Survival Guide of the Seven Principalities

The Peninsula of Imlad Harad
Imlad Barad is a peninsula on the southwest of the continent of Arda. The seas around are notoriously rough. Altough there are good roads, the terrain is rough and sometimes can make a difficult time during Winter.

The lands are blessed with cool summers and mild winters. Winter snow and sleet occur mainly in the hills and the high elevations of the Yellow Mountains. This climate supports moisty vegetation and big extensions of forests

Barbaric nations
The wilderness of Imlad Harad hold different barbarian nations, the Donnerlings or Hillsman as they are called by the civilised folk, live in the high hills and mountains, while on the old forest where the elves used to build their cities before their departure in the start of the Third Age, numerous wildmen and savages from mixed origins men and orc alike have colonised them with an primal-like savagery. These Forest devils can't be grouped into a single culture, but their raids and plunders makes them very much hated.

States
There are nine states in Imlad Barad, seven of them of Numenorean heritage (in fact all were the same kingdom) and two non human ones. The remnants of the Fuinuir Elvish kingdom, the Court of Dusk inhabits in one of the forests barring contact with humans, and the dwarves of Kingdom of the tribe of Telhor.

The seven main numenorean states are the principalities of Aldumir, Eldacar, Valmacil,Talmir, Tarcir, Kaldumeir and Carirmir, each a kingdom on itself excetpt by name and tradition.

The Numenoran Goverment.
After the war that divided the Tar of Imlad Barad into the seven principalities, each principality has copied the royal bureaucracy and divided each of their territories into royal shires to ease the management.

There are four basic departments in Royal bureaucracy. Chamber, Chancery, Exchequer and Constambulary. The Prince appoints the charge of each department and is in its most part an exercise of nepotism. There is a great deal of bribery and intrigue to obtain positions on the Prince's service. Still nominally it exists the original Royal bureaucracy and the different princes vies to place their chosen men on these positions of prestige, although they are by the most part just honorifc titles without any real power.

The Chamber
Wears the day to day operation of the Prince's Household, and controls the access to the public agenda of the Prince, thing that makes him a powerful figure.

The Chancery
The Lord Chancellor is responsible for the general goverment and judiciary system. He presides the court

The Exchequer
The Chancellor of Exequer is the chief financial of the realm. His responsibilities include the collection of revenues from the shires and towns. Also controls the minting of coins and advises the prince of the monetary matters.

The Constambulary
The Lord Constable is the chief military officer. Also called Lord Warden, he oversees all the Sheriffs and military forces.

Condirs
Appointed by the princes, who usually offers a number of candidates and delegates the right person to the Moot of Freeholders, they are responsable for administering royal justice and collecting all royal revenues within their shires. The Condirs presides the court (open to all citizens) and initiates prosecution of those who offend the Law. Each moot has the right of requiring a new Condir on a Moot, if they are unhappy with the current holding the position. The prince usually grants this privilege and offers another list of valid candidates, who usually are proven to be loyal to the current lord and preferedly related to the comunity.

All the Condirs command a Keep and usually are assigned a company or two of armed men.

Arbiters
Appointed by the lord Chancellor, the arbites are responsable for checking the law of the Prince and mediate where is a dispute between the nobles and the Prince law.

Manorial Villages
The vast majority of the population lives in Manorial Villages.

A typical manor contains a manor house (holdfast :p), that is home of 10 to 25 rural families and a mill, all of these are clustered together for protection and surrounded by fields pastures and woods.

The Manorhouse
The Lords home, usually is a fortified stronghold, wood or stone, with a palisade enclosing the buildings, and always that is possible over a hill. The Majority of manors are self sufficient, having their own retainers to take care of their needs.

Peasant Cottages
Most rural live in timber houses, sparsely furnished and usually too much packed,

The Mill
Usually each manor has a mill which is owned by the Condir. The Condir usually rents it to a miller or to the lord of the manor.

Towns and Cities
Barely a 30% of the Imladrians live in towns. Imlad Harad has four cities, but most castles have walled towns or large villages next to them, where markets and fairs are held.

Town and City Charters
There are basically two kind of towns, freetowns and royaltowns. To the average citizen, the differences between both kind of towns are barely significative

Arbiter

 * The arbiters makes sure the common and the noble laws are kept following the numenorean traditions of the council, aditionally these arbiters are the custodian and archivists of the specific laws of a freetown making sure they don't contradict or interfere with the royal ones.

Mayors/Wardens

 * The mayors or wardens run with the maintenance and keep the law on the city, these duties are appointed to a Mayor or Warden.

Harbormasters

 * The harbormaster is the officer at charge of the harbor. Usually a retired pilot guildmaster, his duties are related with keeping the harbor at its maximum level of efficencie and collect maritime taxes. Due the strong seaman traditionship of the principalities, this post is always appointed by the Prince.

Taxmaster

 * The responsible of the city bonding house, and collection of taxes. Appointed by the warden or the mayor, the Taxmaster is usually a member of a powerful guild.

Townsmen
Most towns and cities are roughly circular, streets tend to radiate from the citadel or the market and because many of these streets existed before the towns walls, they have a tendence to change in a wide disparity of shapes and directions. There are only a few who have their names posted, and is more of an oral tradition than written one (who also change time to time to add the confusion).

Towns markets

The heart of any town or city is its marketplace, the place where money and goods are changed. The new rules by the guilds have make the practice of selling within the town a guild only privilege. Any foreign product must be first pay its taxes to the city offered to a local guild and sell with the aditional taxes.

The Guilds
A guild is a brotherhood of craftsmen banded together to control a specific economic trade or profession. Any town or city is dominated economically by its guilds.

Guilds have only one main worry, to provide the sustenance and economic security for their members, to achive this objective they employ their legal and economical acumen to limit competition through legal monopolies. And this is mainly through the use of franchises in a specific market.

Trade
All the principalities are more or less self suficient with the exception of salt and mineral ores. Most of the trades goods are exotic wares.

Caravans

Nearly all the land trade is transported by caravans. The long established and traditional routes are usually patroled by the prince guards and way stations are set on their pass to aid this trade. There are many named trade routes, the Fur trade, the Silver road, the Salt way. The Sothrons have monopolised most of Salt way routes as they go out of the Principalities into the deep deserts and the lands of the Mumakars,

Maritime Road

The Princes
The traditional Dúnadan Princes still hold their ancient fiefs of Imland Harad. Their titles date back to Númenórean times, though they were renewed by Elendil. The Princes of Carirmir and Valdacar maintain the ancient tradition that the title can only pass to a male heir, while the other principalities have had female rulers. The functions and shape of the government of the principalities have varied. In general, the princes delegated most local judicial and administrative functions to the lower Dúnedain nobility. Now it is more common to see local military commanders or mayors exercising these functions.

The Electoral College
The Electoral College is abody of "wise and powerful men" and the only royal source and great justice and law today. The Collegium was founded at xxxx as the finishing times of the kin war, it has been complished and composed of the most distinguished people from the 7 principalities.

See the Electoral College entry for more information.

Towers of Lore
The towers of Lore are the centers of knowledge for the Seven Principalities. They are by imperial law, the only legal and acknowledge place to instruction of Royal Scholars and Advisers, the healers by Numenorean Law were being warded from its influence.

It was not after the arrival of the Magician and the decree of Tarmuracil, that the Towers were given the status and autonomy from their shires and lords, with the Keyholder of the Tower being able to hold lands and conscript soldiers by Royal writ.

Each Tower of Lore is an impressive structure, surrounded by its own moat, and by Royal law given enough lands and men to ward their knowledge, the Keyholder of the Tower holds a considerable power over his surrounding area having almost guaranteed a seat on the Supreme Collegium.

All the scholars begin their training as novices in any Tower after paying an entry fee, each Keyholder defines the entry but by usual only the most powerful guild masters or nobility have the resources to pay such a fee,

The Scholars of the Tower, are considered to be servants of the King, and by that extension to have no political allegiance. After finishing their studies a scholar may (in theory) start his teachings or advising to any family who is able to pay for its services but in practice it would end working for his sponsors.

The Houses of healing
From the times of ancient Numenor, the Kings of numenor have decreed that each major city should support a House of healing. As for this decreed, all the Houses of Healing are servants of the King, and governed only by his justice. Each house is ruled by a Warden and altough nominally the King is the head of all the houses the Royal Steward is the one who nominates and deals with them.

In the actual status of the Seven Kingdoms, the Royal Steward keeps this function, altough each Warden is prpmoted by their respective prince, and by tradition, the Royal Steward agrees with whoever the Princes request.

All the healers bind themselves to an oath of non violence and to heal the sick and wounded and rejecting all material posessions and titles. Effectively this oath also sever oficially all the rights and ties over land and succession rights. Occasionally a person may be released for such an oath by the higher powers, be the Princes or the King but its an extremly rare circunstance.