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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tzor" data-source="post: 2932433" data-attributes="member: 12826">I think there is a major assumption in the original poster's argument that was simply not true in the feudal medieval world and is generally not true in most fantasy settings.  There was no single heirarchy of authority, but instead multiple heirachies (or fonts) that often interacted with each other in exceptionally complex ways.The best and simplest example is the relation between the King and Bishop.  The King had of course the loyalty of the lords under him, and their military powers (assuming they weren't fighting each other that is).  But the king wasn't considered letigimate unless he was consecrated by the bishop.  His "knights" although pledged to him, were made possible by the orders of the Church.  Even within a heirarchy, deligation of authority was the order of the day.Might did make right in terms of getting your own way.  But it didn't help get the crops in, you need to get an expert for that, it didn't get goods and services from the city ports, it didn't help you form alliances with other fonts of law or nearby lords.  And since no one person can enforce the law everywhere at all times, even enforcement has to be deligated.Then we get into blatent nepotism.  Families were large back then, and each son was given a specific task to do, in order that the estate not be too badly divided.  So the local lord probably had a brother who was an imprtant abbot, priest, or bishop somewhere, and one who probably made a name for himself as a guildsman in the city.  Connections are really key to successful management.  Under pure feudalism the equivalent of high level fighters were given their own piece of revenut generating land to manage, but in a hybrid system as was the case with the rise of the merchant class, getting paid well was often all they needed.Finally when you get to the deligation parts it is often the case that the people with the real power are the ones who have to make the decisions on a day to day basis.  The Chaimberlain, the Commander of the Guards and so forth.  Then you add the fonts that are not visible to the general public, the thieves guild, the assassin's guild and various evil temple heirarchies, and you discover that the king is more of a pawn than a king.</blockquote>

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