When Forfir the Wyrm Lord died in 862 Re, this, along with the end of the Grannr-Leskeln war, hailed the turn of an era for the continent's human population. Among the sweeping changes that would soon occur were the cessation of hostilities between the Grannrormrlen and the Leskeln, the breakaway of the Belyrian half of the Wyrms' empire into its own state, and the election of a new Wyrm Lord for the first time. But there was also one other change soon to come that might seem small at first glance, but in truth may have had a larger effect on human life in the continent than all of the others combined.
When the Eastern Wyrmrealm seceded from the Grannrormrlen, the great state's command economy - that which had allowed it to field such vast quantities of armies, and dedicate its populace's labour solely to the projects it desired - began to break down. Cities on the border suddenly found themselves without the Belyrian imports they required to fulfil their production quotas, and so factories ground to a halt. Their inability to produce in turn lead to other cities further west developing shortages, and so on and so forth all the way to Ostokive; as the empire's economy started to enter a death spiral.
This alone was not enough to completely topple the system. The Fyrstbairn governors of each region were able to hastily refit factories to produce other goods, and scaled down production to account for the temporary shortages. All of this was made possible by the fact that the many production centres of the Grannr's cities were designed in such a way that they could change to produce other kinds of goods on a short notice. The other reason that the interruption in supply was less devastating was the abrupt end of the Grannr-Leskeln war: Around 50% of the empire's production had been of arms and materielle used by its soldiers, but with the Wyrm Lord's sudden death followed by that of Lyri of Grestvyt; there suddenly was not a war to fight any more. This would have more problematic effects in the long-term; but for now it was a small saving grace.
In the following two decades after Forfir's death and the Eastern Wyrmrealm's secession, a number of events happened near-simultaneously which would put further strain on the command economy; and eventually cause it to completely collapse.
The Grannr Civil War
The conflict between the Western Grannrormrlen and the Eastern Wyrmrealm is commonly known as the Grannr Civil War. It began in 864 Re with a declaration of secession by a single Belyrian governor, and then grew in size exponentially in the following two years, until by 866 Re the entire Belyrian region was in a state of rebellion. The reason that the uprising was able to spread so quickly was the result of secret treaties made by the eastern Wyrms that had been in the works for decades; agreeing to all rise up in the event that one among their number did.
The Grannr army was dispatched to bring the eastern half of the empire back under control, and this lead to the start of another long, bloody conflict for the empire; this time with itself. Yet, as the two states' militaries brawled with each other at the border, those who were not a part of the army found themselves far less motivated to support their respective sides in the conflict. The Grannr Civil War was incredibly unpopular with both states' populations; as the majority of humans still saw themselves as both part of one unified empire, and also wondered why it was that they needed to fight each other at all.
Faced with the breakdown of the transfer of goods between the two states, small numbers of people in the various border cities started to wonder if they could not simply recreate the supply lines themselves. Normally, for humans to act in such an autonomous manner would not have been possible under the high degree of authoritarianism that the Grannr exerted; but the lack of a Wyrm Lord had thrown the Western Grannrormrlen into chaos. This, combined with the breakout of the war, was taking up almost the full attention of the Fyrstbairn governors; and thus they were even less able to supervise their subordinates than usual.
So it was that certain bureaucrats within the border regions decided to seize on this opportunity and attempt to re-establish communications with the human population of the opposing side's cities. These initiatives were successful, spurred on by the fact that both sides were willing to work with one-another, but they quickly ran into the problem that neither side was actually sure how to facilitate the exchanges they desired. Central authority was not willing to support them on either side, and so there was no possibility of an official agreement being reached that was backed by either the Grannr or the Wyrmrealm. In addition, it had become evident that any materials they did secure would likely not be able to be used in the factories; seeing as they would have to explain to the Fyrstbairn where they had gotten them from in order for that to work. As such, this venture quickly came to be a project undertaken purely for personal benefit.
Although the two groups trusted each other to an extent, most of them were strangers; and thus were not willing to put absolute faith in the other party to honour their agreements. Were they to simply hand over goods without receiving anything in return, as had been the way of the command economy, the other party could simply make off with what they had been given and never return. As such, the two sides came to an agreement: They would transfer items between each-other based on roughly what perceived value they had, with the aim of exchanging roughly similarly valued sets of goods. This system, which resembled a more advanced version of the illicit bartering that had become common among the bureaucracy, would mark the first instance of free-market trading to occur inside of the Grannrormrlen.
The Conquest of Whitefort
In the year 872 Re, an army from the Holy Ridge-based kingdom of Rastilo laid siege to the Grannr city of Whitefort. Whitefort was a strategically and economically important settlement in the empire; being the sole source of all the empire's salt production. It was located in the south-east of Zemet, and was poorly guarded due to the fact that it was surrounded by the salt wastes on all sides. The Wyrms believed it impossible for any force to march through Zemet, and so the only remaining path for any attack to come from was the east; which would in turn require any attacking force to pass through either Summerlen or Grestvyt.
When the Rastilan forces succeeded in marching directly through the salt wastes, the garrison at Whitefort were taken completely by surprise. The Rastilan army succeeded in cutting off the supply lines that transported fresh water to the city, and forced it to surrender in just two weeks; after which they took control of the city. Once they had done so, they proceeded to cut off the supply of salt shipments to the Grannr; sending envoys to the empire informing them that, if they desired shipments to resume, they would have to pay the Ashborn.
This sudden disruption of supply lines threatened to have a catastrophic effect on food preservation within the empire. At first, the Grannr army scrambled to raise a force to send west and retake the city, but after repeated attempts over the course of the next two years, they were faced with the realisation that the city - although they could easily reconquer it - could not be held. The Rastilan forces would simply retreat every time the Grannr army showed themselves, wait for them to retake the city, and then begin harassing their supply lines until they began to starve. No salt could be harvested while the fighting was ongoing, and eventually, the disruption became so great that the Wyrm Lord decided it was better to simply allow the Rastilans to have Whitefort and begin paying them for the salt.
Rastilo, unlike the parts of Pretheya that had been dominated for centuries by the Grannrormrlen, had developed a currency-based economy. Various types of currency existed inside of the Holy Ridge, with the most valuable of these being precious metals; which were in short supply in the region and difficult to extract. When the kingdom of Rastilo seized control of Whitefort, they thus demanded payment in silver or gold from the Wyrms in exchange for salt.
At first, this posed a major problem for the Grannr. The Luxury Ban had meant that they had never attempted to produce meaningful quantities of either of these materials, and at first this left them completely unable to pay the Rastilans; resulting in them having to reach temporary other arrangements to keep the salt coming. Eventually, however, gold and silver mines began to be opened in Landamar and other territories, and vast quantities of the metal started to flow out from the Grannr into Zemet.
By holding the supply of salt hostage, the Rastilans had essentially blackmailed the Grannr into adopting currency. Although at first it was used exclusively for transactions pertaining to the purchase of salt, the idea of using precious metals as a form of currency would soon spread to the cities in the east who had been bartering with each other back-and-forth across the front lines. The transport of large quantities of goods had grown cumbersome, and they had already begun experimenting with abstracted methods of exchange to simplify transactions; but this new western idea of tying value to precious metal coins was deemed to have the potential to streamline trade immeasurably. High-level bureaucrats on the eastern front soon began to use their position to order the opening of new silver mines, and within a decade, currency had suddenly begun springing up all across the empire; much to the Wyrms' confusion and dismay.
Downfall of the Command Economy
In the following century, the usage of currency would begin to rapidly spread throughout both the Western Grannrormrlen and the Eastern Wyrmrealm. Illegal bartering, which prior to the war had run rampant even under the Ofirar system, would give way to an undisguised market economy among various cities. Even as the Wyrms decried this and demanded it ceased, their orders fell on deaf ears. The responses from individual Fyrstbairn to this varied: In the Grannr, the Wyrm Lord issued a decree in the year 915 Re outlawing the usage of currency across the empire, and attempted to clamp down on its usage in the provinces. The initial attempts to do so involved the corporal punishment of the bureaucrats who had been found conducting business with the Eastern Wyrmrealm, but these reprisals lead to massive revolts the likes of which had not been seen since the Penal Riots.
In the Eastern Wyrmrealm, the state's slightly-more-liberal Fyrstbairn governors recognised the change that was coming across the continent; but were still slow to accept it. They, too, tried at first to resist the advance of currency, but some of their governors - particularly those in the west, who were most severely affected by the breakdown of supply lines - eventually gave in and began overseeing a slow transition to a currency system in their domains. Even this, however, was far from any idea of free market capitalism: The governors would retain direct ownership over all means of currency production, and took to the habit of militarily seizing industries that sprung up in the following decades if they became too profitable. This infuriated the populace and lead to similar riots as those which were occurring in the Grannr, but the Fyrstbairn of the Wyrmrealm had more success in keeping them under control.
The situation continued to gradually deteriorate over the next century. A hundred years later, the Grannr had managed to regain a tenuous grip over its command economy system, and much of the Wyrmrealm had now adopted currency and switched to a market system; albeit one completely dominated by the Fyrstbairn. The situation was far from stable, but it seemed as if in the Grannr's case at least, there was a possibility - however a slim one - of an eventual return to the command economy.
This all came to an end in the early 11th century Re, however, with the Grannr invasion of Zemet. In his mission to restore the command economy, the Wyrm Lord of the Grannrormrlen had recognised the salt trade with the Rastilan people to be the single biggest perpetuating factor of the currency economy. He theorised that by retaking control of Whitefort, the Grannr would cease to need to pay the Rastilans in gold and silver for salt, and so could begin to close the mines; eventually starving the continent of the primary materials used as currency, as had been the approach under the Luxury Ban.
The invasion, however, was a disaster. After successfully retaking Whitefort once again, the 80,000-strong Grannr army pushed forward through Zemet to the edge of Holy Ridge, and there engaged the Rastilans in battle. In a shocking and completely unpredictable turnaround, the Rastilans achieved a near-total victory through what appeared to have been the summoning an avatar of their god; Rukhmar the Firebird. Witness accounts of the battle state that a giant flaming bird appeared and lay waste to the Grannr forces, killing more than a third of them; while the rest promptly scattered.
In the aftermath of this battle, the Grannr-Ashborn war as it would come to be known would see the Rastilan people - shortly to be known instead as the Ashborn - conquer the entirety of the regions of Grestvyt, Summerlen, and eventually Pasdjit from the Western Grannrormrlen. The loss of these provinces, which comprised nearly half of the land area of the empire, was enough to shatter the state's command economy; this time irreparably. In the regions which they conquered, the Ashborn would themselves do away with the system, and replace it with the currency-based economy which they favoured.
Aftermath
In the year 1014 Re, the Blazing Empire was established. It would go on to conquer much of western and northern Belyria over the course of the following 60 years, spreading the usage of currency with it as it went.
The Ashborn's conquests would prove too much for both the Eastern Wyrmrealm, and its economic system. As the Fyrstbairn began to be unseated by popular rioting, aided by the newfound ability of the empire's human population to wield Theos, the Wyrms were systematically unseated and their biased market systems torn down with them. The use of currency would come to be fully adopted in the wake of their deposition, finally cementing the continent's transfer to a monetary economy.
In the west, although the Grannrormrlen survived, its command economy would not. The state's economy collapsed shortly after the Blazing Empire's formation, and the regions of Ostokive, the Riverlands, Heralya, and Ressengia would all quickly shift to a fully currency-based economy. This also coincided with a massive reduction in the power wielded by the Wyrms; as they could now no longer directly control their populations, and instead needed to use money to do it.
The last bastions of the command economy system survived in the Ofirar-ruled polity of Seiforh, and the Wyrm Kingdom of Asutoa. In the 13th century Re, these too were finally wiped out when both countries were conquered by the Karvina Empire; who would go on to tear down the system and mandate the adoption of currency, bringing these two regions at last in line with the rest of the continent.
