Discussion In a feudal society, what qualities do you look for in your lord/master?

I was watching Grancrest Senki, which is an anime airing this season, so I started thinking about feudal arrangements.

Here's the setting:

You've been transmigrated into an isekai world without any cheats.

The key feature about this world is that it's a feudal society from the top to bottom. What this means is that everyone (regardless of social status) has a superior whom they pledge fealty to, and most people have several underlings who have pledged to them as well. The world is basically an enormous giant food chain.

Democracy? Equality? What's that? Those concepts don't exist in this isekai world.

As a new arrival in this isekai world, you're obviously at the bottom of the food chain. You cannot remain unpledged for long because there are literally no laws protecting you, and you must find someone to affiliate with in order to survive in this world.

Here is a rough sketch of the pledging contract (which is performed with magic):

• A minion can only be pledged to one lord at a time.
• The minion must agree to provide predetermined services as laid out in the contract:
  • [Details vary from person-to-person and lord-to-lord]
  • Typically consists of contributing X% of income, kind of like a tax
  • Typically consists of performing some kind of specific menial tasks/labor for the lord (e.g. servant, employee, gang member, lackey)
• The lord must agree to support the minion:
  • The lord cannot allow the minion to die, which typically means the lord must feed/house/support the minion's basic life necessities if the minion is unable to.
  • The lord will grant the minion X% of their magic power. As a transmigrated powerless human, there is no way for you to access magic power in this world unless you pledge to a lord. Your lord likely obtained his/her powers from their lord, so magic power trickles down the food chain.
• The minion automatically dies (edit: within 24 hours) if the lord dies.

Here are the penalties if the contract is violated:

• Violator of the contract becomes deathly/painfully ill for 180 days, and might die from the side effects if they don't have someone to take care of them. Nothing can cure this magical suffering illness other than waiting the entire period.

Here is how either party can quit from the contract if they're unsatisfied:

• Generally speaking, it takes 72 hours for a deliberate contract termination to occur.
  • If the lord quits, after the 72 hours, there are no consequences.
  • If the minion quits, after the 72 hours, the penalty is 60 days of deathly/painful illness.
• Instant terminations are also possible, but the person who quit pays with instant death.
• After a contract is terminated, it can never be reformed between the same people again.

​

So given all this information, here are a few questions:

1. What qualities (personality/specs) would you look for in someone whom you pledge to?
2. What are your red flags? What details in a contract would you immediately "nope" to?
3. Suppose you find someone worse off than you, so you decide to offer a contract to them so they become your minion. What does your offered contract look like?
4. What kind of qualities do you look for in a minion?
5. Imagine this setting is the real world, and you have 7 days to find someone in the real world to pledge to. Would you be able to find someone? Who is the first person that pops into your mind?

 

Basically slavery prettied and called indentured servitude.
I watched the first few episodes until the werewolf and found the story dumb but about your question.
I will pledge loyalty to the weakest lord that I can overthrow.
Buy lands with mines or some precious metal that is not appreciated by the society and build a mage army

 

>.< I only watched the first 2 episodes so don’t spoil!

XD I mainly started thinking about it because it’s an interesting question to me, what sort of people are the type whom others would willingly follow.

I think I would personally automatically turn to people whom I trust most. Less so the specific details of how powerful/weak they are.

 

Trust will get you killed and prevent you from making rational decisions

You can trust your lord to win a battle against an army ten times the size or you betray him

 

Reading this after reading Herscherik.
Makes me want to know what Herscherik will do about his kingdom since the new chapter is out.

 

they said that the way the anime executed the content was horrible

 

Grancrest is shit tier anime.

 

But to your question,
I'll just research what's up with these people who can get the ability to "have power" and get one for myself and just chill about.

 

No surprise media glamorizes even prostitution, the Japanese ignorance of medieval Times is shocking.
I wish they would stick to Meiyi stories, Shingesumi etc . Stories based on ancient Japan

 

What if I just want to live an ordinary life lolololol

I’d prefer not to live in a setting where everyone constantly distrusts another. On the other hand, sometimes it can’t be helped.

 

It's a cruel world, it's glamorized in the anime but things like pensions and disability checks should not exist.
Trust = usefulness
Rebellions were common for a reason. That's is bigger lords allowed smaller lords to fight amongst themselves even sowing discord

 

Don't be a puppet be a puppet master. Find a weak lord who has a very defensible location, such as surrounded by mountains in a corner of the map or something like that. Work your way through the shadows and then overthrow lord in a coup to avoid civil wars those just gather attention from outside eyes. Once I am in charge build up my defenses and then make the strongest spy/assassination organization the kingdom has seen and supply information and services to the king or strongest lord in the area to make them need you. Once that is done build a nice little harem and enjoy my time in my heavily guarded territory.

 

Anyone, because you would need a contract as soon as possible and apperently any contract is better than no contract. And since you have no common knowledge about this new world, or any special skills, who would look to contract with you?

You as a contract partner would be even worse than the ordinary people of this world, at least that's what everyone would think, and as you are in no place to use your otherworldly knowledge to convice them otherwise.

the person that would contract with someone like you would be some naive lord that pities you, or some slave trader arch-type like character that does shady stuff. and as the second one seems more likely to occur, when they make a offer no matter how shady you should immeditely accept.

As for my terms when making a contract, i guess something that looks like a employee contract. although it would depend on how long it takes for you to gain the ability to form them. since the longer it takes the more your own ideals will be twisted into a native of this new world

 

Let's see, if we talk about usual isekai heroes then they would serve a loli, any badass character has a loli!.

Now being more serious, if I had to choose a lord to serve what I would like is to get a challenge, find the weakest female lord and serve under her. I think that only someone who is weak and has seen the suffering of life is qualified to be on top. A lord shouldn't need to be competent but someone with enough kindness to understand the suffering of others.

I would only like to protect the weak in a time of war, why bother with so many ambitions and desires, too many people ask for war and profit, having a so-so lord to serve and fight only to protect peace, it's too troublesome otherwise.

 

1.must have strong determination. Kind but not naive.
2.as long it's not make me can't reprimand and giving advice to my lord.
3.basic thing.
4.walking library
5. In this world i don't trust myself so i don't think there suitable lord to me.if it's fire emblem character i chose eiphram and eirika.

 

why would you plead loyalty? being transported to a world without cheat doesn't mean that "you can't have the power that is available to that world" so why would you rush to sell yourself into slavery? + is a feudal society, no matter the knowledge of whatever power they have is limited to the level of that society so I feel confident of making that power available mine without having to risk my life for an unknown lord.

 

That isn't a very interesting take on feudalism at all. For starters, you wouldn't be able to pledge fealty to anyone, lol. Your social status was based - for the most part - on which family you were born to. Declaring fealty was usually a political/ceremonial thing for the aristocracy, not for commoners.
If you did join the army, it would depend on the feudal lord because your allegiance/expectation of loyalty could be as loose as mercenaries or really binding like a modern army. For the most part, it would be a means for social mobility (i.e. money and power) than anything else, and your being able to rise to a position where you could overthrow a lord would be incredibly difficult.
Weaker feudal lords could have varying degrees of control over their serfs/commoners so even that isn't a given. But for the most part, if you were born in the lower social classes, just surviving would have been tough enough, especially prior to the renaissance/equivalent age.
Honestly, your best bet might be to join the church. Unlikely you'll be in an important position anytime soon, but if you didn't get any buffs, you should be smart enough to do stuff. Becoming a merchant would be tough without capital, and craftsmen wouldn't be particularly well off either.
So yeah, get those priest/nun robes on!

 

Ho very noble think but why female lord? I smell some motive

 

Mhm! Absolutely true from a historical perspective!

However, I started thinking about what a fantasy society might be like if the feudalism pledging extended to commoners as well.

 

I’m just gonna live off the land if I were transmigrated on that type of society.