Mistakes of the past

For a Baron to earn the right to name the lands he controls, he first needs at least three elemental-stage warriors or one Awakened, also known as rank two battle warriors, to prove he has some military strength under his belt.

Thanks to Nathan's hard work and my father's keen eye for talent, we have that area covered.

When your average joe earns the title of baron, getting himself in the inner workings of the Kingdom, he also receives some monetary rewards to help him pave the way for his future prosperity.

The Kingdom's treasury isn't never-ending. The gold you usually get along with your title sits around that of the thousand mark. Like everything in life, there is also a catch there. If you wish to name the lands under your rule, you have to pay around 800 gold coins, having your lands recorded in the royal maps along with your family name.

Usually, when you receive the money, you automatically sign up for a ceremony regarding the naming of the lands you acquired, ensuring the rulership of your family over them.

A royal member, usually a low-positioned prince, congratulates you on your new position and land, wishing you prosperity and wealth while simultaneously trying to strengthen the bond between royalty and nobility.

As you may have already guessed, Guiscard, even though gifted in warfare and women, he was also a gambling addict, something his plenty of enemies were delighted to exploit.

There is a saying, which goes like this: A fool and his money are soon parted. This couldn't be more accurate for my grandfather.

A mighty warrior, one that managed to reach the pinnacles of the awakened stage. One step before ascending to become one of the Purified. One that shook the Kingdom, died with nothing in his name apart from the land and title he earned when he was young.

Instead of signing up for the ceremony and ensuring the lands under our rule were under our family name, he decided to spend it with random women and gambles.

Believing that the land he got wasn't as bad as people used to say, all the expenses he made during his wild spending spree would be covered by the income his new fief provided him.

He was wrong.

The main problem his barony faced, was the routes leading from the capital to him. The lack of funds combined with his unwillingness to solve the situation as fast as he could, destroyed any hopes of reconstruction he could have in the future.

The surrounding neighbours extorting him for money so he could pass from their lands wasn't as bad as having the Dead Plains right behind him.

For thousands of kilometres, the Dead Plains worked as a natural barrier, a border, between the northwest of Tirisea and Falonde.

A huge piece of dead land that nobody can traverse due to its extreme conditions. No creature can survive there since there is no water, and in turn, no vegetation and combined with intense heat, dooms the land unusable.

Even if you could somehow travel these unhospitable lands, the only place you could voyage to, was the enemy Kingdom.

The lack of biodiversity and natural resources you could, in a way, exploit made this barony of his quite useless.

There wasn't enough for him to produce or turn into something useful and profitable for his fief, to be able to elevate his status and standing.

when he first came here, the first thing he did was to search the local library for any clues regarding the history of this place in a futile attempt to find a way of turning things around.

The only thing he found was sporadic references to his land once being a beacon of transport and goods, a place for rest and trade the goods they brought from some cities that were long ago, dismissed as fairy tales.

He turned into agriculture, wishing that at least his land was fertile enough to cultivate some exotic fruits or vegetables, yet even this endeavour soon ended in failure, as the land was too toxic for most seeds and plants.

Thankfully, there were parts in his barony where the cultivation of basic kinds of wheat and fruits were enough, to satisfy the bellies of his citizens and yield some profit back to him.

He died in his bed, lamenting the mistakes he did while young and frivolous, wishing he could turn time back and somehow fix the missteps that doomed his family.