The Regalia and Taxation
The Regalia are the sacred revenues of the Crown Place The Crown A newer foundry like a wide crown, a ring of tall pale spires flaring around a central stepped tower of lit decks, the broadest of the network. and the Grand Dukes, the rigid and ancient web of taxes, duties, and monopolies that the Northland Maan People Maan The most numerous people of Elshore and the baseline cultural reference of the age. states call the crown's invisible armies. Bound by law, blood, and the decree of Namii Cosmology The Binary Suns Two stars share the sky of Elshore: Uhiel, the warmer and steadier light, and Namii, the smaller and more ominous companion. and Uhiel, they reach from the metals under the earth to the salt on the table and the beasts in the field, and to refuse them is framed as refusing the Empire itself.
Key traits
- The Crown owns all subterranean wealth: mines open only under Royal Charter, and noble metals may be sold to no one but the Crown.
- The right of minting and the monopoly on salt belong wholly to the Crown, with counterfeiting and unlicensed salt punished by death or seizure.
- The Eighty-Tax levies one part in eighty of the value of all goods crossing the border, administered by tollwardens under oath.
- Further crown levies include the Beast Tax on large game, the Urban Tax on city charters, the Foreign Settlement Tax on non-Maan settlers, and the Great Seat right by which the King keeps a third of all taxes collected.
- The Grand Dukes hold their own Ducal Regalia within their lands at the King's pleasure: the licensing of taverns, butchering, mills, tolls, ferries, and markets.
- Ducal approval and heavy fees are required before any non-Randenist temple may be raised, and unauthorised temples are destroyed and their priests exiled.
- This N.O. 64 register of regalia stands apart from the earlier AC 50 economy, which ran on imperial credits and tiered subscription services instead.
The Regalia are spoken of as the crown's invisible armies, conquering more than any sword. They are the Northland's framework of taxes, duties, and monopolies, held to be a sacred inheritance bound by law, blood, and the decree of Namii and Uhiel. To pay them is to acknowledge the Empire; to refuse them is to stand, as the formula runs, where Inarin once stood at the edge of ruin.
The Royal Regalia gather the great wealth into the Crown's hands. All that lies under the earth belongs to the Crown, and mines work only under charter; gold, silver, and platinum may be sold to no buyer but the Crown; the right of minting and the monopoly on salt are guarded with death and seizure. To these are added the Eighty-Tax on goods crossing the border, the Beast Tax on large game, the Urban Tax on city charters, the heavy Foreign Settlement Tax laid on non-Maan settlers, and the ancient Great Seat right by which the King personally retains a third of everything his officers collect.
Below the Crown, the Grand Dukes hold their Ducal Regalia within their own territories, always at the King's pleasure and under the King's law. They alone license the taverns and inns, the public butchering and meat markets, the mills where peasants must grind for a fee, and the tolls, ferries, and weekly markets of their lands. They also hold the power over worship itself, for no temple outside Randenism Faith Randenism The Flame Doctrine, dominant faith of the Maan and state religion of the Maan Empire. may be built without ducal approval and heavy fees, and any raised without it is torn down. This whole rigid register belongs to the later N.O. 64 order; the earlier age of imperial credits and tiered services knew a very different economy.