Tertry
The city of Tertry is a forest of small towers bounded by a strong stone wall, with a river running through the middle of the city. A large, permanent field of tournaments and jousting is laid out beyond the city walls.
Tertry is the capital of the County of Toullen, but far more importantly to the Toullenese, it is the site of the annual Tournament of Lilies on the great lists and fields beyond the city walls.
The count’s palace is located in the city, and the count reserves the power to veto any decisions made by the city for its own government, although this feudal privilege is seldom invoked. Subject to the count’s veto, a council made up of an unusually diverse group governs the city. The Master of Revels, who is responsible for the tournament, is one of the members of the city’s council. The count’s official jester is also a member of the council. More prosaic members are two council seats appointed by the city’s guilds, one commoner popularly elected by the people, one member of noble descent also selected by popular vote, one representative of the king of Suilley, and the city’s high priest of Thyr.
The annual Tournament of Lilies is the highest event in the calendar of all Toullen. The fields around the city begin filling up a month before the tournament with knights from all over the provinces and far beyond Toullen’s own borders. Pavilion tents fly long banners proclaiming the heraldry and lineages of the knights within, minstrels compose songs extolling the skills of their patrons, bookmakers stroll from one area to another taking bets, and the master of revels employs twice his normal staff just keeping matters from devolving into utter chaos.
The tournament is composed of several different contests, divided into three categories. The first category allows knights from any realm to participate in the individual jousts and is the main event of the tourney. Winning the Crown of Lilies is a matter of pride for provinces as far as Eastreach. Foreign knights participate in a number of qualifying jousts to limit the number of contestants once the true tournament begins.
The second category is the least of the events, being competitions other than jousting, and is open to the peasantry. Such competitions include wrestling, archery, quarterstaff, pig-hurling, and horse racing, to name but a few.
The third category is often called the Tournaments of the Realm, for only the count’s subjects may participate in these jousts. Patronage from one of the 15 high barons or from the count himself is required in order to allow a knight to enter the Tournaments of the Realm. The least prestigious of the Tournaments of the Realm is the Peasants’ Tourney, once held for comedic value, but which has become so serious that the Toullenese high barons now sponsor talented rural jousters by providing loaned armor and warhorses. Victory in the Peasants’ Tourney leads to immediate offers of employment from barons in their personal forces and represents a tremendous improvement in the life of whatever talented peasant managed to defeat all others.
The next most prestigious Tournament of the Realm is the Warriors’ Tourney, which is limited to members of the class “at arms,” generally professional soldiers of all kinds, from city guards to royal or baronial regular troops. The winner in this tournament is invariably knighted on the jousting field.
The third and most prestigious Tournament of the Realm is almost as important to the folk of Toullen as the Crown of Lilies. This is the “Count’s Tournament,” and it is open only to Toullenese of the noble or knightly classes. As with the other Tournaments of the Realm, the Count’s Tournament requires patronage by one of the high barons of the realm and also requires that a contestant has placed high in the lists of a qualifying lesser tournament in one of the county’s towns.
Victories and placing in the Tournaments of the Realm (including the lesser ones) has become a matter of incalculable prestige for the high barons. All the country perceives a high baron’s sponsored contestants as a kind of team, even though they all compete separately. The audiences at the tournament carry flags of their faction, engage in brawls with followers of other factions, and generally show an almost-religious fervor. The importance of winning and placing in the tournament now translates directly into political power; barons have switched allegiances from one high baron to another based on consistently poor results in the lists. Moreover, the high barons whose sponsored contestants win first, second, and third place in a tournament each exempt all the high baron’s vassals from one of nine taxes levied by the count. The tournament exemptions are generally divided among different high barons, for it is highly unusual for a single faction to sweep first through third place in all three divisions of the Tournaments of the Realm, but it has happened a few times in history. Thus, even the peasantry benefits when their high baron’s faction wins one or more divisions of the tournaments.
Capital
Tertry, City of (Capital)
Type
Capital
Owning Organization
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