In the world of Asheron's Call, the social structure of the realm of Dereth
operates on principles easily attributable to the Feudal System of medieval
Europe. Monarchs gather vassals under them to increase their power and spread
both their influence and their reputation. This, of course, can work both in the
favor of the monarch and also work against him, as we will go over a bit later.

First let us look at the double-sided coin of the monarch. When discussing a
monarch the first things that normally will occur to most people are power,
privilege, and wealth. All of these things of course are usually true. :) Part
and parcel of the monarch position is power and privilege, and for most this is
the reason that they wish to become monarchs in their own right instead of
serving under someone else. In the case of Asheron's Call there is the
well-known benefit of vassals passing experience points up the line to their
monarch. Depending on the size and activity of an allegiance tree these
experience points passed up can quite quickly add up to very large sums.
Naturally this is quite useful to a high-level character that needs 200,000
experience to raise an attribute or skill one point. Another useful tool of a
monarch is the ability to order those under him to accomplish tasks such as for
quest items which take quite a bit of materials to assemble. And who would not
want their monarch to have the best of everything? After all...the condition of
one's monarch reflects upon his or her vassals.
[P]One of the other bonuses a monarch receives is that his name is attached to a
great many people roaming around the world. This spreads the name of the monarch
and can quite possibly gain him many more vassals among those that always want
to be a part of the "biggest" things out there. And the more of those that a
monarch gathers, the more he is likely to gather to him, thus increasing his
allegiance "rank" and giving him more opportunities to use magical items that
are set aside specifically for persons attaining that rank.
[P]Now that we have gone over the good things about being a monarch, let's go
over a few things that some monarchs seem to forget about, the responsibilities.
As noted above, the fact that the monarch's name appears whenever any of his
vassals are appraised inevitably leads to notoriety. A vassal's conduct reflects
on the monarch - therefore if you recruit good vassals, more will come flocking
to your banner. Unfortuately, there are also those that gravitate toward a
monarch's allegiance whom a "good" monarch will not want associated with him.
Thieves, exploiters, bug-abusers, and in general those persons that make others
love to hate them for one reason or another. When a monarch lets those types of
people stay in his organization it not only can give the monarch a bad name, but
his vassals as well. Those vassals may well be decent honest people, but because
one person is soiling their monarchs' name it affects all of the people in that
allegiance. This is where one of the important responsibilities of the monarch
comes into play. It is part of the monarchs duty to speak with ALL the people
under him and get to know those persons whenever possible. Even to the exclusion
of a portion of his playtime. Once a person of that nature has been rooted out
it is the monarch's duty to insure that he has all the facts and then act
quickly to resolve the problem. In some cases a stern session "out back of the
wood shed" will do the trick and straighten up the offender. However, with a
severe case it is most definitely best to speak with the person's patron
immediately upon full knowledge of the facts and have that person removed from
the allegiance to avoid further "mishaps". This is not just to protect the
monarch, but the reputation of his vassals as well.
[P]Another responsibility of a monarch is to guide those new to the world and
avoid "pimping" of newbies. In my opinion it is a duty of a monarch to help
those new to the realm whenever possible as a means of giving a bit back for the
privileges that monarch enjoys. Yes the allegiance system is set up so that
those of greater power pass down items that will be of use to those of lower
levels as those persons cannot yet go the places their monarch can travel. It is
my belief however that a monarch should explain a bit of the world to those
newcomers to the realm and give them some starting gear where possible. Also a
duty is explaining to a newcomer the implications, opportunities, and pitfalls
of joining an allegiance and encouraging the newcomer to "live" a while before
swearing their allegiance to someone. This gives the newcomer a chance to "find
his place" in the world before formally becoming a part of a group. This also
makes a newbie not feel he is merely an experience machine for a patron.
Ultimately if this person swears into your allegiance tree it makes for a much
more loyal vassal than one who swore his allegiance simply for items. It also
makes it a great deal easier on a monarch as he has someone whom is not there
simply to ask for items all the time. :)
[P]Next on our list is Vassals, considered experience machines by some
monarchs/patrons, and family by others. A vassal has a right to expect counsel,
hunting tips, and time (to a point) from his monarch/patron. A vassal should
also expect that those items not needed by his monarch/patron will be filtered
down the line so that all benefit from the experience they are sending to their
monarch. Of these probably the most important to both parties is time and
communication. It is understandably hard for a vassal to see the benefit of
sending experience to a Lord/Lady that he never sees and has only talked to once
for a brief moment or two. A vassal though should also not monopolize his
monarchs time, as that time is going to be limited to a certain degree and there
are most likely many other vassals that may need to speak with their monarch as
well as that monarch needing time to play himself. A vassal that takes up all of
their monarchs ingame time should reasonably be sending a great deal of
experience up the line to make up for the playing time that he is taking up. The
vassal should expect his or her monarch/patron to provide him with good tips on
places to hunt for his/her level as well as putting that vassal in touch with
other vassals so as to promote camaraderie for all those under him.
[P]Most problems for both vassals and monarchs/patrons can be resolved quite
easily with a little common sense, a bit of common courtesy, and a willingness
to be the best allegiance in existence instead of the largest. The drive to be
the largest allegiance in a realm will ultimately lead to discord and chaos as
more and more people are recruited to fill in the numbers and not to follow the
goals and ideals upon which the allegiance is founded. Fighting we have enough
of in the realm of Dereth simply trying to stay alive, 'tis no need for it
amongst ourselves. Otherwise the only inhabitants of Dereth might as well be the
monsters.