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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bluenose" data-source="post: 6310282" data-attributes="member: 49017">Birthright really doesn't have a feudal system in place in the default descriptions. Maybe a late medieval system with a royal bureaucracy and standing army, but that's something that typically associated with the breakdown of the feudal system rather than being part of it. And the Divine Right of kings which is intrinsic to Birthright is not something I'd associate with feudal rulers either. To answer the main question, I see feudalism as an economic system whereby successive ranks of "officials" receive economic benefits in the form of land or other revenues in exchanging for providing military service to their superior, and in which that system extends to the highest level of the hierarchy. It compares to some other systems wherein people who had a certain amount of wealth were obligated to present themselves at an army muster with the appropriate equipment or to provide and equip a replacement - in both cases, with the person present being expected to, if necessary, fight. Or other systems where an individual or organisation recruits and pays people to fight on their behalf and in their name, without regard for whether that person is expected to do this by a feudal or other legal relationship. In many circumstances, these system overlap. So for example an English monarch might have an army that included troops raised under the liege/vassal system characteristic of feudalism, mercenary troops that are raised and paid by professional captains, and troops raised under the still existing Anglo-Saxon levy system wherein free men are expected to muster when called upon.</blockquote>

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