April A-Z: The Little Kingdoms

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The Little Kingdoms
Along the northern edge of Backwash Bay, across the flanks of the Middling mountains huddle the Little Kingdoms. When Penultima, the last kingdom of men was conquered beneath the stylish boot heels of the Elvish Legions, the Lords of Glorianna scuttled the royal family and, typically of elves, promptly forgot about all it. Without a king of their own and general ignored by the Elves, the people of Penultima broke into smaller and smaller factions that laid claim to smaller and smaller portions of the once sprawling kingdom. By the start of the Age of Ennui the kingdom had been reduced to a patchwork of tiny land-holdings, some no larger than a few square feet (quite literally, the Barony of Gardiloo consists of a small hill, an oak tree and an outhouse that the Baron out rents to passing travellers).

Some of these miniature lands are brutal oligarchies where megalomaniacal emperors lord over their subjects, while others are balanced democracies, autonomous collectives, or communes, and there even a few where being a politician is punishable by death. If a style of government has been tired, chances are it is there somewhere and there are probably a few that have never been tried anywhere else (for instance the xenoarchy of the kingdom of Juniper, where a random stranger is chosen as their monarch. The stranger is never informed of her new found royalty, but her every word is treated as the letter of law for as long as they remain in the kingdom.)