Westfield

Authors: Flosha, Ben
Created: 09.06.2024

Like Tymoris it is only known from a document (Urkunde) that Lester seeks. The original says:

Ich, Bergmar Burggraf zu Westfeld und meines Herren zu Tymoris Landrichter über das Gut in dem Gebiet um Khorinis gelegen, … tue kund, … daß ich … dem Besitzer dieser Urkunde … und dem Innoshaus daselbst das Lehen auf der Bergfeste (mitsamt weiteren Zehenten und allen dort befindlichen Minen) aufgegeben und verkauft habe um 400 Pfund Gold.

Translated to English by us:

I, Bergmar burgrave of Westfield and my Lord of Tymoris’ judge of the property seated in the area around Khorinis, … proclaim, … that I … have relinquished and sold the fiefdom on the Mountain Fortress (along with other tithes and all mines residing there) to the owner of this document … and the house of Innos thereat, to 400 pounds of gold.

Bergmar describes himself as the “Burggraf zu Westfeld” (burgrave to Westfield); which is the same case as with the “Herr zu Tymoris”. It is not “Burggraf von Westfield”, as if it is a castle within an area called Westfeld, but Westfield itself is the castle, the “Burg” he is a “Graf” (count) of (which does not mean that there cannot also be an area of the same name that is surrounding it).

Bergmar is the count of Burg Westfeld; which also means, that the Mountain Fortress, the fief of which he sells, is not the said castle. He keeps being the burgrave to Westfield, in which he may still reside to this day.

His function as a burgrave is to be seen independently from his function as a “Landrichter” (judge); and from how the text is formulated we can deduce that it is only his function as a judge that he was given by the lord of Tymoris.

Bergmar “relinquishes” and sells “the fiefdom on the Mountain Fortress (along with other tithes and all mines residing there)”. As it is written there “all mines” there have to be at least two, if not more mines that he sold, which are most likely the Old Mine and the Abandoned Mine, since the Free Mine was opened up just after the creation of the barrier and there are no other mines in the colony. Unless we assume the existence of additional mines in the area that are just not shown in the world and not accessible to the player as they have no relevance for the story.

As it is written “dem Besitzer dieser Urkunde … und dem Innoshaus daselbst” (english: “to the owner of this document … and the house of Innos thereat”), this means that he gave it both to an unknown person, which is not named here, whose name should be imagined to be written inspite of these dots (“…”) and also to the house of Innos “daselbst” (thereat) - this means: to the local temple of Innos (and the “Temple of Fire” in the city of Khorinis mentioned in the Sequel is the house of Innos closest to the fortress). We could speculate that this person is or was the representative of the local House of Innos.

It is not sure if the dots (“…”) connote that the story-author who wrote this text wanted to leave this open or if he may have used them as placeholders he later wanted to fill; giving us the opportunity to do that.

TODO: Spekulation bzgl. den Zehenten, den Verfügungsrechten etc.

For unknown reasons the document is still in the fortress instead of in the hands of the new fiefholder. Why could that be?

We can only speculate why it was sold. On one hand we may link it to the occupation of the colony by the royal forces. If Bergmar knew of this plan he had time to sell the fortress before the king would seize it. On the other hand the deal itself could have been more or less forced. He would either loose it by force or would have to sell it to the House of Innos, which itself may have been under the control of the regime, represented by the unnamed person mentioned above.

Summary

/lore/westfield.md