Incarnation

It's been 5 years since I decided to incarnate into the lesser world. In this life, my name is Hermes Rudolf Welf first son of Count Rudolf Robert Welf the heir of House Welf, one of the many noble houses in the human Kingdom of Zona, and Anna Marry Yager the third daughter of the Count of Yager. My "father" (the concept of parents is still new to me) is 25 years old and is beloved by the people of the duchy and is deemed a worthy successor and my "mother" is 23 years old and is hailed as one of the most beautiful people in all of Zona.

Up until 50 years ago, the Kingdom was like most other human nations, being a traditional feudal society but that all changed with the war of succession. King Herbert II of the mighty house of Lanza died without naming one of his sons as the rightful heir. There was the first prince Han who was beloved by the traditional nobles and was hated by pretty much everyone else, including his siblings. It was said that if he succeeds Herbert II then the nation would be ruined because everyone knew that he would abuse his powers and overtax the lower classes. It was predicted that this would lead to a series of peasant revolts that would cripple the nation.

Then there was the second princess who was by no means a suitable heir as she was a woman and therefore, under the laws of Zona at the time women couldn't inherit anything, even if there was no suitable man heir. She would, in the end, end up being a pawn of the warring siblings.

We can't forget the third prince, John. He was deemed the most suitable candidate by scholars and many at the time thought that he would make a great king. He was kind, virtuous and the only thing that he seemed to lack was charisma. He was said to have been a sort of recluse, a weirdo. His main base was the reformist faction of the nobility and the common man. He made all sorts of promises of reforms if he were to inherit Zona. I imagine that he was all like "make me leader and I'll solve all our problems" or something.

The other princes and princesses are not of any note as they didn't make a claim to the throne. They are remembered as the third princess is and ended up like the third princess, in other words, they are a footnote in history.

In the early months of the war, both John and Han were crowned as King of Zona and Duke of the Crownlands, John as John IV and Han as Han I. Han (who was crowned first) rallied the traditional nobles to his causes, claiming that because he was the first son he is the rightful heir, not some pretender like brother John. While on the other side of the coin John rallied the few reformist nobles and managed to get the support of the people by claiming that Han was not fit to be king and that he would grant more rights to the lower classes. This, of course, was just political jargon designed to make each side look credible while at the same time discrediting the other when in all actuality neither side was the rightful king. After all, what person wants to live under a system where they have absolutely no say in their government?

In the months before each king's crowning, each side sought to get the other to back down. They knew of course that, that was a fantasy. So it was a surprise to no-one that after Han had him self crowned, John did the same nor was it shocking that Han, who controlled the capital city, ordered the royal guard and anyone loyal to Zona to crush the rebels and the fake king John. Thus a bloody war started.

In the beginning, Han held the advantage but it was to the surprise of few that within months his faction was on the verge of collapse. It seemed that Han was more interested in taxes and parties than with, you know, winning a civil war. So, it was little wonder that he lost his advantage within a year and John the "pretender" was now sitting on the throne in the capital. Scholars note that it was at this moment that everyone knew that Han had messed up.

Within the next 2 years, Han's forces were completely obliterated and the man himself took a magic arrow to the knee before dying of an infection thereof. King John's first move as the sole king of Zona was not any of the promised reforms, those would come later, but branding Han a traitor and removing him from the register of the Kings.

Now to the reforms he promised, one of the first things he did was remove the system of fiefs. He replaced it with a law that stated that land could be owned privately but the King has the right to eminent domain said land with the approval of a majority of the Dukes (if it was nobles land). The law also stated that the lands of the kingdom were under the direct rule of the King and that the nobles were only acting in his stead, but he couldn't remove said actors without a fair trial. In practice, this meant that the nobles couldn't do whatever they wanted to do on their lands.

Next, he reformed the social structure with the classes being Serf -> Peasant -> Knight -> Noble (Baron -> Viscount -> Count -> Margrave -> Duke ) -> Royalty -> King. He decreed that slavery was illegal and that it was being replaced with the new Serfdom. Basically, if a peasant committed a crime they could be demoted to a serf for a period of time and they would be at the mercy of the government. He declared that a peasant could become a knight and a knight a baron and so forth, so long as they had made sufficient contribution to society. Serving in the military for 20 peacetime years or 5 years of wartime was enough to become a knight. The only exception was if you were partially troublesome, then the officers could deny you being knighted. This, of course, was just one way of becoming a knight and generally, knighthood was not automatically passed on to one's children they would have to work for it.

Obviously, non-hereditary or earned titles are more prestigious than inherited ones, in fact, my "father" is a non-hereditary count for his service to the realm. He would have been made a hereditary baron for his service in the last war but alias he was in line to inherit a greater title.

The same could be said for most nobles, that is that only those that were particularly meritorious or had a long family history within the kingdom would become hereditary nobles. This in practice meant that most nobles did not control any land and sometimes one could be a hereditary count and be in charge of a county but also be a non-hereditary duke for their service to the realm.

Then, he decreed that women should be able to inherit if there were no male heirs and also that they should also be able to move up the social ladder. This in practice meant that many women were knights even though they couldn't serve in the army. They, however, could serve in a special unit that specializes in the 4 forces that is open to all genders.

Next, he made each duchy a federation of counties with a hereditary Duke being the count of 1 or 2 of those counties. This was designed as a check on the powers of the Dukes and the Counts because each county had a legislature made up of elected officials who were either Knights, non-hereditary or landless hereditary nobles from the county. The same could be said of the duchies as they had their own legislature. The main difference between the county and duchy level legislature is that it was made up of two branches, one was made up of delegates elected from each county by its legislature, and one made up of every noble in the duchy.

Then, he declared that only the king could field an army, navy, or likewise.

The king himself even gave up some of his powers by making a national conclave comprised of a house of elected knights and a house of nobles. The king still maintained veto power and still could issue limited decrees but the king was in this way less powerful than in the pre-John era.

The duchy of Welf is of the hereditary type and is one of the most rural duchies in the Kingdom of Zona. My "grandfather" Duke Robert Albert Welf's came to power after the unfortunate death of Duke Albert Rudolf Welf my "great-grandfather", 10 years ago. The main reason for the duchy having a lower quality of life for the peasants as compared to some of the other duchies was because it is 5 duchies removed from the capital and 1 duchy removed from the border with the Empire of Orbis. Although, it has become less and less rural after King John's reforms.

My "family" the Welf's are a group of fair-skinned humans with brown eyes and blonde hair. That's the stereotype but I have blue eyes, just like my mother.

Natural, as the future duke of Welf I am being well educated by the tutors, and when I was 3 years old, so 2 years ago I was tested for my affinity with the forces. It turns out that I have a high affinity with all of the forces! I wonder what that's all about? Nothing to do with, well, ahem, me. The way the test works is, get this, you walk into the temple, and then someone with the skill [Inspection] inspects you. Because of my high affinities, my parents decided to give me an all-round basic training before I enter the royal academy when I'm 15.

Currently, my stats are:

~System~

Name: Hermes Rudolf Welf

Race: Human (Divine Human)

Age: 5

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HP: 150

HR: 1 per minute

MP: 100

MR: 1 per minute

Tittles: of House Welf, Second-in-line of House Welf, Knight, (and Vessel of a God)

Affinity: Mana 10 (Mana 8), Prana 10 (Prana 5), Sword-force 10 (Sword-force 6), and Aura 10 (Aura 7)

Skills: Not shown (Concealment 11), Not shown (Alteration 11), Not shown (Fast learner 10), Inspection 1 (Inspection 11), basic Swordsmanship 3, basic Mana control 1, basic Prana control 1, basic Sword-force control 2, and basic Aura control 1

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I am a Divine Human seeing that my body was created by the keeper of creation, well all, natural bodies are created by him. But, I guess and despite my best efforts, mine is different from the average human. I think the only difference is that my body is stronger, physically than the strongest human, well at least once it's in its final form (excluding the, you know affinities). Whatever, in a way it's more fun this way.

Then, you have HP or health points, currently, it's a mere 150, it was 50 a few months ago, my parents said I was a prodigy. Anyway, once your HP drops to 0 you die. This is because MP is but a type of life force. HR stands for HP recovery and it's self-explanatory.

Next, you have MP or magic points, currently, it's a mere 100 but once I start training in magic amplification next month it should shoot through the roof, I guess that's just one more thing I'm going to have to [Conceal]. But, MP is the amount of life-force you control and output as one of the 4 forces or a combination of them. MR stands for MP recovery and it's self-explanatory.

Can't forget the titles, tittles are feats and representations of who you are imprinted in the system. Some titles give you bonuses all but one of mine has no bonus. Most of mine are self-explanatory, all but one are that is. Vessel of a God is not self-explanatory. Well, in a way it is but in a way it is not. It means that this body of mine is a Vessel of a God, I chose god because no-one in this world, probably, knows what a keeper even is. God is more workable in that way. Anyway, the bonus it has is every 1000 MP I get plus 5% magic regen.

Then, there are the skills I have concealed with [Concealment] and there are the ones that I have altered their level with [Alteration]. What this means is no-one alive knows that I am hiding some of my skills and altering others because 10 is the max value of any skill and mine are ranked 11. So, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

[Fast Learner] is a skill that increases my growth rate. [Inspection] allows one to inspect people and items, or really anything. You can probably inspect the world, I should do that one day. [Swordsmanship] is the level of control and technique one has over a sword. The control type skills signify the amount of control one has over that thing.