Even on the faraway Earth, in the long history of mankind, the feudal era was the longest and the most stable era of society.
The reason? There is no need to elaborate on the structure of society and productivity. In the end, there is only one word — land.
In the era of knights on Earth, the monarch enfeoffed land to the lords. The knights received the land from the lords and offered their loyalty.
The land was divided up step by step and the knights offered their loyalty step by step. In the end, in that chaotic and orderly era, it formed a power, a ladder to the ruler.
As the lowest rung of this ladder, 99% of the members, farmers, craftsmen, and other commoners were all bound to the land.
They worked on land that didn't belong to them and were paid to survive. Then, they gave most of their income to their knights or lords. Not to mention an equal split, in most cases, if they were able to keep 20% or 30%, they would have to thank the kindness of the nobles and lords.
There were countless poems praising the heroic knights and wise lords, praising their glorious achievements in conquering everything in war. However, they never thought that the citizens who were driven mad by the fact that the taxes of nine and the taxes of ten kept nothing, the civilians on both sides who were massacred in war, and the peasant soldiers who were forcefully conscripted, seemed to have lost everything for the sake of war, but never received the rewards they deserved.
That was because … they had nothing.
Yes, nothing. Under such a social system, they lived on the land of the lords. In order to survive, they had to rely on the gifts of the land. As time passed, they became the vassals of the land and the property of the nobles.
A legendary hero appeared among the sons of farmers? The reason why legendary heroes were legendary was because the chances were so small that it was negligible. It was so small that it couldn't be seen in real life.
A farmer's son would remain a farmer for his entire life while a noble's son was destined to become a noble. Perhaps two children would have the chance to play together when they were young, but when they grew up, one of them would become the property of the other. Furthermore, it was impossible for them to know each other and converse even when they met. This was the true portrayal of a feudal society.
Of course, the environment of each country and each race was different. The relationship between superiors and subordinates might not be so stable. The identity of the ruler and the ruled might not be so bloody and direct. However, the two things that made up the structure of this society — "land" and "identity" — would never change.
The Aishi had been in this stage for a long time. The Elf society was also a representative of this. In fact, due to the will of the Gods within their society and the differences between the subtribes, the difference in "identity" became more and more obvious.
It was so obvious that they were directly assigned jobs and futures according to their race.
Silver elves were "knights". They held military power and were born to be military officers and domain lords. All of their tribe members would receive military training from a young age.
The Moon Elves were "priests", or rather, because the Elves had been in a completely theocratic era for a long time, they were also politicians.
They were responsible for managing the entire elven race, conveying various situations and problems in the mortal world to the upper echelons, and conveying the will of the Elven Gods to the lower echelons. Considering that most of the Elven Gods in the past were born as the Moon Elven Gods, they were the rulers of the elven race in all aspects. They were kings and popes.
For a long time, the Moon Elves and Silver Elves didn't get along. In fact, it was a natural conflict between military power and political power.
The Dark Elves, or now the Gray Elves, were spellcasters and scholars. They were the assistants and apprentices of the Gold Elves. Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen events, these ancient spellcasters who were the best at spellcasting had become a race of assassins who were naturally resistant to magic.
Due to various reasons related to the Gods, most of these events were buried in history. Even the Dark Elves themselves didn't know about them. It was just that one of the Four Upper Elves was always missing.
However, from a certain standpoint, the Dark Elves who stole the authority of the Gold Elves, the Magic Elves, had fallen to the most pitiful state. Perhaps this was also a type of revenge from fate.
Finally, the Wood Elves were gardeners, artists, singers, and craftsmen. They were a special species among the elves, but they were also a special species that lived in harmony with nature. The most ancient druid teachings originated from them.
The Wood Elves had always been few in number, and they were always on the outside of the upper echelons of society. Now, most of them were viewed as members of the Nature Faction.
The Four Upper Elves were responsible for all the important jobs. They were soldiers, politicians, clergy, researchers, and spellcasters. However, they were only called Upper Elves because they had sufficient power.
That's right, power.
The difference between this world and Earth was that the nobles had their own armies and martial prowess. The Superior Elves of this world also had their own power.
Needless to say, the Silver Elves were the ones who controlled the armies. Faith was power, and the Moon Elves who possessed faith and authority also possessed the secrets of Divine Arts and magic. The Dark Elves' past was already a mess, but how could spellcasters possibly be weak? As for the Wood Elves … Druids and rangers were all part of their standard combat jobs. It wasn't enough for them to become Superior Elves just knowing how to raise flowers and plants.
Elven society was just like this. The Four Upper Elves took all authority and jobs. Ordinary elves didn't have any corresponding responsibilities, so they naturally didn't have any corresponding rights.
As for the remaining jobs, such as agriculture, labor, patrolling, soldiers, and other jobs that the Superior Elves wouldn't even look at, were all their fates.
The Superior Elves were domain lords, while the Wood Elves were citizens. They were similarly bound to the land and under the jurisdiction of the Superior Elves. They had to provide various services for the Superior Elves.
In every scattered Superior Elven kingdom, the royalty would be Superior Elves. The nobles would also be Superior Elves or subspecies that were close enough to the Superior Elves. The commoners would be ordinary elves. The Untouchables and Nameless Elves would be mixed-blood wild elves.
Were wild elves born lowly? Actually, there were many wild elves with dual bloodlines who had astonishing talent. They had many accomplishments in various fields, but they were always ostracized by the entire Elven society. In fact, even the commoners could casually look down on them.
Were they going against Elven traditions? Heh heh, the true Gold Elf royalty had been overthrown, and the traitors had ascended to the throne. How could these people still have the face to talk about traditions?
What the Superior Elves truly hated and even feared about wild elves was that they had broken the natural barriers between elven bloodlines. They had broken the cycle of a priest's son being a priest and a king's son being a king being a king. This had shaken the foundation of Elven society's stability.
If a moon elf and a silver elf had a child, then what species would the child belong to? What would the child do?
And if the moon elf gave the child a job as a priest, then what job would the child do? And if the child married a wood elf, then what species would the mixed-blood belong to?
That was why having a mixed-blood marriage would forever be the number one sin in Elven society. Wild elves would forever be mixed-blood. They would be dangerous to the entire Elven society. They would be looked down on and ostracized by countless elves. They would be born with the original sin.
It would be like this for ten years, a hundred years, and even a thousand years.
If the newly born Northlands Elven Empire was given a few decades to recover, they would also return to their previous stable and closed society.
However, someone had seen that once in a blue moon, when Roland viciously stabbed the elves.
That stab was right on the elves' hearts.
What had he done?
He had freed the ordinary elves from their land. He had stripped the Superior Elves of their natural pride and duty. He had given the wild elves a completely equal status and opportunity. He had viciously slapped all the Superior Elves in the face.
He had stripped away the Superior Elves of their natural nobility and had created new generations of "nobles" in this new generation. He had given the entire Elven species a new master.
And in this generation, the foolish Superior Elves were still thanking him.
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