Crown of the Greenwood, Rule of Many Kings
From time beyond the keeping of ledgers, Battania has recognized a High King, crowned with great ceremony upon the sacred hill of Dunthanach. The hill stands apart from any single clan’s lands, chosen so that no chieftain may claim the crown as his own by soil alone. The rite is older than empire, older than road law, older than the fortresses that now dot the Greenwood Expanse. The High King is named before the gathered clans, anointed in sight of elders and champions, and bound by oath to defend the land and the people of Battania as a whole.
Yet Battania has never been a kingdom in the feudal sense. Ask any Battanian chieftain whose realm he lives in, and he will not point to a border on a map. He will gesture to his hall, his fields, his pastures, his flocks, and the retainers who answer his call. Each clan is a kingdom unto itself, bound to the High King by tradition, oath, and necessity rather than by chartered law. Loyalty flows upward when the land is threatened, and drains away when the threat recedes. Authority in Battania is earned anew with every season.
Only in recent generations have the High Kings attempted to exert authority beyond ritual leadership. Pressured by the example of the old Empire’s centralized rule and the expanding feudal systems of neighboring realms, some High Kings have sought to impose levy obligations, coordinated campaigns, and binding judgments between rival clans. These efforts have met fierce resistance. The clans accept a High King who leads in war and stands in ceremony. They distrust one who rules in peace. One recent High King is remembered for declaring that such unruly cattle as his people require a strong herdsman’s hand to steer them from ravine and wolf alike. He was betrayed soon after by a jealous cousin and delivered in chains to an imperial outpost, a lesson the clans have not forgotten.
The current High King, Caladog fen Gruffendoc, rules by force of presence as much as by tradition. His authority rests on personal reputation in war, skill in binding rival clans into temporary unity, and the weight of ancient rite. Caladog is acknowledged as High King across Battania, but his commands are carried out only where his alliances hold. He must constantly balance prideful chieftains, feuding bloodlines, and the ambitions of mormaers who rule powerful clans in their own right.
The great vassal clans of Battania are ruled by mormaers, each commanding a network of hill-forts, villages, and kin groups. Mormaer Ergeon fen Derngil, Mormaer Melidir fen Uvain, Mormaer Pryndor fen Morcar, Mormaer Luichan fen Penraic, Mormaer Aeron fen Giall, Mormaer Aradwyr fen Eingal, and Banmormaer Maireas fen Caernacht each answer to the High King in times of war, but govern their lands with near-total autonomy in peace. Their halls are centers of justice, hospitality, and feud. Disputes between clans often spill into skirmish before the High King’s envoys can intervene.
Beyond the great clans, minor clans such as the Wolfskins hold their own territories and traditions. These groups are often more radical in their resistance to outside influence, maintaining older rites and harsher customs. They provide fierce fighters in times of invasion, but are unreliable in prolonged campaigns that demand discipline and coordination. The High King courts their strength while fearing their unpredictability.
Battania’s kingship is thus a crown of many thorns. The High King stands as a symbol of unity and resistance, crowned on sacred ground and bound by ancient rite, yet hemmed in by the fierce independence of his own people. The Greenwood Expanse does not bend easily to centralized rule. The High Kingdom exists because the clans believe Battania must speak with one voice when threatened by outsiders. When the threat fades, that voice fractures back into many.
To outsiders, Battania appears unruly, treacherous, and difficult to govern. To Battanians, this fragmentation is not failure but freedom. They have seen what unified empires do to those who live in their shadows. Their High King is not meant to command their lives. He is meant to gather them when the forest itself is in danger.