, Black Dust, which is already influencing the Empire's populace.

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.

Originally, the Slane Theocracy hoped that the Kingdom would become the nation that would save humanity. However, most of the official leaders of the Theocracy view that nation as a disgrace, as their relatively sheltered isolation caused the leaders to become greedy, selfish, corrupt and incompetent. The only real significant benefits it had brought are increasing the total human population and producing a few talented individuals such as Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra and Gazef Stronoff.

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. Afterwards, they became enemy states and fought against each other in the annual war which resulted in devastating losses for the Kingdom including the loss of the fortress city of E-Rantel to be under Nazarick's rule 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 people still see the Sorcerer Kingdom as a threat and keep a close watch on it while the nation recovers its strength.

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 Re-Estize Kingdom turned away the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army, who pleaded for help against Jaladbaoth, due to the nobles being unwilling to open another war front so soon after their defeat at the hands of the Sorcerer 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.
 * Two-hundred-fifty thousand men is around three percent of the Kingdom's population.
 * At some point in the past, the Kingdom and the Empire were one and the same nation before they eventually separate 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.
 * 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.
 * 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. The patriotic commoners usually join Gazef's Troop.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Often times, 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.